S05.E02: Episode 2

[J-Man]

 

The show tries for reality, but I'm always slightly distracted by how clean and bandbox fresh these supposedly poor mothers are. Perfect hair and makeup, cute ironed outfits.

 

 

How about the midwives? After messy, grueling childbirths, their clothes, hair, and general appearances all seem to be pretty nice.

[Ohwell]

I tried hard to have some sympathy for the young pregnant woman with the sick husband, but I couldn't stand her, even as a widow.  I couldn't believe that she wouldn't have considered that maybe something was wrong with him because he did look listless and tired.  Instead, she just nagged and nagged him about getting a job.  I'm happy that she gave birth to the baby so that the father could see him, but otherwise, she left me cold.  

 

I'm happy for Nurse Crane and her gentleman friend (glad to see Mr. Mason getting some new work).  I hope we see more of them getting their Spanish lessons. 

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

 

Call The Midwife Asks: Is Breast Always Best?
Just in case you haven't gotten in enough internet fights, lately, here's one about 'the right way' for women to feed babies.

[Arynm]

I know that for my mothers birth in 1947 my grandfather was barred from the room completely. He was never one for following the rules or waiting so he put a Doctors white coat on and barged his way in anyway to find out what was going on. That is one of my favorite stories, especially since my grandpa died last week. I know my grandmother was knocked out completely for the birth and was not encouraged to breastfeed. By the 80's when my sisters were born we were back to breastfeeding. When my own children were born in 1999 and 2002 breastfeeding was almost required. I remember the expert making me me feel very bad about my daughter not latching on well and having to supplement with formula.

[txhorns79]

I tried hard to have some sympathy for the young pregnant woman with the sick husband, but I couldn't stand her, even as a widow.  I couldn't believe that she wouldn't have considered that maybe something was wrong with him because he did look listless and tired.  Instead, she just nagged and nagged him about getting a job.

 

The evil part of me was thinking: "Well it's finally happened, some poor man has been nagged to death by his wife.  The prophecy has been fulfilled."  In her defense, I'll say it's entirely legitimate to be freaked out over your spouse being unemployed when you have no idea that he's ill and a baby is on the way.

 

It was a pretty bleak episode though.  I was glad Nurse Crain is finally getting some happiness, even if it is of the seemingly doomed variety.

[Ohwell]

In her defense, I'll say it's entirely legitimate to be freaked out over your spouse being unemployed when you have no idea that he's ill and a baby is on the way.

 

Yes, I can understand her being nervous about their financial future with a baby on the way.  However, my point is, she should have considered that he might be ill, just based on the way he looked and the way he was acting.  If I know someone who's been active and then starts acting tired and listless, then I'm going to wonder what's wrong.  Especially if in the past he'd been a hard worker, then he for some reason slacks off, it would seem that she'd have a heart to heart talk with him instead of immediately assuming he's a slacker.  If she had done that, I think she would have been able to detect that something was wrong.   Maybe she was too focused on the high blood pressure and being pregnant, but she seemed to quick to nag IMO.

[Black Knight]

Was I the only one who couldn't help but think, when this episode's wife finally gave birth, "Thank goodness it's not a thalidomide baby - imagine presenting her dying husband with one after all that!" When all the women were sitting in at that presentation about formula, I couldn't help but wonder how many of them were currently taking thalidomide. I feel like that's something that's going to hang over the show all season and maybe even next season, depending on how much time passes in this season.

 

Well, I have to revise my opinion of Nurse Crane - I expected her to be as much a non-starter as the nuns in regards to Patsy, but she might actually handle learning about Patsy's sexual orientation better than anyone else in the house. I loved that Patsy was the midwife trying to support and encourage Crane after learning about Mr. Mason (he'll always be Mr. Mason to me!) being married...I could see how much of what Patsy said was coming from painful lived experience. First the bit about how Crane didn't need to pretend that nothing had happened, that they all do it way too much and it's exhausting, which made me remember how Patsy had to suffer through Delia's amnesia with zero support since she couldn't tell anyone what Delia was to her. Then there was the point she made about how it takes a long time to build enough trust to be able to share incredibly private secrets. Patsy looks like she is dying to be able to confide in someone and I really wonder if Crane is going to end up being that person, now that Patsy knows something about Crane and Crane is opening up to her. I also remember Patsy's face when Crane was talking early on about how people should live the lives they want. They really have a lot they could discuss. If this episode is indeed the beginning of a strong, real friendship between Patsy and Crane, the writers (and actors) have set it up really well.

 

The thing I find weird about Tom/Barbara is that in real life, Trixie did marry Tom and it was a happy, successful marriage. I know this show departs from Worth's books, but...I just sort of hope that the real-life Tom and Trixie have passed and that they don't have any grown children or grandchildren who are watching and taking offense at the whole "Trixie's an unstable, mercurial alcoholic who doesn't fit with Tom, and Barbara's much better suited for him" angle the show is pushing this season. (ETA: Oops, apparently I read the wrong information. Carry on, show, with Tom/Barbara then. Though I do hope there's not going to be a lot of triangle drama.)

Edited April 15, 2016 by Black Knight

[OtterMommy]

And it may be an unpopular opinion, but I like Tom with Barbara.  He and Trixie were never a good fit, and the connection with Barbara seems much more natural to me.

 

I don't dislike Tom with Barbara...I'm just not interested in watching a Tom/Barbara/Trixie love triangle.  This, of course, could still be avoided, but it does seem like the show is heading in that direction.

 

I really loved this episode--I never thought I'd say this, but Nurse Crane--PHYLLIS--is becoming my favorite character.  I love that they've started to flesh her out more.

 

I wasn't overly involved in the young couple until it was revealed that the husband was going to die.  And then I sobbed....and sobbed.  Damn you, show!

 

Oh, and where the heck was Delia?  Shouldn't she be living there now?  With house episode 1 ended, this one just felt weird in that regard, like it was out of sequence.

[Black Knight]

Oh, and where the heck was Delia?  Shouldn't she be living there now?  With house episode 1 ended, this one just felt weird in that regard, like it was out of sequence.

Yeah, I know I said in the thread for the last episode that Delia is bland, but I wasn't expecting her to become such a nonentity that she literally turns invisible...

 

But for now, I'm fanwanking her absence as her mother extended her stay a bit since she's not taking Delia back home after all, and so Delia is still staying with her until she leaves. Maybe PBS cut a line explaining, who knows. Patsy seemed out of sorts this episode, so between that and Delia's absence it did feel like this was out of sequence. But it's hard to know how it could be out of sequence considering that Delia regained her memory in the Christmas special.

[Beldasnoop]

The thing I find weird about Tom/Barbara is that in real life, Trixie did marry Tom and it was a happy, successful marriage. I know this show departs from Worth's books, but...I just sort of hope that the real-life Tom and Trixie have passed and that they don't have any grown children or grandchildren who are watching and taking offense at the whole "Trixie's an unstable, mercurial alcoholic who doesn't fit with Tom, and Barbara's much better suited for him" angle the show is pushing this season.

 

There is no "Tom" in the books. Tom is an original character in the TV show. The book Trixie married a diplomat and quit nursing. The book character who married a clergyman was Cynthia, who joined the order for a while and then left and married a widowed vicar and traveled the world with him.

 

Also, most of Jennifer Worth's characters are composites or highly fictionalized already. A few didn't exist at all. In Heidi Thomas's foreword to the latest CtM companion book (Dr. Turner's Casebook, by Stephen McGann), she mentions talking with Jennifer Worth about which characters had real-life counterparts and which didn't, and being told that quite a few of the book characters were entirely fictional, including Dr. Turner and Sister Bernadette, which is why Heidi Thomas decided to expand on their characters from the books and basically morph them into original characters. She also wrote about the sense of freedom she had about finding out how much was fictionalized in the original books. It gave more more room to invent plots and expand the story and characters beyond what was in the books.

Edited April 14, 2016 by Beldasnoop

[Black Knight]

Thanks, Beldasnoop. It's weird because last season someone who said she was a reader posted that real-life Trixie married real-life Tom and had a happy marriage where she was a somewhat unconventional clergyman's wife - that's where I got it from. Interesting to hear that Tom didn't exist, Trixie married someone in a different profession, etc. ha ha.

[LeGrandElephant]

On April 12, 2016 at 11:24 AM, JudyObscure said:

My sensitive first husband couldn't even stay in the room for the preliminary pains.  I know without a doubt if he had been encouraged to stay and watch the birth, we would never have had sex again.

I'm not pregnant so this is hypothetical, but my fiancé was watching this with me and said something like yeah, I don't see why men are encouraged to look at it now, can't I just stay up near your head and hold your hand? And I said don't worry, no one wants you looking at the cervix unless you're a trained professional, hand-holding up top sounds about right. But, I would definitely expect him to be in the room! How times change. 

My dad tells stories about attending my birth and making sure not to let me out of his sight for a second because he was worried about nurses accidentally switching babies. I assume that means he annoyed all the nurses and left my mother alone immediately after giving birth to follow them into the other room where they did cleaning and a short time in an incubator I think, but he feels vindicated because it came out years later that a nurse in that hospital actually did switch babies one time, so he loves telling the story about how he didn't let me out of his sight for a second.

Edited June 15, 2016 by LeGrandElephant

[JudyObscure]

I love that story!  Your dad was instantly in love with his baby and would not let anyone else get her!  Hee. 

[Calamity Jane]

On April 11, 2016 at 3:10 PM, DHDancer said:

Yep, definitely a multi-tissue episode. But I'm always prepared with this show :)

 

However, I'm going to be a bit unpopular here by suggesting this show is starting to get all Hollywood on us in always having happy endings (yeah, I know John died but there's his heartless boss with a wad of cash for the kid at the funeral -- really?  I think not very realistic...)   I think back to Series 1 and the episode of the 3 kids sent to Australia and their new life and the postscript telling us all was not a happy ending for them -- so sad but so much more aligned to reality.  I felt the same thing with the thalidomide baby: father's reaction got turned around and they become a loving family...I would have liked to have seen or been told the reality of that % outcome.

 

Always having happy endings takes me out of the show a little unfortunately: this is about poor people in a very poor area of London: their lives were hard and rarely happy as we'd think of happy.   Just my opinion of course.

I think the children going to Australia was in a later season, but I agree that for the times and especially for that area, with so much abject poverty and ignorance, there seem to be an awful lot of really happy outcomes.  And the voiceovers at the end realllllly grate on my nerves.  We get it just fine without the Captain Obvious narration, it's not as if they're ever going for much subtlety.  It is a good show which I thoroughly enjoy, but that bit at the end each time does not add anything useful for me.  

[Ina123]

On ‎4‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 9:36 AM, pasdetrois said:

The show tries for reality, but I'm always slightly distracted by how clean and bandbox fresh these supposedly poor mothers are. Perfect hair and makeup, cute ironed outfits. Not that they should be slobs because they are poor, but we don't see them looking like real-life moms. Curlers in the hair, house slippers sometim

I was born in '51 (my mother's eighth) into a relatively low income home. My mom told me that with every birth when her due date was approaching she stayed as clean, well dressed and made-up as possible. When it was time (be it midwife, the neighbor or a doctor) you wanted to look your best when they arrived. All of my siblings except the next in line and myself were born at home. My mom said it was doubly important to look nice if you knew you were going to the hospital. I think it's been forgotten that not so long ago, if women went out for anything they were very well dressed. Definitely not pajama pants and tube top.

[jschoolgirl]

5 hours ago, Ina123 said:

I was born in '51 (my mother's eighth) into a relatively low income home. My mom told me that with every birth when her due date was approaching she stayed as clean, well dressed and made-up as possible. When it was time (be it midwife, the neighbor or a doctor) you wanted to look your best when they arrived. All of my siblings except the next in line and myself were born at home. My mom said it was doubly important to look nice if you knew you were going to the hospital. I think it's been forgotten that not so long ago, if women went out for anything they were very well dressed. Definitely not pajama pants and tube top.

Absolutely. Most of the women we see are not poor, but instead are working class.

My U.S. working-class mother, grandmother, and aunts looked impeccable when going out. Gram would put on earrings to walk to the grocery store.

[luvmylabs]

On 4/11/2016 at 10:04 AM, JudyObscure said:

This episode pointed out a real cross-pond  difference in our 1940-60's attitude  about  breast feeding.  I think the post WWII Americans were so enamored of all things, "modern," and "scientific," that breast feeding all but died out for awhile.  I determined to breast feed my baby in 1968 based on the one paragraph in my "Baby and Childcare," book about breast feeding -- it followed about 30 pages on how to make formula.  It just said that the very best milk for babies was mother's milk, it gave the baby some of the mother's immunities and the babies had less illness during the first year.  I thought that sounded good, but I got nothing but grief from the nurses in the hospital who thought I was the most inconvenient patient ever, what with the having to bring baby every few hours, and my doctor told me he hated breast feeding because if he prescribed any medicine it couldn't go in the bottle.  My husband's grandmother snickered and made dirty jokes about it. The nurses told me I was the first person to breast feed in that hospital in 30 years. I sure could have used  Sister Evangelina on my side.

 

My main reason for going against the conventional path was that it was free and my husband was the same kind of earner as the other woman's husband only without the leukemia excuse.   Altogether a very relatable episode for me.  New, first time mothers just can't have too much love and support.

I applaud your decision and persistence!  Whatever method you use, should be no one's business but your own.  Formulas have improved greatly over the years and if that's your choice go for it.  Why are women so critical of other women?  I thought we should support each other.  The only objection I have is to women who breastfeed in public and don't make some small effort to cover up.  I am in favor of breastfeeding in public, but I am also in favor of some modesty. 

[RedbirdNelly]

On 4/11/2016 at 11:52 AM, Pepper Mostly said:

 

 

When Johnny whispered "I want to stay...." I lost it for real. What a moment.

this is what made me cry. I thought he'd say something else--like "I'll be watching over you." Something that was moving but that I could handle-- But wanting to stay just gutted me

 

This episode had so many good moments. I can't list them all. Very well done