S06.E03: Episode 3

[Calvada]

Is the actress who plays Mary Cynthia off doing another project?  Or is she having another baby, and that's why she's not on the show?  I don't understand having her gone, Patsy off to Hong Kong, and Trixie missing a couple shows.  Is their budget so strapped that in seasons with only 8 episodes they can't have all the characters in all the episodes?  I miss the regulars!  Especially after killing off Sister Evangelina, I would like the comfort of my old friends, which is what I consider some of these characters. 

It was nice to see them enjoying a meal again, delighting in the food and conversation. 

[Beldasnoop]

Trixie missed episodes because Helen George was in a touring play last summer during the first few months of filming. I have no idea about Bryony Hannah (Sister Mary Cynthia), but this show is generally extremely accommodating to its cast members when they request leaves of absence for other projects. 

As for Harriet Walter, I assume she was only hired for those three episodes. She was never listed in the opening credits of the show so that was a clue that she wasn't joining the cast permanently. 

Edited April 19, 2017 by Beldasnoop

[txhorns79]

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I agree about the (mis)handling of Sister Monica Joan.  They treat her like an impish five year old, instead of a woman with dementia who's a danger to herself, and possibly a danger to others if she accidentally starts a fire or does something else.    

I agree.  The actress is wonderful, and Monica Joan has had some moving moments, but they seriously underplay the danger involved in her antics.   

[Tara Ariano]

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

After Birth: They're Trying To Close Us Down

The future of Poplar's maternity home may be in jeopardy, depending on how things go during a visit from a government inspector.

[NeverLate]

On 16/04/2017 at 11:36 PM, TVForever said:

Nurse Crane is my hero!

Isn't she wonderful.! I'm so upset for Shelagh, and I long for the time chummy might return.

Such a great show.

[Portia]

14 hours ago, Fireball said:

"Raises hand" Yep me. Don't get me wrong the scene was sad, but it didn't make me cry.

No judgment. Not everyone's a crier.  My husband is a very sensitive and caring individual, but he hardly ever cries. For some reason I cry buckets at sad/sentimental movies, TV shows, and commercials--not to mention weddings, funerals, and stop signs--but overall I'm honestly not a particularly kind or compassionate person.  I'm actually kind of a dick.

[Kohola3]

Quote

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

Pass

Quote

A retired seamen's home probably doesn't have a lot of visitors and not nearly as much to do as Nonnatus House.  It made me feel less angry at Sister Ursula for taking the tv away when I found out where it went.  And Sister Monica Joan can still watch it.

Unfortunately, Sr. MJ will only be able to do that in good weather.  And I bet she's going to miss her favorite shows once it get too cold!

 

12 hours ago, Beldasnoop said:

As for Harriet Walter, I assume she was only hired for those three episodes. She was never listed in the opening credits of the show so that was a clue that she wasn't joining the cast permanently. 

Good observation.  I never noticed.  Our heroines will running themselves ragged with such a small staff. I wonder why they made a point of letting us know about the bartender/nurse that helped Shelagh.  I thought they'd somehow recruit her.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 4/16/2017 at 11:30 PM, LittleIggy said:

She did teach Barbara how to in SA, but, good grief, I never expected Barbara to stick with it!

Almost everybody smoked back then.  I've recounted before that in the early 1950s, a friend of mine's mother smoked to keep her weight down.  During pregnancy.

And...another stellar newborn.  I was chalking it up to excellent casting, but the drama coach in this one deserves props for that smile when the grandmother first held the baby.

And, when I was rewatching the cute baby, I had a revelation--the grandmother's reaction when the baby was a girl wasn't because of the Chinese thing about boy babies being more desirable than girl babies, but instead remembering the daughter she had.  On rewatch, you could actually see it in her face if you knew her history.

[latetotheparty]

2 hours ago, Kohola3 said:

Pass

Unfortunately, Sr. MJ will only be able to do that in good weather.  And I bet she's going to miss her favorite shows once it get too cold!

 

Good observation.  I never noticed.  Our heroines will running themselves ragged with such a small staff. I wonder why they made a point of letting us know about the bartender/nurse that helped Shelagh.  I thought they'd somehow recruit her.

I wish they would. She was awesome. And it sounds like they need someone to pick up the district nursing workload. 

[Driad]

The mother-in-law's story reminded me of the part of "The Joy Luck Club" in which a woman and her twin baby daughters were fleeing from invaders; the woman was sick and thought she was dying, so she left the babies under a tree hoping someone would take care of them.

AIUI, the maternity home was for women who needed more care than they could get with a home birth, but were not sick enough to need a hospital. So the midwives cared for many more than the four who were there. The maternity home may also have provided better sanitary conditions than the hospital, although the doctor probably knew that the inspector would not want to hear that.

[proserpina65]

22 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

Almost everybody smoked back then.  I've recounted before that in the early 1950s, a friend of mine's mother smoked to keep her weight down.  During pregnancy.

And...another stellar newborn.  I was chalking it up to excellent casting, but the drama coach in this one deserves props for that smile when the grandmother first held the baby.

And, when I was rewatching the cute baby, I had a revelation--the grandmother's reaction when the baby was a girl wasn't because of the Chinese thing about boy babies being more desirable than girl babies, but instead remembering the daughter she had.  On rewatch, you could actually see it in her face if you knew her history.

Yep, my mother smoked all the way through 3 pregnancies in the early 60s.  People didn't really know back then.

When I saw the lock of hair in the picture frame, I wondered if it was from an earlier baby (not the husband), and I saw the grandmother's reaction to the daughter, I immediately thought of the one story in The Joy Luck Club.  I just knew she was thinking of a female child she'd had who'd died of cold-related problems.

[J-Man]

So little Lin survived, but no one seemed to think there could be any complications or possible long-term effects from the carbon monoxide poisoning. Couldn't she have suffered brain damage or experienced some other serious problems?

[Kohola3]

6 minutes ago, J-Man said:

Couldn't she have suffered brain damage or experienced some other serious problems?

Absolutely.  Infants and children usually have long term issues including mental impairment.  I guess it would be too depressing to bring that up but CO poisoning has nasty sequelae in the long run.

[Mumbles]

On 2/7/2017 at 0:14 AM, DropTheSoap said:

After all, who could have predicted that Phyllis Crane's transformation from stern taskmistress to heart of the staff, what with her standing up for Barbara and helping at the clinic.

I think the first we saw of that was the episode where the mom had twins but one was stillborn (little yellow bootie, which still gets me farklempt.). Nurse Crane came to the house and saw a devastated Barbara, and quietly made her a cup of tea. That's when I realized she had a heart and was more than just a big meanie. Like the late great Sister Evangelina - crusty and tart, but knew Poplar from her own upbringing and was incredibly understanding of human frailty.

Quote

 I think Trixie would have told her off at the first turn and damned the consequences. Trixie has *never* allowed anyone, not even Sister Julienne, to potentially compromise the care of patients.

As soon as I saw Tricia seething over her cig when Barbara told her what happened, I thought, uh boy the shit's gonna get real! Pop some corn!

I had a flashback to the Joy Luck Club....I read it like 20 years ago but didn't that involve a young Chinese mom losing or being forced to abandon a baby daughter?

[plurie]

17 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

Yep, my mother smoked all the way through 3 pregnancies in the early 60s.  People didn't really know back then.

Actually, they did know. In an earlier season we saw Patrick give up smoking after reading a journal article (and losing a patient to smoking-related illness).

[JudyObscure]

I was pregnant in the dark ages and my doctor told me that so long as I didn't smoke more than ten a day it would be fine.  I think most doctors didn't think our bad stuff, "crossed the placenta."  In fact,  I had friends doing much stronger drugs than cigarettes while pregnant, and believing there was no danger.  Yesterday, I  heard an OBGYN on NPR say that it was perfectly okay for pregnant women to lift weights and do cardio like running, things we were told not to do.  I've seen medical advice change so much over the years I no longer fully trust any of it.

Edited April 21, 2017 by JudyObscure

[Kohola3]

Quote

Actually, they did know. In an earlier season we saw Patrick give up smoking after reading a journal article (and losing a patient to smoking-related illness).

But the focus at that time was on lung cancer.  They didn't fully understand the impact on a fetus until later.

[jah1986]

9 hours ago, Mumbles said:

I had a flashback to the Joy Luck Club....I read it like 20 years ago but didn't that involve a young Chinese mom losing or being forced to abandon a baby daughter?

I had a similar flashback.  Yes one of the mom's thought she was dying and decided to leave her twins on the side of the road because she didn't want to die near them and bring them bad luck.  When she survived, she was devastated because she had lost her babies.  At the end of the movie her youngest daughter is reunited with the twins.  Love that movie.

[proserpina65]

3 hours ago, plurie said:

Actually, they did know. In an earlier season we saw Patrick give up smoking after reading a journal article (and losing a patient to smoking-related illness).

I meant that the dangers of smoking weren't common knowledge amongst the general public.  And the potential effects to the unborn children if their mothers smoked was not widely known amongst the medical community.

[Clanstarling]

On 2/6/2017 at 10:03 AM, OnceSane said:

I loved the Chinese MIL, even before she told her DIL about the daughter who died while on the run from the Japanese.  The look on her face when "Toad in a Hole" was served had me rolling.  And the new mom was adorable; I swear I've seen her elsewhere, but I don't know where.

It's the husband I recognize and can't quite place.

On 2/10/2017 at 9:24 PM, Steph01924 said:

I do enjoy how this show refuses to completely demonize its antagonists. I wish that they would've let Sister Ursula stick around for a little while longer now that she isn't going to be so rigid, but it was nice to see Sister Julienne back in her role as showrunner of the house. I knew Sister Monica Joan had found the TV and was going off to watch her show, but the way she did it peering through the window was just adorable.

This has always been such a kind show. It is frank about issues that are hot topics today, but I don't recall anyone being absolutely bad. I love it. I wish I, and the rest of the world, could have such a kind and non-judgmental attitude toward others.

On 4/16/2017 at 6:19 PM, Popples said:

LOVED the shot of Phyllis walking down the corridor, keys in hand and on a mission after Shelagh phoned her; the way she comforted Barbara reminding her that she's an excellent midwife and how Lucy and Lin's condition was not her fault and that she would tackle Sister Ursula; and her immediate picking up the slack for when the Turners rushed to the hospital. She's firm but always fair and compassionate. I've always rolled my eyes when someone else says this phrase, but dammit I want Phyllis to be my spirit animal!

Remember when we first hated her? Now she's the best. Also, I loved that when speaking to Ursula, she was polite but did not lay blame on Ursula herself. It was more, here's why the timeline is a problem outside of a hospital.

On 4/16/2017 at 9:52 PM, GaT said:

Sister Ursula's departure seemed really abrupt to me, she hasn't shown any doubts before & then everything suddenly falls apart in one episode? I wonder if audiences in England didn't react well to the character & they were able to change the plot? Anyway, I'm glad she's gone & it might be nice if we could have one of those uplifting episodes next, OK?

It didn't seem abrupt to me, given that her policies had contributed to the near deaths of two people. They weren't the only reason, of course, but they prevented the problem from being found until it was almost too late. I think that's a pretty big, and life changing, burden to bear.

On 4/17/2017 at 11:49 AM, Fireball said:

So Sister Ursula is gone; I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it.  On one hand I'm glad that she's gone, but on the other hand she could have been an interesting addition to the cast.

I know, they rehabilitated her (to some extent) in our eyes, and sent her on her way.

On 4/18/2017 at 5:37 PM, txhorns79 said:

I think the only thing I can ask is: Is there anyone who wasn't crying while watching the scene where the Chinese mother in law confesses that her baby died during a too cold night as she was fleeing the Japanese during the war?  

I get misty sometimes, at this show, but this time I did cry, and even made sounds...I was completely moved. I once knew a Chinese couple who'd fled the Japanese in the same way. They made it out to Hong Kong, where they thrived. But when the war with Japan was mentioned, they'd look haunted and wouldn't speak of it.

12 hours ago, J-Man said:

So little Lin survived, but no one seemed to think there could be any complications or possible long-term effects from the carbon monoxide poisoning. Couldn't she have suffered brain damage or experienced some other serious problems?

I kept waiting for someone to bring that up. But I was happy enough not to see that scene.

2 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

I was pregnant in 1968 and my doctor told me that so long as I didn't smoke more than ten a day it would be fine.  I think most doctors didn't think our bad stuff, "crossed the placenta."  In fact, in 1968 I had friends doing much stronger drugs than cigarettes while pregnant, and believing there was no danger.  Yesterday, I  heard an OBGYN on NPR say that it was perfectly okay for pregnant women to lift weights and do cardio like running, things we were told not to do.  I've seen medical advice change so much over the years I no longer fully trust any of it.

I find it's one of the benefits of aging, you've experienced so much of the "this is the right thing" and 'no, that's wrong, this is the right thing" and back again to "well, actually, this was indeed the right thing" - that you understand how much of it is BS.

23 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

I meant that the dangers of smoking weren't common knowledge amongst the general public.  And the potential effects to the unborn children if their mothers smoked was not widely known amongst the medical community.

I don't know - cigarettes were called coffin nails as far back as the 1930s, so I'm guessing it was known, just not particularly high on the list of worries.

On 2/10/2017 at 9:24 PM, Steph01924 said:

Poor Shelagh. They've kept a lot of people alive without lasting heartbreak in the last few episodes, so I feel like it's all leading up to her losing her pregnancy, though that's such a wretched thing to do to these characters (who, admittedly, are almost saint level of perfect, but I don't care, I love the entire Turner family and want them happy).

The way they showed the potential miscarriage brought back some long buried memories. Kind of did me in.

[Gulftastic]

3 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

  Yesterday, I  heard an OBGYN on NPR say that it was perfectly okay for pregnant women to lift weights and do cardio like running, things we were told not to do. 

Or even win major tennis tournaments.

[Capricasix]

6 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

I was pregnant in 1968 and my doctor told me that so long as I didn't smoke more than ten a day it would be fine.  I think most doctors didn't think our bad stuff, "crossed the placenta."  In fact, in 1968 I had friends doing much stronger drugs than cigarettes while pregnant, and believing there was no danger.  Yesterday, I  heard an OBGYN on NPR say that it was perfectly okay for pregnant women to lift weights and do cardio like running, things we were told not to do.  I've seen medical advice change so much over the years I no longer fully trust any of it.

Look at Serena Williams, winning the Australian Open while pregnant!

And what you said about friends doing stronger drugs in 1968 made me think of Stranger Things ?

[Clanstarling]

In reference to cigarette smoking, here's a 1947 song that my Dad used to play a lot. Though ya'll might enjoy it : Smoke Smoke Smoke

[angora]

6 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

It's the husband I recognize and can't quite place.

I couldn't place him either, but I knew I'd seen him somewhere.  Are you a Whovian?  When I looked him up on IMDb, I realized he was in the Doctor Who Christmas special from 2015, "The Husbands of River Song" - he was the guy who came to help with the wreckage on Darillium.

[Clanstarling]

4 hours ago, angora said:

I couldn't place him either, but I knew I'd seen him somewhere.  Are you a Whovian?  When I looked him up on IMDb, I realized he was in the Doctor Who Christmas special from 2015, "The Husbands of River Song" - he was the guy who came to help with the wreckage on Darillium.

I thought that might have been it, but then I saw Capaldi was the Doctor, and I stopped watching some time during Matt Smith's tenure. So I haven't a clue.

[modernisti]

On 19.4.2017 at 5:58 AM, Calvada said:

Is the actress who plays Mary Cynthia off doing another project?  Or is she having another baby, and that's why she's not on the show?  I don't understand having her gone, Patsy off to Hong Kong, and Trixie missing a couple shows.  Is their budget so strapped that in seasons with only 8 episodes they can't have all the characters in all the episodes?  I miss the regulars!  Especially after killing off Sister Evangelina, I would like the comfort of my old friends, which is what I consider some of these characters. 

It was nice to see them enjoying a meal again, delighting in the food and conversation. 

Bryony Hannah did 4 episodes of "Unforgotten" last year. As she has been onboard for 6 years, it is not surprising that she would like to expand her career a little.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 4/20/2017 at 9:07 PM, Kohola3 said:

 I guess it would be too depressing to bring that up but CO poisoning has nasty sequelae in the long run.

Sequelae.  I'd never heard that word, but it's obvious what it means when I think about it.  I doubt it'll find frequent use on my part, but I like having it in the arsenal.  Thanks.

[Kohola3]

It's a term used a lot in medicine (I'm a retired nurse).  It's essentially the downstream effects of a disease or injury.

[Tosia]

My mom had 4 healtjy kids in t h e late 50's and several miscarriages after in the 60's. She smoked from age 15 to 83 when she died.  

My mother-in-law did the same: 4 healthy  kids and several miscarriages later. She smoked from age 17 to her death at 86.  She was an R.N. also.

My aunt had 7 healthy  kids and several miscarriages after, and one still born babe. She smoked from age 15 to 55 when she quit.  

It seemed like everyone smoked back then. The information about health risks was not as widely disseminated as it is today.  They had heard about lung cancer, but not so much abt other effects of smoking.  When that book came out, What to Expect When You're Expecting, it was an eye opener for many women. Prior to, there was only Dr. Spock and he was abt kids,  not pregnancy. 

In every case above,  the husbands also smoked. 

[ItCouldBeWorse]

On 4/21/2017 at 9:24 AM, jah1986 said:

On 4/21/2017 at 0:16 AM, Mumbles said:

I had a flashback to the Joy Luck Club....I read it like 20 years ago but didn't that involve a young Chinese mom losing or being forced to abandon a baby daughter?

I had a similar flashback.  Yes one of the mom's thought she was dying and decided to leave her twins on the side of the road because she didn't want to die near them and bring them bad luck.  When she survived, she was devastated because she had lost her babies.  At the end of the movie her youngest daughter is reunited with the twins.  Love that movie.

In the book, as I recall, the mother couldn't carry two babies on her retreat and assumed they would die but couldn't bear to watch them do so, so she left them on the side of the road.  She survived and made it to America, and the babies were rescued and raised by a family in Communist China.

[JeanneH]

On 4/20/2017 at 10:07 PM, Kohola3 said:

Absolutely.  Infants and children usually have long term issues including mental impairment.  I guess it would be too depressing to bring that up but CO poisoning has nasty sequelae in the long run.

When you boil it down, CO poisoning isn't really all that different from being in a low oxygen environment. It isn't the "carbon part" that hurts you, it's the "oxygen part" being too low. It's not easy to eliminate CO (that stuff doesn't want to detach itself from the red blood cells), which is why victims are given straight O2 as initial treatment. The oxygen forces the CO to clear out and be exhaled, leaving room for O2 to attach and raise the victim's oxygen levels. There are lots of factors that go into it, but, as seen with mountain climbers in low oxygen environments, what will put one person flat won't impact some other person so much or as quickly.

On 4/23/2017 at 11:12 PM, Tosia said:

It seemed like everyone smoked back then. The information about health risks was not as widely disseminated as it is today.

I've lost track. What year are we up to? We have to be getting close to the time of the US Surgeon General's warning, if not already past it.

Edited April 29, 2017 by JeanneH

[Sew Sumi]

The show is in '62. Surgeon General's warning came out in '64. 

[dcalley]

The detail in the mother-in-law's story that really got the tears flowing for me was that she had to bite off the lock of hair.

[latetotheparty]

1 hour ago, dcalley said:

The detail in the mother-in-law's story that really got the tears flowing for me was that she had to bite off the lock of hair.

Right?  I sobbed and sobbed. 

[dcalley]

56 minutes ago, latetotheparty said:

Right?  I sobbed and sobbed. 

Even just reading it again right now makes me tear up.

[Barlowe]

I was definitely glad for Sister Ursula to go but it was almost like playing,  a drinking game watching Sister Ursula say something and the midwives and nuns jaw's drop at her at her gall. 

[RedSoxRock]

I had my first child in 1969 and when the nurse wheeled me out of the recovery room to my room she asked me if I wanted a cigarette! Everyone smoked in their bed. The only rule was no smoking when the babies were brought in from the nursery.

[RedbirdNelly]

I'm happy to see Sr Ursula leave and go back to the warm leadership of Sr. Julianne. I need Sr. Julianne's bits of wisdom in my life.