S06.E08: Episode 8

[Ohwell]

3 hours ago, mojito said:

I think Barbara and Sheilagh are like a lot of people, nice, but basically pretty bland. Nothing wrong with that. They're the ones who make everyone else look colorful.

That would be me! : )  I can identify with Barbara and Sheilagh because my sister was always the "colorful" one.

[txhorns79]

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I think some of the stories that were originally planned for Chummy were given to Phyllis instead (noting that Phyllis took over the Cubs, which had been Chummy's role when she was on the show). 

I think Patsy took the cubs over after Chummy vanished.  I think Phyllis took over from Patsy.   

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I'd like to hear more about Barbara's mother.  I also like Tom and Barbara together, but I'd like to know if any secular activities or hobbies ever interested Barbara.  Her father's a vicar.  She's now married to a vicar, and she works with a bunch of nuns.  The life she leads is very influenced by religion.  Was that just a natural choice for her given her upbringing, or did she ever have any desire to venture outside that sphere?

I do find it interesting that we have Tom and Barbara getting married, yet I feel like I barely know much about either of them. 

Also, after a fairly depressing finale, I thought this would serve as a nice pick me up:  I would fast forward through the Dr. Turner/Sheilagh number and go straight to the insane dance number featuring Sister Julienne, Sister Monica Joan, Sgt. Noakes, Dr. Turner and Sheilagh that will make you wish for a Call the Midwife musical episode.  That begins at about the 2:00 minute mark.

[Kohola3]

That's adorable!  I laughed out loud!

[Brattinella]

Thank you SO MUCH, txhorns!  That was wonderful!

[AZChristian]

That was so fun!!!!

[Clanstarling]

Thanks! I needed that today.

[Beldasnoop]

9 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

I think Patsy took the cubs over after Chummy vanished.  I think Phyllis took over from Patsy.   

Yes, but according to Heidi Thomas (the writer),  there had to be last-minute re-writes to the show when Miranda Hart, who had originally announced her return to the show, finally decided it wouldn't fit into her schedule. Here's a news article that mentions the re-writes.  This is entirely conjecture on my part, but I've wondered if some of the plots that were initially supposed to be given to Chummy were given to Phyllis in the re-writes. This would include the role of leading the Cubs, which would logically have gone back to Chummy when Patsy left if Chummy was indeed returning. But with Chummy not returning, someone else had to be given that role, and that turned out to be Phyllis. 

Edited June 6, 2017 by Beldasnoop

[DHDancer]

23 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

Also, after a fairly depressing finale, I thought this would serve as a nice pick me up:  I would fast forward through the Dr. Turner/Sheilagh number and go straight to the insane dance number featuring Sister Julienne, Sister Monica Joan, Sgt. Noakes, Dr. Turner and Sheilagh that will make you wish for a Call the Midwife musical episode.  That begins at about the 2:00 minute mark.

Don't fast forward through the first part!  It's one of the most beautiful love songs ever written (originally sung by Nat King Cole) and the Turners do it justice (they are the obvious singers of the cast).  Thanks for sharing the link!

[Kohola3]

4 hours ago, DHDancer said:

It's one of the most beautiful love songs ever written (originally sung by Nat King Cole) and the Turners do it justice (they are the obvious singers of the cast).  

LOVE that song....I totally agree it's one of the most beautiful.  Until I saw them I had no idea the Turners could sing.  Nice job, both of them!

[Anothermi]

I believe they sang together just recently during the birth of the newest Turner child! I saw that before I saw this, so I wasn't all that surprised.

[Kellyim]

Was anyone else devastated by this episode's, nay this season's, unrelenting tragedy? Honestly, I couldn't even feel the joy from the Turners' baby or Barbara and Tom's wedding because that spunky mum died from birth control pills and left behind her little girls. Of course I've always cried during every Call the Midwife episode, but at least part of the time those tears have been happy tears. By the end of this season, I just needed that woman to recover and when she didn't, I felt bereft.

[txhorns79]

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Honestly, I couldn't even feel the joy from the Turners' baby or Barbara and Tom's wedding because that spunky mum died from birth control pills and left behind her little girls. 

It did feel like an unnecessarily bleak storyline.  We've already seen in other seasons that new medications aren't always a blessing, and can be dangerous.  I don't know why we needed another sweet seeming character killed off and/or harmed. 

[Sarah 103]

On June 5, 2017 at 3:20 PM, txhorns79 said:

l make you wish for a Call the Midwife musical episode.  

Go old school Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland. They're doing a benefit show to raise money for the ______ or to stop ________ from being torn down. 

[txhorns79]

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They're doing a benefit show to raise money for the ______ or to stop ________ from being torn down. 

Call the Midwife 2: Electric Boogaloo.  I would seriously finance an entire episode if we could see Sister Monica Joan breakdancing.   

[Fireball]

I have a question. Does anyone know if CtM was renewed before this episode was written? I ask because the episode kind of felt like a series finale; Barbara, Trixie, & Shelagh's stories felt wrapped up to me. 

• Barbara & Tom got married. Tom does a grand romantic gesture proving how much he loves Barbara. We end with both of them seemingly very much in love. I can picture how their story would unfold; Barbara embraces being a vicar’s wife, and after a while they have a child.
• Trixie realizes she needs to give the daughter a chance. Trixie meets said daughter which goes well. We end with a cute scene of Trixie & daughter riding the carousel. I can picture that Trixie will continue her relationship with Christopher, and that they will eventually get married.
• Shelagh realizes she wants Patrick in the room during the birth. Shelagh has her son. We end with an adorable family scene of everyone washing the new addition to the family. I can picture that the Turner's will continue to be a close-knit family, and will continue to always be supportive of each other.

 

Also other than the sad death from the birth control pills the episode was more upbeat than past episodes.

ETA:  I think the whole point of the spunky mum dying was so we would have that scene, between Tom & Trixie, where Tom is all "you're amazing with kids Trixie! Just look how good you were with spunky mum's kids! You need to give Christopher's daughter a chance!" 

I didn't realize it while watching, but now I realize that the episode did feel like a finale to me. 

Edited June 13, 2017 by Fireball

[anna0852]

They really tend to make every season finale feel like a wrap up. I don't think they've ever ended on any sort of a cliffhanger note.

[Fireball]

1 hour ago, anna0852 said:

They really tend to make every season finale feel like a wrap up. I don't think they've ever ended on any sort of a cliffhanger note.

I agree that they tend to wrap things up at the end of every season and don't do cliffhangers, but this episode to me especially felt like Barbara, Trixie, Shelagh, and Patsy's stories were all wrapped up. It really felt like a series finale. I was very surprised that Christopher's daughter made an appearance; I was expecting the whole meeting the daughter to be next seasons hurdle for Trixie. 

[OnceSane]

5 hours ago, Fireball said:

Does anyone know if CtM was renewed before this episode was written?

Not sure.  It was renewed for an additional three seasons a couple of months before Season 6 premiered in the UK.

[Lion18]

On 5/22/2017 at 10:17 AM, AZChristian said:

But did you think his positioning (behind her in the bed) was odd?  If he was barely allowed in the room, having him in bed with her just seemed unrealistic to me.  I can see allowing him (especially as a doctor) crouched next to her, holding her hand, and perhaps holding her up a bit to help with pushing.  But in the bed???  That seemed anachronistic.  What's next?  Water births???

It reminded me of the scene in Greys Anatomy when George sat behind  Bailey when she gave birth

[JoSnowden]

On 5/23/2017 at 11:45 AM, txhorns79 said:

I agree the season has been sloppy.  The Sister Ursula storyline went nowhere.  Sister Mary Cynthia was institutionalized only to return for ten minutes before being sent off to another institution.  Patsy left for a number of episodes only to return for two minutes in the final episode.  Trixie, Barbara and Sister Winifred were also there.  Delia was a non-entity.  Phyllis, Shelagh, Sister Monica Joan and Sister Julienne had meaningful moments, but ultimately it felt like everyone was treading water.  And seriously producers, rather than have a character vanish for five episodes, lock your actors down for the season with a contract.  It's bizarre to me that they don't do that, or if they do, they are way too willing to write main characters out to allow the actors to do other things.        

I don’t understand why the actors don’t seem to be contracted for the season or seasons like US shows are usually contracted for so many years at a time.  It is a bit jarring for characters just to disappear mid stream.

[RedbirdNelly]

I loved this. I don't always cry but I cried when the Turners sang and I cried when Reggie showed up with those flowers. I was so glad Sister Monica Joan got a ride on the carousel. 

I was hoping birth control mom would just have an issue and get well. I remember my mom telling me that originally the pill was too strong.

[Kim0820]

On 5/22/2017 at 11:22 AM, MissLucas said:

It's been a while since I saw the episode but IIRC she fell asleep with hubby on the new sofa one night and the next day she took two pills. It wasn't quite clear (or my memory's shabby) but I thought she had forgotten to take the pill the day before and panicked and took two or more pills at once. And yes, early pills had higher hormone levels.

The placebo pills were there so you would take one every day and stay in the habit.  Seems she did not follow instructions.