S08.E07: Episode 7

[doodlebug]

29 minutes ago, Suzn said:

Pretty much anything was an occasion to dress up for.  I miss that.

Yep, people dressed up to go downtown to lunch, to go to church, everywhere, really.  I remember my parents taking a plane trip to a convention for my father's job back in the early 60's.  My mother wore a skirt suit with a hat, stockings, gloves and high heels.  To the airport to get on a plane for an hour long flight.  Nowadays, get on a plane and you're lucky if your seatmate isn't wearing pajamas. 

Back in the early to mid 60's, many adult women, even young ones, would never wear pants publicly except maybe to do yard work.  It was a different time.

[Badger]

12 hours ago, doodlebug said:

Yep, people dressed up to go downtown to lunch, to go to church, everywhere, really.  I remember my parents taking a plane trip to a convention for my father's job back in the early 60's.  My mother wore a skirt suit with a hat, stockings, gloves and high heels.  To the airport to get on a plane for an hour long flight.  Nowadays, get on a plane and you're lucky if your seatmate isn't wearing pajamas. 

Back in the early to mid 60's, many adult women, even young ones, would never wear pants publicly except maybe to do yard work.  It was a different time.

I can still remember having to wear a hat and gloves if you went into the city.  And for children's parties too.  

[debraran]

17 hours ago, Suzn said:

Pretty much anything was an occasion to dress up for.  I miss that.

When I go to our local theater for a play, I remember, watching people in shorts and jeans, when I was a kid and at night it was dresses and furs and suits. I don't miss the having to dress up but it was an occasion to break out nice things when you went out if you liked that.

[catrice2]

Cannot find the post about the clothing line..but yes although I am sure it would be overpriced and out of my range....super cute dresses

[StatisticalOutlier]

Shelagh's accent tripped up the captioner...and me.  At one point she was talking about May's departure, and she said something like, "It will be sad for me and for Angela...and for us."  At first I was delighted that the script had her saying "me" instead of "I," which everybody (incorrectly) says these days, but thought, "Wait.  Who is 'me' and who is 'us'"?  Then I realized that the "me" was actually "May." 

.

On 5/13/2019 at 7:43 PM, Tardislass said:

Eep when we were kids in the 70s, my sis and I sat literally right up next to the TV. Probably why we wear glasses but also because we wanted to see The Hardy Boys up close. LOL. It was definitely a thing in the 60-70s.

It also made kid next to the TV an early model remote control.

.

On 5/13/2019 at 8:30 PM, Calvada said:

Where was Mother Mildred heading off to?  Is there a bus at night that would take her to the Mother House? 

No doubt hitchhiking.

[doodlebug]

22 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

No doubt hitchhiking.

Nah, she just banged on the door over at Fred's and made him take her.

[athousandclowns]

On 5/15/2019 at 8:58 PM, kirklandia said:

I thought the abortions were being done in a room above a bar.  Is that where her grandmother lives?

I got the impression that it was above a bar also, someplace women coming and going wouldn’t be noticed. I don’t recall though when she took the phone call what exactly said. Room did look like a storeroom. 

[Kohola3]

11 minutes ago, athousandclowns said:

I got the impression that it was above a bar also

I believe it was.  Doesn't Val's aunt own the bar?  

[caitmcg]

13 minutes ago, Kohola3 said:

25 minutes ago, athousandclowns said:

I got the impression that it was above a bar also

I believe it was.  Doesn't Val's aunt own the bar?  

Yes, Valerie was working there when Sr. Julienne suggested she apply for the position with Nonnatus House after learning of Val's nursing experience.

[theatremouse]

On 5/13/2019 at 6:30 PM, Calvada said:

DId the grandmother realize that she had killed someone?  

I thought they intentionally established the grandmother did not have any idea of her "patients" survival rate. It added to some of the layers of horror on Val's face as she not only realized what her gran had been doing, but also seemed to realize her gran was almost certainly the one from the woman earlier in the season in the bathroom AND that her gran had no idea how that had turned out. The grandmother made a specific comment, I can't remember exactly how it was worded, but she either said "I've never had this happen before" or "this is the first time this has happened" as the reason she sent the aunt to call for Val. That was part of Val's anger, not just that it was illegal, but that her grandmother had no idea what she was doing, nor what clean surgical standards are and seemed to erroneously think she'd had a 100% success rate prior to that day. Her grandmother almost certainly killed a lot of people and seemed completely oblivious to it.

[Kohola3]

6 hours ago, theatremouse said:

Her grandmother almost certainly killed a lot of people and seemed completely oblivious to it.

Or simply refused to believe it has anything to do with the abortion. Poplar would be small enough that if there were deaths of young women that would be big news or at least active gossip and pretty much anybody should be able to put two and two together.

[dcalley]

On 5/18/2019 at 6:21 PM, caitmcg said:

Yes, Valerie was working there when Sr. Julienne suggested she apply for the position with Nonnatus House after learning of Val's nursing experience.

I suppose Aunt Flo and Gran only started doing this after Valerie left the pub.

[Sarah 103]

On 5/15/2019 at 11:58 PM, kirklandia said:

I thought the abortions were being done in a room above a bar.  Is that where her grandmother lives?

You're right. However my larger point still stands. Val had no idea what was happening until that night.

[OnceSane]

42 minutes ago, dcalley said:

I suppose Aunt Flo and Gran only started doing this after Valerie left the pub.

I think Gran has been doing this for years, possibly decades.  And she wouldn't think it was her fault women died.  "I know what clean is!"  She and Aunt Flo (unfortunate name) kept the truth from everyone but the women who came looking for an abortion.

[Ceindreadh]

4 hours ago, OnceSane said:

I think Gran has been doing this for years, possibly decades.  And she wouldn't think it was her fault women died.  "I know what clean is!"  She and Aunt Flo (unfortunate name) kept the truth from everyone but the women who came looking for an abortion.

Even if the women had known that some of Gran’s patients had died, they likely would have still risked it.  We don’t know how many women went to her. We don’t know how many she successfully treated.  

This would have been a word of mouth operation. There had to have been enough successful procedures for her to keep working. 

Pits one thing that the show has rarely touched upon, the women who went down the back alley, had an abortion and then got on with their lives. The only time I remember it coming up before was with the stripper who ended up buying the dance school that had been run by Valerie’s aunt. The only complication she suffered was with RH issues arising from her second pregnancy that weren’t initially diagnosed because when she’d been asked about previous pregnancies she’d thought they only meant completed ones. 

[MissLucas]

On 5/21/2019 at 9:17 AM, Ceindreadh said:

Pits one thing that the show has rarely touched upon, the women who went down the back alley, had an abortion and then got on with their lives. The only time I remember it coming up before was with the stripper who ended up buying the dance school that had been run by Valerie’s aunt. The only complication she suffered was with RH issues arising from her second pregnancy that weren’t initially diagnosed because when she’d been asked about previous pregnancies she’d thought they only meant completed ones. 

That was touched upon in one of the earlier episodes in a conversation between Sister Hilda and Sister Julienne.

[Megan]

this breaks my heart. and so many people fervently working to return to this. purposefully. it makes me sick.

hopefully the information available on the internet will make it safer but wtf. Just thinking about what women had to go through and what and how people want to punish women AND children.

Edited September 22, 2019 by Megan

[RedbirdNelly]

I was surprised by the Gran reveal. The minute it was revealed, I remembered Sr J's comment on the bacteria killing mothers and put 2 and 2 together--but before that I did not. In the previous episode, I had enjoyed Val's relationship with Gran, I guess because it reminded me of the spunk my Nana had. (Nana is long gone and was not an abortionist). 

I liked how Mother Mildred left without ceremony kind of like Mary Poppins. I hope we get to see her again.