Call the Midwife 8.07

[selenak]

In which I doff my hat to the show for the way it planted varilous elements for the storyline which in this episode gets its first big pay off, and for the pay off itself. That was one great episode!



The various cases of the week in a way were red herrings, though well done in their own right - Sister Frances gaining confidence through mastering her first solo delivery, Mrs. Pugh having to cope with discovering her husband gave her gonorhea. Patrick Turner was at his compassionate best, making sure the prostitute Mr. Pugh visited was informed himself, and not just leaving it at a "don't do it" lecture with Mr. Pugh but talking to him to figure out what was going on with him. Then we had Mother Mildred proving my fears about her replacing Phyllis Crane wrong by leaving at the end of the episode, and another case of Violet being a councillor now, having to balance budgetary needs when team Turner and Trixie lobby for a new advisory institution for single mothers in the district. I liked that she wasn't painted as the bad guy here, with her scene with Fred showing she wants to help, but doesn't want to cut off financial support elsewhere. By making Violet city councillor instead of using an anonymous face this season, the cliché of "unfeeling bureaucrat" is pointedly avoided, as she's hard working and trying to achieve the best herself. (Oh, and Sister Julienne's reaction to the whole advisory-to-single-mothers thing was excellent continuity to previous seasons; she's a wonderful and compassionate person, but there's a set of social changes she's deeply uncomfortable with, and that's one of them.)

But really, the big emotional punch of the episode, and not just for Valerie, comes with the reveal of just who's been doing the seven-pounds-costing abortions showcased in previous episodes this season. And here I thought Valerie's gran being featured in previous episodes was just a case of wanting to give Valerie something to do and reminding the audience she's from Poplar and thus the sole working class nurse so far. (ETA: contrary_cal has reminded me: Phyllis is working class, too! Just not from Poplar.) Not so. (Though yes, that, too.) It's just so well done in retrospect. Grandmother Dyer was introduced as a sympathetic character over several episodes and the audience got to know her a bit. Meanwhile, Val having witnessed the end results of illegal abortions has been building up the abortionist as a monster in her mind. Even in this episode, there's sneaky build up to the reveal: when Mother Mildred asks Valerie how her grandmother would have reacted to there being an advisory for single mothers in her youth and Valerie says she'd have danced in the streets and explains why. When Sister Julienne finds out Grandmother Dyer would have liked to become a nurse herself, but how medical training would have been impossible for a working class woman of her generation. And yet I didn't see it coming until Valerie and Trixie entered the pub's backroom.

Trixie's matter-of-fact, take-charge reaction is partly because it's not her grandmother involved, sure, but I also think it supports my suspicion about her seasonal arc. Meanwhile, it feels dramatically right that it's Valerie who once she's out of her shock enough to speak who has the big midwife vs abortionist person-to-person argument I thought (and was complaining about) the show avoided via, say, letting Sister Julienne speculate what was motivating the women in question in the season opener. And by making the abortionist not a one episode character but someone directly emotionally tied to one of our regulars and whom the audience has known already, the show completely avoided making it narratively easy on either a Doylist or Watsonial level.

In conclusion: can't wait till next week!

Comments

[contrary_cal]

I am so annoyed that I'll have to wait until the DVDs come out here to see this season, it sounds so good! And yes, absolutely about the kinds of change Sister Julienne finds deeply confronting. That's been a throughline for a good few seasons now, and it was particularly apparent during the episodes around the introduction of the Pill and the family planning clinic. I love the way it complicates her character.

I didn't think, despite what you wrote last week, that Mother Mildred would become a replacement for Phyllis just because of how high-profile Miriam Margolys is and because I know that she splits her time between the UK and Australia. But speaking of Phyllis, Valerie isn't the only working-class midwife, she's just the only young one - Phyllis is working-class too, and they actually made a point of it in the episode where Valerie got the job at Nonnatus House, by having Phyllis gave Sister Julienne a nudge to think outside the box when she pointed out her own background.

What's even more interesting is that both Phyllis and Valerie came into nursing, one way or another, via the military - Phyllis during WWII, though it's never been specified whether she was an army nurse or not, and Valerie through the peacetime Army (she would have been too late for the Korean War).

[selenak]

Right re: Phyllis. *edits*


What's even more interesting is that both Phyllis and Valerie came into nursing, one way or another, via the military

I used to associate the military having triggered more equal status in Britain mostly with WWI (i.e. full voting rights independent of income for the men and eventually full voting rights for the women), but this is a reminder that it worked in other eras, too, as presumably neither Phyllis nor Valerie would have had the chance to apply otherwise?

[contrary_cal]

I"m not sure about whether Phyllis would have been able to become either an Army nurse or an ordinary nurse before WWII - the way she talked about it very much gave the impression that when the chance to train came up because of the war, she grabbed it with both hands and refused to let go - but I do seem to remember that the war work done by women in that era opened a path for women like Valerie, yes.

[gabolange]

I agree, this was one of their finest. I thought Val’s scenes at the end were incredibly well done, and I will be curious to see where they go with the fallout. I’m glad they have done such a good job of bringing multiple threads together this season, as that has not always been their strongest suit!

[selenak]

True, and now I'm really glad the show isn't over (beyond fondness for the characters), while before I thought the previous season finale would have made a natural ending point.