Just in case you needed a new reason to like Fred, this episode kicks off with him attempting to save an injured bird, and that’s pretty much the tone of this whole episode. For starters, Joyce has been assigned the case of a gentleman who’s had prostate surgery, and been sent home with a catheter. While she’s in the neighborhood, Sister Veronica asks her to also check in on a recently widowed woman with three young kids, all of whom are suffering from malnutrition and a skin condition, having only recently moved into a council flat from a homeless shelter.
Meanwhile, across town, Shelagh leads a relaxation clinic, which is meant to help the expectant mums to feel “serene and prepared.” Does that seem like a bit of a stretch? Possibly, but Shelagh’s maybe the most “glass half full” person on this show: if anyone can get a bunch of super pregnant people to be serene, it’s her. Attending the class today are expecting parents Norma and Don. Don is a vending machine salesman who’s doing quite well for himself, putting this couple in a much more comfortable position than most of the folks we see in Poplar.
Joyce bikes over to the council flats where her patients for the day live. This setup is more typical: we’re looking at some truly wretched housing. Just as an example, when Joyce knocks on the door of the young widow, Nerys, she finds that her patient is wearing her coat indoors because of the cold. Joyce gives Nerys creams for her baby’s diaper rash and everyone else’s skin issue, but it’s clear that what Nerys really needs is more money and an extra pair of hands to keep up with laundry, infant care, and everything else.
Nerys: I swear, we’re not dirty. I love my kids.
Joyce: I know that; we all do. You’ve had to deal with a horrible situation, and you’ll need help. Do you have any family or friends near?
Nerys: My husband and I got together when I was 14. He was my family and my best friend.
Making the situation even more difficult? The downstairs neighbor is extremely grumpy, and bangs on the ceiling after one of the kids makes a pretty quiet (and pretty normal) kid sound. And what do you know? That grumpy neighbor is the other person Joyce is here to see: a Mr. Cottered. Mr. Cottered also just moved into the building, having been reassigned to this flat while he was in the hospital having surgery. He’s not happy about it, as you can imagine.
Joyce: I get it, moving is stressful. Anyway, time for me to check your catheter!
Mr. Cottered: Uh, WHAT? Go away!
Joyce: Look, you can end up back in the hospital, or you can let me do my job.
Unsurprisingly, that’s pretty persuasive, and after a few more grumbles (unfortunatley including some racist microaggressions) he gets at one of his real issues: he can’t walk very far, and is running low on important supplies. Which he insists Joyce should purchase for him. This is definitely not part of her job description, but she reluctantly agrees. She also tells him to be less of a jerk to Nerys, which he roundly ignores.
Rosalind, by contrast, has gotten a much more pleasant patient to look after in Norma, whose main complaint is that her baby is overdue by a couple of days. After her rounds, Rosalind arrives home just in time to join dinner and hear an important update from Sister Julienne. Specifically, that the updated pay increase the union has secured for the nurses will be in this week’s pay packet.
The next day, Nerys leaves her kiddos sleeping at home and runs out to try and do a quick errand. Not ideal, but what else is she supposed to do? At Norma’s house, Don wakes up to find his wife in labor. She’s serene and prepared. Him? Not so much. And Joyce stops in at Vi’s shop to pick up Mr. Cottered’s requests, which turn out to be so specific that Fred recognizes him from the list.
Fred: He used to come in every day — glad he’s alive, I was worried.
Joyce: He’s fine, he just got moved. He’s not happy.
Fred: Well, he kind of never is, to be fair. Maybe I can drop in on him.
Joyce: He’d probably love that.
Fred: That’s unlikely, but at least he’ll be less lonely.
Joyce: No dude, I think he’d be genuinely happy… especially if you brought your tool kit over.
Two birds? Meet one stone! Joyce heads right over where she finds things pretty much exactly as she left them, and gets accused of theft when her patient doesn’t immediately spot his shopping and his change. Joyce handles this MUCH more politely than I think Mr. Cottered deserves, but does tell him that she’ll be back with Dr. Turner the next day to remove the catheter.
Joyce: I’m sure you’ll be much nicer to him than you have been to me.
Mr. Cottered doesn’t even have the good grace to apologize, unfortunately. Maybe Fred can straighten him out a bit. As Joyce leaves, she runs into Nerys. Literally: Nerys is sprinting back into the building. Obviously Joyce isn’t thrilled to find out that the kiddos have been left alone, so she follows Nerys upstairs to discuss. Here’s the deal: Nerys has been taking on a part time job for two hours every morning, attempting to sneak out and back before the kids wake up. Today, for the first time, she got stuck late at work and missed a bus, returning home much later than usual.
Joyce: I know you’re in a bad situation, but this can’t continue. If social services found out you could lose the kids.
Nerys: Please don’t tell them. I promise I won’t do it again.
Joyce: I get it.
Across town, Norma’s labor goes smoothly, and she quickly delivers a baby girl. On first inspection, baby seems fine. But when Rosalind flips her over, she notices a large bump on the baby’s lower back. She calmly presses the emergency button and brings baby over to the exam table, and tries to keep Norma calm throughout. Dr. Turner pretty immediately realizes why Rosalind called him in, and calmly tells Norma that he’ll take the baby off to the incubator to warm her up while Norma delivers her placenta. Once baby is in the warmer, it’s even easier to be sure of the diagnosis: spina bifida. Baby will need to be seen by a specialist, and in the meantime, Dr. Turner meets with her parents. He explains that it seems like the baby’s spinal cord hasn’t developed properly, and she’ll need an operation. Soon. Both parents are very upset, and worry that their daughter won’t be able to walk and lead a typical life. Until the specialists at St. Cuthberts can evaluate, it’s hard to say how things will turn out. Later, Norma has a bit of a meltdown.
Norma: I don’t get it! I did everything! I did all the classes!
Rosalind: You did everything right. This is not your fault.
Over at Nonnatus, Sister Julienne brings in Trixie to strategize about their upcoming meeting with the board of health. While It’s right around the corner, leaving them without too much time to prepare, the good news is that our friends haven’t been idle: they’ve got a plan. Trixie is excited and ready to defend the crew, while Sister Julienne is a little sad. She and the other nuns have given a lot to the community, and it’s hard for her to hear that the board no longer wants religious nurses in the mix.
The next day, Joyce and Dr. Turner pay a visit to Mr. Cottered and his catheter. Dr. Turner says he’s happy to remove it, as long as the patient keeps staying hydrated. But even afterwards, Joyce will have to continue her visits to make sure the healing continues to progress. Just as Dr. Turner is about to pull the catheter, there’s a knock at the door. It’s Fred, here for a visit. Unfortunately for Mr. Cottered, this doesn’t stop Dr. T from taking out the catheter before Fred comes in, but on the plus side, it means there’s someone to entertain the guy after the procedure is finished. And entertain he does: Fred takes a look at all the handyman jobs he can do (with the exception of the water heater, which is council property), and even talks up how great Joyce is. Before he leaves, he even gets a begrudging thank you from Mr. Cottered. And even more surprising? When Mr. Cottered hears the kids upstairs, he thinks twice before banging on the ceiling!
Meanwhile, at the maternity home, Rosalind finds Norma fully dressed and preparing to leave, despite having just given birth. But that’s not the worst part: Norma and Don have decided that they won’t be able to care for their baby, and are planning to give her up for adoption. Rosalind tries to change their minds, but they’re adamant. After they’ve left, Shelagh, Rosalind, Miss Higgins, and Sister Veronica meet to talk it over.
Sister Veronica: This happens more often than you’d think. People underestimate their own strength.
Rosalind: But they’re her parents! She’s sick; she needs them!
Sister Veronica: Let’s just pray that this is just shock, and they’ll change their minds. But either way we need to talk to social services.
And that’s exactly what they do. The representative from social services explains that while they do have a legal requirement to help this kiddo, they have extremely limited resources. Social services doesn’t want to take this case on when the baby has two well-off parents; if anyone can care for a disabled child, it’s this couple. Further, the representative explains that she worries this will set a precedent that encourages other parents to give up their children. Her goal: get the parents to take responsibility for their daughter. If they won’t, the baby will be in a bad position, because social services is not prepared to take over her care.
Later, the doctors at St. Cuthberts call with an update: baby’s surgery went well, and she’s recovering on the ward. Unfortunately, her parents haven’t called the hospital for updates, so Sister Veronica volunteers to go speak to them. She and Rosalind pay a visit to Norma the next day to check on her recovery, and to try and talk some sense into her.
Sister Veronica: Here’s the deal. Social services think — and so do we, btw — that the best solution is for you to take your baby home.
Norma: Best for who? We can’t give her what she needs; how can that be the best thing for her?
Rosalind: You’d have a lot of support, including possibly home help.
Norma: I don’t want that! I want more kids, and I’m not getting any younger. It wouldn’t be possible to look after her here. Here’s all the stuff I bought for the baby. Take it.
Outside, as they leave, Sister Veronica and Rosalind run into Don, who’s on the way home from work.
Don: You must think we’re bad people. I would, if it was someone else.
Sister Veronica: God doesn’t judge, neither do I.
Don: We’ll never get over it. Even if we have more kids, it won’t be the same.
The next day, Joyce checks in on Mr. Cottered, who is finally on the mend physically. But that means this is Joyce’s last visit, and while he pretends to be happy about it, it’s obvious that Mr. Cottered is, above all, a very lonely guy.
Do you need a moment of levity after all that? Same, and we’re gonna get one. Shelagh gleefully sneaks into the office while her husband is out on rounds. Why? Because she’s bought an electric coffee machine with some of the money from her raise.
Miss Higgins, miffed: But. But I make the coffee.
Shelagh: Exactly! Now you won’t have to do that anymore!
Miss Higgins:
Unfortunately for Miss Higgins, nobody shares her concerns. Dr. Turner happily drinks his fancy brewed coffee, totally oblivious to how clearly Miss Higgins was hoping he’d say it was worse than hers. But there’s no time for Miss Higgins’ beef with a machine: St. Cuthberts has called with an update on their baby patient. She has progressed well, and is ready to be discharged home. For now, that means that she’ll be staying with the Nonnatus crew. At this point, Sister Veronica points out that they need to give this kiddo a name, at least temporarily, and since she was born in June, that’s what they go with. They also need to register June’s birth, since her parents didn’t.
Everyone takes turns caring for June, who’s healing up well from her surgery, and it seems like we’re in for a pretty chill rest of the episode. That is, until Joyce stops outside Nerys and Mr. Cottered’s building just as something inside explodes. Fred happens to be nearby, and puts his training to use herding the shocked residents as far away as possible while a nearby police officer calls for more help. As Joyce looks after minor injuries, Nerys runs up: her kids are still inside. They stop her going in, but Fred darts inside before Joyce or the police officer can prevent it. When backup emergency services arrive, Joyce tells them who is still in the building, and that she thinks the explosion came from Mr. Cottered’s place.
Inside, Fred arrives outside Nerys’ door and breaks in to find Mr. Cottered in the flat with the kids: he’d heard the children up there alone and came up to check on them. Mr. Cottered sends Fred downstairs with the kiddos, and says he’ll try to follow. The police prevent Fred from going back inside the building, but thankfully Mr. Cottered is already being carried out on a stretcher by emergency services. He doesn’t look great, but is still awake enough to make sure the kids are ok, and to get a very warm thank you from Nerys and Joyce.
Later, at the popup shelter, Nerys explains what happened. She’d gone to give her notice, but her boss said that if she didn’t stay on a little longer, she wouldn’t get paid. Desperate, she felt she had no other option. Nerys asks Joyce to vouch for her, but it’s not clear that it would make a difference even if Joyce does. When Joyce and Fred get home, they’re carefully looked after by the rest of our friends, and Fred even gets a lecture about putting himself in danger which is well earned and will likely be ignored. We also get an update about the cause of the explosion: it turns out to have been Mr. Cottered’s faulty water heater, which the council should have fixed ages ago.
Sister Veronica: And the worst part? Since no one was seriously hurt, there won’t even be an inquiry.
Phyllis: Well that’s crap. They’re supposed to look after people, and instead they’re just worried about cutting costs. Sorry for my tone.
Sister Julienne: No apologies necessary. I agree. And that’s good news for us: from what Trixie found, the council can’t sustain itself without our help. Job security, at least!
Upstairs, Joyce talks to Rosalind about what happened.
Joyce: I wish I’d gotten help for Nerys sooner! If those kids had been hurt it’d be my fault too. I recognized my own family in theirs and it clouded my judgement. What kind of professional am I?
Rosalind: A kind one. And a good one.
FACTS. Wondering what’s happening with baby June? Well, nothing, and that’s not sustainable. Her parents won’t budge, and neither will social services. So Sisters Julienne and Veronica make the difficult decision to place June at the mother house orphanage.
The next day, Trixie suits up (literally, and as always, she looks fabulous) to take on the board of health. The slimy jerk who runs the thing is not even remotely prepared for what he’s about to encounter, and tries to belittle Trixie by calling her credentials into account. Trixie, however, is having none of it. She’s here in the role of business manager, and manage business she does. Trixie lays out the number of house calls Nonnatus made, and explains that not only is that number higher than the council had expected, but that their services also cost significantly less than expected. They’re a steal. Without Nonnatus, the government will not be able to fulfill their obligations to Poplar. Trixie also explains that her colleagues probably could operate completely separate from the church; most of the nurses are secular, after all. But if they did that, it would cost twice as much, and the council can’t afford that.
Trixie: You might not like that they’re nuns. But without the vow of poverty, you couldn’t offer essential services.
Kind of hard to argue with that, so the board ultimately decides not to. They approve the continued budget. In other good news, Nerys is doing much better. The family’s new flat is in better shape, and social services has helped her find work and childcare. Joyce reminds Nerys that she’s a good mom, who did her best in a desperate situation. Also doing better? Mr. Cottered, who’s been released from hospital and popped into the shop to say hello to Fred. He’s in a much better mood, and credits Joyce for everything. As ever: a little kindness goes a long way.
