Every season, GBH Drama prepares to bring you coverage of the latest and greatest in British dramas. This month, we return to Poplar for the twelfth season of Call The Midwife. With complex medical cases, heartwarming found family, and more births and deaths than we can count, this series is sure to make you laugh and cry (probably more of the latter, if we're being honest). GBH Drama contributor Amanda-Rae Prescott is here to recap the magic as it happens.
This week on Call The Midwife, Lucille is still struggling with her mental health, and continues to have a hard time balancing her personal turmoil with caring for the residents of Poplar. Meanwhile, an expectant mother’s additional diagnosis challenges Dr. Turner and the midwives' ability to care for her. Let’s discuss what happens, but first a note of caution: this episode discusses suicidal ideation.
Losing Sight
Lucille’s district patient this week is Thomas Woodleigh. He’s an elderly man with macular degeneration. His children and grandchildren have all moved away from Poplar and rarely visit. His grandson Simon occasionally sends biscuits but they’re not his favorite kind. He can barely see Lucille the first time she examines him but he’s refusing surgery. Dr. Turner examines Thomas after he complains about seeing only blackness and recommends immediate surgery rather than waiting for a later appointment since there is bleeding in the back of the eye. Thomas agrees to go in the ambulance but only if he will return home right after. Will Thomas regain his sight?
Unexpected Pain
Much to Sister Monica Joan’s annoyance, Nonnatus House is hosting an informal meeting for first-time mothers to demonstrate breastfeeding and other skills. This meeting is cutting into Sister Monica Joan’s television time. During the meeting, we’re introduced to Lillian Reynolds. She’s married to a television repairman and they’re really excited about parenthood. After the meeting, Lillian tells the sisters that she is feeling a lot of soreness in only one of her breasts. They recommend a visit to the clinic for a physical examination. Dr. Turner examines Lillian and recommends tests at St. Cuthberts because there is an unusual amount of redness and swelling. After a very awkward examination, the specialists diagnose Lillian with breast cancer. Dr. Turner follows up with Lillian and her husband Ronnie at home after the diagnosis and they’re extremely confused by the medical jargon. Dr. Turner explains in plain English that Lillian’s form of cancer involves inflammation, not the typical tumor growth. The specialists recommend inducing birth before starting chemotherapy. Lillian is extremely upset because she wanted to give birth at home and not in the hospital. Is there a way to respect her wishes and also treat her cancer?
Faith Intervention
Poplar’s Black residents are still feeling the fallout from Powell stirring up hate. Cyril finds out two of their church members were forcibly evicted from their apartment because racist neighbors complained about them. They’re moving to Brixton which is a neighborhood with more Black Londoners, but Lucille argues that nowhere is really safe from the fascists. Cyril then surprises Lucille with a call home to Jamaica to lift her spirits. Reconnecting with her family back home seems to lift her mood at first, but then Lucille finds out on the phone that her sister Celine is pregnant. Her depression takes a turn for the worse as she feels that she has failed as a wife.
Phyllis decides to meet with Lucille’s friend Mrs. Wallace. Phyllis believes that since Lucille is already religious, her belief may help her out of her depression. Mrs. Wallace agrees because she correlates mental illness with spiritual struggle. This is a great idea in theory but bad timing renders it entirely ineffective. Mrs. Wallace stops by Cyril and Lucille’s house to discuss the prayerful intervention. Lucille opens the door, hears the discussion of spiritual attack, and lashes out. She feels that God has abandoned her since she is unable to conceive a child. It’s clear that medical intervention may be the only way out.
Maypole Mayhem
Poplar’s annual May festival is one of the most popular events but this year’s dance has hit a major snag. The dance teacher has recently had ovarian surgery and is unable to teach the choreography to the children. Violet is out of town and Shelagh is the only one left who can help make the event happen. Shelagh asks the other adults to help her learn the steps in the dance before they have to teach them to the children. The first practice session with Sister Monica Joan playing the part of the maypole is chaos as the adults struggle with moving around the pole in two groups. Dr. Turner accidentally hits Nancy and it’s clear no one should quit their day jobs to dance. Setting up the maypole is another issue, as Shelagh is convinced it’s leaning too much which drives Cyril a bit crazy.
Rehearsing with the children at first is just as disastrous as the practice session with the adults. The kids are doing more running around and screaming than dancing. Shelagh is late to the meeting, leaving Fred to try to wrangle things. Sister Monica Joan unexpectedly turns things around by banging her cane to bring the kids to order. She ends up teaching the kids the maypole dance before Shelagh arrives! Sister Monica Joan says no one actually asked her directly if she knew how to do the dance.
Another aspect of the festival is the raffle. Shelagh asks Sister Monica Joan if she can donate anything to the raffle. She ends up donating all of the marmalade Sister Veronica made. This is an opportunity to do some good and take care of a minor annoyance at the same time: everyone in Nonnatus is fed up with eating the same thing every day. Unfortunately for Sister Monica Joan, she ends up with the winning ticket for the massive basket of marmalade. We see Sister Veronica’s face of confusion because she had no idea her jars were in the raffle. Who is going to explain what happened?
No Time To Prep
Sister Julienne discusses with Lillian the induction process, and Lillian compares the situation to her old career before marriage. Lillian met Ronnie while working as a performer at a holiday camp. (Think Grantchester’s Butlins but with less murder and privacy violations). She had a prep routine before each performance, and she expected to do the same with motherhood and her cancer treatment. Lillian’s blood pressure spikes leading to birth pains. Sister Julienne and Trixie help Lillian deliver her baby girl Andrea at home. After the birth, Lillian prepares for the cancer treatment by taking Silbestrol to stop her breastmilk.
During Lillian’s treatment Sister Julienne arranges for Ronnie to be taught how to care for Andrea. These lessons in fatherhood have a montage of era-appropriate music to match but the singer Cliff Richard has a problematic backstory PBS viewers may not be familiar with which ruins the cute baby vibes. Lillian comes home from the hospital feeling like she had a bad sunburn. However, her relief that the treatment is over quickly turns to anger at Sister Julienne because she feels Sister Julienne was prepping Ronnie to replace her role as a mother. She lashes out at the sister, saying she “threw away her womanhood”. Later on, Andrea can’t stop crying and Lillian refuses to leave her bed to help. Ronnie fails to calm her down and Sister Julienne points out the baby wants her mother. Lillian ends up apologizing for her earlier harsh words.
Mutual Homesickness
Lucille visits Thomas at the hospital with his favorite Marie biscuits as he’s recovering from his eye surgery. His granddaughter tells Lucille he’s exaggerated his situation. In fact, Thomas has a very large family so he’s not exactly alone. Of course he doesn’t want to leave Poplar for his recovery period. Lucille ends up holding his baby great-granddaughter Nicole which is yet another reminder of her depression. She realizes that Thomas sees himself in her even though he calls her a “foreign nurse”.
Later on, Lucille visits Dr. Turner in his office and insists that he treat her as a patient and not as a friend and colleague. He tells her the headaches and other physical symptoms require medicine. He also asks her if she has considered hurting herself. She admits that the other day she considered stepping out into the traffic while on a walk to try to clear her head but didn’t go through with it. Dr. Turner visits Lucille and Cyril at home to check on her. He’s prescribed valium based on her symptoms and explains to Cyril that he’s been through a similar situation and is confident that Lucille will get better as well.
Lucille has decided that she will take Sister Julienne’s offer of sick leave. Cyril surprises Lucille with a plane ticket to Jamaica. He admits he borrowed from their savings for their future house, but her mental health is more important. Lucille’s ride to Heathrow is a very stylish throwback to the beginning of their relationship. Cyril pulls up in the old motorcycle with the sidecar! Lucille leaves for Jamaica with a fresh hairdo and a cute yellow sweater Phyllis knitted for her. We’re so happy Lucille is putting her mental health and family first!
When will Lucille return from Jamaica and will she feel better? We’ll have to watch next week’s Call The Midwife to find out!
If you or a loved one is considering suicide, please call The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255.
