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'Call the Midwife' Recap: Season 14 Episode 7

Daniel Hautzinger
Joyce in her nurse's uniform
Joyce faces a disciplinary hearing over a racially prejudiced complaint. Credit: BBC Studios

Call the Midwife is available to stream for a limited time. Recap the previous and following episodes and other seasons.
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A movie was recently filmed in Poplar, so the premiere will take place there – and Princess Anne will be attending, to everyone’s delight. Trixie is desperate for a ticket, while Cyril, who helped organize the local kids used as extras, receives his own invitation. He decides to take Rosalind after a pleasant coffee date, now that they’re starting a relationship.

Facing a disciplinary hearing over a racially prejudiced complaint, Joyce worries for Rosalind and Cyril. She commiserates with Cyril over how London is their home now, even if it doesn’t always accept them. They’re not going to return to the Caribbean, like Cyril’s soon-to-be-divorced wife Lucille. The impending hearing could cause Joyce to lose her license, her job, and thus her home and the life she has made. So she loses her temper at Rosalind and Trixie as they obsess over something as frivolous as the film premiere.

She also finds herself uncharacteristically uncertain and wonders if it’s her fault when a urine sample is dropped as it’s handed to her by the expectant Jacqui Berridge at the clinic. But Jacqui is a former heroin addict, and Shelagh worries that she might have returned to the drug – her baby seems small, and she’s not in the best health – and therefore purposefully dropped her urine sample to hide that fact. Even after waiting at the clinic for a few hours, she says she can’t produce a new one.

Jacqui’s husband Laurence is getting methadone injections from Dr. Turner at a clinic to cope with his heroin addiction and stay clean. He’s now able to hold down a job, but that has left Jacqui alone and lonely with their young daughter. That’s the reason she gives him when he finds out that she’s back on heroin – the nurses notice injection marks in her arm during a house visit. Laurence introduced Jacqui to heroin, which is part of why her mother disapproved of him and cut Jacqui off when she chose to stay with Laurence.

This story resonates with Catherine, whose family also cut her off when she chose a different path – in her case, holy orders. She has been invited to become a novice, a moment that ranks among the happiest in her life. But she misses her family nonetheless. Sister Monica Joan tells her that her own family also rejected her choice but eventually found acceptance and forgiveness. She encourages Catherine to write to her family and invite them to her vows.

Mark Briscoe is also facing a decision between what he feels called to do and what his family wants. His mother Ellen is ailing and bed-bound. He works at a gentleman’s outfitters while also taking care of her. When Nurse Crane, back from a vacation, calls on Ellen at home, Mark takes notes for her. Ellen dismissed her previous doctor because she disagreed with his recommendations, and Crane soon understands why: Ellen is hardheaded and also unwilling to admit that she’s healthier than she acts. Mark has been distracted, and she worries that he has a girlfriend who might take him away from her.

But Mark is actually applying to be in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He asks Nurse Crane not to tell his mom.

She visits Ellen while Mark is away and makes use of a hidden key to let herself in. She spots Ellen scurrying at the top of the stairs and then finds a packet of cookies hidden in her bed, even though Ellen claims she can’t even use the bathroom on her own. Nurse Crane tells Ellen she can regain her independence if she puts her mind to it, but Ellen bristles at the suggestion.

So Nurse Crane forces her to realize her strength, making her next appointment at the surgery. Ellen makes it down the stairs and into a taxi, but then insists she can’t get out. So Dr. Turner examines her in the taxi, to her humiliation. Nurse Crane encourages Mark to tell Ellen about the army – it might motivate her. But it instead leads to her fury.

In the midst of all this familial turmoil, there is one positive, stable development: the Turners finish the process to officially adopt Mae.

Jacqui Berridge’s baby has been exposed to heroin, so Dr. Turner offers controlled injections to wean her and it off the addiction – but Jacqui doesn’t want to expose the baby to more drugs and says she’ll get clean on her own, just as she did once. She and Laurence don’t have anyone to babysit their daughter in the meantime, since he’s an orphan and her parents cut her off. But Laurence will take some time off.

Jacqui goes into labor while still in withdrawal. The baby is sent to the hospital immediately while Jacqui has to stay at the clinic. She wants to name her new son after her father, because she has never stopped thinking about her parents, and the decision to cut her off was her mom’s, not her dad’s.

She absconds from the clinic but is soon seen leaving the hospital with Laurence. Once again home alone with her daughter, she relapses, selling her ring for heroin. Laurence returns home to find the drugs hidden, but she begs him not to throw them away. We could take it together, she tells him.

When Sister Veronica and Cyril visit for a social worker appointment, they hear Kerry crying. Cyril breaks down the door when there’s no response, and they find both Berridges dead together on the bed. There’s a greater chance of fatal overdose when one returns to heroin, or the drugs could have been contaminated. Jacqui’s parents take in the grandchildren they have never met.

Happier news comes for Catherine when one of her sisters writes to say that she will attend Catherine’s vows – even if none of the rest of the family does.

The Briscoes also reconcile, with the help of Nurse Crane. She visits and finds Ellen on the floor at the foot of the stairs, although there’s not a bruise on her and her tea has mysteriously survived the fall without spilling. Ellen was faking a fall to make Mark feel guilty and stay home with her, so Nurse Crane warns Mark.

When he arrives home, Ellen begins to tell him about the fall, but he tells her that they can talk over dinner – downstairs. He tells her he will take the job if he gets it, and that he wants her blessing.

Nurse Crane works with Ellen on her confidence, telling her that she will be able to return to pursuits she once enjoyed but gave up to raise Mark. So when he gets the job, she tells him she’s proud of him.

To apologize for not recognizing the stress of Joyce’s situation, Trixie and Rosalind press her uniform and polish her shoes before her hearing. Sister Julienne accompanies her and speaks in her favor, while Joyce also stands up for herself. The board completely exonerates her.

On the way to the film premiere, Rosalind experiences the harassment Joyce warned her about for the first time when some passing men joke about her being with Cyril. She starts to confront them, but Cyril tells her to ignore them. But she doesn’t want to, she tells him: she wants to be with him, publicly and proudly.