'All Creatures Great and Small' Recap: Season 6 Episode 2

All Creatures Great and Small airs Sundays at 8:00 pm on WTTW and is available to stream. Recap the previous and following episodes and seasons.
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As James drives to work in the morning, he passes a man trudging along the side of the road with only one shoe. It’s Siegfried, who offers vague and unconvincing explanations for his situation. Dropping him off at Skeldale has made James late for a call at Mrs. Pumphrey’s with a birthday card for her beloved dog Tricki-Woo. But James learns that Siegfried promised Sister Rose that James would see one of her dogs, and he’s already late to that appointment. 

Off James runs to Sister Rose, a no-nonsense nun and nurse who takes in abandoned dogs and rehabilitates them before adopting them off to families. James and Siegfried can’t afford to be on her bad side, as she recommends them to every family who adopts a dog from her. 

One of her new dogs, Geoffrey, has been vomiting all night. James prescribes a powder for gastritis, but if things don’t get better the dog may have swallowed something, even if James can’t feel anything. Sister Rose tells him her hospital just bought a new x-ray machine and offers – insists – to sell him and Siegfried the old one. That would allow James to see if there was indeed an obstruction instead of just feeling for it.

Siegfried has visited Tricki-Woo in the meantime, realizing that Tricki isn’t ignoring Mrs. Pumphrey out of pique but because he can’t hear as a result of ear infections. Siegfried tells Mrs. Pumphrey such ailments will become more common now that Tricki is older. She is at first offended, then decides after antibiotics clear up the infections that she wants to breed Tricki. She used to think Tricki would outlive her, but now she’s not so sure, and she doesn’t want to be left alone.

Siegfried passes off the task of finding a suitable breeding partner to James.

Back at Skeldale, Tristan is organizing Siegfreid’s dispensary. Surprised by his urge to work, Mrs. Hall wonders if Tristan is bored while on leave from the military. Or maybe he’s looking for something to distract himself from thoughts of the war, as Hall’s son Edward did when he first returned. Tristan shrugs off her suggestions.

A woman rings the doorbell and then flings a man’s shoe at Mrs. Hall when she answers and marches away. It’s Siegfried’s lost shoe. While he searches the house for its pair, James asks him about buying the x-ray machine. Distracted and not really listening, Siegfried assents. 

When the heavy machine arrives in a large crate, James and Tristan struggle to get it in the house. Siegfried is not happy to see it. Sister Rose arrives as the young men try to shift it out of the doorway and tells them that the machine is on wheels, if they would just open the crate. 

James tries to test the x-ray and blows out the electricity for the whole house. Frustrated, Siegfried tells him he’s not against purchasing an x-ray machine – he just wishes James hadn’t bought the first one he saw, without thinking much about it. Back at Heston Grange, Helen warns James that making a large purchase without discussing it is a very Siegfried thing to do.

Mrs. Hall visits Helen at Heston and wonders why she has been getting unfriendly treatment from many of the businesses in town, for instance receiving the worst lettuce from the greengrocer. Helen suggests that Siegfried has offended them. 

Mrs. Hall then talks to Siegfried, telling him he can’t upset everyone even if he did struggle when she moved out and James left to live at Heston. Siegfried admits that he tried employing the greengrocer’s sister as a replacement housekeeper while Mrs. Hall was gone, but quickly fired her. Mrs. Hall chastises him to occasionally admit that he’s wrong.

When James arrives back at Skeldale the next day to try to fix the electricity, he finds that Tristan, having picked up some skills in the military, has already re-wired the house so that the x-ray is on its own fuse board.

Sister Rose arrives in a panic with Geoffrey, who is still vomiting. The recently rescued dog is still frail from his time on the streets, so James doesn’t want to risk a surgery to remove an obstruction if there isn’t one. He tries out the x-ray, but the scan is over-exposed: Skeldale doesn’t have a suitable darkroom. 

Siegfried appears and recommends operating regardless, but leaves the decision to James, who assents. They find and remove a pebble. 

Siegfried agrees to keep the x-ray machine, simply asking James for more input on big decisions. Sister Rose offers to let James use the hospital’s darkroom. In gratitude, James offers to waive the treatment cost of all of her dogs. She has also decided to hold onto Geoffrey for a while for herself.

Inspired by James’ tales of Sister Rose, Helen’s sister Jenny has applied for nursing college, creating some unease at Heston that she might leave. Another source of tension disappears when everyone realizes that Jimmy, not James, has been tracking in mud – the young boy has been wearing his father’s boots around the house.

Siegfried goes to apologize to everyone in town he has offended, including the greengrocer’s sister. He also assures Mrs. Hall that she said what needed to be said. She starts once again receiving better treatment in town.

Following a comment from Mrs. Hall that treating others isn’t just good for their animal patients and their owners but also the veterinarians themselves, Tristan offers to start going on calls for Siegfried and James while he’s on leave.