'Call the Midwife' Recap: Season 15 Episode 2

Call the Midwife premieres Sundays at 7:00 pm on WTTW and is available to stream for a limited time. Recap the previous and following episodes and other seasons.
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Estelle and Hope Glennon are sisters-in-law. They’re both new arrivals in London from Ireland, their husbands are both welders, and they’re both pregnant, with due dates eight days apart. Estelle’s husband is working on an oil rig, so she’s living with Hope’s family while he’s away.

Estelle accompanies Hope to the maternity clinic when Hope goes into labor. The pain relief gas makes Hope nauseous, so her labor is difficult. The positioning of her baby makes it even worse. Her screams cause Estelle to vomit and leave the room. 

Trixie calls Sister Julienne for help with the delivery; Julienne eventually calls Dr. Turner. He arrives only after Sister Julienne has finally delivered the baby boy. She may have had to break the infant’s collarbone in the delivery. 

When Estelle isn’t there after the delivery, Hope begins to worry something is wrong: the plan was that Estelle would be the first to hold her baby. Sister Julienne visits Estelle at home.

Estelle is worried about Hope, but Hope and Sister Julienne are more worried about Estelle, who’s due to give birth soon but seems traumatized. Estelle reveals that she witnessed a bombing at a bank as part of the Troubles in Belfast; Hope’s screams during labor brought the experience back to her, and she has a panic attack recounting it to Sister Julienne. Adding to that, her own mother died in labor. 

While she was living in New York with her husband, Trixie toured various hospitals and was astonished at how widespread epidurals were – and how effective they are. They are not yet common in England, but the posh Lady Emily clinic at which she worked for a time provides them. The clinic’s owner is planning to retire soon – and he might be selling the clinic.

Trixie suggests to Dr. Turner that he observe an epidural at the Lady Emily clinic, since they don’t perform them at St. Cuthbert’s, the hospital with which he and his own clinic are partnered. The procedure is expensive and requires an anesthetist, but an epidural could help a terrified mother like Estelle with her labor. 

Dr. Turner is amazed by the epidural. He believes that they shouldn’t just be available to the rich patients who can afford a private clinic. When he learns from Sister Julienne that the National Health Service will soon not allow anyone receiving funding from them to wear religious garb, thus forcing the sisters to either lose funding or remove their habits, he believes the matter is even more urgent. Sister Julienne has not yet decided what to do, but his clinic is so closely tied to the work of the sisters that it would have to close if they lost NHS funding. Delivering more babies in the hospital could put him out of business – or it could give him more leverage with the NHS. Either way, bringing epidurals to St. Cuthbert’s would mean that mothers who might no longer get care from him would at least have a good option at the hospital. 

The hospital agrees. Estelle gives birth there with an epidural without fear. 

It’s a time of new life, as spring is here. During an Easter egg hunt, Sister Catherine spots a dog in distress, foaming at the mouth. She hurries the children away and the police are called. By the time they arrive, the dog is dead – but everyone worries that it had rabies. The area is sanitized and the corpse taken to be tested, but results will take two days to arrive.

Panic quickly sets in, with everyone wary of street dogs. Violet hosts a public meeting with Dr. Turner and Sister Veronica to answer questions and list possible symptoms of rabies. 

Joel Bagnall, newly returned from India, is in attendance with his father, who has recently had back surgery and is on crutches. Joel tries to help his dad at home, since his mother recently died, but Ernest resists. Proud of his son’s travels, he wants Joel to find work as a yoga and meditation instructor – but not many people are interested. Joel has started applying for factory jobs.

In the midst of all this, Christopher, May’s stepbrother, is receiving cancer treatment, having been brought to London by the Turners from Hong Kong for that very purpose. Shelagh is spending as much time at the hospital as she can, while Sister Veronica – craving a child of her own and able to speak Cantonese – is relieving her at night. The treatment seems to be effective, even if uncomfortable.

When a stray dog turns up near Nonnatus House, Fred ushers it into the shed to keep it away from people. The police arrive and inform everyone that the results are back: the first dog died of rat poison, not rabies. No one has to worry any more.

But Joel was scratched and bitten by a cat while in India, where rabies is much more widespread. He lets the disease get to the point where he begins to experience paralysis. 

He’s rushed to a hospital specializing in tropical diseases. Ernest sits with him as he experiences violent throes and takes the chance – it may be his last – to tell him he’s proud.

Rosalind is about to seek the approval of her parents, as they are going to visit her in Poplar for the first time – and meet Cyril. He obsessively cleans his apartment before they arrive, and they are courteous and polite throughout the meeting, even emphasizing their progressive bona fides at one point. But when Rosalind walks them back to the train alone, her father says that, while Cyril is charming and impressive, he’s not the man for Rosalind, since he’s in the middle of a divorce.

Rosalind accuses her parents of reacting against Cyril because he’s Black. They object that they have never mentioned his race, but Rosalind says she could tell as soon as they met Cyril. 

Cyril expected this reaction; he’s used to prejudice. Rosalind tells him that, if her parents can’t accept her relationship with him, then they will have a smaller place in her life. He cautions her not to cut her parents off, but she wants to be with Cyril. She asks to hold his hand even though they’re in public. She wants the world to know.