'Call the Midwife' Recap: Season 15 Episode 3

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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The Kovacs seem like a model couple. They fled Hungary together for London, and Laszlo now comes home from work at lunch every day to take Vera, who suffers from MS, for a walk. But there are signs that something is amiss. Vera has an untreated burn wound on her wrist, and she answers for the young woman who works in the house when Rosalind asks her name. 

The woman, who won’t make eye contact, is Vera’s cousin Agata Balassa, who also came from Hungary. When Rosalind goes to the kitchen for something while checking in on Vera, she finds Agata eating from the trash. 

Rosalind gives her a tea cake she is carrying with her, and Agata hides it in her apron. Rosalind also notices an infected burn on her arm, but Agata says she can’t go to the doctor: she’s not allowed to leave the house.

Rosalind wants to intervene on behalf of Agata, but Miss Higgins warns that doing so could cause more problems for Agata. Nevertheless, Rosalind waits until the Kovacs go on their midday walk, then sneaks into the house to dress Agata’s wound, which the young woman explains is from Vera throwing a boiling pot of water at her. Vera cannot have children, and wants Agata to have a child for her. Laszlo rapes Agata for this purpose, and Vera hits her when her period comes and signals that she is not pregnant. Agata cannot escape because the Kovacs took her passport and do not pay her, so she has no money.

Rosalind is understandably horrified, and goes to Cyril for help. He warns that anything the government can do will take time, and that the hostel for battered women is full. Nevertheless, Rosalind returns to the Kovacs house and passes the address of the hostel to Agata.

Like Rosalind, Joyce is also somewhat overstepping her bounds. She has been seconded to St. Cuthbert’s, which is shorthanded, for a week. The hospital cannot provide as much wraparound care as the Nonnatans, but Joyce still tries to personalize her care, despite the strict Sister Marcus who oversees the ward. 

Sister Marcus soon finds respect for Joyce, who, like her, is a Black woman determined to prove her worth. Both women arrive early everyday; Sister Marcus warns Joyce that she’ll have to work harder than everyone else if she wants to be a ward sister like Sister Marcus, as is Joyce’s aspiration. 

When Eileen Hudson is bleeding during her check-up, she is booked to stay at St. Cuthbert’s until she gives birth – and she will need a C-section. She’s alone in the world: she was brought up by her Aunt Moira, but they argued when she became pregnant and separated on bad terms. Now Eileen is fearful of giving birth, and her anxiety isn’t helping her high blood pressure. But Sister Marcus tells Joyce they don’t have time to help Eileen with her family problems.

Eileen’s C-section is moved up because of her high blood pressure. A baby girl is delivered, but Eileen cries when she awakes from anesthesia and her daughter is in a separate room. Joyce brings the girl to her and finds Eileen unconscious and bleeding. Eileen goes back into surgery and is saved, but she has a rare blood type and the hospital’s supply of it is low.

Joyce knows from Eileen that her aunt works at an adult club, and goes to find her there. Joyce tells Moira that Eileen is sick and Moira could help if she has the same blood type, as relatives often do. Moira doesn’t even have to see Eileen.

Of course, after Moira is found to be a match and donates blood, Joyce encourages her to visit her niece. Moira explains that she was upset with Eileen not for being a single mother but because she feared she was laying out a difficult life for herself. 

Joyce tells Eileen that Moira donated her blood, and then ushers in Moira, who is holding Eileen’s daughter. The two women apologize for their unkind words and reunite. 

Agata decides to sever ties and flee to the women’s hostel, which finds room for her knowing that she’s associated with Nonnatus House. They send for a midwife, but Rosalind is out, so Trixie arrives. She learns from Agata what has happened – and discovers that she is pregnant. 

Trixie then sits down with Rosalind, telling her that what she did was necessary, but that she should consult with more senior midwives before doing something so rash. 

Dr. Turner wants to go to the police on behalf of the malnourished Agata, but she objects: she doesn’t have legal papers to be in the UK. But Dr. Turner points out that Agata doesn’t have papers because the Kovacs took them. 

Unfortunately, the police are uninterested in the sexual abuse since it happened behind closed doors within a family. They will investigate the theft of Agata’s passport, however, and retrieve it from the Kovacs. Trixie then goes to their house to get Agata’s belongings, and refuses to tell the couple where she is. 

But her appearance draws the Kovacs to the maternity clinic, where Laszlo storms in to find Agata. He and Vera implore Agata to come back, and guess that she is pregnant, since she’s in the maternity clinic. Bolstered by the defiance of the midwives, Agata steels herself and tells the Kovacs to leave. 

The midwives burn the clothes Trixie retrieved for Agata because they smell of Laszlo, and give her some donated items. Agata does keep her bible, however: she hoped that she would be able to practice religion freely when she came to England, unlike in secular Communist Hungary, but she has yet to visit a church, since she wasn’t allowed to leave the house. 

Rosalind has just been confirmed and gifted a bible by Cyril, the one he brought with him from Guyana. She bonds with Agata over their equally well-traveled bibles and finds her nice clothes, then brings her to the chapel at Nonnatus House, where Sister Monica Joan greets her. 

The police charge the Kovacs with imprisonment of a person after all; they will likely go to jail. And Miss Higgins finds some Hungarian communities where Agata could move. It is her decision.