'Call the Midwife' Recap: Season 15 Episode 4

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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In the midst of her second pregnancy, Pam has separated from Kenny, with plans to move to Stevenage, where her sister lives. Her mother is helping out with her daughter Lisa, and tells Pam that she will at least inform Kenny that Pam is in labor, even if Pam doesn’t want him present at the birth.

Kenny arrives at the maternity clinic with a large teddy bear and a bouquet but Nurse Crane turns him away, per Pam’s wishes. He hands over the bear and later stomps on the flowers.

Pam’s newborn son Colin has an infection around his eyes, so Dr. Turner sends off a swab for testing.

The next morning, Colin has gone missing from the maternity home, even though Sister Catherine was there overnight; she blames herself. The police find the back door forced, seemingly after Miss Higgins arrived in the morning and unlocked one of its two locks. The police suspect a mother who lost a child is responsible. 

Colin’s test comes back and shows he has chicken pox; Pam must have it but not yet be showing symptoms. It needs immediate treatment in Colin, or it could result in blindness. 

Pam’s mother arrives at the maternity home, saying Kenny picked up Lisa that morning, just as Pam arranged. But Pam hasn’t spoken to Kenny. He must have taken Colin, too. 

Indeed, his apartment is empty when the police break in. There’s a receipt for some baby products on the table. Back at home with her mom, now suffering from chicken pox, Pam receives a postcard from Kenny that simply says, “Enjoy your fresh start.” 

Cyril is about to have a fresh start: his divorce from Lucille is nearly finalized. He can now begin to think about the future, he tells Rosalind, before inviting her to join him in York for a weekend away while he’s there for a conference.

She’s delighted, and goes to a clinic for birth control. But then she learns Cyril booked two rooms for them. She tells him with frustration that his invite following the end of his divorce carried implications, and she wants them very much, even if he didn’t want to assume. They kiss.

Ed Robbins is also entering a new phase, having retired from his work in the parks. His wife Molly still works in the cafeteria at a school, but she has been having back pains and incontinence. Despite Ed’s urging, she has resisted seeing a doctor because she’s embarrassed. 

The pain grows too great for her to overlook, so Dr. Turner makes a house call. He feels a lump and sends her to the hospital – where Joyce is still seconded – for x-rays. They quickly book her into surgery to remove it, cautioning that they don’t yet know what it is, even as Molly assumes cancer.

The surgery reveals something extremely rare: a lithopedion. It’s a nonviable fetus that developed outside the uterus but grew too big and survived too long to be absorbed back inside the body, which then calcified it for its own safety. Molly must have carried it for decades.

She always wanted children, but never even had a miscarriage, so the news is upsetting to her. It gets even worse when she overhears a doctor ask to show the “monster” to students. Joyce quickly assures her that “monster” is an outdated medical term they should not be using, but Molly is still upset. 

Sister Veronica visits her and Ed at their home after Molly is discharged. They ask her what happened to the lithopedion. She finds out that it is in the archive of a medical school. She warns them that viewing it is not advised, but they still want to, so she arranges a visit. 

“It don’t look like a monster to me,” Molly says when she sees it, and Ed agrees.

Kenny has taken his children to a cabin in a forest, keeping newborn Colin in a cardboard box lined with blankets and telling Lisa that they’re playing a game where they’re hiding from her mom. He calls Pam’s house, where Pam’s mom answers and quickly puts on Sister Catherine, who is there caring for Pam’s chicken pox. Sister Catherine tells Kenny that Colin has chicken pox, too, but Kenny hangs up.

He does decide to let Lisa go home, leaving her on a bench and watching until a kindly woman finds her. She breaks out in chicken pox as well, and Sister Catherine again appeals to Kenny via a radio journalist to return Colin so he can be treated. 

Starting to understand that he should be worried, Kenny calls Nonnatus House and asks for Sister Catherine. She tells him he needs to bring Colin to the hospital, but Kenny doesn’t want to give him up, because he loves him and will lose him if he does. 

A man’s dog runs up to Kenny while he’s holding Colin in their hideout in the woods, and the man recognizes Kenny from the news and reports the sighting to the authorities. But Kenny has set off, abandoning his car, to return to Poplar with Colin. He calls Pam from a phone box down the street from her house. Sister Catherine once again takes over to try to offer medical advice. When she hears an ice cream truck pass through the phone and then Pam’s house moments later, she and a policeman rush down the street to find Kenny and Colin. 

The infant responds to antibiotics in the hospital. He will survive, although it’s still too early to say if his eyesight will be affected.

When Kenny shows up outside Pam’s house despite a restraining order, she goes to him. He says he didn’t want to lose his children and then things spiraled out of control. She tells him she won’t stop him from seeing them, but only with her and a social worker present.

Meanwhile, doctors have paused Christopher’s chemotherapy. The boy is refusing to eat and is weakened both psychologically and physically. The Turners worry that being in a foreign country isn’t helping. Sister Julienne calls Sister Hilda in Hong Kong and learns that Christopher’s (and May’s) mother Esther has found steady work and lodging and that her new baby is thriving. Furthermore, Christopher’s gangster dad has been arrested and is on trial, which means it might be safe to send Christopher back to Hong Kong during the break in chemotherapy.

Or longer. Dr. Turner learns that the chemotherapy medicine is portable and could be administered in Hong Kong – so Christopher wouldn’t have to return to England. When his father is convicted and sentenced to prison, the Turners sadly agree to send Christopher to Hong Kong permanently. They ask Sister Veronica, who has a special bond with the boy since she speaks his language and knows his culture – she even made him congee – to escort him, to her delight. 

Christopher’s half-sister May promises to visit him in Hong Kong when she’s older, and then Sister Veronica and Christopher set off for his home.