The Real Midwives Of Poplar

Now that the first episode of Call The Midwife's third season has dealt with the emancipation of Chummy -- making her its top priority, as it should since she's the best, I guess it's okay that it's sidelined her a bit in Episode 2. And, of course, it couldn't have her front and center for a plotline that requires Nonnatus House midwives to scrap with each other, because Chummy is too kind and empathetic ever to fight with anyone (except her snooty mother, maybe); instead, the dispute arises between her colleagues Jenny and Trixie, and lets the show maintain its lead as one of TV's most sneakily feminist shows.

"Even for an episode where ladies are fighting with each other?" Yes. Because they're not fighting about a man or a curling iron or...okay, there is a point where they fight over a scarf, but that's kind of beside the point. The issue is that Sister Julienne has decided that, now that the Princess's visit has brought so many new mothers to the weekly clinic, there should be an Acting Sister supervising the proceedings. As she's announcing her decision to Jenny, Trixie, and Cynthia (Chummy's not present since she's only part-time), Sister Julienne starts by nothing that Trixie is the most senior nurse at Nonnatus. Trixie -- quite reasonably -- assumes she's about to say that the job is going to her and accepts...but then gets told that she's needed to provide "a reassuring presence to the wider community"; the promotion's going to Jenny.

In keeping with this season's exploration of the limits on female power in 1959 Britain, none of the nurse/midwives at Nonnatus House probably has much expectation of having much of a career or advancing very far from where they currently find themselves. Indeed, all four of them may have gotten into women's medicine to pass the time while they waited to get married and retire from paid work, pretty much; even Chummy, the adventuress, gave up her vocation after giving birth. But seeing her come back and manage to have both a family and a career may have changed Trixie's feelings about her work. This is the only opportunity for moving up any kind of ladder; hell, until the three nurses sit down in front of Sister Julienne's desk, they probably didn't even know there could be a ladder. And since Jenny, with her steady boyfriend, seems closer to opting out of work, her getting the nod over Trixie and her seniority seems especially unjust.

Then there's the fact that as soon as Jenny gets the promotion, she starts being kind of shitty about it. She puts on the fancier nurse's hat (I guess the eyelet tails are what indicate her elevated status?) and moves one of the chairs Trixie set up by a persnickety micron, just because. She assigns Trixie to necessary but unglamorous scut work. Even so, Trixie manages to shake it off, draping a smart scarf around Jenny's neck so that she can dress up her uniform before they leave for a talk by a doctor and author on childbirth...but when Jenny apologetically blows them off to go for a celebratory drink with Alec, Trixie switches to icing her out. Even when Jenny tries to open up about her complicated patient, Doris, and the baby she's about to have that was fathered by a man other than her husband who by the way is also not white, leaving her no apparent option but to place the baby for adoption, Trixie brushes off Jenny's attempts to make Trixie ask her about her crazy day; Jenny notes the deep freeze, but elects not to introduce the subject herself, I guess because they're British and she couldn't possibly make such a spectacle of her feelings in public (public in this case being the tiny bedroom the two share).

When Trixie finds out what Jenny's been dealing with -- and without a confidante -- she's even madder that Jenny didn't tell Trixie what had been going on and let her shoulder some of the burden, because that's what their relationship is really about. Distinction between their stations is less important than their working together to provide the best possible care to the mothers and babies they're charged to support. Even though Trixie might have doubted, at first, that Jenny could do as good a job assisting Doris as Trixie would have had she caught the case, Jenny's fine work on Doris's behalf raised Trixie's opinion of Jenny, just as Trixie's disappointment and hurt at not being permitted to give care to Jenny, Doris's caregiver, let Jenny know how true a friend Trixie actually is to her. And in the end, Jenny learns to be less of a micromanager and leave the damn chairs where they are, so everyone wins, and Call The Midwife reminds us that BFF-terhood really is powerful.

(But yeesh, poor Doris. Good luck with your handful, lady.)