Line #3 Headscratchers/CallTheMidwife


1	* In the first episode of the series, Jenny comes back from delivering a premature baby, and goes to listen to the nuns doing their late night songs. We see 8 nuns lined up (4 on each side, facing each other). We know four are Sisters Julienne, Bernadette, Monica Joan, and Evangelina, but who are the other 4? Are they also practising nurses and midwives? If so, why do we never see them out on the rounds, or at the dinner table? It's a running theme later on that they don't have enough hands for the work they have, and get new nurses sent to them, but these nuns never appear in the main stories.
2	** Sister Julienne refers to them in passing as "choir sisters", though their exact function is never explained. Though the Order (in real life the Order of St John the Divine) is named after the patron saint of childbirth, it's never clarified whether all sisters of the Order are trained nurse/midwives, or what they do if they're not so trained.
3	** Entirely possible on both accounts. Or they might even be from a different order, sharing a space. This troper's aunt is a religious Sister and one half of the building where she lived in Rome, Italy is the space for one order and the other half of the building is for the other. They don't tend to interact in their daily lives but do come together for holidays and church service.
4	* In the season seven finale, Phyllis notes how it's been a year since Barbara and Tom were married. In the same episode as the wedding, Sheilagh gave birth to Teddy. The season seven finale has them celebrating Angela's birthday - oughtn't it to be Teddy's? Granted, it's not impossible by any stretch of the imagination that Angela's and Teddy's birthday are very close to each other, but it seems an odd choice not to have it be Teddy's birthday they're celebrating. As if the writers already forgot that his birth was the day before Barbara's and Tom's wedding.
5	** I mean if we assume that each season is a year, we know that Angela's birthday is that time of year too- she was adopted in the S3 finale. So it just seems like Angela and Teddy have birthdays close together.
6	* How realistic is it that Cynthia's religious name would simply be Mary Cynthia? I'm asking as someone who knows next to nothing about Anglican nuns and the rules that they abide by. I presume they gave her the name Mary Cynthia so as to not confuse to viewing audience too much, but would she have been permitted to choose that name in real life? Isn't the point of choosing a new name when joining the order that you should set aside your old person and assume a new identity - meaning casting aside your previous name?
7	** Probably not all that realistic, honestly. The point of taking a religious name is to set aside your secular life along with your secular name. I think we can probably chalk this one up to ArtisticLicense -- it makes sense in the context of the show but wouldn't happen in real life.
8	** This is one of these cases where RealityIsUnrealistic applies, during the 1960s and 70s the various holy orders in the UK, Anglican and Catholic alike, were going through a period of modernisation. The more traditional aspects of taking on a new name were being modified and individuals given much more of a say in it, including keeping more ties to their former lives. She wouldn't have been allowed Cynthia-Mary, but Mary-Cynthia would be acceptable as it puts the Order aspect of it ahead of her old name and is the primary part of her new name. There is an old comedy movie from the 80s called ''Film/NunsOnTheRun'' which uses that as a joke, when the characters masquerading as nuns use typical old fashioned religious names, and are told by one of the real nuns that they didn't think any order still used those anymore.
9	* In the third episode of season five Sister Winifred's plotline deals with Ms. Whitmore, an unmarried woman who became pregnant through an affair with a married man. Ms. Whitmore attempts to abort the baby and ends up in the hospital. When Sgt. Noakes informs Sister Winifred about the attempted abortion she asks if Ms. Whitmore succeeded and Noakes answers no. He then adds that she miscarried the baby later that day. Wouldn't that mean that she ''did'' succeed?
10	** It's maybe a question of semantics and medical terminology. If, when the remains of the fetus were examined, there was clear damage caused by a self-administered abortion, you could argue that the abortion succeeded. It's stated that she'd done a lot of damage to her uterus however, so it's entirely possible she miscarried as a result of the damage and trauma to her uterus, not to the fetus itself.
11	* Why on earth was Phyllis so surprised/upset that Shelagh chose Sister Julienne to deliver her baby? Even if we believe that she knows nothing at all of Shelagh's history with the Order, Phyllis is generally quite an observant person -- was she honestly clueless as to how close Shelagh and Julienne are and how deep their history goes? It seems like the only surprising part of that choice should have been that anyone aside from Julienne was surprised by it!
12	** Phyllis by that point was desperate for a friend, someone who was close to her. Notice how, when Barbara was getting married, she was surprised, but delighted, when Barbara chose her as her Maid of Honour, and initially couldn't wrap her head around the fact that Barbara wanted her to be there because she didn't consider herself Barbara's friend, let alone a close friend. So, before, when Phyllis was upset that Shelagh chose Sister Julienne to deliver her baby, it's a combination of feeling out of place, wanting to get a friend, and perhaps a little bit of naive thinking.
13	* How is Mature Jenny (as she is credited) still narrating the show, given that she hasn't lived or worked at Nonnatus House since season 3, and presumably hasn't even met many of the newer characters?
14	** Perhaps Trixie and Sister Julienne still write to Jenny, letting her know of things that have happened in Nonnatus House and in Poplar in general.

Context Headscratchers / CallTheMidwife