'Call the Midwife' Recap: Season 14 Holiday Special

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Instead of snow for Christmas, Poplar has received something nastier: the flu. Joyce and Rosalind have already had it and recovered, but it’s decimating the staff of St. Cuthbert’s hospital, so Sister Julienne sends Joyce there to ease the worker shortage.

The hospital has recently been sending new mothers home early because they need to turn over the beds – but they haven’t been informing Dr. Turner’s clinic. This means some new mothers aren’t receiving the daily midwife visits they should be getting, leading to infections and other issues.

One of those mothers is Alma, whose husband works at a fair that has come to the area for the holidays. She wanted to deliver at home in Kent, after the fair was over, but her labor starts while she’s still in Poplar. Joyce delivers her baby boy, whom Alma names Richard, then is surprised to learn that Alma has been dismissed from the hospital only a day or two later.

But there is so much else to take up attention. Teddy Turner is in the hospital recovering from an adenoidectomy, as is a young girl named Karen who has a hole in her heart. They’re both delighted to receive a visit from Santa, even if Teddy recognizes Fred underneath the fake beard. But Karen cries that night when she learns from her mother that her family has been evicted, so she won’t be returning to the home she knows.

Instead she, her siblings, her father, and her pregnant mother are crowded into one room with no electricity. When her father and then her mother are waylaid by the flu, Karen, as the oldest child, has to go buy food and candles for light. But money is short, so she sneaks into church to pilfer some candles there. Shelagh sees and goes home with Karen to check on her parents.

Karen’s father has worsened, contracting pneumonia, so Shelagh sends for an ambulance to take him to the hospital. She then calls Nonnatus House for help, as Karen’s mother is ready to deliver her baby.

Trixie is in Poplar for a short time after a holiday in Portofino from her time in New York City with her husband Matthew. She’s staying at Nonnatus, so she comes to help Shelagh deliver a new baby boy. While the family is happy to have their first son, they only have clothes for girls and little money to buy more. But they can apply for new housing, and Dr. Turner has found a new specialist doctor to look at Karen’s heart condition. Plus, serving them has recalled Trixie to her purpose. She is not working as a midwife in New York because of licensing, but Matthew’s business is going well, so she hopes to return to Poplar in a year or two and continue her calling.

For now, she has a bit longer in Poplar than expected – her flight to New York is cancelled, so she’ll be in London for Christmas.

That allows her to spend the holiday not just with the midwives but also her brother Geoffrey, who is house-sitting for her – or at least was, until the heat and hot water went out in the building. Now he’s bunking at Nonnatus, making himself useful by helping Sister Veronica can her preserves and organizing a holiday feast for those in the community who don’t have family or the means to host a dinner.

There are plenty of lonely people in Poplar with no one to look in on them. Dr. Turner notices flies buzzing around the door of an apartment while visiting a patient in a housing block and gets the superintendent to open it. Gertrude, the older woman who lived alone inside, is dead, felled by the flu; flies buzz around a ham left on the counter. She’s been dead for a few days, but no one noticed – although there is a wrapped gift in the home for someone.

The coroner forgets to take Gertrude’s dentures, so Nurse Crane returns to the apartment to grab them and decides to wash her clothes as well, so she can be as presentable as possible for her pauper’s funeral. Rosalind is upset by Gertrude’s ignominious end, and prays with Sister Monica Joan. The elder sister takes matters into her own hands and has Gertrude’s body brought to Nonnatus House’s chapel, to lie in repose under caring eyes and prayer until the funeral.

Meanwhile, the intended recipient of the gift found in Gertrude’s home is trying to find her. Gertrude’s son Jock has escaped from prison along with three other inmates, terrifying the country. Two are quickly captured, leading the escapee accompanying Jock to desperate measures: he wants to rob a sub-post office at gunpoint. He and Jock have already broken into stores like Violet’s for some food, but Jock is opposed to violence. Nevertheless, the robbery proceeds, and Jock’s accomplice is quickly captured while Jock, who was playing lookout, flees.

The police close off streets because of the attempted robbery, slowing Fred as he tries to pick up Reggie from a far-off bus station. Caroling at Nonnatus House already delayed Fred, so Reggie eventually decides to try to take a bus to Poplar on his own, carrying the roses he has grown as a gift for Violet but leaving his bag at the station. When Fred finally arrives there, he is terrified to find Reggie’s bag but not Reggie.

Reggie ends up lost, miles away. He finds an ajar storage unit and spends the night there, while Poplar organizes a search party. While looking for Reggie, Joyce sees Alma’s husband at the fair and learns that Alma and her newborn are still there, not in Kent in a comfortable home as Joyce thought. Due to Joyce’s concern, Sister Julienne visits Alma and her family the next day – and finds that baby Richard is ill, so badly that he could have brain damage, if he doesn’t die. He’s rushed to the hospital and saved, but the effects of the illness remain to be seen. Alma pledges to support him, unlike her own mother, who abandoned her without a name when she was born because she was half-Chinese.

Rosalind also runs into someone while searching for Reggie: the fugitive Jock. He had picked the lock to his mother’s apartment after the failed robbery and was shocked to find it empty. While desperately trying to cut some food for himself with a knife, he was overheard by neighbors, who called the superintendent to check on the apartment. Jock accidentally cut himself deeply when the superintendent appeared, and fled. Rosalind notices his bloody hand as he runs past her, and follows him to help.

She finds him in an abandoned building, and recognizes the gift he has with him as the one from Gertrude’s apartment. She breaks the news to him that his mother is dead, and treats his wound – but he refuses to go to a hospital.

Meanwhile, Cyril notices Rosalind’s bicycle and finds her and Jock together. He sees Jock’s prison shirt and restrains him. Jock agrees to be arrested, but asks to open the present from his mother first. It’s a necktie, which moves him: his mother never gave up on him – although he told her he was in the merchant marine, so she didn’t know he was in prison.

An alert is sent out about Reggie, and the next morning a woman – who has her own daughter with Down syndrome – spots him in a park. He’s soon safe in Poplar.

Another welcome visitor arrives: Miss Higgins’ newly discovered grandson Harry. But there are other unwelcome guests – the flu brings Dr. Turner down. And his children accidentally mail off his car keys while collecting scrap metal for a fundraiser, forcing him to bike around to appointments when he recovers.

Dr. Turner’s surgery has been a hectic place. When an Irish medical salesman named Roger Noble visits while Nancy is manning the desk for Miss Higgins, Nancy feels an immediate attraction and makes an appointment for him the next day. But when he returns, Miss Higgins demands that he wait while children vomit around him and Sister Veronica delivers a baby to a woman who nearly dies from blood loss. Throughout, Nancy and Roger lightly flirt. But when he asks her out, she disappointedly tells him the holidays are a busy time.

So he attends caroling at Nonnatus House the next day. Nancy decides to join him on a date, and they go to the fair. They enjoy a wonderful time and kiss – and then he trips and sprains his ankle. She accompanies him to the hospital.

He visits Nonnatus again with flowers for Nancy. Colette answers the door and calls for her mother – but Nancy hasn’t told Roger she has a daughter. Worried about what he’ll think, Nancy flees – but Roger is persistent. He tells her he loves her, and asks to be introduced to Colette so that he can take her and Nancy out together. She agrees. He joins them and everyone else at the festive community holiday dinner at Nonnatus House.

Jock of course cannot attend, as he is once more behind bars. But thanks to Cyril, his one wish – that he visit his mother on Christmas – is essentially fulfilled. He is allowed to attend Gertrude’s funeral at Nonnatus House under guard, wearing the necktie Gertrude bought him for Christmas. He thanks the nuns and midwives for their care for his mother and tells them he’ll remember the day for the rest of his life.