‘Call the Midwife’ season 5, episode 3 review: Sister Winifred’s moral crossroads

The fifth season of “Call the Midwife” has certainly raised quite a few moral questions throughout the first three episodes of season 5, but few packed the emotional punch that we saw during Sunday night’s installment.

While this is a world where characters are starting to change and evolve, perception can at times can still be stuck in the past. For a prime example of this very thing, we turn to the tale of Sister Winifred and Ms. Dorothy Whitmore, a teacher who became pregnant after an affair with a married man. She lost her job, was verbally abused, and Sister Winifred started to treat her differently after finding out the entirety of her story.

However, all of that changed when Whitmore was hospitalized and suspected of trying to have an abortion. The police were involved, and this helped Winifred to realize that she needed to be a friend to this woman without judgment. We very much appreciate the show’s perception on following religious values and carrying them into the present; while there may be a code of the proper way to live one’s life, there is also room for compassion. Unfortunately, there was also a somewhat-shocking twist at the end, where Winifred was forced to take over the job occupied by Ms. Whitmore previously.

Elsewhere in this episode, typhoid started to rage through Poplar to the surprise of everyone, while Barbara started to grow closer to Tom. She agreed to go out to dinner with him, but declined to make it clear to Trixie in the process. Given that they’re not together anymore, it is not an enormous betrayal by any means … but it’s probably still something they should have discussed further ahead of time. Episode Grade: B.

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