So last night I watched the dreaded episode 7×07 for Call the Midwife, which had aired this past Sunday evening in the US.

I am grateful to my mother who spoiled me about what happened, so it didn’t hit me *entirely* out of the blue, but even so…I was ugly sobbing when “the incident” happened, and am still feeling very rough about the whole thing today and most likely will be for a while.

For anyone who cares to continue reading, I will put the rest of this rant under the cut, which will also contain spoilers:

*sigh* Call the Midwife, what happened? 

What happened to you?

When other beloved British TV shows went for the emotional jugular for the sake of *~*~*drama*~*~*, you somehow seemed to rise above it.  Sure, you had lots of tear-filled moments, it was rare when I didn’t find myself dabbing at my eyes a little bit with each episode, whether that was through heartbreak or happiness, but…something about this past Sunday’s episode just felt very…cheap.

A “gotcha!” moment, done for the purposes to shock audiences.  That felt really cheap to me; below you, CtM.

Now I know, I know, defenders for what you did will say things like “well what do you expect the show to do? The actress wanted out, she was leaving, blah, blah, blah…” Oh how often that excuse is used when major character deaths take place, an instant defense call when fans react badly to what was done.

For those still in the dark, let me explain:

In episode 7×07, the character of Barbara dies from meningitis and septicemia.  Barbara came to the show in season 4, began courting local curate Tom, who proposed marriage to her while in South Africa with a blade of grass tied into a bow to make a ring, married Tom in the S6 finale, left with him for Birmingham in S6 Christmas special, only to return two whole episodes ago at the end of 7×05, announcing to everyone that they were here to stay in Poplar…and then THIS SHIT happened.

So why does this death bother me so much?  On a show when death is a common occurrence in terms of what patients go through, be it losing spouses, babies, in-laws, parents, friends, etc., as I mentioned before, Barbara’s death just felt…cheap.

Ugh, and the CLICHE! It was like going through Sybil’s death all over again.  Barbara is taken to the hospital, things look dire, she might lose her fingers and can never work as a midwife ever again, BUT THEN…the infection seems to be backing off, she’s waking up, she’s responding to others, Tom and Phyllis are allowed to sit beside her, others are allowed to enter for short periods of time, THINGS ARE LOOKING UP!

…But like I said, I’ve been hurt by TV before, and yes, wouldn’t you know it, just when things seemed to be looking better, suddenly everything takes a turn for the worse, and Tom and Phyllis are at Barbara’s side when she slips away.

What follows is probably the most heartbreaking scene–Phyllis takes Tom back to Nonnatus House and everyone is there, ready to offer their sympathy and share in their grief, while Phyllis quietly slips out the back and cries by herself on the doorsteps. It’s extremely heartbreaking, but also beautiful in it’s own way, so I’ll give you that, CtM.

But…really?  Death was the ONLY answer?

Yeah, yeah, death happens all the time, yeah, yeah, death is a part of life and this is realistic, blah, blah, blah.

But was that why you really did this?  Or was there a tiny part of you that wanted to do something “shocking”?  I think it was the latter, and I think you knew that nothing would shock audiences more than killing off young, sweet Barbara, who had just married, who had yet to start a family with her husband, who had JUST RETURNED after the two of them left, and…now what?  What will Tom do now?  Is he going to fall away from the Church?  Lose his faith in God?  Become an alcoholic as a means to deal with his grief?  Oh goody, self-destructive behavior as a grieving mechanism. Yeah, I know, it’s realistic and happens A LOT, but right now I’m questioning your sensitivity to the subject, CtM.  I don’t think I would have questioned it before until this episode, but I’m side-eyeing you a lot right now.

You’ve yet to answer the questions about other characters–Chummy and Peter are absent (Chummy even longer), Patsy and Delia have been MIA for a long time, not to mention Sister Mary Cynthia–why are these characters allowed to just go off for the unseen future but not Barbara?  They have their reasons, of course, and *maybe* we’ll see some of them again (I hope so!) but I highly doubt we’ll ever see Chummy, Peter, or even Jenny again.  Yet they didn’t have to bow out tragically, and quite frankly, you had the perfect reason for Barbara to leave, by her going off with Tom to Birmingham.  And if the actor wanted back but the actress didn’t? Well, I’m sure your writers could come up with some clever reason, the same way they did with Peter’s character.

It’s not like you’ve NEVER done this before, CtM!

I’d expect this kind of shit pulled from someone like Julian Fellowes, but I really, really expected more from you. And quite frankly, I’ve lost a lot of respect for you right now.  Not that you care, I’m sure.  Ok, I’m done.