Loveday Writing

When Grace leaves to go to work, she calls Kirk along the way, asking him if he knows Jeremy. Kirk tells her that Jeremy and Sophia have known each other since they were toddlers, and he is in disbelief over him being Eady’s father. While Kirk’s disbelief transitions into anger, Grace calms him down by pointing out the fact that they’ve already had sex and a baby, and to give them space and see what happens. Kirk decides to come up and visit them anyway.

When Grace gets to work she finds a client, Melitta, sitting on the Centre’s front steps. She is in labour but is avoiding going in as she will be hooked up to machines as she is diabetic, and is also waiting for her partner, Ferra, to arrive. She leaves Melitta to sit on the steps as she gets her some refreshments. When Grace walks into the Centre, she comes face-to-face with another client, Emily, who is due to give birth after experiencing a stillbirth 18 months earlier. As Grace was her midwife back then, she assigns Max to be her midwife with her second birth.

The arrival of Emily at the Centre leads to Grace not only torturing herself about Emily’s stillbirth but also reliving the grief of her own. While Max becomes invested in Emily’s impending birth, helping her through anxiety attacks, and staying with her while she sleeps and her estranged husband, who was unaware of the pregnancy, arrives. He is also there for her as her midwife when she gives birth to a healthy baby. While Jim is doing some minor repair work at the house on the request of a prospective buyer, he and Grace address their grief of losing Henry, and the lemon tree they buried in their backyard in his memory.

Meanwhile, Melitta eventually goes into the Centre once Ferra arrives, following a hilarious scene involving an over-the-top public display of affection between them, as well as Ferra encouraging Grace and Sasha to say things to Melitta to turn her on, as it is apparently helping her with the labour pain. Melitta goes on to have a healthy baby.

Meanwhile Sophia and Jeremy spend quality time with Eady, with Sophia revealing her adoption plans for Eady. Jeremy tells her that she can keep Eady and that they can parent her together, but Sophia says no, that she wants Eady to go to a good home. However when Sophia takes a nap, Jeremy takes Eady to meet his parents, which causes Sophia to panic and call Grace and Kirk for help. After visiting Jeremy’s cousin, Dale, who he was apparently staying with, Sophia, Grace and Kirk meet with Jeremy and his parents at the hotel where they are staying. Sophia scolds Jeremy, and Kirk and Grace awkwardly interact with Jeremy’s parents and exchange phone numbers with them.

On smaller notes, we got some comedic moments with Grace and Laney going out one night, with Laney aggressively flirting with a man (whom she eventually hooked up with at the end of the night), while his friend/wingman and Grace watch on. Another comedic highlight was Grace catching Diane and Dr. Sebastian kissing outside a nearby restaurant while she is waiting for an Uber, and playfully teasing her about it the next day. We also had a touching moment when Jonah comes to see Max at the Centre, after breaking his arm skateboarding, telling Max that he wants to live with him.

The episode ends with Grace, Kirk and Sophia at Grace’s house and Sophia receiving a text from Jeremy telling her that he wants custody of Eady.

Overall I felt that this was a solid episode. With the Max-Emily subplot the series again addresses a darker, heartbreaking and tragic aspect of pregnancy, birth and motherhood – stillbirth – with sensitivity and realism. We also see progression with the Sophia story arc – as the previous episode had Grace and Kirk finally respecting Sophia’s decision to put Eady up for adoption, another spanner had to be thrown in the works. Jeremy’s desire for custody is consistent with his behaviour throughout the episode when he told Sophia she could keep Eady and that they could parent her together, and his tenderness towards Eady.

I’m looking forwarding to see where the impending custody battle goes, especially now that we are past the halfway point of the season.

Stray Observations:

-There was a Love Child reunion of sorts between Sophie Bloom (Emily) and Ben O’Toole (Max), who played Viv and Pete in Love Child respectively.

-Kirk remarks that Jeremy punched above his weight with Sophia.

-Max was regarded as a “good luck charm” when he was deployed in Syria as he was tasked with looking after two badly wounded soldiers who weren’t expected to live, but went on to make a full recovery.

-Dr. Sebastian’s first name is Omar.

-Laney has a “party monster” mode.

-Apparently Max texted Sasha about an upcoming ‘sex talk’ between her, Grace and Laney, to talk about Laney’s hookup.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Ah, your cervix is so ripe.” (Grace to Melitta when Ferra asks her and Sasha to tell Melitta things that turn her on)
• “You’ll concentrate on being nice to me and doing exactly what I say.” (Melitta to Ferra)
• “Is he the penis father of the baby?” (Jim to Grace on Jeremy)
• “That was the weirdest flirting I’ve ever seen.” (Grace to Laney on her argumentative flirting with a man they met when they went out the night before)
• “My relationship skills are listening, fixing cars, I’m a great cook…I don’t mind furniture shopping actually.” (Max to Grace)
• “If I had any news, do you think I would be desperate for yours?” (Sasha to Laney when Laney asks her if she has any ‘news’ on the hook-up front)
• “I’m about to do a day of home visits, I don’t need sexual energy.” (Sasha to Grace on Laney giving them some of her ‘sexual energy’)