Everyone is still a little all over the place this season, right? A little scattered. We need some more cohesion. That being said, I crave mundanity and people in quaint towns running small errands while wearing sweater vests, so all remains right with the All Creatures world.
James’s parents (“the Scottish contingent”) are visiting and Helen is flustered. Everything has to be prepped. This means flowers, cake, general cleaning, and presumably other hosting-related things. Jimmy is going to be christened, and, as a godparent, Siegfried has composed a speech for the event. James is less than thrilled about this, as he suspects the speech will not be of short duration. He is likely correct. When James asks Siegfried how long the speech will last, he replies, “This is the beginning of Jimmy’s spiritual journey, James.”
However, Siegfried is having a day, which begins with his carburetor not working properly. I take the show’s word for that. They show us something that I very confidently thought of as the fan belt, but also, I do not know what a fan belt is or does. Or I didn’t until I looked it up and learned that fan belts do not seem to exist anymore. What a wild ride. Anyway, Siegfried’s car is working sporadically, so he is grumpy. Then Maggie the Barmaid gives him a mystery package for Mrs. Hall, and Mrs. Hall won’t tell him what it is. We never find out! Will we find out next week? What was Maggie delivering! I honestly assumed it was tampons or something (which existed then!), but maybe it’s something less pedestrian, like a cursed amulet that Mrs. Hall can bestow on her enemy.
Okay, so we have the sporadically working car and the mystery package Siegfried cannot uncover, and then Mr. Biggins calls about his goat. Mr. Biggins’s farm has seven gates, and Siegfried is mad at all of them. To be fair, they look terrible to deal with. Mr. Biggins is upset because his goat is still sick after Siegfried treated it. When Siegfried asks if Biggins has been giving the goat its medicine, Biggins is adamant that he has. Oh really, Biggins? Biggins is also adamant that Siegfried is trying to charge him for everything, and he just needs to give the goat iodine. Then why did you call a vet, sir? I’m mad at Biggins, and I don’t even have to deal with his dumb gates.
So then we pause Siegfried’s woes and return to James, Helen, Mrs. Hall, and Mr. and Mrs. Herriot. And Jimmy, of course. Mrs. Herriot says things to Jimmy, such as, “Does your mom not feed you?” I do not know how Helen maintains her composure. Also, I know this was parenting for literally all of human history, but I cannot imagine doing it without the vast resources of the internet. How do you cope if it’s 2 a.m. and you can’t search “why red baby cheeks” because the internet doesn’t exist yet? (There are so many reasons why they could be red.) The Herriots stay until evening and plan to be over again in the morning before the service. Helen looks very ready for the visit to be over. Understandable, ma’am.
Siegfried returns from Biggins’s, and the last part of his very bad day is when Mrs. Hall hands him a telegram. It’s news about Tristan. He opens it alone in his study, surely ready for terrible news, but it turns out Tristan is coming home tomorrow. How long has he been gone?! Definitely long enough for me to forget that I find him annoying, but don’t worry, that resurfaces very quickly.
The telegram provides no actual details, but Mrs. Hall figures out what train he’ll be on by using deduction. Siegfried is very worried that Tristan has been thrown out of the army or is maimed or something horrible has happened. He tells Mrs. Hall that he’ll never offer Tristan a crossword again if he comes home in one piece. No one believes you, Siegfried, but it’s a nice sentiment. He gets in his car to drive to the station, and it, of course, won’t start. Then it starts, but it just putters down the road. Siegfried finally arrives as the train is departing again, and we see a man in a uniform with a mustache. A mustache!! I do not know about this, Tristan. But also welcome home.
Tristan’s been gone eighteen months, apparently, and now he knows how to fix a carburetor. Siegfried is surprised by his newfound skills and generally adult manner. Tristan is home because he’s been reassigned to Doncaster to train recruits. I’m unclear on whether this means we’ll be seeing him regularly or not. I think I can handle Tristan in maybe one out of every three episodes. More if he had actually changed, but … well, let’s hold on and talk about the christening.
So Jimmy gets christened in a teeny tiny stone church. Mrs. Hall is the godmother, so we get to see Mrs. Hall and Siegfried standing up as the godparents, which is clearly The Best. The whole baptism ceremony is very comforting in its familiarity to me, but I have no idea what it seems like when this is not your experience. Possibly weird? Why are you putting drips of water on this baby and making it cry? (Because of God.) The whole thing is over very quickly, and they head back to Skeldale; only Tristan pulls James and Siegfried away from the group (also known as the women he expects to get everything ready at home) so they can grab a drink at the pub. TRISTAN. BOOOO. Jenny goes with them because she rebels in small ways, which is fine. Live your dreams, Jenny.
Tristan tells Siegfried he forgot his wallet, so Siegfried has to pay for everyone’s drinks. Booooooo, Tristan. Siegfried is so irritated that he willingly goes over to Mr. Biggins to ask about his goat. Mr. Biggins proceeds to shout about how Siegfried is just taking his money and not curing his goat. So now Siegfried, Tristan, and Mr. Biggins are going to look at the goat again. No one tells the group at the house who is preparing lunch. When they get to Biggins’s farm, Tristan discovers that Biggins has not even opened the medicine that Siegfried prescribed, which they winkle out of him in a fun little way. So now the goat will be cured.
There’s a plot involving a dog and its toy, and it bonds Helen and Mrs. Herriot through the sheer fact of them both being mothers (sure), but I’m so sorry, Helen is boring and only alleviated by those around her. This plot was unnecessary to the story when enough people were breaking off to have their own small adventures. But here we are; Helen can now have her in-laws visit without intense anxiety. Mrs. Herriot says she’s doing a wonderful job. The Herriots leave, and Siegfried reads an abridged version of his godfather speech to Tristan (it involves emperor penguins). Siegfried and Tristan are back to bickering, and the sight of this is comforting to James, Helen, and Mrs. Hall as things are getting back to normal at the practice.
But I have remaining questions: Where will Richard sleep when he returns from his exams? What was in the mystery package? And does the nanny goat have a name? I am somewhat despairing of the last one being answered. Knowing Biggins, he probably named her “goat.”
