Call the Midwife season 13, episode 4 spoilers follow.
Call the Midwife's golden boy Matthew Aylward (Olly Rix) has done the unthinkable: He's fallen out of favour with fans — and quite rightly so.
His bordering-on-chauvinistic behaviour in the latest episode of season 13 might be fitting for the '60s era, but it certainly didn't fit with the character fans have come to love over the years.
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Still, many of us (yes, Digital Spy included) turned up our noses at his demanding, childish behaviour.
His request that Trixie (Helen George) abandon her labouring mother mid-shift to tend to a tantruming Jonty and soothe Matthew's own headache while he worked was irksome enough. But when he questioned whether Trixie was a 'wife or a midwife', we had to question whether it was Jonty or Matthew who was really going through the terrible twos.
Needless to say, fans were livid, and so they took to Twitter/X to call out the show for its derailment of the character.
"This is not the Matthew we know," said one fan. "The Matthew that doesn't accept Trixie's passion for being a midwife. Do better..."
"What are you doing to Matthew?" posted another. "Why change his character? He was always accepting and proud of Trixie being a midwife. After years of Trixie not being happy, you marry her off and after three or so episodes, you start an uncharacteristic drama between them."
Another also noted the complete 180 in Matthew's nature, stating: "Why has he suddenly turned into a 1950s husband? This was the man who in a previous episode was happy to wash OAPs' private parts. It does not make sense to me."
Twitter/X is a wormhole of commentary speaking out against Matthew's bizarre behaviour — and to a degree, the fans are right. In isolation, his actions don't make sense.
One fan speculated that this could be the show's way of preparing to kill the character off, but there is a more plausible explanation that doesn't exactly redeem him, yet makes his character salvageable: What if this isn't the real Matthew?
We're not suggesting that Call the Midwife has gone down the face-swapping sci-fi route. We merely mean that the pressures of his new circumstances are causing him to act in uncharacteristic ways he will later regret.
While it would be easy to pin Matthew's outburst on his and Trixie's newlywed status and chalk things up to their learning to adjust to the merging of each other's worlds, this is likely only part of the problem.
Those with a more inquisitive eye will have noted that Matthew has been sporting a rather sombre-looking expression on his face all season, and perhaps his most recent outburst holds the answers as to why.
The first time his temper reared its ugly head in this episode was when Jonty was bawling.
Between grimacing and baulking at nanny to "come and look after this child", Matthew appeared distressed as he thumbed through work papers.
He later revealed to Trixie — during that damning phone call — that the business wasn't going to plan.
We all know how that conversation went, and we are firmly on Trixie's side. However, despite his tone and manner, we give a smidgen of grace to Matthew, who, quite possibly, has been burying his stresses for longer than this episode would suggest.
When, in episode three, Violet (Jane Annabelle Apsion) encouraged Matthew to stand for council, his humble reply was accompanied by a downcast face.
"I'd like to think that I might have something to offer, but right now, my father's estate still requires quite a bit of untangling," he said. "As soon as I've handled one problem, another one arises."
However, it was the tail-end of his sentence that was most telling.
"There's a lot of property to sell and manage," he explained — then, following a laboured pause, added: "A lot of bills to pay."
This matches up with the premarital spat they had mere days before their wedding involving the tiara. Trixie had been furious that Matthew's mother had sold the family tiara she intended to wear for their wedding day.
The money had gone towards a cruise, but Trixie implied that it shouldn't have been necessary to sell the tiara, given the Aylwards' wealth.
"Perhaps things weren't as liquid as they might have been in their personal accounts," Matthew barked back, outlining the family's money troubles.
Well, it seems those financial woes have continued, trickling into season 13 in a more profound way, and it is Matthew who has been left to bear the brunt of it.
Of course, this doesn't excuse Matthew's recent poor behaviour, but it could go some way to explaining it and reassuring fans that Call the Midwife hasn't completely gone off the rails in throwing away a good character.
Naturally, we were bound to hate this ugly side of Matthew, but it isn't entirely surprising that we might see him snap under life's current demands.
Given the Aylwards' legacy of wealth, it's likely that Matthew has never encountered money worries on this level, and the stress of this, compounded with his newly married state, has had some particularly undesirable side effects.
Matthew has clearly spoken out of turn while in the storm, but people are imperfect, especially under stress.
The fact that Call the Midwife has done a great job at packaging him as a valiant person makes his fall from grace less of a fall and more of a thrust, landing with a hard smack. However, we have faith that when he's had a moment to think clearly, he will see the error of his ways.
For now, we suggest he follow Trixie's advice and take two aspirin and regain some clarity, or we may not be so understanding next time.
Call the Midwife season 13 airs on Sunday at 8pm on BBC One, and streams on BBC iPlayer.
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TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
