When Call the Midwife's Roger Nobel (Conor O'Donnell) swung open the doors to Dr Turner's (Stephen Vincent McGann) clinic, there was an instant connection between him and nurse Nancy Corrigan (Megan Cusack).
You could chalk it up to the excitement of the Christmas season, the sweeping romantic underscore or the adorably flirty looks between the pair, but it was an utterly charming exchange and one that easily won viewers over.
However those rose-tinted glasses began to slip as their romance hurtled forward at warp speed, and by the end of the two-part Christmas special there were doubts concerning just how noble Nancy's new suitor might have been.
"I'm not sure about him," cautioned one fan on Instagram. "Take your time. Get to know each other. I want to see him courting her," said another.
"It will end in tears, there is something off about him," another fan wrote, and a different comment read: "It's giving love bombing vibes if this was real life..."
Viewer alarm wasn't entirely misplaced. Even we noted a plethora of red flags.
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The feeling that something was amiss with this courtship only intensified in the season 14 debut. Nancy and Roger hurdled over relationship milestones, going from newly dating to engaged, before then moving away for good. Between them also taming the mother-in-law and Colette (Francesca Fullilove) for calling him 'uncle Roger', this instant family had the fanbase collectively squirming with unease.
Of course that drove the hive straight to social media, where the matter was again discussed and a swift verdict delivered.
Fans once again cried "lovebomber!", with sentiment swinging back and forth between saying they felt this connection was rushed and others concluding that Roger was up to no good.
Related: Call the Midwife boss reveals show may "take a break" following shock exit announcement
The speed at which their relationship unfolded is what made it feel untrustworthy, and it's an odd move for a show that usually has room for slower story-pacing (aside from Christmas specials, of course).
However Call the Midwife's handling of the narrative seems less of a fumble and could be read as intentional.
Cusack recently announced her intentions to leave the show. She explained her decision stating: "I've learnt so much, but I'm at the start of my career and I need to take a leap of faith," (via Radio Times).
Her unexplained absence between the season's debut and finale could invite us to see the storyline through a different lens.
It could be argued that Cusack's character, should she be leaving, didn't need a perfect, traditionally happy ending. Not everyone needs to land a swoony romance, complete with marriage and a new baby, in order to exit a show. However we'd argue that this was the most fitting way of wrapping up this once-wounded character's arc.
When Cusack's Nancy entered the show four years earlier, she did so alone. She was without daughter Colette, who had been fostered and with whom she so desperately wanted to permanently reunite with. Nancy fought to create a stable life for them both, and in doing so faced her own pain of childhood abandonment. She overcame the trauma of her harsh and unloving upbringing, and managed to create the strong family unit she always craved.
While it is true that Colette is all the family that Nancy could have ever needed, it's a wonderful gift to this character to receive a happiness she hadn't even been anticipating.
It was the perfect way to cap Cusack's time on the show, given her wonderful depiction of the strong and determinedly cheerful Nancy.
Call the Midwife owed it to the fan-favourite character, who fought through so much and whose happy goodbye should be embraced. Even if we do have to shove down some occasional waves of unease.
Call the Midwife airs 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.
