Call the Midwife season 13 episode 6 spoilers follow.
Call the Midwife's favourite couple is hanging on by the umbilical cord and it's all thanks to Matthew (Olly Rix).
Poplar's Prince Charming has made more than a few blunders recently but while we may forgive his poor business choices born from a place of true altruism, his treatment of Trixie (Helen George) is disappointing.
We're not referring to him cosplaying as a stereotypical 1950s husband in episode four, although that was hard to watch.
We're not even referring to him biting Trixie's head off this week for trying to help course-correct his flagging career and business reputation after discovering he was out of a job – a move she made with the greatest intentions of keeping the family afloat.
We did, however, take issue with the insult he hurled her way when he insinuated that the foundation for their happy relationship was his wealth.
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"Money for you is just something that paves the way for happiness," he screamed at her.
"Your happiness in New York, your happiness when you run amok in Harrods, your happiness watching me save Nonnatus House and rescue Lisbon buildings."
"I accept the comments about New York and Harrods," Trixie pointedly remarked before reminding him that "none of the rest of it was done for [her]."
But we are not that gracious and will not be accepting these accusations.
As one of the original characters in Call the Midwife, fans of the show have seen the growth of Trixie throughout the series.
While she's always had a keen eye for fashion and a love for the finer things in life, Matthew is painting pretty broad strokes with this greedy, fortune-hunting caricature version of his wife he's describing.
Beyond her father's struggles as a shell-shock victim and his drinking, Trixie's upbringing largely remains unexplored.
From what little we do know, we can presume she came from some money or at the very least had access to it.
If not as the daughter of a bank manager then certainly from her rich, late godmother Daphne, who lived in Portofino and would spoil her with more than just a subscription to the marriage bureau – with dress allowances on top of ostentatious clothes.
While off the back of a week's shopping trip with her godmother in Paris – embarked upon to prepare her for every style eventuality – Trixie explained: "[Daphne] knows that a woman is defined by her potential and not her circumstances."
This alludes to the fact that at best, Trixie is comfortable, with a fiscal lifeline at the ready should she need it.
However, despite being wealth-adjacent, she is still the same woman who made a quick fix for a lost button out of an Aspirin and who took off her shoes and darted down the street in "one pair of fully fashioned Parisian nylons," to help a woman in distressed later labour.
She later abandoned her attempts to scrub the smeared vernix out of her new, Parisian, black dress and kissed goodbye to the frock with a cheerful disposition.
All this is to say that Trixie is made from sterner stuff than cold hard cash. She doesn't just make do in a pinch, she transforms the toughest of situations into something encouraging and hopeful.
Her adaptable nature makes it easy for her to wave off the materialistic luxuries because as much as she adores the glam, she knows it's comparatively trivial.
As she put it when she released the notion of saving the dress: "It's only a dress and birth is never just a birth."
So when she was forced to remind Matthew of their vows and that, while everything had seemingly disappeared for him, she was still here, his retort, "There's still time," was not only cutting but a betrayal on his part of her integrity and character.
Not only was his remark cold, but it shockingly revealed that, even after all they've been through, he doesn't really know who she is.
(Cue the shedding of tears from Trixie-Matthew shippers everywhere.)
Granted, Matthew is at crisis point so his breakdown and his perceptions of himself through his failings are likely the cause of his lashing out.
Still, the fact that he was quick to latch on to the idea that she is materialistic to the core suggests that on some level he believed her to be.
There's a difference between appreciating and striving for luxury to having an unhealthy attachment to it. While Trixie has been failed in the past (with even the show implying as such), that is not who she is.
She proves this during the episode. When Matthew initially tells her: "I'm broke", she corrected him saying: "No, we're broke."
It may have taken him the whole 60 minutes to realise she meant her words, her vows – but finally, at the end, they can be seen resolving his money woes together.
In accepting her help, her lack of judgement and her counsel, Matthew begins to understand Trixie on a deeper level.
As this season of Call the Midwife is shaping up to be the Matthew and Trixie chronicles, there will certainly be more bumps along their road. Bumpier than learner driver Trixie behind the wheel for the first time.
With Rix's Call the Midwife future up in the air (and George's very firmly not), the sceptical see this as signs of the end, but, if they continue to move with a more united front (we're looking at you Matthew) there's every hope they will survive.
All it requires is a more gracious and humbled side of Sir Matthew than we've been treated to thus far.
Call the Midwife season 13 airs on Sunday at 8pm on BBC One, and streams on BBC iPlayer.
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.
