The latest two-hander Emmerdale episode is winging its way to us, and it’s set to be a shocker!
Cain Dingle’s (Jeff Hordley) cancer diagnosis can excuse most things – him nicking cars, punching Joe Tate (Ned Porteous), running wife Moira’s (Natalie J Robb) beloved farm into the ground. But there’s one very definite thing it cannot excuse, and of course off-the-rails Cain goes there.
As if his world crashing around him wasn’t enough, he’s now moving into the self-sabotage portion of the Cain Dingle Self-Pity Club.
‘He’s a man on edge now,’ Jeff Hordley tells Metro of Cain’s impending doom. ‘He’s doing things that he shouldn’t, or they shouldn’t, do.’
Yep, cheating on Moira, the absolute love of his life, is pretty high on the list of things he shouldn’t do. He’s been absolutely derailed by Moira being imprisoned for a murder she didn’t commit and facing his own mortality without her words of wisdom.
‘He’s missing his wing woman,’ as Jeff puts it, meaning Cain is floundering and looking for someone else to be by his side and keep him steady.
Jeff adds: ‘It’s a massive test of their relationship,’ and Cain looks on course to fail as he seeks that comfort elsewhere.
Cain comes home from his pre-op meeting with a complete poker face, no one can tell how it went. He hides a leaflet before anyone sees and Sarah Sugden (Katie Hill), sensing what’s up, urges him to go to surgery school for Moira.
Sarah is the one person he’ll listen to and he does as he’s told and attends the group, but it comes with regrets when one of the other attendees starts talking about how his diagnosis has affected his relationship.
This is Cain’s new trigger because he can’t bear life without Moira and he’s convinced himself that his illness could ruin what they have. In a sensitive mood and hearing that Sam has ruined a potential opportunity for the new Dingle farm he’s creating, Cain loses it.
Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) witnesses this and senses there might be more going on.
She follows him home and quizzes him about his behaviour. Cain responds by necking a load of booze. Charity tries to comfort him in her most ham-fisted Charity way, which sees him lose it and throw the bottle against the wall. In another fit of rage, he smashes Zak’s tankard.
Charity persists and Cain admits he feels like a failure – he’s not managing to save Moira’s old life, and he is desperate to forget about everything that’s going on.
As they begin to reminisce about how things used to be, that opportunity for self-sabotage presents itself. Cain goes in to kiss Charity.
Before we lose our minds at this scenario, Jeff has some words of reassurance that Charity might be sensible, for once.
‘There’s a lot of twists and turns in the episode, but ultimately Charity’s there for Cain and he’s there for her as well.’
