Moira Dingle (Natalie J. Robb)’s behaviour has been giving cause for concern for some time on Emmerdale, and in Tuesday (August 27)’s episode Cain (Jeff Hordley) was convinced that she was drinking too much.
She had a headache in the morning but insisted it wasn’t a hangover, pointing out that the bottle of whisky was still unopened. Cain still accused her of ‘hiding bottles and getting smashed.’ He was so concerned that he refused to leave Kyle (Huey Quinn) alone with her, and took his reluctant son to work with him instead.
Moira seems to be unaware that she has a problem and looked genuinely mystified by Cain’s accusations, She’s also looked puzzled previously when he described her outbursts of aggression, as if she genuinely couldn’t remember what happened.
Cain thought there might be another reason for the recent change in Moira when he came home and found her with Nate Robinson (Jurell Carter). Not for the first time she was singing Nate’s praises, suggesting he should have a pay rise and crediting him with her decision to buy a new bull.
For Cain it brought back painful memories of when Moira and Nate previously had an affair and he told her to ‘show some respect.’
Nate was clearly uncomfortable with the situation and later talked to his dad, telling Cain he hadn’t encouraged Moira’s behaviour. He insisted that he would never betray Cain again and expressed his gratitude that his dad had forgiven him for his earlier affair with Moira.
But he agreed that there was something definitely wrong with Moira and suggested perhaps it was the menopause.
Cain dismissed that and stuck to his belief that it was the alcohol to blame. Seeing that Cain was at the end of his tether with the whole situation, Nate implored him to try harder to get through to Moira and save their marriage.
You can’t blame Cain – who likes life to be fairly straightforward and predictable – for being confused by his wife’s behaviour. One minute she’s throwing glassware at his head and physically attacking him and the next minute she’s being flirtatious and loving.
He never knows which version of her he’s going to find and he can’t reason with her because she genuinely seems not to understand that anything is wrong.
Later in the episode we started to get an explanation, as it became apparent that Moira is ill.
She was alone in the barn tending to a sick animal. As she turned to leave she suddenly stopped, dropped the bucket she was carrying and fell to the ground like a dead weight – and had a seizure.
There’s obviously something medically wrong with her that’s behind the mood swings and the lapses of memory, but how serious is it? And will Moira have any recollection of what happened so she can get help – or will things continue to get worse?
