Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb) hasn’t been herself for the past few weeks on Emmerdale. Cain (Jeff Hordley) has been disturbed by her sudden mood swings, as she goes from being angry and aggressive one moment to affectionate and flirtatious the next. She’s been falling asleep at odd times, and has suffered memory lapses and headaches.
Viewers have also seen Moira suffer a full-blown seizure while she was on her own in a barn, after which she fell asleep and didn’t wake until the next day and had no recollection of what happened.
Later a remark by her son, Isaac (Bobby Dunsmoir), that he wouldn’t tell his dad that she’d gone ‘wobbly again’ suggested that Isaac has also seen her having seizures.
Moira has been putting the symptoms she’s aware of down to the menopause, but she was worried enough to go and see Dr Liam (Jonny McPherson), who arranged for her to have a blood test. Hopefully she’d soon have a proper diagnosis.
In Wednesday (September 4)’s episode, Moira’s mood had swung again to being angry and suspicious when she saw Ruby Fox-Miligan (Beth Cordingly) talking to Cain at the garage. Their exchange was perfectly innocent but Moira thought Ruby was making a move on Cain.
She stormed round to Ruby’s house, ranting that she ‘wasn’t stupid’ and could see what Ruby was up to, trying to get her claws into Cain.
And then she nutted Ruby.
Cain and Caleb (William Ash) walked in immediately afterwards and found a raging Moira, and a shocked Ruby clutching her face. Moira reiterated her accusations about Ruby and Cain, which Cain described as ‘insane.’
Leaving Caleb to try to calm Ruby down (‘I am going to slap the Scottish DNA out of that one!’ Ruby fumed, in her comedy Scottish voice), Cain took Moira home.
‘This is way more than the menopause,’ Cain said, and Moira got angry again, saying she didn’t know what he wanted from her. He said he wanted answers, about why one day she couldn’t keep her hands off him and the next she was accusing him of being about to sleep with Ruby.
Then he asked her what Wendy had said at the blood test appointment – and Moira had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. Not only had she forgotten to go for the blood test, but she’d forgotten that she’d even made an appointment for a blood test.
Cain had had enough, accusing her of not trying to help herself. He walked out, leaving Moira racking her brains trying to remember about the blood test.
Obviously Moira is much more seriously ill than anyone realises, and things are only going to get worse in coming episodes as her disturbed state of mind leads to horrifying tragedy.
