Having survived his near-death experience when the metal pipe he was bashing about hit a rotatory isolator, Tom King’s (James Chase) need for revenge and control is about to hit extortionate levels in Emmerdale, putting Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper) at huge risk.
He caused himself the not undeserved injury after learning that terrified Belle had secretly had an abortion instead of a miscarriage. Not only was this a punch to the gut for the abuser, it demonstrated how he still does not have a true grip on his wife and her actions.
Attempting to separate her from her family hasn’t worked, taking over her finances hasn’t worked. Selling her car, making Piper the dog sick, none of it completed the task of Tom gaining full control of Belle.
So now it’s big guns time – removing her from the village completely.
Big up the Dingle women Charity (Emma Atkins), Chas (Lucy Pargeter), Mandy (Lisa Riley), and Lydia (Karen Blick), who start to question Belle’s relationship, clocking that all is not right with the newlywed Dingle.
The signs are there, and they are starting to see them.
Charity is determined to get Belle to open up, but Belle is furious with their relentless questioning and storms out. Charity finds a tearful Belle outside the pub and tries one last ditch attempt, and it works – Belle starts to come clean, but then Tom arrives, and Belle shuts down.
‘I think over time she’s just found him a bit squeaky clean, always saying the right thing, always a bit smarmy’, Emma Atkins reflected.
‘Just not got the best opinion of him. But of course he ticks all the boxes, doesn’t he? To the outside world everybody thinks he’s caring, earning a wage. he’s the most decent human Belle’s had so far in her life. he’s putting on the most amazing show and she starts to smell a rat.’
Seeing Tom heading over, Belle shoves Charity and flees home. Charity is at a loss for words when Tom blocks her from following Belle, blaming it on an episode of poor mental health. The red flags are piling up.
While the other women try to shut Charity down as being oversensitive, Charity knows something is wrong.
Alone with Tom, Belle is in danger of his turn in mood. He takes a call and confirms the next step of his plan – an interview for a job in Wales.
The next day, as Charity tries to make amends with Belle – who is not accepting an apology easily – Tom is in a call that could change Belle’s life forever.
It’s the online interview where the interviewer explains to him that the job is in a very rural and remote part of Wales. Tom shares that it couldn’t be more perfect for him and his new wife. He plans to take her to Wales and lock her away.
In the next step of his plan, he offers to take Belle on holiday, where he intends to lure her to a remote cottage and prevent her from returning home.
Can Charity get to Belle before Tom does?
Emma explained: ‘At this point her suspicions of Tom’s behaviour is ramping up so there’s even more reason. He keeps changing his mind and then he’s obviously in this wheelchair now from being electrocuted and he’s laying it on thick.
‘Belle’s running around after him but she’s like a frightened housewife. Her behaviour is very staccato. he’s saying ‘”Jump” and she’s saying “How high?” kind of mentality and nobody seems to be seeing it except Charity.
‘So she says to the girls, “help me technically, for want of a better word, kidnap Belle from her house and pretend we’re doing it for a girly night to cheer Lydia up.” So she engineers this set up. They go in and they have this plan. It’s quite cute actually, it’s the Dingles outside the house, it’s a really good episode.
‘They take her off straight into the Woolpack back room and that begins a fabulous episode where Eden is incredible. You can tell she wants to open up and the audience will be saying, “Come on, you’ve got all your Dingle girlfriends around you and family, this is where she should be in her safe space.”
She added: ‘Then mid girly night Tom rings her mobile and she goes out to take the call and Charity goes out and says, “He’s round the corner, why is he calling you when you’re on a girly night?” Again more behaviour.
‘She’s on to him and I think that’s going to excite the audience in a way because everybody is saying when is he going to get found out? They’ll enjoy the fact that someone’s on to him finally.’
