Emmerdale broke format in two different ways in Wednesday (November 20)’s episode as Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb) underwent surgery to remove a brain tumour.
In the first half we saw what was going on in Moira’s mind as she was being operated on, in stunning scenes that brought her dead daughter Holly (Sophie Powles) back to life for an emotional reunion with her mum.
As we heard the voices of the hospital staff and realised Moira’s condition was deteriorating and she was having a seizure, for a moment she was on the threshold of life and death as she took Holly’s hand, ready to follow her.
But she didn’t want to leave her boys who, in her mind, were playing in a nearby field. She let go of Holly’s hand and in the real world she recovered and woke up in her hospital bed.
The second half of the episode related what had happened to Cain (Jeff Hordley) while Moira was having her surgery.
Somewhat confusingly, it went backwards in time, beginning from the point at which Cain appeared at Moira’s bedside, his breath stinking of whisky and with blood on his hand.
Cain had been nervous and agitated as Moira waited to be called in for surgery. He doesn’t deal with emotions very well and was being horrible to the nice young nurse as a result, so Moira sent him home.
We then saw him in the village drunk, with Caleb (William Ash) asking why he was there and not at the hospital with Moira. There was blood on his hand at this point.
Then the time moved a little further back and Cain – with no blood on his hand – was getting a message from Sam (James Hooton), who’d stayed at the hospital with pasties to keep his strength up. He said the surgery was over.
Cain saw Jimmy King (Nick Miles), who was irate about Can pushing Tom (James Chase) into the dirt in a previous episode. Unwisely, Jimmy decided it was a good time to start needling Cain about Belle (Eden Taylor-Draper)’s allegations about Tom, saying it was her mental health to blame. Unsurprisingly, Cain punched him. So that explained the blood.
If only punching Jimmy had been the worst thing Cain had done in those few hours, but his bad behaviour was about to get worse. Or, in the reverse chronology, it already had been worse.
We then saw Cain and his sister-in-law Ruby (Beth Cordingly) at the garage, tucking their clothes back in and swearing that nobody would ever find out about ‘this.’ They both obviously deeply regretted what had just happened.
But how had it happened? The time went back again and Cain was in a car in the garage drinking whisky and listening to Live Will Tear Us Apart on Hotten’s Hottest Hits.
Ruby came in, apparently hiding from someone – most likely her dad Anthony (Nicholas Day) who’s recently appeared in the village. She had a swig of Cain’s whisky and started goading him, telling him ‘For a big man you are really weak’ for not being at Moira’s side. He responded by asking her about her own messed up family.
She got angry and pushed him and they ended up in a passionate embrace.
Back in real time, Cain arrived at the hospital and the doctor told him and Sam that the operation had had a few hitches but had turned out well.
Feeling hugely guilty, Cain told Sam that he couldn’t see Moira, but eventually Sam persuaded him to go into her room.
Grateful to have Moira alive, he told her he would love her always. Meanwhile Ruby texted him to say that ‘Today never happened.’
Cain was clearly wishing it really hadn’t.
