Viewers always enjoy it when Emmerdale steps out of format for a special episode, and on May 7 an episode that highlights the relationships of Rhona Goskirk and Marlon Dingle (Zoe Henry and Mark Charnock) as well as Belle and Tom King (Eden Taylor-Draper and James Chase) is set to air.
The action takes place at a dinner party hosted by Belle and Tom, and Mark Charnock told us what makes it different to the standard episode.
‘It’s a one off in terms of structure and it’s a very different sort of episode where you kind of go back and forth in time during the dinner party,’ he explained.
‘What’s really cleverly done is it’s got what’s happening on stage, which is the dinner party, and what’s happening off stage, which is in the kitchen between Tom and Belle.
‘So we see two charming hosts hosting these different couples and then when the hosts go back into the kitchen we see the darkness of what’s going on between them. Meanwhile on stage you’ve got these happy couples, Mandy and Paddy (Lisa Riley and Dominic Brunt) and Vanessa and Suzy (Michelle Hardwick and Martelle Edinborough). And then there’s Rhona and Marlon who appear to be completely falling apart in front of everybody.’
The background to this is Rhona’s decision to ignore the agreement she made with Gus (Alan McKenna) that she would support him getting a lighter sentence with her victim impact statement.
‘When she changes her mind on the stand and goes after Gus and he gets the maximum sentence he can get, Marlon has some pity for Gus because in those tense situations you’ve got to remain the good guys and he feels she’s turned them into the bad guys,’ Mark explained.
‘The most annoying thing is her doing it unilaterally, she didn’t involve Marlon at all. Her argument is that she just did it off the cuff, which is true, but he can’t believe there’s no part of her that didn’t consider it a little bit.
‘After her kidnapping of Ivy and after her general pursuit of Ivy through that story, he feels like these decisions were being made without him and what this has done, her making these decisions without him, from his point of view makes him feel like she doesn’t think he’s adequate enough to have a say on it.’
This behaviour from Rhona has played into some of Marlon’s deep-seated insecurities, Mark told us.
‘Whilst he recognises that she carried him through the stroke, what it’s brought up is the times that she tried to take Leo (Harvey Rogerson) away from him. I feel sorry for Rhona because he does overreact but at the same time I also see it from his point of view. They are meant to be a couple and it’s such a tense situation and so personal that to not be involved in the huge decision that she makes, I think he resents her for it.
‘I think off the back of his stroke he feels he’s not quite got his sense of adequacy. He still feels like people look at him and think poor Marlon. When he’s feeling like his wife won’t share these huge things with him, it does make him feel a bit inadequate.’
When emotions are running high like this it’s easy to misinterpret even small things as a huge slur, as Mark went on to describe.
‘Rhona tells him she’s accepted this dinner invitation which, to him, is another little example of Rhona making decisions without him. Every little thing she does now is like he’s waiting for her to make a mistake.
‘Everything she does now that doesn’t involve him feels like a decision made unilaterally. He starts to see a problem in everything. So yes they shouldn’t be at the dinner party because it can only lead to disaster and it really does.
‘Rhona and Marlon try to escape themselves by drinking their way through this dinner party. The more alcohol they have the more free they get with what they’re saying with each other and the less subtle their mutual resentment becomes until the point where it just explodes.’
Is this the end for Marlon and Rhona?
