Opinion: Emmerdale’s Belle and Tom flashback was a soap masterpiece – here’s why it had us on the edge of our seats

This week on Emmerdale, Belle and Tom headed off to Wales for a cottage ‘holiday’ away from the village, heading off without informing anyone of their plans.

Tonight (Wednesday, July 24) saw a special flashback episode air in which viewers found out what really happened during the couple’s time in Wales.

And this episode has proved yet again that when it comes to special episodes, Emmerdale always pulls it out of the bag!

Emmerdale: Belle and Tom’s flashback episode

Yesterday’s episode of Emmerdale (Tuesday, July 23), left viewers on a cliff-hanger as Charity and Cain turned up to the Welsh cottage to find the place trashed, with blood on the walls!

Tonight, Emmerdale then aired a flashback episode that time travelled back to the start of Belle and Tom’s ‘holiday.’

The entire episode focused on the couple’s stay in a remote part of Wales – with only their dog Piper for company.

Despite Belle not having her phone, she tried to remain optimistic about the trip away. However, she soon overheard Tom talking about renting out the cottage for longer, realising that he was going to a job interview. He hadn’t even consulted her first.

Throughout the episode, Tom continued to manipulate Belle and even abused poor Piper whilst he was at it too. Belle felt awful as Tom insisted on leaving Piper out in the garden, all alone for the entire night, to ‘teach her a lesson.’

With Tom later revealing that he’d accepted the job in Wales, Belle told him that she didn’t want to move away from Emmerdale village.

Tom then brought up her termination, turning on his wife and physically hitting her. He then started making death threats, with Belle grabbing Piper and managing to escape the locked cottage by grabbing Tom’s key when he wasn’t looking.

She then used the only cash she had on her to flee her abusive husband, jumping onto a bus with her dog.

Special episodes? It’s an Emmerdale thing

Emmerdale always love to throw in a special episode now and again to move some of its key storylines forward.

And, it isn’t the first time they’ve broken the usual multi-storyline format for Belle and Tom either.

Earlier this year, the soap aired a special, dinner party episode. The episode was split into two halves, with each half showing the events of the same day but from a different viewpoint.

The time before this, the soap also aired a different sort of episode which showed different characters’ version of events on the night of Lydia’s rapist, Craig’s death. One of these perspectives was that of Belle’s – that night was the first time Tom had physically hurt her as she rejected his marriage proposal.

Tonight’s episode focused solely on Belle and Tom’s trip away, and we think that it came just at the right time for the soap.

Gripping TV that had us invested from start to finish

Emmerdale has done a great job at not rushing Tom and Belle’s abuse storyline, working closely with charities to portray the storyline as accurately and as sensitively as possible.

However, some fans have been left complaining that the soap has been focusing too much on ‘doom and gloom.’ They’ve been begging for Belle to leave Tom and for the storyline to end sooner rather than later.

But, tonight’s episode has come at just the right time for the soap, helping viewers understand why it isn’t as simple for Belle to just ‘up and leave.’

Gaining such an intimate and up-close-and-personal insight into Belle’s relationship to Tom, this episode helped bring to light every detail of manipulation Belle has to endure on a day-to-day basis, with both small and large details being uncovered.

Tom’s really been playing with Belle’s emotions, with Belle now being more scared of her husband than ever before now that he’s threatened to kill her.

Feeling physically sick and frightened for their lives whilst watching both Belle and Piper go through such abuse, Emmerdale has us more emotionally invested in the storyline than ever before. And, Eden Taylor-Draper and James Chase’s sensational performances only added to making the storyline have such an impact on us.

Emmerdale flashback episode: A perfect response to fan complaints

With fans calling for the abuse storyline to ‘hurry up and end’, tonight’s episode served as the perfect way for the show to hit back at these complaints.

The episode proved that leaving her abusive marriage isn’t simple for Belle. Tom’s been locking her inside, controlling her finances, hiding her phone and has distanced her from her loved ones.

With Belle’s past mental health history also at play, the soap has proven that Belle’s situation can’t just end when fans would like it to. In order to do the storyline justice to real life abuse survivors, the storyline must continue as Belle begins the journey of realising just how much her husband has been abusing her.

Emmerdale has confirmed that the storyline will run until ‘the end of the year.’ And, tonight’s masterpiece proved just why this needs to be the case.