Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper) finds herself increasingly isolated in Emmerdale as evil Tom King (James Chase) continues his campaign of control and abuse against her even though they’re no longer living together.
Belle recently made an application under Clare’s Law, which allows the police to disclose information to a victim or potential victim of domestic abuse about their partner’s or ex-partner’s past abusive or violent offending.
In Monday (September 2)’s episode she had an email with the result of the application that said there was ‘no pressing need’ to make any disclosure about Tom. Chillingly, as she looked at the message Tom was also looking at it – and watching her reaction – as he’d previously placed software on her laptop that gives him full access to the camera and everything else on the laptop.
Later, Belle bumped into Tom in the shop and he made a weird comment about how she knew he was a ‘good guy’ and added the word ‘now.’ It was this word ‘now,’ which he repeated and emphasised, that made her realise that he knew about the disclosure.
‘Have you been spying on me?’ She accused him. ‘On my phone and laptop?’ Tom resorted to his previous gaslighting tactic of trying to make out that this was paranoia and came from the ‘voices in her head.’
But then he confirmed his control over her devices by mentioning the ‘arty photos’ that he’d previously taken of her and how she wouldn’t want those being shared with others. ‘Be careful with your passwords,’ he said, adding that things were ‘online for everyone to enjoy.’
Incredibly troubled, Belle left the shop and the first person she saw was Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt). She told him she’d just seen Tom and it was ‘horrible.’ Paddy said that Tom was probably treading on eggshells, not knowing how to behave around her. She said he didn’t understand, and rather than asking what she meant and why she looked so upset, Paddy excused Tom’s behaviour saying it was probably just nerves, not knowing how to behave around Belle now they’d split up.
Paddy was clearly speaking from his own experience of splitting up with Chas (Lucy Pargeter), but insisted that Tom was ‘trying his best’ and told Belle to ‘Go easy on him,’ before walking off.
Although Tracy (Amy Walsh) noticed a tense atmosphere between Tom and Belle when she walked into the shop and looked concerned for Belle, it seems that everyone else has completely bought into Tom’s narrative that Belle’s mental health is behind their split. This has been a deliberate tactic to keep her isolated from anyone who could help her, particularly after Charity (Emma Atkins) and Cain (Jeff Hordley) got close to finding out the truth after they followed Tom and Belle to Wales.
A special episode to be aired soon will break the standard format to show us different scenarios of how this abuse storyline could potentially unfold, as we see things from Belle’s viewpoint. Eden Taylor-Draper told us what we can expect.
‘There is one scene we repeat multiple times throughout the episode. And Belle is always the same but the people around her change clothes, change position or change speed and I think it’s a really good way to mark the start of different sequences in her brain. I think it’s a brave way to explore what is going on in her head because you never really see the imagination of a character. So to do a whole episode dedicated to her fears and her worries does feel very special.
‘The episode is a real journey. There are some really bizarre things, some really emotional things and I really enjoyed playing all those different versions of Belle.’
