Moira Dingle (Natalie J. Robb) was a desperate woman in Tuesday (June 18)’s double episode of Emmerdale. A visit to see her son Matty (Ash Palmisciano) in prison shook her to the core as she discovered just how hard life is for him behind bars. Terrified of the other prisoners discovering he’s transgender, he hasn’t been showering and daren’t leave his cell.
‘It’s like a nightmare,’ he told his mum and Amy (Natalie Ann Jamieson). ‘I’m scared every second of every day.’
Earlier, Cain (Jeff Hordley) had promised to go and talk to Samson (Sam Hall) to try to get him to tell the truth. Samson is currently alleging that Matty stabbed him in an unprovoked attack, while the truth is that the stabbing was accidental after Samson’s friend Josh (Osian Morgan) pushed him at Matty.
Cain went round to Wishing Well and, finding Samson alone, tried to reason with him. He said that Matty wouldn’t survive prison and that Moira wouldn’t be able to cope with losing another child. Samson looked shaken and like he might be about to change his story – but then Sam (James Hooton) came home. With his dad’s backing Samson’s bravado returned and Cain had to admit defeat.
Moira wasn’t satisfied that her husband had done enough. Spotting Samson and Josh at the Woolpack she decided to have another go at getting through to Samson – Moira style.
Following him into the toilets while Mack (Lawrence Robb) kept Charity (Emma Atkins) distracted, Moira grabbed Samson and pressed the recent stab wound hard. As Samson cried out with pain she warned him that the pain would only get worse if he didn’t tell the truth.
This horrific attack was stopped by Charity and Mack, and once again it had only served to make Samson dig his heels in even more. He said he hoped Matty ‘never gets out’ of prison.
Cain arrived in the aftermath of this and he wasn’t pleased. He told Moira that intimidating witnesses would do nothing for Matty’s case and could make things worse.
Back at Butlers, Moira was seething and had transferred all her anger about Matty’s situation and about Samson to Cain, whom she rounded on with a vicious attack. She told him that he should have sorted the situation out and accused him of not caring enough about Matty to want to get his hands dirty.
‘The old Cain could have taken Samson out,’ she said. ‘He always had my back. He was fearless.’ She said that everything had changed when Aaron (Danny Miller) beat Cain up at the garage earlier this year. Cain ended up in hospital after a brutal fight with Aaron, who’d been winding Cain up and stole his car.
Moira taunted Cain, saying that nobody respects him ever since Aaron beat him up. She called him a coward and weak and said he was no use to her.
This all ignores the fact that Moira implored her husband to change his ways after his son Kyle (Huey Quinn) ended up in prison for killing Al Chapman (Michael Wildman). At that point, Cain’s toxic masculinity was blamed for putting Kyle in that situation and Moira and Amy were both concerned about the effect Cain’s behaviour had on his children.
Since then he has changed quite a bit and it’s mostly for the better. As this episode demonstrated, Cain’s approach to Samson was more effective than Moira’s more violent action. But a desperate Moira now wants the old Cain back, the hard man who just had to look at someone the wrong way to have them quaking in their boots.
How will Cain react to this attack on him? After Moira’s tirade he stormed out of the house and it’s all about to erupt in violent fashion as Moira and Cain’s marriage hangs in the balance.
