Emmerdale’s salacious Cain Dingle twist destroyed what would have been the perfect soap episode

‘Seriously, isn’t your wife having brain surgery today?’

Good point, well made. Sadly, this line came courtesy of Ruby Fox-Miligan to Cain Dingle, moments before, inexplicably, the pair of them were clawing at one another like feral animals, and it leads me to pose a different question to Emmerdale.

Why!?

It all started off so well. An episode centring on the anxiously awaited surgery of beloved character Moira began in real, heart-gripping earnest.

The viewers were as fearful for her as she and Cain were themselves, and so not a pin dropped when I watched this, with a room of journalists and Emmerdalians around, at a recent screening.

A beautifully filmed dream sequence presented fans with the first big surprise as Moira met up with her dead daughter Holly.

Similar to her now infamous death episode, nothing had been teased or signposted about Sophie Powles reprising her role and it was sensitively written, giving Moira the chance to explore her loss and what could have been, eight years later.

It was a relatively short but incredibly powerful sequence, led admirably as ever by emotionally packed performances from Natalie J Robb.

Seeing Moira torn between staying with the lost child she had been reunited with and returning home was agony but, as she came to and was met with her husband, a kind of resolution she hadn’t been able to have for nearly a decade felt in place.

A new chapter, another chance, a new future, looking forward! Hooray!

Well.

This was an episode of two halves. When I read the synopsis that Cain would be in self destruct mode, I was on board. Jeff Hordley plays it so well and it’s perfectly in character for Cain.

So, while I didn’t like it, I could very much understand the narrative direction of him not being at the hospital during Moira’s surgery.

He hit the bottle, he lashed out, he punched Jimmy King in the face – all perfectly valid.

But then came the moment that caught in my throat and clearly resonated badly with the wider audience too – social media feels like a bomb has gone off in it!

After a conversation that lasted no more than one minute, suddenly Cain and Ruby grabbed one another, without any real kind of build-up, and slept together, now harbouring a secret they both regret.

And, when looking at the longevity and potential damage to Cain and Moira, Emmerdale may regret it too.

For the short term salacious OMG twist, we are sacrificing something deep within this popular couple, affectionately known as Coira, and that’s yet another block of their remaining trust.

Even if they stay together, there is no undoing this and it adds another tarnish that fans simply won’t be able to forget.

Worse still, it has taken the shine off of what began as potentially one of TV’s episodes of the year. It was warm, powerful, surprising, engaging and dialogue driven, with sublime direction, editing and acting.

But now, where we should be seeing chat about the surprise Holly cameo, the beautiful dream sequence and the relief that Moira is alive, we are only seeing pretty understandable fury over another cheating chapter for the pairing.

The storyline too quickly sped from being about Moira’s surgery to being about a very soapy betrayal.

I adore the characters of Cain, Moira and Ruby – their interactions and vibes up to this point together and apart have been exceptional. Ruby is a revelation and my favourite new TV character in a very long time – Beth Cordingly is a master of both mischievous villainy and heart-wrenching vulnerability.

What she has coming up sounds so good as well, really character developing stuff.

And I love messy, soaptastic, high camp affair chaos. Write me a Ruby, Ross and Steph tornado and hook it to my veins!

But I can’t find an angle on this one that I can get on board with. There was enough already going on both in Moira and Cain’s storyline and in Ruby’s family saga, without dropping this in and, long-term, what can it possibly do to the characters except damage?

Emmerdale has been firing on all cylinders recently and still very much is – I wrote about how much I am loving the show right now and that is very much still the case.

Every soap has a misfire – but for me, this is a pretty colossal one and I hope that the mercy we can get is that it will be resolved relatively quickly so I can get back to loving three of my favourite soap characters of all time.