Emmerdale spoilers: Charity Dingle slams ‘psycho and narcissist’ lovers in blistering rant

In powerful scenes in Monday (March 11)’s Emmerdale, Charity Dingle had her first therapy session – and things did not get off to a good start.

The beloved character has finally sought out help after weeks of dealing with post traumatic stress after killing gangster Damon ‘Harry’ Harris (Robert Beck) at Christmas. Charity can’t forgive herself for taking a life, even though she saved Mackenzie (Lawrence Robb)’s life by her actions, and has been haunted by hallucinations of Harry and by insomnia, panic and anxiety.

This culminated in her stabbing Mackenzie when she thought he was Harry.

At the beginning of the therapy session all of Charity’s usual defences were up as she tried to deflect the therapist, Una (Rekha John-Cheriyan)’s, attempts with sarcasm.

‘Una is bombing,’ was her assessment of the situation as she tried time-wasting with visits to the loo, talked about the final scenes of Titanic and basically everything to avoid talking about herself.

The breakthrough was when Una asked her about any pets she had when she was young, and a heartbreaking – and finally honest – tale unfolded. Charity had a dog called Shaky (because he was shaky and she liked Shakin’ Stevens) when she was a child. She loved him so much she would smuggle him to her room.

When he had a sore paw she begged her dad to let him see a vet and finally her dad said he would take the dog – and he never brought him back. Charity said her dad probably dumped the dog.

‘I loved the bones of that scabby dog,’ she said. ‘My dad did stuff like that.’

Emma Atkins told us that this memory is the key that starts to unlock things for Charity. ‘The journey starts then because she starts to go right back into the dog and how the dog suddenly disappears. And why does the dog disappear? Oh, because the father. Why is the father taking the dog away? She had issues with a dad and it all starts to unravel.

‘Because as much as she’s going through the hell now, I think there’s so much PTSD attached to her past as well. So it’s all relevant, I guess.’

In the therapy session this led to Charity talking about being thrown out of the house for getting pregnant and being made to give her baby – Debbie – away but how she now has a good relationship with her. Then about how she survived as a child prostitute at 13, a ‘terrified, abused, exploited kid.’ And how she met ‘twisted sicko’ Mark Bails and had another baby, Ryan (James Moore).

Of course Charity struggles with seeing herself as a victim and pointed out that she’d done bad things in her life, such as selling her son. ‘And now I’ve killed someone and nearly killed my husband,’ she said.

Charity said that she was scared that she might hurt Mack again and said he was ‘The only bloke who’s loved her back who wasn’t a psycho or a narcissist or a waster and I’ve ruined it.’

Charity has had a lot of previous relationships and been married four times. Chris Tate (Peter Amory) tried to frame her for his own death. Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson) was unfaithful to her, and Declan Macey (Jason Merrells) tried to murder her. There was also her toxic relationship with cousin Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley).

Emma Atkins emphasised that this is a key point for Charity. ‘it’s a lovely episode to discuss how much she truly loves Mack and it’s the one person that she feels that she has begun to really let go and love and let her guard down. And this person is perfect for her and she feels she’s completely ruined it and lost his trust,’ she said.

Charity left the session upset that nothing had been resolved, with Una warning her that she was only at the beginning of what will be a long process. But she advised that Charity should take any support that the people who loved her should offer.

Mackenzie was ready to do just that, offering to help in any way he could. He started by running her a bath, but while he was doing that Charity became overwhelmed with all the feelings the day had brought up – and left the house.

Will she ever be able to accept her husband’s help, and is there a future for the relationship?

‘If they can get through this they can get through anything,’ Emma Atkins said.