Belle Dingle’s (Eden Taylor-Draper) ordeal at the hands of abuser Tom King (James Chase) is seemingly set to get much worse in Emmerdale after a throwaway scene teased a darker outcome to the story.
The wedding and events planner, as viewers know, is being emotionally abused by husband Tom, who has been gaslighting her at every given opportunity in a bid to assert and maintain his control.
Belle, however, started to realise that Tom’s behaviour isn’t that of a loving husband after she quizzed him last week on whether or not he had a hand in her client at work changing his mind about working with her.
In typical Tom fashion, he attempted to play the victim, manipulating Belle into believing that she was out of line for even thinking such a thing.
Belle was left questioning if she went too far but she realised that Tom wasn’t the man she thought he was when he destroyed Lisa’s ashes and refused to let her get in his car after ‘crawling around in the dirt.’
Friday’s (March 22) edition of the ITV soap saw Belle, livid over how she’d been treated, stand up to her husband, calling him out over his manipulative and controlling behaviour – and for failing to ever take her feelings into consideration.
But a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment may indicate that Belle’s more-than-warranted public outburst could come back to bite her.
Charles Anderson (Kevin Mathurin) was seen in the background of the showdown between the husband and wife, talking to a parishioner when he was alerted to the situation nearby by Belle, who raised her voice during the heated exchange.
The vicar watched carefully as Belle berated her husband, ordering him not to turn his back on her and, when frustrated, she even told Tom that she hated him.
Knowing full well he had an audience, Tom played the role of the innocent victim, claiming that he ‘loved’ Belle, pleading with her to not cause a scene.
As Belle stormed off, Charles’ interest was piqued.
Subsequent scenes saw Tom gaslight Belle into thinking she was the abusive one in the marriage, claiming that his mental health has been impacted by their marriage thus far.
Belle apologised, despite not actually having done anything wrong and it became quite clear that this is the tone the storyline would take moving forward, with Tom playing the victim of the situation, much like Coronation Street’s Geoff Metcalfe did in the fellow ITV soap’s coercive control storyline from a few years prior.
Therefore, the fact that Charles witnessed the aforementioned showdown between Belle and Tom is likely of significance.
Actor Kevin Mathurin, who plays Charles, did not appear in the episode again, meaning that there must be a reason as to why producers and writers thought Charles’ presence was necessary for such a scene.
Will the villagers come to believe that Belle is the abuser and that Tom is the victim? If this does prove to the case then, taken out of context, what Belle said to Tom in the row witnessed by Charles could come back to bite her.
Will Tom claim that Belle is controlling him, despite the fact that this is exactly what he is doing to her?
