The following article contains spoilers from the episode of Emmerdale dated June 23. It hasn’t aired on ITV1 yet, but can be viewed on ITVX and YouTube.
Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) has finally told someone about the ordeal Doctor Caitlin Todd (Caroline Harker) has put her through in Emmerdale, but remains unaware at the moment that the person she told is related to someone very close to her.
Yesterday, Charity became completely consumed with the trauma she’s suffered in recent weeks and fled the village.
As the latest instalment opened, we found Charity beside a lake. She was ignoring calls from Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb), who had enlisted help from a number of Charity’s loved ones to try and find her.
Beside the quiet water, Charity stood by herself, wondering what to do next. She was interrupted by a noise from the bushes. At first, Charity grew fearful, but a woman then appeared explaining that she needed the loo while on her travels.
This new face, who is actually Serena Sugden (Casey Al-Shaqsy), noticed that Charity was shivering.
As she took her coat off to pass to Charity, Serena worked out that something was wrong. She was kind and warm in her approach but when she put her hand out, Charity went to defend herself, and ended up smacking Serena in the face.
The two women sat down and with time, Charity began to open up and tell Serena about everything she’s been through with Doctor Todd, and how she is lying to her granddaughter about baby Leyla.
Serena listened carefully and responded to Charity’s words in a way that made her feel validated and listened to. This stranger was able to bring Charity out of the dark hole she had found herself in, and even helped her by saying that she may have a stronger chance in convicting Doctor Todd if she tells the police about the blackmail.
Serena seems to know her stuff, as she told Charity that if there’s a paper trail of Caitlin’s blackmail efforts, it will undermine her previous comments about consent. Charity was hesitant to take this step, but Serena reminded her that she said she ‘wanted out’, and couldn’t cope with her lies anymore.
Telling someone about Doctor Todd’s scheme will be terrifying, and Charity’s whole world might fall apart after, but her mental health is in such a poor place now – something has to change.
Charity thanked Serena for her kindness, and this apparent stranger then got in her car and prepared to leave. Unbeknownst to Charity, the next location on Serena’s GPS on her phone was Emmerdale.
Much to the relief of Sarah, Mack and Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter), Charity returned home a few hours later.
With Serena’s words ringing in her ears, Charity had some alone time with Mackenzie, and told him that she’s ‘got all this stuff rotting inside’ of her, and that she cannot keep it in anymore, even if it means ‘blowing our entire world apart’.
It seems Charity is going to tell Mack everything. But how will he react?
We will see Serena again later in the week, when Sarah comes face to face with her relative after quite a few years.
The fact that Serena had the address for Emmerdale on her phone means she has a reason for going there – but what exactly is it?
Considering she hasn’t seen Sarah in ages, could it really be to catch up with her?
Or is there an alternative reason?
