Even pushing a decent villain off a bridge won’t be enough to keep her down in Emmerdale. The character Moira Dingle, played by Natalie J. Robb, will soon find out that Emma Barton, played by Gillian Kearney, is still capable of destroying her life, even from beyond the dead.
Several years ago, Emma Barton caused the Hotten Bypass crash and her son Finn (Joe Gill) and husband James Barton (Bill Ward) died as a result of her insane acts, which caused devastation in the hamlet.
It was revealed after Emma’s death that she’d actually been killed by Moira during a confrontation on a bridge in which Emma deliberately goaded Moira over the death of her daughter Holly (Sophie Powles), who died of a drugs overdose. Moira eventually snapped and pushed Emma off the bridge to her death.
These scenes are set to be revisited in an episode where Ruby Fox-Miligan (Beth Cordingly) finds a distressed Moira alone in a barn and begins to taunt her.
Ruby has learned from Caleb (William Ash) that Moira and Cain (Jeff Hordley)’s marriage is in trouble after Caleb saw Moira kissing Cain’s son Nate Robinson (Jurell Carter), with whom she previously had an affair.
Viewers know that there’s something very wrong with Moira, as we’ve previously seen her experiencing mood swings and ‘absences,’ where she doesn’t know where she is, as well as at least one full-blown seizure. She’s also had mood swings and memory lapses. She’s talked to Liam (Jonny McPherson) about her health problems and he ordered blood tests – but in the meantime, the rest of the family are generally unaware of Moira’s health concerns.
There’s nothing Ruby likes better than winding people up, but soon she realises that her jibes against Moira are not having the desired effect as her target seems unaware of what’s going on. Then we see from Moira’s point of view that her reality has started to blur – and rather than Ruby, she thinks she’s seeing Emma Barton again and hearing her voice.
Ruby is terrified as Moira begins pouring tractor fuel around the barn and, become increasingly agitated, raises her shotgun at Ruby, thinking it’s Emma.
She fires a warning shot – and hits a lightbulb, causing a spark that sets the spilled fuel alight. Ruby makes a grab for the gun but is hit over the head and falls unconscious as the fire starts to take hold.
Gradually Moira comes back to reality and realises that she’s standing next to an unconscious Ruby as the barn goes up in flames.
As Mackenzie (Lawrence Robb) and others see that the barn is on fire and rush to help, there’s a massive explosion – and more than one life is left in the balance.
