Oh, Emmerdale. How many times have we been here before? How many times have you forced this humble author to find fourteen different ways of writing ‘Will Charity Dingle’s (Emma Atkins) baby bombshell finally explode?’
Well, after months of hiding her fling with Ross Barton (Michael Parr) from her unsuspecting husband Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb), I am delighted to confirm… yes. Yes it will.
This secret’s had a shelf-life longer than a jar of Dingles’ homebrew, for a very good reason. After agreeing to be the surrogate for Sarah Sugden (Katie Hill) and Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant), Charity couldn’t bear to devastate her granddaughter with the heart-breaking truth that their child might not actually be theirs – all because she couldn’t keep it in her pants.
Listen, Charity. Here’s a little tip straight from Surviving Soapland 101 – if you want to keep a secret, maybe don’t go blabbing it to your ex. Especially if your ex is Vanessa Woodfield (Michelle Hardwick), who it turns out, is more than a little judgy.
And if you must tell Vanessa everything, maybe don’t let her attend your granddaughter’s wedding where she can get tanked up on prosecco and make a drunken speech that comes dangerously close to dropping you in it. Which is of course, exactly what happened.
But it wasn’t until a sozzled Vanessa was escorted home by Mack, who wasn’t exactly sober as a judge himself, that she managed to slur that the baby is not Sarah’s… right before passing out.
In Friday’s episode, this left Mack with one killer hangover and a lot of worrying questions to answer. How could it not Sarah’s baby? Who’s baby is it? Why would Vanessa say this? And why, why, why did he wake up being spooned by Ross Barton?
Mack charged off to give the Spanish Inquisition to Charity, who naturally denied everything. She made Vanessa look like the crazy bunny-boiling ex determined to use the baby to wreck their relationship, even going so far as to reveal their kiss from months earlier, but lie that Vanessa made the first move! Ouch!
To cover her tracks, she made Vanessa sound sad and pathetic and begged Mack not to say anything to her. Which was a request he absolutely respected, right?
Spoiler – nope. Mack immediately accused Vanessa of being obsessed, to which she quite rightly not only revealed that it was Charity who made the first move, but exposed her lie.
On Christmas Eve, Charity wasn’t attending a brewery meeting. There was no brewery meeting. She was attending an appointment at the clinic to get the baby tested for abnormalities. Since Sarah and Jacob’s baby had already been screened, Vanessa explained that can only mean one thing – the baby is Mack’s, not Sarah and Jacob’s.
And just in case you think the Devious Miss Dingle might be able to talk her way out of trouble, Vanessa’s not the only threat to her secret.
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Ross was already suspicious when he called on the expertise of Charity’s son Ryan Stocks (James Moore) to ask how easy it would be to doctor official documents. And after being brushed off by Charity, the baddest Barton was left more suspicious than ever.
With the epic crossover Corriedale soon to be released, we already know that Charity and Mack will be in a car pursuing Jacob and Sarah to the airport. Why would they be involved in a car chase… unless the motor isn’t the only thing about to go up in flames?
