Emmerdale: Discussion Thread

[ThePrinceOfSunspear]

They better not ruin the mother. I love the whole tortured bad boy thing going on with Ross. Even the oldest brother (Pete?) was giving some good material in last nights long episode.

Looking at Robert in your avatar makes me smile everytime by the way DRW50....

[DRW50]

Thanks. I'm going to try to get a better one of him soon. Or find one of Sue Osman.

[Bright Eyes]

Charity finally lost! She is my favourite, but she needed this hit or else she would have become a cartoon villain. It was obvious for months that Emma Atkins was pregnant, which is always fun to see how a show will cover that up. When she returns, the character will be rested and I'll be ready for her to lie, cheat and steal back her throne.

And the show won't lose any momentum at all with Rachel having returned. Brilliant pacing, something EastEnders and Hollyoaks desperately need a lesson on.

And poor Pearl. The mini werewolf story was cute. Gabi, who will need to recast soon with a proper actress (maybe next year?) is going to be a pure hellion for Laurel, Ashley and Bernice.

[DRW50]

When Charity first returned in 2009 I wasn't sure if she'd fit in (as I wasn't sure about Cain), but Emma Atkins is just so terrific at making Charity human as well as scheming and wicked. I was watching an old clip where she kneed Jai in the balls after he gave her divorce papers. Hilarious.

I don't think I've ever seen Rachel. Some fans seem to like her, others don't, others say she was ruined when they paired her with Sam.

Ross is such an entertaining character, a real spark plug. He reminds me a lot of a young Cain, just in terms of the animosity and sad puppy mixture and the crazy energy (thankfully minus the animal killing and penchant for barely legal girls). His plan to get Emma back into their lives by scaring her with a break-in was nuts (and the last break-in worked out so well for him...), but he was so committed to it. Finn being dumbfounded but going along because it was going to happen anyway amused me. They have a great relationship. It's hard for me to believe they're related to James. They both remind me far more of their mother. I just wonder if Ross can handle how much this is going to hurt him in the end.

It's a shame Michael Parr will likely lose the NTA to that TLC reject overgrown baby from Eastenders.

Robert and Aaron, moving more into that stage where Aaron is going to lose the plot at either not having Robert or only having him for sex. He obviously wants far more, and sometimes Robert does too, but Robert gets scared and defensive. Sometimes the writing is a little shaky, but it's an interesting push-and-pull, with first-rate chemistry.

I worried they were going to pull back on the sexual nature of it with the backlash, and I still worry about that, but the positioning today of a pensive, emotional Aaron, mostly clothed contrasted with a lustful Robert, trying not to think about anything but the physical nature of it all, Robert nearly naked and on all fours...I've rarely seen a soap present a man this way when he's with another man. The way it was done was so casual, yet made such a statement. That's one of the reasons I've liked the story so far - it's ignored so many of the tropes of gay relationships on soaps and there's just something both wicked and tender about the whole thing. I hope that continues.

Please register in order to view this content

[Bright Eyes]

I read on DS that if two men are in bed, one of them has to have a shirt on, like Aaron did in the barn. If that's truly the case I think if the writers could go farther, they absolutely would.

I'm so happy to hear you've come around about Ross and Michael Parr.

I'm not the biggest Rachel fan, but I never outright disliked her. Her pairing with Sam finally made him relevant again and she was a complete after thought before she slept with Jai and spurned this amazing journey of a story.

[ThePrinceOfSunspear]

Wow at that scene...talk about raw and real but nothing too crazy (at least in my terms). That was a really great scene...thanks for posting.

Looking forward to seeing what Ross does lol. I've been so swamped with work. Totally behind on Hollyoaks and a little behind on Emmerdale. Hope to fix that soon.

[Ben]

Shame Charity had to go down, but a necessity for the character. I bet it wouldn't have happened if EA wasn't pregnant. Now she's revealed she's in love with Cain (again), I guess this will be the story focus for when she returns in a year's time.

Don't like Rachel, so not happy to see she's back permanently. But, it does explain why they chose to bring back the awful Tracy. I'll have to FW what will surely be the tedious triangle of Rachel/Sam/Tracy.

I think that's something some people have picked up on, but something that isn't necessarily true. It's something they do HO, which people have noticed happen on other soaps for some reason. A notable exception would be that scene of Christian/Syed in bed on EE, where both actors were shirtless. I think sometimes it's just directors playing it safe and sometimes living up to what has become a "thing".

[DRW50]

Emma is such a wonderful actress - the scenes where she got sent down and Debbie burst into tears, along with the very tender scenes with Cain and Charity lately, remind me of how strong this unit can be when they are allowed to be human and not just drown in crime stories.

I also really like Rakesh. I hope they'll give him something good to do.

I only ever hear people complain about Megan and Jai, especially Jai (I'm not sure he has any fans). What do you think of them?

I think the shirt with Aaron is so they won't have to do makeup for scars, but it's also an easy excuse for less intimacy (although Aaron and Robert have certainly been far more intimate than I ever thought - they've been stronger in that area than any British soap sans Hollyoaks, and most of the gay relationships on HO annoy me). A cynical part of me wonders if the self-harm story might have been done in part to help give Aaron less shirtless scenes down the line...(of course Danny Miller left not long after it ended anyway). You can tell this is where they're heading again and I'm wary.

[Ben]

Rakesh is awesome; he's such a likeable character, and I love his little unit with Priya and Kirin. When he arrived, they billed him as villain, I think, and gave him that boring blackmail story with Jai, which has thankfully fizzled to nothing. Jai was shouting from the rooftops that Rakesh couldn't be trusted, but never revealed why for no logical reason other than being a douche. It never went anywhere.

I hate Jai and Megan. I used to like Jai with Charity, but as soon as they split, he became such an unlikeable jerk. He doesn't really have any redeeming qualities at all. He's rude, obnoxious, arrogant, and really needs to go. The wrong Sharma brother left the day Nikhil went to Canada. Megan randomly latched on Jai and they became an item, even though they have no chemistry. It felt like they were paired up b/c Megan was drifting about. Now, Megan has stayed with Jai after finding out about his affair with Layla, which is very out of character. I guess it's b/c she doesn't want to be alone, but still, she's given away all of her self respect and dignity to bloody Jai of all people. Megan should have left after Robbie was killed and Declan went on the run, as she's a spare part with no connections to the village. She's also pretty boring, too.

I'm also not keen on the idea that Jai is some kind of super catch. Layla is falling all over herself to be with him, even though he's not treated her well at all. They're another couple with no chemistry, and Layla is another woman who is giving away her self respect to Jai.

This is what bugs me about ED at the moment: 50% of the show is decent, with potential, and interesting characters leading story, while the other 50% is awful.

[ThePrinceOfSunspear]

Is Charity the one who revealed to Moira that Cain was having the headaches/aneurysm? She seemed very clingy and weird if so. But at the same time she's the one who finally told the idiot to fess up...I don't know much about her history but she seem innocent to me.

[Bright Eyes]

Charity seems innocent? You really are new to this show. Check my avatar, please.

[ThePrinceOfSunspear]

Lol that doesn't look like the lady I'm thinking of. I'm referring to the woman who was in some tiff with another character who told her that she hopes she goes to jail over something and that they throw the book at her. This same woman was the one who was living with Cain and Moira I believe. And Moira suspected that her husband Cain (who had the aneurysm in the brain) was cheating on her with that lady.

Anyways I'll pay closer attention when I finally catch up. I hope there were more Robert/Aaron scenes aside from the adorable bedroom one.

But I did just see a Youtube clip of her being sentenced to two years! What did she do?

Edited January 21, 2015 by ThePrinceOfSunspear

[Ben]

What hasn't Charity done?! Yeah, she's the blonde who alerted Moira to the fact Cain had an aneurysm, and has recently said she's still in love with Cain.

Charity and Cain used to be a couple; Debbie is their daughter.

Charity pulled suicidal Declan Macey out of Home Farm after he set it on fire due to being heavily in debt. They ended up falling in love later down the track, but to begin with they were a couple for appearances only. Declan needed the insurance money to pay off his debts and rebuild Home Farm, so Declan suggested framing her cousin Sam for the crime. Sam at the time had broken into Home Farm with the intention of stealing his Christmas presents as payback for firing him, but had a change of heart and put them all back, but he was caught on CCTV. Charity felt guilty for framing her cousin, so decided to blackmail Sam's girlfriend Rachel Breckle as revenge for having a child with Charity's then husband Jai Sharma. Charity gave Rachel an ultimatum: confess to starting the fire, exonerating Sam, then leave town with her and Jai's son for ever, or, stay and let Sam rot in prison. She chose the former. Jai was devastated at losing his son, and Sam was heartbroken. The insurance money paid out, and Declan and Charity started their new life together.

But, Declan's sister Megan didn't trust Charity and wanted her gone. Declan wanted a baby, but Charity didn't want any more children; she didn't feel she was the maternal type, and really after screwing up Debbie's life, she had Noah (her son with Chris Tate) who has acted as a "do-over", and didn't need or want any more children. But, a baby was a deal breaker for Declan, and Charity got pregnant. Only, she didn't want it so got an abortion in secret. Charity framed Megan for "killing" her baby after they got into a fight, and Megan was ostracized by Declan. Megan teamed up with her son Robbie to uncover the truth, and once they did, Declan went on an epic revenge rampage by poisoning Charity, then luring her to a secluded cottage where he bashed her over the head with a meat tenderiser, and planned to bury her alive. She escaped onto a boat where Declan surprised her; he aimed the flare-gun at her, but Robbie swam to stop him, jumping in the line of fire. He died. Declan sent a DVD to the cops (and everyone else) confessing to starting the fire, and blaming Charity for the insurance fraud, framing Sam and blackmailing Rachel.

It would have been her word against Declan's if the corrupt detective Bails hadn't been out for revenge. Charity used to be a prostitute and it turned out that Bails was her pimp (someone correct me if I'm wrong), and later his life got messed up as a result when Charity got out. Bails blackmailed Debbie's boyfriend Pete into convincing Charity to confess to all the charges. She eventually decided to do the right thing by Debbie and made a confession. Rachel returned to give evidence, which sealed Charity's fate. Hence why she got two years.

[Bright Eyes]

Of all the things I imagined about Rachel's whereabouts, I love that this fantastic show flipped the script and had the shocker be that Jai has had a fake Archie this whole time. It couldn't have happened to a better bastard.

Edited January 23, 2015 by Bright Eyes

[DRW50]

Is that the one who used to play Daz? Or is that the other one from Shameless?

I know they had to get rid of him because he faced serious charges, but it's annoying to me that Daz is never even mentioned. I read last year that they even had another character also nicknamed Daz.

I don't pay a lot of attention to the Spencer story (Ali depresses me), but I did see some of the clips about Archie. That's a clever twist.

Was Rakesh in the episode?