Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) hasn’t been herself since before Christmas on Emmerdale. Not since the day when she went to look for Mackenzie (Lawrence Robb), who’d been kidnapped by evil gangster Damon ‘Harry’ Harris (Robert Beck) – the father of Chloe (Jessie Elland).
Harry’s plan for stopping Mack from wanting to see his and Chloe’s son, Reuben, was quite simple. He was going to kill him. By the time Charity arrived on the scene Mack had already been tied up for days, had been badly beaten up and Harry had a gun pointing at him.
Charity instinctively rushed to help, there was a scuffle and Charity ended up shooting Harry dead. That moment has haunted her ever since.
Despite the fact that the police didn’t plan on taking any action against her, and despite the knowledge that if she hadn’t intervened Mack would almost certainly be dead, Charity can’t let go of the guilt and the trauma of that moment when the gun went off and the knowledge she killed someone.
This has led to panic attacks and persistent insomnia. Charity is constantly on edge and her temper has exploded at Moses (Arthur Cockroft), causing him to run away. She’s lashed out at everyone around her at some point and her family are becoming increasingly concerned.
At the beginning of Tuesday (February 20)’s episode Charity was struggling after another sleepless night and when Noah (Jack Downham) refused to turn off the shooting game he was playing she couldn’t cope and turned the console off at the wall, much to her son’s irritation.
A concerned Mackenzie suggested that she should see a doctor to find out why she wasn’t sleeping but she insisted she was fine – and then panicked because Noah had left the door unlocked overnight.
Later on she was working behind the bar at the Woolpack on her own. It was Suni (Brahmdeo Shannon Ramana)’s birthday and he and a group of friends, along with Ruby (Beth Cordingly) and Caleb (William Ash), were heading off for a night out. First they stopped off at the Woolie for shots.
What Charity really didn’t need was a bunch of loud, rowdy people in her pub and when Nicky (Lewis Cope) accidentally knocked the glasses over she flinched. ‘More shots!’ Ruby demanded and reached for the bottle Charity was holding.
Charity shook her off angrily and ordered them to get out. Nobody could quite believe the violence of her reaction and Nicky asked her if she was joking. Overwhelmed, Charity just couldn’t cope and repeated that she wanted everyone to get out. Soon every customer in the pub was heading for the door.
Charity was left shaking as she realised that control of her life was slipping away from her.
Will she finally seek help?
