Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) and Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb) got some good news in Tuesday (January 9)’s Emmerdale, when a police offer dropped by to tell them that Harry (Robert Beck)’s death had been ruled accidental.
It was Charity who pulled the trigger and shot gangster Damon ‘Harry’ Harris in a showdown after he’d held Mackenzie captive in a disused warehouse for days at Christmas.
Despite knowing that Harry would most definitely have killed Mack if she hadn’t intervened, Charity has been struggling with the knowledge that she killed a man.
So while Mack who, let’s face it, is a simpler soul, celebrated the news that the police officer delivered, for Charity the reaction was more mixed.
There was certainly relief that she won’t face prison for what happened, but it did nothing to lift the guilt and horror that keep threatening to overwhelm her.
Worse still for Charity it was her birthday so she was forced to put her happy face on and turn up at a party that the family had organised in the Woolpack.
While everyone had a good time around her, Charity was deep in thought. Ryan (James Moore) noticed but assumed she was thinking about Oscar (Harley Hamilton), the grandson she never knew she had who recently appeared in her life.
Later the kids were playing silly games and when Kyle (Huey Quinn) popped a balloon near her the bang terrified Charity, sending her right back to the moment the gun went off, and she turned on the boy viciously until she managed to calm herself down.
Cain (Jeff Hordley) tried to talk to her, knowing that her reaction was linked to what happened in that warehouse, but before Charity could tell him anything Mackenzie breezed in and the moment was lost.
Charity tried to take some comfort from going back home with Mackenzie and sleeping with him, which is usually a guaranteed way to put a smile on her face. But afterwards, while he was upstairs running her a bath, Charity couldn’t contain the panic that had been building up inside her all day.
Struggling to breathe and sobbing she completely lost control for a few seconds before standing in front of a mirror and telling herself to ‘Stop it – just get it together.’
As she tried to push all the trauma and fear down by sheer force of will she repeated to herself, ‘It was nothing. It was nothing.’
It’s obvious that she’s currently hanging on by the slimmest of threads. Will she reach out for the help she so desperately needs
