Not managed to keep up with the going ons in the Dales this week?  Don’t worry, here’s our handy recap for you.
James makes his move on Moira
Farmer James progresses with his plans to win a big supermarket contract for both him and Moira but when she confronts him about his true intentions (and hints at a fling in their past) James tries to throw her off the scent and instead secure the contract by sleeping with the businesswoman who’s broking the deal. Moira, happy that it’s purely business, decides to go in on the deal and it’s not until the pair are at a posh hotel waiting to schmooze the supermarket bosses that James reveals his hand. He tells Moira that what happened years ago was more special than anything she has with Cain but a flabbergasted Moira tells James that it’s Cain she loves.
Meanwhile, Dan has been watching James and has his suspicions about his feelings for Moira. James tries to rebuke the claims but eventually Dan is put in a situation where he has to tell Cain of his worries, sending Cain straight to the posh hotel to surprise Moira and save her from the awkward discussion with James. Will Moira tell Cain about their conversation or about their dalliance years earlier or will James decide to tell Cain himself? Watch this space.
Sam calls off the search
Seeing her cousin Sam back from his initial hunt for Rachel, Charity decides to put an end to his search and goads Jai into confessing that he doesn’t care what happens to Rachel and that he’s only using Sam to find his son Archie. Sneaky Charity records the whole thing on her phone and acting the caring cousin she plays it to Sam to make him realise it’s not worth carrying on. At first it just makes Sam all the more determined but eventually she manages to talk him in to accepting that Rachel is gone.
What is Declan up to?
It’s not all that Charity has been up to this week. After she finds out that Declan has received the insurance money but hasn’t given her the half that they’d agreed on, she goes on the war path. However, Declan confesses that there was never going to be enough money for her once his debts were cleared, but that he would like to make her a business partner with him and Megan so she’d get a third of everything going forward.  I don’t know if it was the talk of money or frustration at being duped, but Charity ends up sleeping with Declan and their fake romance seems to be becoming true lust.Â
Brenda’s on the rob again
Getting caught shoplifting doesn’t seem to have stopped Brenda’s new found hobby of stealing things except now it’s not in shops it’s from people’s houses. After she stole a customer’s purse in the café last week and Bob lining up Ruby as the suspect, she plants the purse under the café fridge for Bob to find. A remorseful Bob apologises to Ruby who agrees to take her job back but has by no means forgiven Bob for thinking that she would do such a thing.
Not learning her lesson, or perhaps unable to stop herself, Brenda decides to steal an expensive watch from Georgia when they are invited to the Sharmar’s to see a slide show of pics from her recent trip to Canada to visit their mutual granddaughter. As if that weren’t enough she next decides to punish Debbie by stealing her camera at the twins’ birthday party.
Bernice has a new name
Nicola enlists Marlon to help get sister Bernice dating again. The plan is to set her up on internet dating but only tell her when they need to – something even Marlon points out is a bad plan! Nevertheless the pair proceed to set up a very complimentary profile for the renamed ‘Beverley’ and look like they’ve struck gold with their first reply. Unfortunately for them Bernice walks in on the scheming duo but rather than bluff Nicola just tells Bernice what they’ve been up to. Of course Bernice is disgusted and claims to still have the scent of the last guy Nicola tried to set her up with in her nostrils, but is later caught checking out her profile and asks Marlon if she should go ahead and meet the guy who replied to her profile.
Priya confides in Layla
Layla takes up jogging to try and keep a closer eye on Priya and after the latter has a stumble, Layla is only more concerned that something is not right.  She manages to wangle an invite to the Sharmar’s lunch and is pleased to see Priya actually eating for once. The smile soon fades when she hears Priya being sick in the toilet and knows her suspicions are correct – Priya has an eating disorder. After some heated words Layla manages to get Priya to open up and discovers that she’s still really hurting after David jilted her, feels worthless and that the only thing she can control is what she does or doesn’t eat.  Layla tries to persuade her to see a councillor but she’s not interested and swears Layla to secrecy meaning that she has to tell David and Alicia that she was worrying over nothing.
We need to talk about Kevin
There’s a newcomer to the village this week that melts the hearts of Paddy, Don, Gemma, Marlon and more – a stray piglet that Paddy calls Kevin (as in Bacon!). As Paddy returns him to his new pen at the vets he spies another two piglets heading his way and he takes them to the pub leading to our line of the week when his wife Rhona says ‘somebody somewhere is three little pigs short of a fairy tale.’ The new piglets are dubbed John Ham and Pjork!
If you only have time for one episode this week
Make it Friday’s episode. You’ll see Priya finally open up about her eating disorder after she’s rushed to hospital with stomach pains. James confesses his true feelings to Moira and Brenda taking revenge on those she feels have done her some wrong by stealing Debbie’s camera (after first refusing to offer her a drink at the twins’ party).
Bubbling under
Here’s a look at the coming week.
It wouldn’t be Valentine’s week in soapland without a good proposal. This year in Emmerdale it’s the turn of Moira and Cain, one of our favourite pairings, when Moira pops the question. But will things go swimmingly?
Starting divorce proceedings against Val, Eric turns to her sister Diane for comfort in his hour of need and a few drinks too many leads to the pair sleeping together.   Diane feels terrible the next day and even worse when she finds out from Victoria that Val suspects she’s got HIV and now Diane is worried that she may have got it from Eric. When will these oldies learn that condoms aren’t just for the young!
Finishing our trio of lovebirds is Bernice who is thrilled by her internet match Anton and for their second date invites him to her place (well Jimmy and Nicola’s) and gets more than she bargained for ending up handcuffed to the bed.
Finally, will Brenda get caught after Bob installs cameras in the café?
