Review of the week: Dawn whinges, Matty left terrified and finally some laughs from Mandy and Rhona

It’s been a complicated week in Emmerdale as we review everything that’s gone one. Things have been looking bleak for Matty in prison, Dawn is struggling to cope with Evan’s illness, and Lydia made an awful realisation.

But there has been one unexpected moment of fun in among all the misery.

Here’s what’s been going on.

Dawn and Billy’s anguish

It’s been tough seeing Dawn and Billy coping with baby Evan’s leukaemia diagnosis. This week things got even trickier for the pair when Billy broke the protective ‘bubble’ at Home Farm and the little lad ended up back in hospital with a temperature.

It’s not been easy for Dawn and Billy – and it’s not easy for us viewers either! In fact, this whole storyline feels like a slog. Dawn’s a devoted mum, doing her best, but she’s being a bit, well, annoying. Surely it’s unrealistic to expect a whole family to put their lives on hold for what could be years? Kim can’t run weddings at Home Farm, putting a big dent in their income. Billy can’t do his personal training, even Clemmie and Lucas are being half-heartedly home-schooled, by people who don’t know what a fronted adverbial is or how to calculate 10 per cent of something.

And by the end of the week, Dawn had even forgotten Clemmie’s birthday (which seems unlikely, to be honest, as she loves her daughter fiercely), giving Rose a chance to save the day, while Kim was out in the cold.

Sadly we feel Dawn’s constant whining is making us far less sympathetic to what should be a heart-wrenching story.

Matty’s torment

There’s not much happiness in the Dales this week and Matty’s prison horror is heaping misery on the misery. This week, his wife Amy accidentally landed him in it when she inadvertently revealed he was trans to prison bully Robbo.

The next thing we saw was poor Matty battered and bruised in the prison infirmary. Though shockingly, he admitted he’d asked his cellmate Les to beat him up as hospital was the only place he feels safe. It’s a tricky situation for Matty, there’s no doubt. He’s determined to stay put in the cell, but frankly we reckon if it was us in that situation, we’d be running to that isolation wing as fast as our legs would carry us.

And there is a bright side to Matty’s torment – at least while he’s banged up, he doesn’t have to listen to Dawn whining, eh?

Kidnap!

Meanwhile ferocious mum Moira was on the warpath, trying to force the truth out of Samson. She even went as far as kidnapping the lying lad – with some help from brother Mack – in an attempt to get him to admit Matty didn’t stab him.

But no, Samson’s staying schtum for now at least. In fact, he even managed to persuade Moira he was going to confess and instead he dropped her right in it with the police! What a snake!

We can’t help thinking Samson’s not being especially savvy. Is he really more scared of Josh than he is of Moira? Moira who killed Emma Barton and let her son take the blame? That Moira? Foolish choice, Samson. Foolish!

Lydia’s on to Samson now,  though, and she can be just as fierce as Moira, though a lot less handy with her fists, so we reckon it’s only a matter of time before Samson fesses up. Which is good news for those of us who are finding new, evil bestie Josh, intensely annoying!

I’ll tell you what I want

Rhona and Mandy’s odd feud seemed a bit forced at first and we weren’t totally on board with it. BUT! What we were totally on board with was the making up. The pair were set up by barmaid Gail after Marlon and Paddy begged her to sort out the beef between them.

And it worked! Before long, the women were necking drinks and sharing stories, and heading into town. In fact, we didn’t see them again until they were staggering home in the early hours – crossing paths with Moira and Mack who’d been at the cop shop.

When Rhona woke up at Paddy and Mandy’s later, she was in a bad way! She even discovered she had a sore back. “What did I do?” she asked. What she did – apparently – was get a tattoo of a Spice Girl! Possibly, Posh. Maybe Sporty. Mandy wasn’t sure. Either way, it was some much-needed light-relief in the midst of all this week’s misery!

Zig-ah-zig-ah, indeed.

Emmerdale usually airs weeknights on ITV at 7.30pm.

Classic Emmerdale usually airs every weekday on ITV3 at 6am and 6.30am, plus 1.40pm and 2.10pm.