Liam Cavanagh (Jonny McPherson) took great pleasure in pouring a can of water over Cain Dingle’s (Jeff Hordley) head as tonight’s episode of Emmerdale opened.
Cain has been nothing but a pain ever since he returned from France a few days ago. He was in the country looking for John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth), the man who killed his son, but Cain never found him.
He revealed that once he accepted he wasn’t going to find John, he went to a pub and started drinking. On his way back across the Channel, a drunk Cain started shouting the odds and then got arrested when he arrived in Dover.
As a result of this and his overwhelming grief, Cain arrived back in the village a broken man. He didn’t want to talk to Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb), he just wanted to drink beer after beer after beer.
Cain left Butlers at the end of yesterday’s episode after breaking Kyle’s (Huey Quinn) new football trophy. He got drunk, and then spent the night sleeping on a bench on Liam’s allotment.
As morning broke, Liam arrived feeling fresh, ready to water a few plants – and Cain’s head.
The apparent hard-man was in no mood to talk to his friend about his feelings… but then again we wouldn’t be either if we had just got woken up via freezing cold water.
Instead, Cain tried to open a beer, but Liam knocked it out of his hands. He told his mate that this behaviour cannot continue, but Cain didn’t really know how to stop.
It seemed a breakthrough happened when Liam admitted to Cain that he really cares about him. After this, Cain went to the pub back room with Liam and started to calm down.
Realising he had been a terrible friend, Cain sat and listened to Liam as he explained that he had suffered a recent health scare.
Liam was tested for prostate cancer, but fortunately he never received a diagnosis. He also opened up to Cain about how he won’t be ignoring his health symptoms if another problem arises in the future.
The chat with Liam put Cain in a better headspace. So much so, he became ready to apologise to Moira.
At Butlers, Cain and Moira had an emotional conversation about losing a child and how the grief never really goes, you just adjust your life to it.
Cain apologised and hugged Moira. Given how much she’s been juggling on her own since Cain’s been away, it meant a lot to Moira that Cain sat and spoke honestly about what was going on in his mind.
Cain had made amends with Liam, Moira and Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller), which meant the final person on his list was Kyle.
As the youngster played a video game, Cain explained to him that he was struggling because of the way his relationship with Nate ended.
He knew his excuses for his behaviour and why he went AWOL weren’t good enough, so all Cain could do was reassure Kyle that he’d be different from now.
Kyle hugged his dad, and Moira smiled in the background.
It was a day of progress for Cain. It took longer than everyone would’ve liked, but he eventually came to realise that he needed to be a better person and work on his relationships with the people he still has around him.
Maybe next he can work on perfecting his French accent.
