The following article contains spoilers from the episode of Emmerdale dated May 8. It hasn’t aired on ITV1 yet, but can be viewed on ITVX and YouTube.
Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant) discovered some surprising news about Doctor Caitlin Todd (Caroline Harker) in Emmerdale today, and began to wonder if his nightmare was close to being over.
Jacob has become a shell of the man he used to be as a result of his bullying boss. For some reason, Doctor Todd takes pleasure in chipping away at Jacob’s confidence. It started at Hotten General Hospital, but is now happening in the village due to Caitlin moving in with Vanessa Woodfield (Michelle Hardwick).
Theories are floating around as to why Doctor Todd is making Jacob’s life a living hell. Some believe she might be linked to Maya Stepney, the woman who groomed Jacob when he was a teenager, while others think Doctor Todd doesn’t have a reason for bullying Jacob – she just enjoys it.
Jacob has been on paternity leave following the birth of baby Leyla. Shortly after the birth, Doctor Todd discovered that Leyla isn’t actually Jacob and Sarah Sugden’s (Katie Hill) child. She confronted apparent surrogate Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) and told her to get Jacob to drop the HR complaint against her, or she’d reveal the truth.
This week, Caitlin decided to tell Sarah that Jacob couldn’t wait to return to work at the hospital after his paternity leave. Sarah found this deeply insulting and raced to confront her husband, but it led to Jacob breaking down and telling her everything about his ordeal with Doctor Todd.
He attempted to record a confession from Caitlin yesterday, but it seems she’s bullied resident doctors before, as she quickly worked out what Jacob was doing. At breaking point, Jacob stood alone in the village and screamed in frustation.
Jacob was at the hospital in today’s instalment, and grew curious when he realised Doctor Todd was making a speech in front of his colleagues. Believing Caitlin was seeking an opportunity to rave about how great she is, Jacob was surprised to learn that it was actually a farewell speech.
Doctor Todd has decided to go into early retirement, more than likely because she sensed Jacob was close to exposing her wicked ways.
In the pub, Sarah told Jacob that he should still proceed with reporting Doctor Todd, but he didn’t see the point as she was leaving the hospital anyway. He believed his hellish situation was close to being over – but it’s very possible it’s just going to get worse.
At the bar, Vanessa wondered if Caitlin reached the decision to retire because of Jacob. As a result of Doctor Todd’s lies and manipualtion, Vanessa believes that Jacob is obsessed with his boss.
Caitlin didn’t outright confirm that Jacob had pushed her to hang up her stethoscope, but said that he played a part in her choice.
As she glanced over at a very broken Jacob, Doctor Todd made a comment about how he’ll be ‘found out’ soon enough.
Poor Jacob thinks things are going to get easier for him now, but with Caitlin out of the hospital, she has all the time in the world to push him further to the edge.
