This article contains spoilers for the episode airing tonight, which is already available to view on ITVX.

Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) spent the night in a prison cell in Emmerdale after being arrested the day before. His aggressive behaviour could have got him into much worse trouble, but luckily PC Swirling (Andy Moore) was feeling lenient.

Knowing about Moira (Natalie J Robb)’s brain tumour treatment he had sympathy for Cain as he explained that his Auntie Vera has been dealing with a brain tumour and it would be a long and difficult road. He let Cain off with a caution.

At this point the sensible move would have been to go straight home to Moira, but Cain has been spiralling since the day that Moira had her op – the day he went completely off the rails by having a moment of ill-advised passion with his sister in law Ruby Fox-Miligan (Beth Cordingly) at the garage.

Overcome with guilt both for that misdemeanour and also for failing to be by Moira’s side at her follow-up appointment, he headed for the Woolpack to drown his sorrows. He didn’t meet with much sympathy there as Chas (Lucy Pargeter) told him to go home and Mack Boyd (Lawrence Robb) called him an ‘embarrassment’ for getting drunk in the pub rather than being at home with Moira. 

At this point Cain was unaware that Moira had received bad news at her appointment, as she told him on the phone while he was in prison that she was fine. So he still didn’t go home, but headed for the allotment instead. 

He was found there by his friend Liam Cavanagh (Jonny McPherson), who gave him a gentle, Liam-style telling off for letting Moira down and for wearing a jacket totally unsuitable to the ambient temperature. He took Cain to his house for a sobering coffee, then took him back to Butlers.

The coffee had little effect against the sheer amount of alcohol and self-pity that Cain was stewing in. Moira quite understandably was furious and fed up and wanted to know why she was never able to focus on herself because she was always thinking about managing him and his moods. 

Cain apparently then decided that the best thing to do was come clean about his awful behaviour on the day of the operation and told Moira he needed to explain ‘Why I did what I did.’ 

Before he could do that, Moira told him she needed radiotherapy. She said the tumour had been an atypical meningioma and it had the potential to come back. Hearing the news all by herself without his support had been incredibly difficult. 

Cain was absolutely floored by this news and of course said that he’d be with his wife for every appointment from now on. But Moira had had enough. She said she couldn’t rely on him any more and from now on, she’ll be facing the treatment alone. 

Is this the end for Cain and Moira, even before the truth about him and Ruby comes out?

‘His wife is not the forgiving type,’ Jeff Hordley said. ‘She often reacts in the same way to Cain in these situations. She is volatile.’

It’s not looking good…