IRATE fans have been left fuming over Emmerdale’s domestic violence plotline focusing on Belle Dingle and Tom King.
Viewers are watching intensely as the ITV soap builds to a dramatic conclusion this week, after months of Tom coercively controlling and abusing his wife Belle.
Scriptwriters have penned a one-hour long episode that will see Belle left in a daze wandering through the village after yet another tense confrontation with her husband.
The special episode will play out three potential futures for the abused wife, as she ponders whether to reveal all to her family and the police.
But fans of the soap are feeling “irritated” that Belle has failed to record any evidence of Tom’s terror so she can publicly out him to the rest of the village.
One viewer accused writers on a soap forum of having “dumbed down” Belle “to fit the latest drawn-out plot.”
Another called it “daft” that she wouldn’t get out her mobile phone to record him, while a third said writers were “dragging it out”.
One irked fan wrote: “Why isn’t Belle recording any of this? It would be easy to catch him in the act and out him publicly. Her weakness is really irritating me.
“She’s managed to get away from him. The rest is easy.”
Another replied: “Probably because if she did the storyline would be over? I’m sick of seeing Tom’s smug face.”
A third commented: “They are now dragging it out too much I think. And yes, having had the sense to ask Ryan about tracking and so on, you would have thought she would have the sense now to sweep the house for bugs/cameras etc.
“And absolutely change the locks again – get Cain or Charity to find somebody to do it. Or get Ryan to help her install her own cameras so she can check for Tom letting himself in.
“I can’t really understand why she’s still living there on her own anyway – surely there are a lot of bad memories and now Piper has gone why doesn’t she just pack up and go back home with Lydia and Sam?
“It’s frustrating because the story has been done well but now they are just trying to keep it going to long.
But one more sympathetic fan advised: “It’s actually said the most dangerous time for someone who’s been in an abusive relationship is after they’ve left.
“Abusers don’t just walk away because their partner has left them.”
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And another said: “When you’re in an abusive relationship your confidence has been ground down so much that you’re not necessarily thinking straight.”
Tom has shocked viewers after spying on Belle through cameras and making others believe she is mentally unstable.
He also ran over their dog Piper and allowed Belle to believe she had died.
Fans were shocked to discover the beloved pooch was alive and Tom had cruelly given her away.
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays
