Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy) was on hand to support Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson) in Friday’s (August 11) Emmerdale as he broke down after Rishi’s (Bhasker Patel) funeral.

Rishi died after falling down the stairs a few weeks ago. In the aftermath, Jai has focused on organising Rishi’s funeral in India, which he attended this week.

As he spent time with his family, Jai remained unaware that Laurel (Charlotte Bellamy) was back at home going through a terrifying ordeal. She ended up being held hostage for three days by Colin (Mark Noble), who is Marshall’s (Max Fletcher) homophobic father.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser thatsupports HTML5video

While on the bench dedicated to Colin’s dead wife Rachel, Laurel was able to work out that her kidnapper hadn’t properly processed the loss of his wife. Colin eventually broke down and then chose to release Laurel moments later.

As Laurel dealt with the aftermath, one thing on her mind was how badly Colin’s behaviour changed as a result of not processing his emotions. Colin bottled everything up, believing that focusing on other things and distracting himself would be better, when in actual fact he would’ve healed a lot quicker if he just stopped for a moment and cried.

Laurel spotted similar signs in Jai tonight and pointed out that he could end up in a dark place like Colin if he didn’t open up and talk.

As they chatted about the funeral in India, Laurel listened as Jai explained that he didn’t really feel like part of the family after his adoption discovery, but still chose to keep the secret from his siblings.

This was the catalyst for Jai’s emotions to come to the surface. After finding out that Colin had been sectioned while in prison, Laurel urged Jai to be honest about his feelings and slowly, he started to cry.

Jai looked at a picture of Rishi and said that he hated the fact he was horrible to him in the final few days of his life, admitting that all he really wants right now is one last hug from his dad.

Laurel comforted Jai and said that they’ll get through this, ultimately helping him realise it’s okay to ask for help and be vulnerable.

Source: Read Full Article