Emmerdale viewers were quick to react when Gabby Thomas collapsed on Sunday night’s episode, signalling the start of yet another issue-based plot on the ITV soap
Gabby Thomas collapsed on Sunday night’s episode of Emmerdale
Gabby Thomas collapsed on Sunday night’s episode of Emmerdale, prompting the start of another issue-based storyline on the ITV soap.
The waitress, who has been played by Rosie Bentham since 2016, has become obsessed with the quality of food and been seen to be anti-medicine in recent weeks.
On the latest episode of the Yorkshire-based serial, Gabby was listening to social media videos claiming that certain healthy foods were the opposite, a horrified Dawn found her collapsed on the floor. A visit to the doctor ruled out a pregnancy, and she also explained to Manpreet just how little she was eating.
Later on, she told Dawn had stopped taking the pill, claiming that most medicines were ” packed full of chemicals” that she believes are harmful to the human body, so Dawn raised the alarm with her partner Billy. When Gabby found this out, she raged at Dawn: “How dare you! Billy’s told me you were practically wetting yourself to tell him that I’m not on the pill any more.
“You just can’t handle the fact that you’re not the centre of his world any more,” but Dawn ignored the insult and told Gabby that she was just very worried about her. Still furious, Gabby took it upon herself to visit Dawn’s fiance Joe and claim that his partner “still has a thing” for Billy.
She told him: “She’s having secret meetings with Billy behind my back.Trying to stir the pot, get in between us. And I have to say to myself, why on earth would she want to do that? So I really think you should probably ask yourself the same question.”
All of this is part of a brand new issue-based storyline exploring the topic of orthorexia, an eating disorder which embeds itself when an individual which becomes fixated on the quality of the food they consume rather than the quantity.
Reacting to the new episode, fans flooded social media and appeared to be divided on the latest storyline. One fan wrote on Reddit: “Orthorexia is a serious illness and while I do support them raising awareness about it, they’re again not doing an issue-based plot justice.
“They’re again making the central character in the storyline (in this case Gabby) come off as too unlikable and unsympathetic just like Cain in the prostate cancer storyline. I can guarantee you viewers came out of today’s episode siding with Dawn and not feeling bad for Gabby. I certainly did.”
Another said: “Gabby has ‘Orthorexia’….nope Id never heard of it either,” and a third said: “I’m loving this feud again build up between gabby and dawn.”
A fourth wrote: “I take issue with issue based stories that make characters deeply unlikeable. I ended up being Team Dawn today.
“I think Thomas will be the one who ends up seriously sick either not taking medicine for a sickness or the food will give him deficiencies. I can’t stand Gabby in this, she is being written to be deeply unlikeable when the story should be more effective.”
If you’re worried about your health or the health of somebody else, you can contact SEED eating disorder support service on 01482 718130 or on their website, here.
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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