This article contains spoilers from the episode of Emmerdale dated May 27. It hasn’t aired on ITV1 yet, but can be viewed on ITVX and YouTube.
Emmerdale’s Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy) and Gabby Thomas (Rosie Bentham) need to have a chat about their taste in men. They currently fancy the same resident – and this isn’t the first time it’s happened.
Gabby has developed a bit of a crush on Ross Barton (Michael Parr) ever since he began his new job at Home Farm.
The problem with Ross is that he flirts with absolutely everyone. In recent days, he’s been throwing charm in Gabby’s direction, but she’s been interpreting this as him flirting because he’s actually interested in her.
When Ross asked Gabby to meet with him, she got her hopes up and wondered if Ross was about to make an official move. It turned out that Ross wanted Gabby to be Sam Dingle’s (James Hooton) new dance partner. She was a bit disappointed, but threw herself into attending a rehearsal at The Hide, believing it would impress Ross.
At the class, Ross and Sam hid behind a wall to watch and gain insight into the moves Lydia Dingle (Karen Blick) was practicing. When Sam dashed away, Ross was stood on his own, which made it look as though he was eyeing up Gabby – and it annoyed Laurel a great deal.
Outside, Laurel had a go at Ross and grabbed his wrist in the process. He claimed that she had hurt him, due to previously injuring that wrist in a boxing match.
But if you ask me, it sounded like an excuse so Ross could get Laurel on her own.
At Mulbery Cottage, Ross enjoyed winding Laurel up and then left. When she was alone, Laurel let out a tiny smirk. In future instalments, Laurel will continue to enjoy the dynamic between her and Ross, all while Gabby remains under the impression that he’s keen on her.
Surprisingly, Laurel and Gabby have actually been in this situation before when it comes to finding the same man attractive.
Kit, played by Thoren Ferguson, arrived in 2022 to assist Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) with his physiotherapy following his stroke.
While he was in town, Kit began flirting with Laurel, who was single following the breakdown in her relationship with Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson).
As Kit got to work charming Laurel, he also matched with Gabby on a dating app, but went by the name of Chris on the account.
Kit went on a date with Gabby and planned to see her again, unaware that she is Laurel’s stepdaughter.
Laurel and Gabby eventually discovered that they were seeing the same bloke. To their surprise, Kit actually tried to talk them round, but Laurel and Gabby dumped him.
Kit left the village shortly after this, due to his deceit being made public.
Stars Charlotte and Rosie recently discussed how history appears to be repeating itself with Laurel and Gabby.
‘She’s clearly going through a menopausal sexual awakening. And why not?’, Charlotte said.
Rosie added: ‘We’ve been in this situation before, haven’t we? With Kit. Gosh, that was what? Two, three years ago? Something like that. That was a rather awkward, funny story.’
Rosie then pondered over how this storyline with Ross actually hits Gabby a bit harder than the one with Kit.
‘It makes her go, “yes, we’ve been here before”, but men are just not something that’s going well for Gabby at the minute. And it’s just the ultimate rejection, really.
‘Gabby and Vinny ended that relationship quite a while ago now and she’s seen him move on, he’s obviously happy with Lewis. She’s in a little bit of limbo right now. She’s obviously focused on work and everything like that but is still craving that male validation, but also wants to take control of her life and be that young businesswoman, and be successful and all of that. I think she sees Ross as a little bit of fun.
‘I don’t think she wants a fully-committed relationship, but she’s also very easily led by attractive young men. I don’t know if you remember what she was like with Nicky, but it was very similar.’
Revealing that Ross’ rejection will lead Gabby down a dark path, Rosie explained: ‘Ross is giving it back to her. He’s flirting. Just a bit of fun flirting, but little does she know he’s obviously doing it everywhere else as well. He says something like, “there’s obviously been a miscommunication here,” and she’s like, “you’ve literally been flirting with me non-stop”, what it feels like to her for however long.
