Jacob’s struggles overwhelm him in Emmerdale after a wave of bad news
Over the past few weeks, ITV soap Emmerdale has shined a light on workplace bullying, involving resident doctor Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant) and his boss Doctor Caitlin Todd (Caroline Harker).
Doctor Todd, for a reason yet to be revealed, has been attacking Jacob’s confidence at any given opportunity. She seems to take pleasure belittling him, when she should really be focusing on how to help this new doctor adapt to life in a busy NHS hospital.
To really mess with Jacob’s mind, the surgeon also confuses him by being nice and throwing compliments his way. It’s gotten to the stage now where Jacob cannot tell which side of Doctor Todd he’s going to face.
One of the most intense moments so far in this story was when Doctor Todd told Jacob that he’d never finish his training, essentially calling him useless.
It came after Jacob went against Caitlin’s father’s DNR and gave him CPR. Angry and upset, Doctor Todd had a massive go at Jacob, which caused him to leave the hospital in tears.
Someone who has picked up on Doctor Todd’s bullying behaviour is Kerry Wyatt (Laura Norton). She overheard Todd patronising Jacob and privately confronted her about it afterwards. Kerry then made the mistake of bringing up Jacob’s history with an older woman exploiting him.
It didn’t take Doctor Todd very long to learn that Jacob was groomed and abused by his school teacher Maya when he was younger. She googled Maya, with fans wondering if she was planning on using this newfound knowledge to her advantage.
Next week, Jacob struggles with his work life blurring into his home life now Doctor Todd is living in the village. His stresses increase further when he learns that he’s been called as a witness at Bear Wolf’s (Joshua Richards) trial.
Spotting his angst, Ross Barton (Michael Parr) checks in with Jacob and learns about his bullying boss, but is somewhat surprised to discover it’s a woman.
Ross advises Jacob to talk it out with her, so he heads off and asks Doctor Todd if he can have a word.
In the week, Jacob takes a huge step by deciding to raise a formal complaint with Doctor Todd’s employers.
When Jacob’s colleague Rich discovers his plan to speak with HR, Jacob’s left worried when Rich says it’s ‘career suicide’.
Just as Jacob heads for the HR office, Doctor Todd spies him going inside.