I love Charity but if I was in Megan's shoes, especially being taking away by the police and I'm assuming her harassment thing is on file, I'd be doing anything to clear my name and get the truth.

Is Debbie not hurting Megan? She's helping Charity ruin her relationship with her brother and she has no problem letting Megan think she caused Declan to lose the child really wanted. How is Debbie the victim at all in this? That really is a stretch I can't understand.

Delete

There's loyalty and there's blind stupidity - Charity is her Mum - Pete is "supposedly" the man she would spend the rest of her life with. Sacrificing her future just to be seen as "loyal" is nothing to be proud of.

Like I explained above I would have confronted Debbie, yes. But not in the way Megan did.

You are forgetting that Megan doesn't know she is right. For all she knows the abortion could be Debbie's. It was nasty of her to confront Debbie the way she did.

I feel bad for Debbie, Charity sold her up the river tbh, however Megan is not buttoned up from back and although she doesn't in concrete terms know that she is right, she does feel in her waters. I think she was going for this tactic in order to get the truth from Debbie. If she had taken her to one side there was ever chance Debbie would be ready but for her to say it in front of Pete would force Debbie's hand and sadly Debbie's chosen the wrong path this time - giving Charity's version of events. I hope her and Pete make it back up though.

This is one entertaining story with all the twists and turns.

Well said.

Megan did not take in to account Dingle loyalty though did she?

It's fine anyway. She will pay for it And hopefully something will happen to that awful Jai.. just because

She doesn't "know" as in no-one has admitted to it - but sometimes you know when somthing is right.
Megan's not totally stupid - would Debbie have admitted it to her in private? - would she hell. By confronting Pete - Pete now knows the truth (if he believes it) and is much more likely to tell Megan what he knows - sometimes you have to be as devious as the Dingles.


It could be argued that she did Pete a favour

I don't believe for one minute that Megan has to "pay" for anything - which is the first line of Collie's post.

She forgot the second rule of being a Dingle: You're now a loyal b*stard!

Bahahahaha, Jai really annoys me so yes to that.

I'm not disagreeing with all that but you told me 'I would do the same' and I am telling you I would not.

She doesn't know she is right. She thinks she is. That's why I wouldn't do what she did.

Of course she doesn't have to pay for anything but she is a fictional character and I hope she does

Megan's gripe is with a Charity, which is fair enough as Charity has lied. Debbie however has only tried to help her mother, which anybody would do ( you help your parents, you stick up for them and protect them just like they would for you because, well their your parents) , and to start with she wasn't happy to either, until Chas pushed her into it. Megan has no problem with Debbie and telling her to tell a a packed pub she'd had an abortion was just spiteful. It's not exactly something nice to broadcast to all and sundry! Mud sticks, no matter how much that person would say otherwise afterwards, there'd always be those pointing and spouting hear say behind their back. Nobody should have to have that because somebody has issues with their mother.


I would in that I'd have gone after Charity yes. I wouldn't have gone after Debbie though, just incase it was true. But in Debbie's shoes I would also have gone with my mum's lies to protect her.

Sure you would - if it was Donna instead of Debbie

Donna, Debbie, whoever, I wouldn't have gone after them. No point trying to corner them in private as their bound to stick to their story unless they've got Edna's morals for truth, but I wouldn't go after them in public, in case they really were telling the truth and made me look like total idiot!

Have to agree with this. I would be have done the same thing as Megan. The reason she did it so publicly was in order to get Debbie to be too shamed to continue with the lie with Pete there and others but Debbie is now blindly supporting her mother who has got her into this mess in the first place.

I get why Megan did it, but it was still a spiteful thing to do. I'm not saying Debbie isn't wrong to lie either, but again I get why she's doing it.

For starters, Megan pushed her over, knowing that she was pregnant...fact

Charity married Declan because she loved him. She just didn't want any more children.

There was no pushing involved. Megan pulled away when Charity grabbed her arm IIRC.


She loves his money. You can see the pound signs in her eyes.

But Charity does love Declan, she just doesn't want a baby. Debbie isn't helping trick a man stay married to someone who doesn't love him, she's trying to make sure her mum stays with a man she loves. A man who is quite ruthless enough to kill her if he found out the truth, I'm sure Debbie doesn't want to risk her mother getting killed because she wouldn't back up her story! If that happened, not only would she have lost her mum, she'd blame herself - imagine thinking you'd helped cause the death of your own mother.

If memory serves me right, Charity only waited until after the honeymoon, because Declan purposefully booked it so that it would be too late for an abortion to take place. I'm not making excuses for her, and lying about a miscarriage was wrong, but she didn't intend to wait until after her honeymoon, it was Declan's doing that caused that.

One of the things I've really loved about this storyline is the way that nobody is black and white in their actions. Just about everyone involved has either made mistakes or behaved in a pretty disgusting way, but they tend to have had good intentions behind them or to have done some good deeds along the way too. It's making it very difficult to take sides tonight, since I love both Megan and Debbie and I think it's hard to say either of them can take the high ground here.

I think family loyalty plays a huge part in this story. We've seen it over the last week with Debbie lying for Charity, and it's been a very long running thread with Megan wanting to help Declan. In both cases I think it's understandable why they would act like this. Debbie was abandoned by Charity and Cain for so long, has had issues in the past with custody of Sarah (and with Sarah's health), and has a history of bad relationships. I don't think it's too far fetched to say that she would go very far to keep the family she has around her to make sure that she doesn't fall back into the problems of her past. Similarly Megan seems to have had a bit of an unstable upbringing (although not to the extent of Debbie's), there is unknown history surrounding her giving up her son, and suffering abuse at the hands of her brother. She showed unwavering loyalty to Declan at his lowest point, and I think that without her small family she would crumble. She doesn't seem to have had a great romantic history, and Declan seems to have been the only 'constant' in her life for a long time so I fully understand why she doesn't want to lose him.

In light of this, I think both have been driven to the point where they're going to do unreasonable things to protect what they have to. I think that few can say that Debbie is doing the right thing in pretending she had an abortion, but Chas and Charity and both guilty of guilt tripping her into it. Megan wasn't doing a great thing by confronting Debbie in the pub, but she has her heart in the right place and for all she knew Debbie would push the blame straight back on to Charity. I don't think there was any spite involved or any intent to ruin Debbie's relationship. Really, if she'd asked Debbie in private she would just keep up the act so it would defeat the point. Yes she could probably have found a better opportunity than in the pub, but remember that this is a woman driven to desperation after months of estrangement from her family.

Debbie and Megan have both been the victims of manipulation by Charity. Even Declan (IMO) told Megan about the 'Debbie's abortion' story because he knew she'd confront her about it. He's let her be arrested all as part of his revenge, so he's not exactly innocent himself. The same goes for Chas who's for some reason decided to bow to Charity and become her minion too.

While I'm here, I might as well say that I don't buy the "Charity really loves Declan" stuff for one minute, no matter how true it is. She manipulated him at a very low point, encouraging him to lie to his sister about the fire and to pin the blame on someone else for her own reasons. She's lied to him about having an abortion, manipulated him into cutting his only family off and used him purely for money back in January/Feb/whenever. That isn't the acts of anyone who loves Declan. IMO that is emotional abuse. Abortion isn't some little game she can play. She messed with emotions. Declan grieving for a child, Megan having to deal with the guilt of thinking she was responsible. She is an absolutely disgusting woman IMO. When she was getting her petty revenge on Jai it was fun to watch, but the more I think about it the more I see that there's nothing likable about her left. But as I said earlier, it's not all black and white and I can see why others still do like her.

So all in all, I'll say this. Personally I don't think Debbie should have lied for Charity. Not at all. If it was me, I would have cut Charity off a long time ago - I understand that it varies from person to person though, and that's fine. Similarly, I don't think that Megan had any malicious intent. She was driven to desperation and, though I wish she hadn't confronted Debbie in that way, I understand her reasons for it. I think both Megan and Debbie are just unfortunate victims of Charity's games. Nobody needs to pay, they just both need a hug from someone right now.

I bloody hate Charity.

Personally, I think Debbie danced with the devil and she got burned. She lied to cover for Charity, which she didn't have to do and which she knows she shouldn't have done, just because supreme hypocrite Chastity laid a guilt trip on her. Charity showed just what she thinks of "Dingle loyalty" by throwing her own daughter under the bus to get what she wants. So, yeah, actions have consequences and Debbie is living with those consequences now. Serves her right. And serves Charity right too, that she has this on what passes for her conscience. She married Declan for his money and she pretended she wanted his baby so he'd marry her. The fact that several months down the line she randomly decides that she's fallen in love with someone who just happens to be the richest man in the village doesn't excuse it.

I don't even know why Debbie shows such blind devotion to her mother, whenever stuff gets bad for her it's always Cain who comes through for her not Charity who is too busy conning whichever rich bloke she has her claws into at the time.

I've always thought Charity was the better parent to Debbie than Cain, especially last year when she stuck with Debbie and her craziness, she was the one trying to help Debbie and get her to see sense whereas Cain couldn't be bothered. Cain has always punished Debbie in some way or another whenever she's done something he doesn't approve of. Charity has never spitefully tried to punish and hurt Debbie unlike Cain.

Good post Pan.

I totally agree on your first point - in most other situations (the Cameron stuff for instance) it's clear who is the villain, but here both Megan and Charity have done things they shouldn't be proud of. To be honest, the 2 people I feel sorriest for are Debbie (who has been pulled into this by her mother through no fault of her own and, whether rightly or not, agreed to go along with it) and Declan who is being pulled apart by 2 women both of whom, allegedly, love him.

Declan was wrong to tell Megan about the abortion being Debbie's and Megan was definitely wrong for the way she went about confronting her. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation she just shouldn't have done that - it was mean-spirited and vindictive and not likely to do anything to endear her to Declan again if that was what she was trying to achieve.

Charity was of course wrong to lie to Declan in the first place - and then every subsequent thing got more wrong. I did like her trying to offer the olive branch to Megan yesterday, but even then it was probably more for her own sake than for Debbie's.....

Can't wait to see how it all ends up next week. Whatever the outcome though, all involved need to take a long hard look at themselves once it's all over.

Brilliant post Pandora. I agree with most of it except the hating Charity part Oh and I still want Megan to pay whether she deserves it or not



I agree with you S_H, in some ways but Cain has never been father of the year either. He's done far worse things to Debbie than Charity has. Spitefully hurting her as well as abandoning her. He has been there for her when things got rough though I will give him that. He's certainly been a very good father for the past few years.
I think Pandora's point above is why Debbie is loyal to her mother (and father). Debbie has been without her parents for most of her life, probably spent years feeling rejected by them both so it's perfectly understandable that she will do anything to keep them both in her life now. Debbie doesn't love many people but those she has she has always lost (Jasmine, Cameron) so I find it perfectly understandable that she would do anything for her parents, to save from losing them.