Is Iain Dean about to be caught up in a dangerous love triangle in Casualty episode Take the Strain (BBC One, 9.10pm, Saturday 03 February 2024 — See our TV Guide for listings)?
Meanwhile, trouble brews between Rash Masum and Rida Amaan, Stevie Nash confronts PC Harry Sinclair, and Teddy Gowan finds himself caught between two lovers!
Full Casualty spoilers for Take the Strain below…
Iain Dean tested to his limits
Iain Dean faces a nightmare scenario in the opening scenes of this week’s Casualty. While treating suicidal 15-year-old Tabby Burke in the back of an ambulance she heartbreakingly attempts to take her own life.
Jacob Masters (Charles Venn) puts his foot on the accelerator and they manage to get Tabby (Alina Allison, The Break) to the ED, where she’s treated urgently by the team.
Iain (Michael Stevenson) is distraught at the prospect of leaving her, but he and Jacob are called to a shout-out at a tower block.
Heartbreak with Faith
There’s more heartache to come too…
While leaving the ED, Faith Cadogan (Kirsty Mitchell) pulls Iain aside for a quick chat and reveals she’d like her house keys back.
All this is only the very beginning of a hellish shift for the upset paramedic.
Tower block terror
While at the tower block shout out, Iain receives a call from Faith’s daughter Natalia (Zoe Brough), who asks him for a lift home later that evening. Rattled by Faith’s rejection, the downcast paramedic hesitates and tells the teenager he will have to let her know if he’s free.
It’s then back to work. Iain and Jacob find badly injured Alice McDonald (Yasmin Steadman, Coronation Street, Phoenix Rise) and her drug dealer Jimo Armstrong (Jack Gouldbourne, Sister Boniface Mysteries, Masters of the Air) at home in his filthy flat.
Alice is incoherent but it’s clear she's injured herself on a chip pan and needs immediate medical attention. Iain and Jacob manage to convince her to let them take her to Holby ED. Yet, unknown to the paramedic team, she resists treatment and ends up leaving the hospital.
They soon realise what’s happened when they’re called to return to Jimo's flat where lives hang in the balance...
It started with a kiss
When Iain’s nightmare shift finally comes to an end, he decides - with Faith’s approval - to give Natalia a lift. It’s at this moment that his day takes an unexpected turn…
Natalia leans in and kisses him passionately!
How will Iain react?
Rash fires Rida!
Rash Masum (Neet Mohan) is feeling decidedly out of the loop when it comes to his father Ashok’s care. Such is Rida Amaan’s (Sarah Seggari) success in looking after Ashok (Kriss Dosanjh), that the young doctor starts to exhibit something that looks a lot like jealousy.
Rida, meanwhile, is confused and hurt when Rash uncharacteristically lashes out at her while they’re working together. Believing it’s because she’s wearing his mother’s necklace (but only to appease Ashok) she hands it back… only for Rash to explode in anger and fire her!
It’s a completely different side to the usually mild-mannered medic and we suspect he has some grovelling to do.
Will it be too little, too late?
Teddy and Paige split
While teamed up with her nephew Teddy Gowan (Milo Clarke) this week, paramedic boss Jan Jenning (Di Botcher) begins to suspect two things.
1) Teddy isn’t being entirely honest with his fiancée, doctor Paige Allcott (Shalisha James-Davis)
2) There’s something going on between him and nurse Jodie Whyte (Anna Chell)
Jan is correct on both fronts.
We won’t spoil what happens, but we will say this: By the end of this episode poor Paige is heartbroken and still in the dark, Jodie and Teddy become closer, and Jan isn’t having any of it!
Also in Casualty this week…
Stevie Nash (Elinor Lawless) is unsettled due to the fact PC Harry Sinclair (Rod Hallett) is being hostile towards her since she helped arrange respite care for his son Lloyd (Angus Leaton Gray) so that his wife Mel (Amanda Ryan, Shameless) could have time to recover from injuries and exhaustion.
After a day of being given the cold shoulder, Stevie decides to face the problem head on, encouraged by a thank you card she received from Lloyd…
She’s left scratching her head, however, when this doesn’t remotely improve the situation. And, dare we say it, makes it worse.
What’s eating Harry?
Jacob becomes Iain’s confidant in matters of the heart during this episode, but will his best friend disclose the kiss with Natalia? Time will tell!
Faith regrets her attempts to draw certain boundaries with Iain when she hears about his morning with Tabby. She reaches out to him during her shift, unaware that their lives are about to get a whole lot more complicated!
And finally, Dylan Keogh (William Beck) is the bearer of tragic and impactful news, which leaves one member of the team devastated.
Casualty episode Take the Strain airs on BBC One on Saturday, February 3, 2024 at 9.10pm. It is available on BBC iPlayer from 6am.
