The Man stepped in to help Carla Connor when he mistakenly thought she was at danger from Robert Preston. In March 2019, Carla had delayed having the roof of Underworld fixed, unwilling to stop production at the cash-strapped factory in the interim. The staff discovered she was also making plans to relocate production to Milton Keynes and a rooftop protest was held which ended up with the structure collapsing underneath them and Rana Habeeb dying as the building fell on top of her.
Feeling immense guilt, Carla suffered a mental breakdown, becoming increasingly paranoid. She went missing for a while intensely worrying her loved ones. One day Robert, arriving for lunch at the Riverlands Hotel caught sight of Carla and managed to persuade her to get into his van, wanting to return her to her father Johnny. As they pulled into Victoria Street, Carla began to panic and dived out of the vehicle. Robert gave chase but Carla begged the man and his girlfriend for help. Robert didn't help matters by not calmly explaining to the couple what was happening, and they believed Carla’s obvious signs of distress more than him. When Robert tried to push past him, the man punched him in the stomach making him collapse to the ground. Carla escaped again but turned up soon afterwards in Roy Cropper's flat, instinctively seeing him as someone who could help her.