You’d think that with Celia Daniels’ (Jaye Griffiths) and Ray Walters’ (Joe Absolom) reign of terror in Emmerdale now at an end, there would be relief and jubilation all round.
Sadly that’s not the case, as the messy aftermath of the drug dealing/people trafficking storyline begins to play out with devastating consequences for many in the village.
Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb) is heavily implicated in the people trafficking operation, even though she had nothing to do with it. Her partnership with Celia in the turkey business means that her signature is all over a lot of documents that Celia left behind – exactly as Celia planned. The police soon arrest Moira on suspicion of being involved in people trafficking.
Meanwhile there are multiple suspects in the frame for killing Ray Walters, whose body we saw being dragged along the ground by a mystery person. When the body is discovered in a van at the depot, the police quickly home in on Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson) as chief suspect.
His past involvement in drugs, his previous relationship with Laurel (Charlotte Bellamy) – who Ray was romantically involved with – and his access to the van where the body was found all point to him.
There are numerous other suspects, though, and among them we’d have to number April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) and her family.
April suffered more than most at the hands of Ray and Celia. Drawn into their operation after she agreed to deal drugs to help her boyfriend Dylan Penders (Fred Kettle) out, she was soon being forced into meeting seedy men in hotel rooms.
One such encounter led to April almost being raped and she retaliated by lashing out at the man with a bottle. Although he survived, April still believes she killed him.
Marlon (Mark Charnock) and Rhona (Zoe Henry) tried everything to save their daughter and gave Ray and Celia thousands of pounds which they couldn’t afford, money which Ray took but then declared that it changed nothing and April would still be required to work for them.
The most evil thing that Ray and Celia did to ensure April’s family cooperated was for Ray to deliberately run Dylan over with his car, while Marlon and the family watched on in horror on Celia’s phone.
In upcoming episodes Jai returns to the Woolpack after the police let him go while they carry on their enquiries. All eyes are on him, with various people muttering about him being a killer. Angrily he lashes out, suggesting that April and Dylan have more motive than him for wanting Ray dead.
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Dylan is struggling with all of this. He feels guilty for bringing Ray into April’s life in the first place, and he’s particularly finding it hard to cope with Paddy (Dominic Brunt)’s distress that his dad Bear (Joshua Richards) – who was being kept as a slave on Celia’s farm – is missing and could be dead.
April tries to reassure Dylan that he’s as much a victim of Ray and Celia as anybody else. He groomed and manipulated Dylan into working for him, with Dylan initially believing that Ray was a good guy who had his best interests at heart.
Dylan’s reaction to her attempt at reassurance shocks April, who is just relieved that Ray can’t hurt her or her family any more. He insists that Ray didn’t deserve to die no matter what he’d done, and storms out.
Is there more to this than Dylan’s letting on?
