Ray Walters (Joe Absolom) continued to pull away from the influence of his horrible mother Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths) in Thursday (December 18)’s Emmerdale, when he defied her to help Bear Wolf (Joshua Richards).
Celia’s attempt to ruin Ray’s romantic relationship with Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy), and the way she totally belittled and humiliated Ray afterwards, has perhaps made him begin to realise that she doesn’t always have his best interests at heart.
When Bear gashed his hand while working and Celia brusquely told Ray just to fix him up enough for him to work, previously Ray would have done just that. But this time he secretly defied her, telling Bear he would drive him to hospital to get the wound cleaned and stitched up properly.
Both Bear and Ray remembered that when Anya (Alia Al-Shabibi)’s wounds were left untended she eventually died from an infection. Ray has become quite fond of Bear – which Celia branded ‘pathetic’ – and didn’t want that happening to him.
At the hospital Ray reminded Bear – or Ted, as he calls him – that he couldn’t tell the hospital staff he was employed by Ray. They decided they would resend that Bear was his dad.
Then Bear spotted a sign on the wall, naming the hospital trust. ‘Are we in Leeds?’ he wondered. Bear has no idea where in the country he’s being kept, least of all that Celia’s farm is so close to his own family home that his granddaughter Eve once spotted him out in a field. Seeing that they were in Leeds must have made him realise that he wasn’t as far away as he thought.
A doctor came to look at Bear’s wound and noticed he had several other injuries, including a broken arm that had never mended properly. Bear only manages the pain from this injury because Ray constantly gives him painkillers, to which he’s now addicted.
Between them, Ray and Bear managed to give a convincing explanation of what had happened. Ray said his dad was often a bit clumsy in the garden.
Then he realised it was the first time in his life he’d called anyone ‘dad.’ Bear mentioned his own lad, without naming Paddy (Dominic Brunt), and Ray talked about his childhood and how he’d been a different person when his grandfather was alive, before he’d been ‘adopted’ by Celia.
In touching scenes, Bear gave Ray some fatherly advice, telling him he should still follow his dreams.
‘What if my dream included a lady?’ Ray said, thinking of Laurel. He talked about his vision of being a stepdad for Laurel’s children. Bear encouraged him not to give up.
Can’t wait for the next twist?
Hi, I’m Calli Kitson, Soaps reporter at Metro. I cover Emmerdale, EastEnders, Corrie and more.
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Celia’s stranglehold on her empire seems to be crumbling by the day. In the same episode Moira (Natalie J Robb) had discovered that Celia had been defrauding her, and Moira and Cain (Jeff Hordley) are planning to confront her.
Ray has already defied her about Bear and he defied her again and went to see Laurel, asking her for another chance, which she agreed to. And when Laurel branded Celia as ‘toxic,’ Ray didn’t argue.
Celia is already making plans to leave the area and start again somewhere else – but can she count on Ray to be by her side?
And Bear now knows he’s in the same county as his son and the rest of his family, and his thoughts are turning back to Paddy more often. Could Bear possibly be home by Christmas?
