Next week on Emmerdale, Arthur might be dating again, Kim vanishes as Will’s abuser ups the ante, and Billy has nowhere to put his money.
1) Will’s tormentor ups their demands
Will’s (Dean Andrews) situation goes from bad to worse next week, as his blackmailer ups their game. The past couple of weeks has seen Will tormented by someone threatening to tell Kim (Claire King) about his dalliance with ex-wife Rose (Christine Tremarco), with a demand for £10,000 to keep quiet.
Will had secretly sold his watch, a wedding gift from Kim, to raise the funds, but ended up getting caught up in helping with the barn fire at Butlers. When Will ended up in hospital as a result, he missed the planned drop-off, with his phone temporarily taken by the emergency services in the hope of contacting his next of kin.
When he eventually retrieved his phone to find angry messages threatening to make him pay, tonight’s episode saw Will learn that one of Kim’s beloved horses had subsequently gone missing, leaving Will in no doubt as to who was behind it.
“There’s a culmination of a few different things happening all at once,” Dean Andrews told EverySoap during a recent press call. ” And he puts it all together that the central nucleus is this blackmailer creating all these problems.”
Next week, Will is in a panic when the blackmailer ups their demands to £50,000, as punishment for missing the drop.
Desperate to raise the cash without Kim finding out, Will resorts to approaching Caleb (Will Ash).
“It’s one of the few things he feels he can do,” Dean explains. “He goes to his ‘best mate’ Caleb and asks him for 40 grand to make up the difference, and puts his shares in the haulage firm up as a guarantee to be paid back.”
Although Caleb has apparently been eliminated as the suspected tormentor, he has secretly been working to take down the haulage firm anyway in order to build up his own business empire to rival Kim, so this plays into his hands perfectly!
With Caleb’s loan secured, Will is in a good mood as he makes some big promises to Kim, but he’s soon brought crashing down to earth when he receives a message demanding the payment.
Finally getting his hands on the cash the following day, Will replies to say that he has the money and awaits further instructions. But in the meantime he has the bombshell to drop on business partner Jimmy (Nick Miles) that, as of now, he is partnered with Caleb in the business.
“Jimmy doesn’t react very well,” Dean reveals. “They have a bit of a fallout as you can imagine. But again I think Will’s just thinking of himself and his relationship. What he’s hoping is that he gets the 40 grand from Caleb and he pays them off, everything becomes all right, and he can somehow pay Caleb the money back and nobody’s going to be any the wiser.”
2) What has happened to Kim?
When Will later returns to Home Farm for lunch, he’s thrown to find Kim has disappeared.
“Kim had said that she was going to cook lunch, and when he gets back it’s absolutely burnt to a crisp,” Dean continues. “He can’t understand it, but then thinks ‘Well maybe somebody’s come and grabbed her’ or something along those lines. It’s very unusual for her to just disappear for no reason… especially when she knows Will’s hungry.”
But Will is horrified when his worst fears are realised, as he receives a call from the blackmailer informing him that they’ve taken Kim!
“He’s up the creek and he doesn’t really know what to do,” Dean adds. “He’s basically at the end of his tether and will do anything to make this problem go away!”
Following their instructions, Will takes the cash into a wooded area, where things begin to get rather weird…
When Will sees Kim lying on the ground, he rushes towards her, only to find that it is a mannequin dressed as his wife.
“He’s kind of getting notes and directions from a voice in the woods, and he can’t fathom out where it’s coming from,” Dean teases. “So he gets really panicky. He’s got the 50 grand and he doesn’t know what’s going to happen. He just keeps saying ‘Look just come out I’ve got the money, stop all this stupidity. Just come get the money and leave me alone.’”
As Will is goaded further into the woods, who or what will he find…?
3) A new romance for Arthur?
Elsewhere in the village, Jai (Chris Bisson) is determined to restore his fractured relationship with former stepson Arthur (Alfie Clarke). Since returning from a trip to Australia, Arthur has been gunning for Jai after hearing about his antics which led to mum Laurel (Charlotte Bellamy) having a heart attack and deciding to divorce him.
Next week, Jai is given some encouragement from Charles (Kevin Mathurin) to try and repair things with Arthur, but he is thwarted when Arthur continues to ignore him.
The next day, it seems as though things are looking up for Arthur when he brings home a date, Lewis.
17-year-old Arthur came out in December 2022, and has so far only had a short ill-fated relationship with schoolmate Marshall Hamston (Max Fletcher), who was in turn struggling to come to terms with his own sexuality and his father’s abuse towards him.
As Arthur and Lewis head into Mulberry Cottage together, the nervous teens crack open the beer, not quite sure what to do next.
Later on, Jai springs Arthur and Lewis secretly disposing of their empty cans. As Lewis makes an awkward exit, Arthur worries that Jai might tell Laurel what he saw.
Will Jai use the situation to his advantage?
4) What is Billy up to?
Over at Holdgate, Dawn (Olivia Bromley) is confused when she finds a huge wad of cash and confronts husband Billy (Jay Kontzle) over it. There’s no doubt that the money will come in useful, with the couple now living in the £2500-a-month pad after moving out of Home Farm, but Dawn is worried as to where it came from.
Billy quickly covers and says that he has been saving up for a surprise, which is enough to get Dawn off his back.
But once Dawn is out of the way, Billy makes an mysterious phone call to ask someone for more work…
Who has Billy been working for… could it possibly be linked to the goings-on at Home Farm?
5) Gail is on the move
Meanwhile, it seems that Gail (Rachael Gill-Davies) has had enough of her currents digs and is looking to move elsewhere. Although Gail will often stopover with boyfriend Ryan (James Moore), she currently lives in an unseen place away from the village.
Ryan is hopeful that this means Gail would like to move in with him, but he’s gutted when Gail reveals that she’s actually looking to find somewhere else, in the hope of living on her own.
Will Ryan be able to convince Gail to change her mind?
6) Jimmy and Lydia are at loggerheads
Also next week, with Tom’s (James Chase) abuse of wife Belle (Eden Taylor-Draper) now public knowledge, their remains a fracture in the village between Belle and Tom’s respective families. Jimmy and Nicola (Nicola Wheeler), have stood by their nephew in the face of Belle’s ‘accusations’, facing the ire of the Dingle clan in the process.
When Jimmy and Lydia (Karen Blick) sit down together in the cafe, they continue to argue about Tom.
With neither seemingly prepared to back down, will Jimmy ever see his nephew for what he really is?
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