Evil Celia piles on the pressure in Emmerdale as alliance with Ray escalates dramatically
The jaws of Emmerdale fans were on the floor when it was revealed that eccentric farmer Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths) is actually the head of the drugs operation that has seen Dylan Penders (Fred Kettle) and April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) put into huge danger.
And it’s fair to say she couldn’t care less about the jeopardy she’s putting them in, because she is utterly ruthless.
What’s more, Ray Walters (Joe Absolom), the person we previously thought was the drugs kingpin, is as firmly under Celia’s thumb as the kids are. Ray is, in fact, Celia’s adoptive son, who she found on the streets as a young boy and groomed him into helping her run her evil empire.
‘Everyone assumes it’s Ray,’ Jaye Griffiths told us. ‘Good-looking white bloke, everyone assumes he’s the boss, but actually he is a child compared to Celia. She has overseers who do the actual work and she just runs everything. She’s the boss, there’s no one else, it’s her domain.’
Ray has developed a relationship with April and Dylan whereby they think he’s on their side and is doing his best to buffer them from his bosses – although April has recently had a nasty run-in with Celia and is now in no doubt about who’s running the operation.
In upcoming episodes, Dylan has passed his driving test after ray paid for an intensive driving course. Ray reminds him that the cost of this has only increased the debt he was already in, and he’s going to need to work extra hard to pay it off.
Dylan’s job at the depot puts him in a good position to help shift drugs across the country, and Ray and Celia plan to exploit this. Ray pressurises Dylan into taking a consignment of drugs when he drives to Hull on a trial shift for Jai.
There’s a problem when Jai tells Dylan that he’ll just be going along for the ride on this trip and Billy will do the actual driving.
Meanwhile Celia is keen for April to do more as well, so Ray tells April he’s sending her on a job to Liverpool. Desperately trying to find a way to pay off her debt that doesn’t involve dealing drugs across the country, April hits on the idea of stealing some of Rhona’s jewellery – but Rhona disturbs her before she can carry out her plan.
Seeing no other way out, April tells Ray she’ll do the Liverpool job, but he says it’s too late as someone else is doing it. But he has something else for her to do – and this is where the story takes an even more disturbing twist.
Ray drives her to a hotel, giving her cocaine to take to someone he describes as a ‘valuable client.’ He tells her to have a drink as well.
When the client, Tim, arrives, he accepts the cocaine and offers April vodka.
And soon she finds herself trapped in a bedroom with Tim – and in grave danger.