Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths) suffers a potentially devasting blow this week when the ruthless people trafficker reels to realise that her prisoner Bear Wolf (Joshua Richards) has family in the village.

Since her arrival in the Dales, the Devious Mrs Daniels has lived a double life, posing as a no-nonsense farmer whilst secretly running a domestic slavery business with her son Ray Walters (Joe Absolom).

Not only have they abducted the formidable Bear, but the mother/son criminal duo manipulated vulnerable teenagers like April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) and her boyfriend Dylan Penders (Fred Kettle), into county lines drug dealing.

Viewers saw April forced to defend herself against sexual assault from a man called Callum (Max Lohan) during a drug deal gone wrong, forcing her to hit him over the head with a broken bottle, seemingly killing the attacker.

Shaken by the ordeal, she’s been firmly under Celia’s control ever since. But that could all be about to change when April gets dangerously close to discovering that Callum is still alive…

Sick with guilt, April seeks out Callum’s house and posts a Christmas card full of cash through the letterbox for his ‘grieving widow.’  She quickly scarpers, failing to notice Callum open the door. Rattled, Callum makes a panicked phone call to Ray.

Back at the village, a furious Ray collars April and warns her to stop digging into Callum, no matter how much it hurts her. Seeing her shaken up by her run-in with Ray, Dylan’s left deeply concerned for his girlfriend. Back at the farm, Ray tells Celia about April’s close call with Callum.

The pair concoct a plan to separate the poor girl from her loved ones. Will Celia’s evil scheme work? Actress Jaye Griffiths shares her insights on Emmerdale’s new biggest baddie.

‘It’s incredibly simple. You just divide and conquer. Celia has done it before, Ray’s done it before, it’s a plan that works. You sow seeds of doubt, then you back them up until you get what you want, and she always gets what she wants.’

So when Ray firmly tells April to pack an overnight bag for a job, April has no choice and heads off to do his bidding.  Meanwhile, Marlon (Mark Charnock) approaches Dylan and wonders why he hasn’t been to his own birthday party yet. Without giving too much away, Dylan subtly urges him to convince April to talk to the police.

But Celia’s problems are only just beginning as April hurries to the bus stop with a packed bag, only for Marlon to arrive, demanding to know what trouble his daughter is in. At first April denies everything, but eventually she breaks down and confesses –  she’s been dealing drugs for Ray.

There’s big, emotional scenes as Marlon and Rhona desperately persuade April to abandon Ray’s job and stay with them, determined to save the poor girl from this living hell. But April’s sent into panic mode when Marlon gets ready to go to the police when Marlon gets ready to go to the police. Terrified, she tries to convince him it’s a bad idea and in doing so, is forced to reveal her terrible secret – she killed Callum.

Marlon and Rhona (Zoe Henry) are left speechless by this revelation. But before they can react, they’re stopped dead by the arrival of Celia, who acts like nothing’s wrong. But when she receives a video call from Ray, she sneakily props up the phone…

What will Celia do now? Surely the threat of April’s confession will have the villain quaking in her muddy boots? ‘Nope’ Jaye laughs. ‘Celia doesn’t do panic. She’s dealt with much bigger problems than this, and she will deal with it in that smart and casual way.’ But what makes the nastiest farmer in the Dales so confident?

Jaye sheds some light on how the dark reality of county lines drug dealing has informed Celia’s outlook. ‘Most of her mules are young people. This is not a new problem. It’s about dealing with the fallout, if they do that. She has many contingency plans. This is a common problem, this is what you have to deal with if you run a drugs operation. This is not the first time.’

But while viewers might be hopeful that Paddy and Rhona’s support will give April the strength to escape Celia’s grasp, Jaye has a grim prediction.

‘April is now becoming a liability. She is taking up too many resources, too much time in Celia’s head. To be honest, it’s getting to the point where Celia wonders if April really is worth the effort. April is getting down to one or two more chances left.’

We don’t want to be around when those chances run out…