Warning: This article contains spoilers for Monday February 17’s episode of Emmerdale, now available on ITVX.
Emmerdale has left a minimum of three lives hanging in the balance, with at least one of them d.e.a.d in a tragic turn of events following a crash of a limo into an icy lake.
To preserve the twists for viewers, Metro has agreed not to confirm who is directly involved, who is d.e.a.d or which car has made the plunge into the icy depths until after it has transmitted on TV.
However, what we can reveal is that one is plunged through the ice and seems to have met a watery grave.
Before that, she makes an extremely grim discovery under the lake, which could well match up to ongoing fan theories about a particular missing character…
Gulp!
Elsewhere, others in the crash were faring not much better, with one person very badly injured and clinging on to life.
It’s just the beginning of the ordeal and we already know that the end of the week will show a vigil held by grieving villagers.
And in a recent chat with Jeff Hordley, I was warned: ‘When you hear that they’re doing stunts you instantly think, “Somebody’s going to d.i.e, somebody’s going to cop it here.”
‘I’m worried all the time!’ he added in his exclusive Metro interview. ‘Not all the time, that’s a little bit over the top!
‘Every time there’s news of this it can unsettle us as a cast because we know the shelf life of characters is not forever in soaps and it’s down to the producers or the writers to steer the ship and take us in the direction they want to take us.
‘That sometimes means our contracts will end. Nobody is immune from that, so it’s always nerve-wracking.’
Speaking of Jeff, his alter-ego Cain Dingle is also at the centre of the action, with Caleb Miligan (William Ash) set to confront him at last over his dalliance with Ruby (Beth Cordingly).
It’s the catalyst for one of the crashes, while Charity (Emma Atkins) swerving to avoid Noah (Jack Downham) triggers the girls’ car going haywire.
What Noah is doing on the road remains to be seen but, assuming she survives, Charity will want answers.
But, while the fates of some characters are looking bleak, the cast had a better time, with Jeff confirming a real camaraderie among the Emmerdale team amid the early hours filming.
‘We have a lot of fun,’ he smiled. ‘Vicky Thomas is a fantastic director and spent a lot of time making sure it was shot correctly.
‘Chris Ramage, who’s the lighting director, similarly. One of the nights we shot there was a real eerie, foggy atmosphere. I think it’s going to look really good.
‘We do make sure we give that little extra time to these things to make them look as fantastic as we possibly can.
‘I really think we’ve been pushing the boundaries with our story-telling recently at Emmerdale, trying to shake things up and make things a bit different.
‘For example the episode with the time sequences. Not sticking to the usual formula makes for more interesting viewing.’
Emmerdale airs these scenes on Monday February 17 at 7:30pm on ITV, with the episode already available to view on ITVX.
