As we whizz quickly towards autumn, Emma Barton’s time in Emmerdale is almost coming to an end, and a surprise return to the show next week could speed things up a lot.
We know the nasty nurse is set to leave the Dales in a dramatic storyline this autumn, but the comeback of Gabby Thomas could be set to derail Emma even sooner than we thought.
Gabby has been away in Australia, trying to deal with the loss of her father, Ashley Thomas, to Alzheimer’s, and boy, has a lot happened while she’s been away.
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First of all, there’s all the stuff with the video footage. Emma found out Arthur had seen a recording of her with his dad, manipulating Ashley’s memory and making him very distressed.
When Arthur accused her of “making people cry” she realised she had to act or her dark secret, that she’d killed James Barton, would be out and she’d end up losing everything.
So Emma destroyed the videos of Ashley, leaving the nine-year-old bereft. She also told him he couldn’t bother his mum, Laurel, with any of this as she was seriously ill. What a witch.
When Laurel did discover everything, she confronted Emma, put two and two together and worked out exactly what was going on, and that Emma was involved in James’s death.
Unfortunately, despite Laurel’s best efforts to expose her, Emma managed to paint Laurel as going mad with grief and even had people believing she’d turned back to the bottle to cope.
But now Gabby is back and the teenager isn’t one to be messed about.
Despite Laurel’s excitement for her stepdaughter’s return, she’s disheartened to learn Gabby is planning to live with Bernice instead of her.
Meanwhile, Arthur isn’t looking forward to seeing his sister, worried she’ll be cross with him when she discovers the video footage has been destroyed.
Finally Bernice brings Gabby home and it’s all smiles as she shares a warm embrace with Arthur.
But Emma’s soon getting in the way, and when she interrupts the big welcome home, Gabby is left very suspicious indeed.
It’s not long before she finds out what happened to the videos, but we’re guessing it won’t be Arthur she takes her anger out on.
We’ve seen in the past Gabby can be very devious indeed – especially when teamed up with partner in crime Liv Flaherty.
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Will these two get together and expose Emma for what she really is? Can they set a trap that will bring about the murderesses comeuppance sooner than we thought?
Emma is set to leave in “an intense spectacle” in the next couple of months. Show boss Iain Macleod recently confirmed her exit.
Her secret’s got to be the thing that leads to her downfall – could Gabby be the one to expose it?