Emmerdale star warns m.u.r.d.e.r secret unravels as Bear suffers massive breakdown

Bear Wolf (Joshua Richards) is alive! Good news for Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt). On the negative side, his dad k.i.l.l.e.d people trafficker Ray Walters (Joe Absolom) and needs help covering up the m.u.r.d.e.r. Never a dull moment in Emmerdale…

Anyone could have k.i.l.l.e.d Ray Walters. Half the village wanted him d.e.a.d and for good reason.

He and his ruthless mother Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths) exploited vulnerable teenagers April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) and her boyfriend Dylan Penders (Fred Kettle) by forcing them into drug trafficking.

When Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) and Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) tried to free their daughter from the hell she was trapped in, Ray extorted money from them in return for leaving April alone.

Maintaining his façade as an upstanding citizen, he began a relationship with Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy), who fell head over heels for Ray and was horrified to discover how he made a fortune from the misery of vulnerable people.

Her ex-husband Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson) wasn’t thrilled either, which made it all the more suspicious when Ray’s d.e.a.d body turned up in the back of his van.

With a rogue’s gallery that big, it came as a shock when Emmerdale revealed that Ray’s k.i.l.l.e.r was none other than Bear Wolf – especially when everyone thought he was d.e.a.d.

Bear had arguably the best motive of all. Ray groomed and coerced Bear into modern slavery, gas lit lit him into believing they were friends only to exploit him and force him to live in horrendous conditions.

After Celia’s cruel boast to Ray that she m.u.r.d.e.r.e.d him, Dylan broke the news of Bear’s d.e.a.t.h to a devastated Paddy, who was distraught to realise his dad suffered and d.i.e.d at Ray and Celia’s hands just down the road.

However, Bear was revealed to have survived his ordeal. When Paddy’s to force Ray to confess by force backfired, the dangerous drug dealer dragged Ray dragged Dylan into the cottage to m.u.r.d.e.r him… only to get the shock of his life when Bear comes to the rescue, very much alive!

Seeing Dylan in danger, Bear finally turned against his captor, broke his Stockholm Syndrome and choked Ray to death. The m.u.r.d.e.r.e.r of Ray Walters was revealed.

Now, Paddy’s in a good news, bad news situations. Good news that his dad is alive, bad news that he’s got a m.u.r.d.e.r to cover up so his father can stay out of jail. Actor Dominic Brunt describes Paddy’s relief to discover that reports of his dad’s death were greatly exaggerated…

‘Yeah, the relief that he’s alive and the relief that he’s not been m.u.r.d.e.r.e.d by hammers at the hands of Ray!’ Dominic reveals. ‘So it’s a double relief, really. I think he was feeling ridiculously guilty that Bear might have gone missing and d.i.e.d a while ago and then he turns up, so I’ve got a great line where I go: ‘Dad! You’re alive!’ Which reminds me of ‘Gordon’s alive?!’ from Flash Gordon.”

But that relief is short-lived. The police are all over the village and determined to find Ray’s k.i.l.l.e.r. Paddy and Bear didn’t part on the best of terms.

For a long time, Paddy thought his dad had fallen out with him, when in fact he was trapped on Butler’s Farm as a forced labourer. Dominic Brunt explains how Paddy is being driven by his greatest fear; being separated from his father again.

‘Yeah, that’s exactly what he’s fearful of. He fears that his dad will go away again. He thought he was d.e.a.d and he’s back. And now Bear might go down for m.u.r.d.e.r.

‘I think he trusts the judicial process, but the fact Bear is struggling so badly from what he’s been through, he’s heavily drugged up, he’s psychologically in the midst of this Stockholm Syndrome. So Paddy is really doing it to try and save his dad, and save the fact that Dylan would be implicated in it as well, because we all hid the body, really.’

So what now? Paddy’s going to have to protect Bear from being done for m.u.r.d.e.r and keep their story straight to keep his dad out of jail. Their prospects look grim. But as Dominic Brunt explains, Paddy is ever the optimist…

‘I think he truly believes that they’ll get through this, it’ll go away and nobody will be blamed and it’ll just become a village secret. But soaps being soaps, there’s got to be a moral outcome. His worst fear is that it all unravels and of course I think it does. I think! I know about two weeks ahead.’

Two weeks can’t come quick enough…