Emmerdale has kicked off flashback week, a series of episodes piecing together the events leading up to villain Ray Walters’ untimely death.
Tonight’s episode flashed back to 2 January as it focused on Laurel Thomas, who was in a relationship with Ray. Prior to his murder, Laurel had been tipped off about Ray’s criminal activities by Dylan Penders.
Upset that she had let him into her world and that of her two kids, Arthur and Dotty, Laurel rushed back home. She was greeted by Arthur, who she explained the situation to.
“I will never let Ray in this house again ever, I promise,” she then told her son, but was just about to break her vow.
A different moment in the timeline showed Laurel calling it quits on her relationship with Ray.
“Whatever we had it’s over,” she told him before slamming the door in his face.
Meanwhile, Marlon Dingle could be seen watching on as he hid a knife in his back pocket. The chef could be implicated in Ray’s death after he discovered he was exploiting his daughter April Windsor.
In the flashback, Ray called at Laurel’s, pleading with her to hear him out. He asked her what Dylan had told her about him, having to admit he was a drug dealer.
“I’m sorry I never told you before, it’s not something we advertise, is it?” he said dryly.
“I have lived a dodgy life, Laurel. I’ve done a lot of bad things. Not because I wanted to, not for fun, but because I had to,” he added.
“I hated myself for it. And then, then I met you,” Ray continued.
He said that he could see a future where he could just be himself, but was left disheartened when Laurel called him “a monster” who targeted vulnerable children.
Ray deflected, opening up on his difficult childhood and telling Laurel he was also coerced into dealing drugs as a ten-year-old.
As a terrified Laurel asked him to move to the living room, she stared at a fire poker long enough to suggest she may be wanting to get rid of Ray for good. But would she be capable of murder?
As the conversation continued, Ray reminisced on his traumatic childhood with a reluctant Laurel.
He told her he used to live with his grandfather, who cared for him amid his battle with depression. After Ray witnessed his suicide, he was placed in foster care.
“And that’s when Celia found me,” he said.
“She gave me food, she gave me a bed. She gave me… a home.
“And I would’ve done anything for her. And I did,” he continued, realising Celia took advantage of his desperation.
As Laurel went to the bathroom, she hesitated — was she looking for an escape or a weapon?
When she returned, Ray spotted she’d been looking at the poker. He assured he would never hurt her and just wanted to help her understand his tragic backstory.
“You’re not the victim here, Ray. You were when you were a child, but you haven’t been a child for a very long time,” Laurel said.
She blamed Ray for perpetuating the cycle of abuse he’d experienced as a kid and lashing out on vulnerable children.
Ray then insisted he wanted to make amends and turn his life around, keeping from Laurel that he had just killed Celia. He then asked Laurel to move away with him but she said she could only forgive him if he handed himself in to the police.
As he begged Laurel not to call the cops, Ray talked her into letting him go and giving him his freedom. As the couple said goodbye on Laurel’s doorstep, Arthur was watching on.
He confronted Ray and was ready to hit him with a rock as Graham Foster witnessed the scene from his car. But did Arthur do it? Or was it Graham who finished the job?
Meanwhile, Nicola King was outraged by Ray’s behaviour after hearing that Laurel had let him go.
“I love him and I couldn’t tell him because then he wouldn’t leave and none of us would be free,” Laurel said.
Nicola insisted Ray belonged in jail and devised a plan to lure him back to Laurel’s there so they could call the police on him.
