Tracy Shankley (Amy Walsh) in Emmerdale currently believes ex-partner Nate Robinson (Jurell Carter) is ghosting her after moving to Shetland.
In reality, we know that he is more than likely the body Amy Wyatt (Natalie Ann Jameson) saw when she fell into the frozen lake back in February.
Soon enough, Tracy and the rest of the Emmerdale residents will discover what really happened to Nate, and Amy Walsh can’t wait for the audience to see what’s ahead:
‘I think it’s going to be so exciting! I’ve just started the beginning of that story when she finds out. It’s brilliant. I love that the audience knows but she doesn’t and they’re just waiting for this pay-off and for her to find out who’s done it.
‘It’s been a long time coming. All this feeling she’s had that he’s treated her badly, and finally poor Nate gets his justice. It’s such a journey for Tracy to take. I’m really excited.’
She added: ‘I’ve just had some new scripts through and it’s really juicy stuff for me. I’ve not had anything that big for a while. It’s partly daunting, because you’re going to be working a lot more, which I love, but juggling that with home life is a challenge. But I just love it when it’s like that at work, when you can get in the throes of it. It’s fun.
‘It’s my favourite part of the job when you’ve got a big story like that and you know that the audience are waiting for the pay-off.’
Also in February, we discovered that Tracy has started stealing money from the shop till. It’s out of desperation – she’s a single mum, everything is expensive, and the only income Tracy has is the few days she works in the local store.
‘It’s literally the cost of living crisis personified’, Amy said.
‘Everything has gone up and her husband has vanished. She’s getting no money to help, and he was the main breadwinner in the relationship before. She only worked in the shop a few days a week, so you can see why she would be struggling financially.
‘There’s then the knock-on effect of Suzy not being here anymore, having passed away, that her and Vanessa are now sharing everything between two instead of three. It’s just the way of the world we’re living in at the moment, everything is so expensive.’
‘There’s a side of Tracy that doesn’t want to let Frankie down and wants to keep face, so her priorities of what she has spent money on haven’t been the best choices, like making sure Frankie’s got brand new shoes because she doesn’t want her to be different because her dad’s disappeared. It’s a lot of poor choices. But also, it’s not her fault. She’s not getting any money from the father of her child.’
Amy goes on to explain that until Tracy learns about Nate’s fate, she will continue to feel ‘victimised’.
‘She feels like this isn’t fair and she doesn’t deserve what he’s done to her, it’s not really her fault that she’s having to make these immoral, disloyal and horrible decisions because he’s done it to her.
‘It would be different if she knew what had happened to him, but because she feels like it’s his fault, but because she feels like it’s his fault, she can probably justify her actions a bit more because she’s a victim in all this too.’
