The discovery of a body in the lake in Emmerdale causes huge trauma for many of the residents in upcoming episodes as it’s not immediately clear who the corpse is.
With the body having been in the water for months, it’s not possible to identify who it might be. This leads Ruby (Beth Cordingly), Caleb (William Ash), Cain (Jeff Hordley) and Chas (Lucy Pargeter) to assume that it must be Anthony Fox (Nicholas Day), Ruby’s father.
Ruby killed Anthony at the culmination of a long chain of events in which he had several violent confrontations various people. After discovering that Anthony was an abusive pervert who raped Ruby when she was a teenager, Caleb had a showdown with him at gunpoint.
After Anthony fled, Aaron (Danny Miller) discovered him and beat him up. When he was later found dead, Aaron assumed he’d killed him and John (Oliver Farnworth) got rid of the body to save Aaron being implicated in the crime.
While John initially said he’d buried the body in the woods, this turned out not to be the case. John has refused to say what he really did with it, on the basis that the less other people know, the better.
So when this body is found in the lake, the conspirators who have been keeping the secret about Anthony’s death go into panic mode. Ruby decides that the only solution will be for her to hand herself in.
Caleb is desperate for her not to do this and he starts making plans for them to flee the village. Cain suggests going to family members in Ireland, where for the price of a parkin Mystic Dingle is usually only too happy to harbour fugitives.
Ruby, however, doesn’t want to put Caleb in the position of being on the run for the rest of his life and decides the best thing is to hand herself in. She leaves her husband a note and heads to the police station.
In an interview room she tells an officer about the horrific years of abuse she suffered. Furthermore she insists that Caleb had nothing to do with Anthony’s disappearance. Before she can say anything else, a solicitor arrives having been sent by Caleb.
Caleb hopes that his solicitor will be able to find a way to keep them all out of prison, but Chas is panicking at the thought that all of them are about to be exposed as conspirators in Anthony’s death and the disposal of his body. She hides the note that Ruby left for Caleb as the police arrive to question him.
As it seems everything is about to unravel, there’s a massive twist when it’s revealed that the body in the lake wasn’t Anthony Fox at all – but Nate Robinson (Jurell Carter).
But with Ruby already half way through a confession, has this new discovery come too late to save her and the others?
