Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths) is a woman who craves control, and when she lost that over son Ray Walters (Joe Absolom) in tonight’s instalment of Emmerdale, she wasn’t best pleased.

Ray has been a major player in Celia’s trafficking ring, which has so far targeted April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) and Dylan Penders (Fred Kettle).

 

 

He has coerced the teens into dealing drugs, while Celia manipulated April into sleeping with men to help pay off their supposed debt.

In tonight’s episode, however, Ray took a break from his despicable day job after running into Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy) in the cemetery.

Laurel explained that it was her wedding anniversary, and she was marking 20 years of marriage to late husband Ashley Thomas, who died of young-onset dementia in 2017.

 

 

After their chat, Laurel invited Ray over for a cuppa, which he graciously accepted, and after spending the morning together he offered to make her lunch.

However, they were soon interrupted by the arrival of Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) and Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry), who had brought over food with the intention of supporting Laurel on the difficult day.

Receiving a text from Celia and feeling awkward as the trio discussed April, Ray made his excuses to leave, but was convinced to stay by everyone else.

The lunch went well enough, until the conversation turned to his job and eventually Celia, and the atmosphere grew awkward when Ray explained that she was his mum.

As they settled into further friendly discussion, Ray’s phone continued to buzz, until he eventually shut it off completely.

With nothing to distract him, Ray opened up a bit about his past, before suggesting that he may want to start a future with Laurel.

Rhona and Marlon were quick to pick up on the vibes between Ray and Laurel, and both spoke to them individually to find out how they were truly feeling.

It was clear that they both liked each other, and later they agreed to ‘hang out’ again.

As he was about to leave, Ray got a call from Celia, demanding to know where he was.

He made up an excuse about finishing off a job in Hotten, insisting that he would be back soon.

Little did he know, Celia was watching him, and knew that he had spent the afternoon with Laurel

With Celia clearly not happy about it, will she confront Ray, and could Laurel get caught in the crossfire?