An Emmerdale legend will be shot dead after 29 years on the soap in harrowing scenes – featuring a mind-boggling twist.
The ITV soap announced it would air three standalone episodes across two weeks, following a series of dramatic storylines in flashback and flashforward style.
While one will reveal what is wrong with Bear Wolf, who is played by Joshua Richards, after he went missing from screens, another will explore Ryan Hawley’s Robert Sudgen’s time behind bars.
The third draws focus on April, played by Amelia Flanagan, and her on-screen father Marlon, portrayed by Mark Charnock, as her drug and crime storyline hits a climax.
In scenes that will play out on ITV1 Tuesday night, and are already available on ITVX, fans will be left shocked as Marlon attempts to help April escape from under the thumb of Ray and Celia.
Fans will know that recently April has found herself involved in a county lines storyline that includes drug dealing and child prostitution due to a crime ring organised by Joe Absolom and Jaye Griffiths’s Ray and Celia.
An Emmerdale legend will be shot dead after 29 years on the soap in harrowing scenes – that feature a mind-boggling shock twist
The episode focuses on April, played by Amelia Flanagan, and her on-screen father Marlon, portrayed by Mark Charnock, as her drug and crime storyline hits a climax
After the crime ring bosses organised for her to sleep with an older man, April was seen brutally murdering him after deciding not to go through with it.
While April was yet to open up about the horrifying ordeal, in a heart-to-heart with dad Marlon, she will finally break down and explain what has been going on.
Shocked Marlon insists they must go to the police to report Ray and Celia to help April finally escape her ‘nightmare’ once and for all.
But everything goes wrong when Ray arrives at their home and pulls out a gun on Marlon, just moments after April warns him how dangerous the county lines gang are.
Looking to have discovered April had finally shared with Marlon about what had been going on, Ray aims at and shoots Marlon in attempt to kill him.
The shocking scenes see Marlon shot in the chest, collapsing to the ground and left slumped over on the kitchen floor bleeding out, with April unable to save him.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Marlon says and a tearful April replies while attempting to save his life: ‘I shouldn’t have told you anything. Stop it! You are not dying on me, please!’
As Marlon tries to gasp for a few final breaths, he tells his daughter: ‘Never… never… never forget how much I love you,’ before appearing to die in front of her.
While April was yet to open up about the horrifying ordeal, in a heart-to-heart with dad Marlon, she will finally break down and explain what has been going on
Everything goes wrong when Ray arrives at their home and pulls out a gun on Marlon, just moments after April warns him how dangerous the county lines gang are
April roars as she clings onto Marlon’s lifeless body.
But not all is as it seems – as a flashback of April and Marlon’s day played out ahead of his on-screen death clarifies her opening up to her dad was all just in her imagination.
Instead, the horrifying events are what April fears will happen if she opens up to dad Marlon, and therefore puts his life in danger by knowing the truth.
An alternative ending will see April keep quiet about what has been going on with Ray and Celia in the village, and leaving home without telling Marlon anything.
Mark teased to DigitalSpy about the scenes: ‘There’s a twist in it that will stagger the audience! April turns up at the house and he’s on his own and the episode begins.
‘The first act, if you like, is about him rediscovering his daughter, the daughter he knew before everything tragic that happened to her, and her rediscovering not only her dad but that part of herself too, so it’s really something.
‘I was absolutely buzzing. It’s thrilling, it’s flattering to be trusted with an episode and to work with Amelia [Flanagan] in that way. It’s an absolutely outstanding script, it’s an absolute gift for an actor.’
Instead, the horrifying events are what April fears will happen if she opens up to dad Marlon, and therefore puts his life in danger by knowing the truth
It comes after Emmerdale bosses revealed there would be three special standalone episodes that follow specific soap characters.
In October, ITV made the announcement that over the coming months, the three episodes would hit screens, each focusing on one storyline.
Aside from April’s episode, another will reveal what happened to Bear, who hasn’t been seen on-screen since the summer.
Show legend Lisa Riley teasing that what would transpire had ‘never been done before’.
The third will lift the lid on what actually happened to Robert Sudgen behind bars and how it changed him – including prompting his marriage to Kev.
Emmerdale continues tonight (Tuesday) at 7:30pm, and the soap airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and is available to stream on ITVX.