This week, Emmerdale is more bustling than ever when Bear Wolf – a character who always creates a feeling of both pity and anger – suddenly disappears, leaving the Dingle house in confusion.

No text, no goodbye, just one sign: Bear’s car abandoned on the side of the road.

And from there, a series of suffocating emotions begins.

The story opens with a seemingly normal morning. Paddy Kirk wakes up, walks into the living room but doesn’t see Bear anywhere.

At first, Paddy just thought Bear went out for a walk and then came back, but when Mandy said that last night she heard the door slam, both of them started to feel uneasy. Paddy called Bear – no one answered. He called a few more acquaintances – everyone said “I just saw him yesterday, he ate and drank normally?”. The silence lasted, making the atmosphere in the house heavy.

When Paddy got the news: Bear’s car had been found on the side of the road leading out of the village, the door open, the keys still in, but no one in sight – he was almost paralysed. Paddy rushed to the scene, angry and scared. He looked around, calling out his father’s name, but all he got in return was the sound of the wind howling down the hillside. Mandy ran up behind him, put her arm around Paddy’s shoulder, and said: “Maybe he just needs time.” But deep down they both knew: this was not normal.

The police were notified. The neighbors were questioned. They all had the same question: Where had Bear gone?
The only clue Mandy found was a crumpled piece of paper in Bear’s jacket pocket: “I need space.” A message too vague for someone who had had a brief argument with Paddy the night before about feeling “outcast” in their son’s house.

But what made this episode so breathtaking was that Bear was not someone to be left out. He was always outspoken, sometimes hot-tempered, but he hardly ever left the house unannounced. So when Paddy saw the car left in the silence, he began to blame himself. “I should have noticed,” he told Mandy. “I should have seen my dad was in trouble.”