In Emmerdale, audiences are no strangers to “unpleasant but harmless” characters.

At first, everyone thought Celia Daniels was just like that: a rude, grumpy farmer who spoke like she was giving orders, always showing her attitude when someone touched her business.

But as the year ended, the feeling of “something is wrong with her” became clearer, until the Christmas 2025 spoiler series officially revealed: Celia is not just a grump, she is the devil behind most of the village’s darkness.

Instead of screaming or acting crazy, Celia chose a more dangerous way: controlling with money, with fear, and by treating others as tools.

All year, the series planted small details showing that Celia is not an ordinary farmer. She always had information in advance about things that only a few people should know, always appeared at the right time, said the right words to stifle the other party’s choice. The “quid pro quo” agreements, the small threats, the times she shrugged at the suffering of the weak – all combined into a scary picture: Celia had quietly built a whole system of exploitation right in the middle of a seemingly peaceful village. Workers were locked up to work in terrible conditions, their papers were checked, their freedom was taken away; all under the guise of “help” and “giving jobs”.

The most painful story is the story of young people being sucked into the vortex. April – a girl who was a symbol of innocence, gradually drawn into the path of crime, drugs and violence, is the clearest example. Instead of giving her a proper youth, Celia and her system turned April into a pawn: both a channel to make money and a tool to intimidate the adults in the village.