When you put all the ongoing storylines together – Bear tormented by his buried secret, April panicking over her fateful blow to Callum, Celia calmly manipulating everyone, Aaron standing on the verge of leaving the village – it can be said that Emmerdale is going through one of the darkest periods in its history.

It is no longer just family arguments, troubled love affairs or neighbourly feuds; now viewers are watching a village plunge into a collective nightmare.

What makes this week so intense is the feeling that “no one is safe”.

Bear thinks he is just an outsider, eventually being dragged into crime.

April is just a young girl, becoming the center of a chain of exploitation, violence and guilt. Moira, although not the center, is also at risk of being framed. The whole village has to live in a state of confusion: where is the villain, when will the truth be revealed, who will be the next victim?

The atmosphere in recent episodes is thick. Night scenes, close-ups of trembling faces, small conversations but clearly showing fear, all connect to form a dark picture. When a character steps out onto an empty street, the viewer also feels a chill. When someone closes a door, the viewer is not sure if the other side of the door is safe or dangerous.

Alongside that are softer but no less heartbreaking layers of emotions. Carla has to let go of love, Aaron is faced with the choice of leaving the place he once called home. Emmerdale has chosen not to give the audience too much “breathing space”, but continuously bombards the audience with emotional blows: tense, sad, angry, helpless. Each storyline is a piece of the same thing: darkness can creep into every corner of human life.