Emmerdale is turning Ray Walters and Celia Daniels into a pair of villains who don’t need to yell to scare people.

They don’t necessarily need to threaten directly; they just need to appear at the right time, say the right thing, and make others panic and do wrong.

The early release on ITVX shows Dylan waking up after the accident, the police trying to extract information, but Dylan claims he doesn’t remember anything, inadvertently turning himself into a “shield” for Ray and Celia.

Without testimony, without clear evidence, Ray and Celia become even more confident, walking around the village as if the law can’t do anything to them.

Ray’s wickedness lies in the fact that he doesn’t just manipulate with power, he manipulates with a false sense of security. And his target now is Mary. Mary had just returned to the village, and before she could understand what was happening, Ray launched into his signature “smoozing” act: gentle, friendly, acting like a good, caring person. But Rhona, seeing this, immediately raised a red alert. She rushed out to stop him, yelling at Ray to stay away from Mary, then turned to warn her mother not to trust him. In terms of action, this was a very real moment: a daughter seeing a dangerous person touching her mother, her first reaction is to pull her mother away.

The problem is, the more Mary was pulled away, the more she wanted to get involved. Mary wasn’t stupid. She sensed Rhona trembling, hiding, trying to build a wall to conceal something dark. And this very “attempt to hide” turned Rhona into a suspect in her mother’s eyes. When Rhona spoke evasively, Mary questioned more. When Rhona snapped, Mary felt more pain. It was an extremely dangerous loop, because it was exactly what Ray and Celia needed: the family to self-destruct, self-isolate, and push the sensible person out of the game.