Viewers waiting for Emmerdale villain Tom King's downfall seem to be in luck, but there could be more drama ahead.
Next week the walls finally close in on Belle Dingle's abusive husband, with more than one character finally seeing his true colours. But with Tom desperate to evade justice amid a possible arrest, he has a potentially dark plan up his sleeve.
Actor James Chase has revealed Tom will do what it takes to avoid going to prison, and to cover his tracks one final time. But is someone in danger? Will Tom go too far?
Teasing the scenes ahead, James hinted Tom would go as far as he needed to to escape the situation. He said: "He always has a plan, trying to scare Belle, manipulating those he can. Tom always has got a plan and he’s got something up his sleeve because he has to if he wants to get out of this situation on top."
While not going into detail about what that plan is, he hinted it was "intense" to film. He spilled: "Shooting the scenes is always a hell of a lot of fun. Obviously there are some scenes that are very intense so I wouldn’t say fun for those ones, more rewarding."
But he also hinted at a double exit, as Tom initially plots to flee with Amelia Spencer before scuppering his own plans. So will Amelia and Tom flee the village?
James said: "He says to Amelia they can move away together partly because he doesn’t have any friends here anymore and is hated in the village. So that is definitely a huge aspect of it. But also it’s like when he went away to Wales with Belle, it was a way for him to fully control her and to have her to himself.
"So I think this maybe a similar thing whether it's subconscious or not. Essentially the less people around that Amelia knows, the more she is going to have to rely on him and I think he quite enjoys that."
On the moment his "mask slips", Tom revealed characters would finally be onto Tom. He explained: "Yes his mask has slipped he drags Amelia out into the street witnessed by Jimmy and likely the police too."
James also addressed how Tom would cope if he is sent to prison. He spilled: "Tom is a survivor to be honest so I think there would be an initial few months of the reality of the situation setting in for him. He would likely be incredibly depressed and scared of where he is, But with time he would evolve and I fear that he would come out perhaps worse, depending on how bad the prison is and what kind of people he meets there.
"He is a bad man but he is a survivor - he would no doubt survive in prison and adapt to be stronger." On filming the abuse storyline, James added: "It has been an amazing storyline, it has been intense - a real rollercoaster of emotions but it’s been amazing. I’m really proud of what we have done.. Eden has been totally amazing. There is more to come."
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays.* Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .