Emmerdale Spoilers – Lydia hides her heartache as Sam leaves Emmerdale

Next week on Emmerdale, a life-threatening incident for Jacob leads to Victoria being sacked, whilst Lydia confronts Craig over the attack.

Jacob (Joe Warren-Plant) finds himself in another potentially fatal situation next week, and it’s all down to a canapé.

With the recent recruitment of new chef Suni (Brahmdeo Shannon Ramana) at The Hide Bistro, he and head chef Victoria (Isabel Hodgins) are showing off his skills with some new bitesize treats at a taster event for Take a Vow.

But things take a shocking turn when Victoria mistakenly informs Jacob that a particular slider offered as a sample is nut-free.

Long-term viewers will remember that Jacob is severely allergic to nuts, and was seen suffering a reaction back in 2010 when mum Leyla (Roxy Shahidi), oblivious to his medical history at that point, gave a 7-year-old Jacob some fruit cake containing nuts.

To act as a reminder, his allergy was also brought up in a piece of foreshadowing during last night’s episode, where Victoria brought Leyla some canapé samples and warned Jacob not to eat any.

Unfortunately for Jacob, Victoria isn’t as on-the-ball during the event, and as he tucks into the tasty morsel, he quickly suffers a reaction.

As Jacob collapses and goes into anaphylactic shock, panic ensues as everyone rushes to try and find an Auto Adrenaline Injector. Jacob eventually manages to indicate that there is one stored in his car, and Victoria rushes out to retrieve it.

Leyla struggles as she watches Jacob become weaker by the second. Outside, Victoria is frantically searching Jacob’s car unable to find the life-saving pen…

As David (Matthew Wolfenden) hears of the incident, he rushes to the hospital, whilst Leyla fumes at Victoria’s ineptitude, vowing revenge.

Victoria later admits her mistake to Gabby, but her confession is overheard by some potential buyers for HOP. Put off by the fact there could be a potential lawsuit on the horizon, they quickly pull out of any further negotiations.

When Leyla, furious to find Victoria still working there, threatens to ruin the business, Gabby quickly takes action. Gunning for Victoria anyway, since Victoria went over her head to employ Suni, Gabby informs her that she is fired!

Whilst the incident leaves Victoria devastated, it leads Gabby to have a rethink about her future plans, much to the delight of Kim (Claire King)…

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Elsewhere in the village, Lydia (Karen Blick) finally finds the courage to confront childhood friend Craig Reed (Ben Addis) following his sexual assault of her.

The pair had reunited recently when they bumped into each other during a careers fair at The Hop, decades after they had grown up in Hotten Grange children’s home together. Lydia, known by her real name of Jenny at the time, had secretly given birth to Craig’s stillborn baby as a 16-year-old. Laying her son, who she named Toby, to rest in the woods near the home, Lydia had kept her secret for nearly 30 years until Toby’s remains were uncovered in 2019.

When Lydia eventually revealed the truth about their baby to Craig, the pair visited the site where she scattered Toby’s ashes, and later shared a charged moment in his car. Although Craig saw it as a sign there was still something between them, Lydia quickly dismissed the notion and handed in her resignation.

Craig convinced Lydia to reconsider, but then proceeded to force himself on her.

Since the assault, a deluded Craig has remained convinced that the act was consensual, and merely a silly mistake the pair had made after giving in to temptation. With him also offering Lydia’s stepson Samson (Sam Hall) work experience, Lydia has found it impossible to keep any distance from Craig as he’s wormed his way further into the Dingle household.

Even Lydia’s husband Sam (James Hooton) has gotten over his initial jealousy of Craig and is enjoying spending time with him.

Although Lydia bravely managed to take herself to Hotten police station in tonight’s episode, in the end she felt unable to reveal Craig’s crime to officer Jess Renda (Claire Dean), fearing that exposing what had happened would alienate Sam.

At home, Lydia has inadvertently become more distant from Sam anyway, and things only get worse next week as Sam leaves on a family trip to Ireland.

Having agreed to help clear out the house of his recently deceased (and long-banished) Uncle Gad, Sam makes an effort to try and patch things up with Lydia before his departure, but is hurt when she’s unable to reciprocate, feeling that she’s pushing him away. Lydia’s heart is breaking as she covers up the real cause of her pain.

Meanwhile, Craig continues to weasel his way in by using Samson to further drive a wedge between Lydia and Sam, questioning the teen about his dad and stepmum’s relationship.

When Lydia finds Samson enjoying a drink with Craig in The Woolpack, she finally snaps, ordering a humiliated Samson to go home immediately. The encounter leaves Craig uneasy about what might come next, whilst Samson is fuming with Lydia for telling him to stay away from Craig.

Returning to the Piccologica office, Lydia is terrified when Craig turns up unexpectedly.

As he continues in his insistence that he did nothing wrong, Lydia is finally pushed to breaking point as she tells him that he’s a rapist.

Lydia’s recent state of mind hasn’t been lost on Mandy (Lisa Riley), who is becoming increasingly concerned that there’s something seriously wrong, to the point where she worries that Lydia may be planning to leave Sam.

With Lydia finally having called Craig out, will she be able to find the courage to go to the police?

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Also coming up next week…

After a romantic meal with boyfriend Ryan (James Moore), Gail (Rachael Gill-Davies) makes her excuses to follow up on a mysterious phone call.

Gail later meets a desperate woman named Sophie (Martha Cope) in the allotments, where she receives some bad news about someone called Oscar.

What secret is Gail hiding?

Plus…

After being officially diagnosed with PMDD, Cathy (Gabrielle Dowling) stuns April (Amelia Flanagan) by revealing what her plan is to cure her symptoms.

Later, Cathy is on cloud nine when Samson reciprocates her flirty banter and is thrilled when she confirms a date with him that evening.

But after Samson cruelly rejected her only last year, is the 16-year-old only setting herself up for more heartbreak?