Next week on Emmerdale – Rhona faces saying goodbye to Ivy

Next week on Emmerdale, Gus returns to reclaim baby Ivy from Rhona, while Caleb is caught out by Nate after he grows suspicious of Tracy.

Rhona (Zoe Henry) is forced to face reality next week, when ex-husband Gus (Alan McKenna) returns to reclaim baby daughter Ivy.

The situation had already been complicated enough, with Gus fraudulently using eggs Rhona had frozen during their marriage to have a child with new wife Lucy. But when Lucy died during childbirth, Gus was unable to cope juggling his grief and a newborn baby, forcing Rhona and her mum Mary (Louise Jameson) to step in.

Although Mary offered to look out for Gus and Ivy, she forbade Rhona from having any more contact with the baby, for fear of her getting too attached to a child that whilst biologically hers, she has no legal right over.

All that went out the window however when, seeing the full extent of Gus’s struggling, Mary invited him and Ivy to stay with them at Smithy Cottage over Christmas, much to the chagrin of Rhona’s husband Marlon (Mark Charnock).

The family were shocked when Gus subsequently disappeared, leaving a letter asking them to take care of Ivy as he attempted to process the situation.

In the past three weeks, Rhona has naturally become attached to Ivy as her own baby, but was brought down to earth with a bump last week when Gus got in touch to say he was feeling much better. Panicking over losing Ivy, Rhona did all she could to dissuade Gus from returning.

“She’s played on his insecurities,” Zoe Henry told EverySoap at a press event last year. “He’s said, ‘I’ve been seeing a counsellor who said I’ve got to be 100% strong.’ So Rhona’s like, ‘Yep, if you’re not, you’ll just set yourself right back again and you’ve got to put Ivy first.’ It’s quite manipulative, but it comes from a good place.”

“She’s doing it for her own benefit as well because she doesn’t want Ivy to go anywhere,” Zoe continued. “But I guess there’s an element of truth in it. She’s taken care of Ivy without really any contact from Gus for about 3-4 weeks. And that’s a very long time when you’re a little baby and you get to bond with your pretend parents for a bit.”

There’s no question that Gus wasn’t in a place to be a parent to Ivy when he left the house in December, but is he now up for the challenge?

“He potentially is now. I mean, it’s only about a month and a half since he lost his wife, but Rhona’s spoken to him and he does sound much better than he was. But I don’t think it will ever be good enough for Rhona, actually!”

Rhona has so far kept Gus’s getting back in touch a secret from Marlon, who himself has also begun to bond with Ivy despite his initial reservations.

“He’s absolutely fallen head over heels in love with Ivy, which is really lovely twist,” Zoe explains. “And so have Leo and April. I mean, it’s the worst case scenario because they’ve become this really tight-knit little family that all get on well.

“They’ve fallen into a pattern with the baby and they’ve got into the rhythm of that, so everything’s working out. And then Gus throws a spanner in the works.”

Next week, Rhona is pleased to see Marlon continuing to fuss over Ivy, but is then forced to confess to Mary about her conversation with Gus. Rhona tries to justify her actions to her mum, but Mary warns her that she needs to prepare to say goodbye to Ivy.

“I think she’s in denial, and she thinks that she can just kick that can down the road and keep Gus at arm’s length,” Zoe adds. “She’s spinning those plates again, and trying to create a reality where she doesn’t have to face the truth, which is that she doesn’t have a legal right to that child.”

Desperate to find any legal loophole to keep hold of Ivy, Rhona consults solicitor Ethan (Emile John) about the possibility of gaining custody.

Back at Smithy Cottage, Marlon and Mary are tending to Ivy when Gus arrives unexpectedly. When Rhona returns to find him sitting in the living room, she has some explaining to do to Marlon when Gus reveals that they’ve previously been in touch about his coming back.

But how far will Rhona go in order to keep Ivy?

“Well that’s an excellent question isn’t it,” Zoe tells us with a grin. “I think I know what she does, but I’m not sure I’m allowed to say! It is fairly drastic. But you have to ask ‘What would I do in that situation?’”

“If you’re threatened with somebody saying ‘Well it’s not your baby… even though you’ve looked after it for two months, and biologically it’s yours, with your DNA… sorry you’re never going to see it again.’ I think I’d get pretty drastic as well in that moment,” Zoe admits. “It’s that primal thing, that’s her baby at the end of the day.”

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Elsewhere in the village, it looks like it could be game over for Tracy (Amy Walsh) and Caleb’s (Will Ash) affair, as Nate (Jurell Carter) starts to suspect there’s something going on between his wife and uncle.

The pair have been carrying on since an unexpected kiss in October, only 3 months after Tracy married Nate. It didn’t take long for Caleb’s son Nicky (Lewis Cope) to find out, and although they had called things off after Nate’s stepmother Moira (Natalie J Robb) also caught them at it, the pair couldn’t keep their hands off each other for too long.

Next week, frustrated at the lack of time Tracy has for him nowadays as she works to get her forest nursery up and running, Nate confides his relationship issues with Belle, fearing that there could be something going on between Tracy and Caleb whilst she uses the business as a cover.

When Tracy later misses a special lunch Nate had planned, it only grows his suspicions further. When he eventually lets his paranoia get the better of him, he takes a look at Tracy’s phone and finds that a bunch of messages from Caleb have been deleted.

This all but confirms Nate’s fears, and he later marches over to Mill Cottage determined to catch the pair together, to both Nicky and Moira’s horror.

They fail to stop Nate from barging in, where he finds Caleb in a passionate clinch on the sofa… but who with?