5 Emmerdale Spoilers for Next Week – 22nd to 26th July

Next week on Emmerdale, Charity and Cain go in search of Belle but are shocked by what they find, Mandy is in financial difficulty, Billy comes clean, and Jai exposes Eric.

1) Charity and Cain go in search of Belle

Charity (Emma Atkins) and Cain (Jeff Hordley) are horrified to find out the reality of what Belle (Eden Taylor-Draper) has been facing in her marriage to abusive Tom (James Chase) next week, but as the pair race across the country to save her, will they be too late?

Tom has dialled up his coercive control over Belle to the max in recent weeks, following the discovery that she had terminated their baby. With a suspicious Charity’s interference also getting on Tom’s nerves, he has secretly applied for a veterinary job in a remote corner of Wales.

In tonight’s episode, after hearing that he’d been given a second interview for the job, Tom guilt-tripped Belle into agreeing to a spontaneous ‘holiday’ at the Welsh cottage he had shown her a few weeks back, and the two made a quiet getaway from the village. To ensure they wouldn’t be disturbed, Tom hid Belle’s phone in a kitchen drawer.

Charity is extremely concerned when she hears about the job interview on the village grapevine, together with the fact that Tom and Belle have already left the village without so much as a word to their family.

With her anxiety gnawing away at her, Charity goes to Cain to voice her concerns, noting that Tom’s demeanour reminds her of her own abuser, DI Mark Bails (Rocky Marshall).

“They’re very subtle things that are going on,” Emma Atkins told EverySoap at recent press event. “But I think the fact that Charity has, over the past 20 years, experienced levels of abuse from certain people she’s been with—most of all Bails—she recognises the signs.”

“He’s an interesting character and she’s got her eye on him. She sees that Belle’s suddenly become a shadow of her former self.”

The following day, Cain is unable to get hold of Belle and begins to wonder whether Charity is onto something.

“Tom’s been really clever in the way he operates, and he’s masking everything that’s going on really well,” Jeff Hordley explains. “Cain doesn’t have a clue and doesn’t sense there’s anything amiss with Tom, it’s only Charity that alerts him to this.”

When Charity then learns that Belle has missed her mental health appointment, she and Cain decide to let themselves in to Dale Head to investigate, but are alarmed by the extent of Tom’s security system.

Charity finds Tom’s ‘budget book’, an oddity in itself, in which he happened to write down the address of the Welsh cottage. Once they discover Belle’s phone hidden away, the worried pair then decide to hot foot it to Wales.

But when the finally arrive at the cottage that night, they are shocked by what they find. The place has been trashed, and there’s a smear of blood on the door… what has happened?!

“Charity can definitely sense there’s trouble but I don’t think Cain quite believes it until he gets there,” Jeff continues. “Even when he’s driving there, he’s still not 100% if they’re going to turn up and Belle and Tom will be really happy and we’ll be like ‘Oh, erm, okay…hi!”

2) Belle’s nightmare ordeal is revealed

In a special flashback episode airing on Wednesday, we rewind four days to Belle and Tom’s arrival at the cottage.

Their break seems happy at first, both excited to arrive at the cottage with dog Piper, though Belle is kicking herself for not being able to find her phone.

But as time goes on, Tom’s manipulation ramps up, and Belle is confused when she overhears Tom on the phone arranging to extend their stay in the cottage…

Soon enough their seemingly pleasant trip turns into a truly harrowing ordeal for both Belle and Piper whilst at the mercy of a volatile Tom, in what we can promise is a very intense episode.

The cast and crew didn’t have to go far to find the idyllic cottage location, in fact they didn’t even need to leave the estate. ‘Bwthyn Affalon’, as it’s named in the show, is in reality Burden Head Farm, which sits at the entrance to the private access road for the Emmerdale village.

“The location is actually part of Emmerdale’s village complex, it’s on the outskirts and hasn’t really been seen by the viewers so it’s believable that it’s a property 300 miles away from the Yorkshire Dales,” explains Emmerdale’s Head of Design Gillian Slight.

Newly built last year, the cottage provided a blank canvas for the team to create the perfect Welsh hideaway.

“We have total access and control over the building, so we were free to decorate and furnish the interior and exterior. The garden was basically a pile of builders rubble, so landscaping and planting was necessary, to make it look pretty. The whole job took about 4 weeks to complete.”

The build replaced a similarly shaped cottage on the same site that had been demolished, and the rear of that property will have been familiar to long-term fans as the third and final incarnation of Emmerdale Farm, used on-screen from 1997-2002.

The barn across the yard—where Sarah Sugden (Alyson Spiro) was inadvertently killed in a fire started by adopted son Andy (Kelvin Fletcher)—is now appearing on-screen as one of the barns at Butlers, which in recent weeks has seen the electrocution of Tom and the death of Minty the lamb.

3) Mandy’s financial woes

Elsewhere, Mandy (Lisa Riley) has been struggling to make ends meet at the salon for quite some time, and it appears that finances are beginning to reach a critical point.

The situation isn’t helped by the fact that she and Paddy (Dominic Brunt) have their upcoming wedding to pay for, with Paddy remaining blissfully unaware of his fiancée’s issues.

Mandy eventually comes clean to new drinking buddy Rhona (Zoe Henry), but cannot bring herself to tell anyone else.

As her worries continue to mount later in the week, will she be able to come clean to Paddy, or instead come up with a new scheme to earn some cash…?

4) Billy comes clean to Dawn

Up at Home Farm, after her plot to drug ex-husband Will (Dean Andrews) went spectacularly wrong this week, Rose (Christine Tremarco) has remarkably come out on top in her ongoing pursuit to destroy Kim’s (Claire King) life.

It was daughter Dawn (Olivia Bromley) who ended up drinking the spiked bubbly, leading to her passing out at the wheel and causing her to crash into Ella’s (Paula Lane) car.

As an ex-addict, Dawn recognised that she must have been spiked, and whilst Kim knew exactly who was responsible, she was stunned when eyes instead turned to her.

With Dawn remarking to Kim that it wouldn’t have been the first time she’d pulled such a stunt, referring to the time that Kim had attempted to drug her back in 2021, Kim tried to assure her that she would never do something like that now, considering they are family.

As Kim’s lack of motive came into question, Rose was quick off the mark to twist things, by suggesting that she herself had been the intended target, knowing that Kim wanted to get rid of her.

Both Dawn and Will found themselves agreeing, with only Billy (Jay Kontzle) taking Kim’s side.

Next week, Dawn is still in disbelief that Kim could betray the family, particularly since she had been responsible for putting Evan back in hospital by breaking their bubble and bringing germs into the house.

Billy feels particularly guilty at this point, considering he had been the guilty party on that occasion. He had had a few drinks with Mackenzie (Lawrence Robb) before coming home drunk, where Kim had put him in one of the spare rooms and covered for him.

When Evan subsequently became sick, Kim again covered by claiming to have mixed with people during a work meeting, rather than let Billy confess and put more strain on their marriage.

Unable to support Dawn’s victimisation of Kim any longer, Billy reveals to Dawn that it was him who had broken their bubble, and Kim had been the one to take the blame for the sake of their family.

Will Dawn rethink her stance on Kim?

5) Jai exposes Eric

Meanwhile, Jai (Chris Bisson) and Laurel’s (Charlotte Bellamy) separation is continuing to take its toll on the family, after Laurel requested Jai move out of Mulberry Cottage and back to Holdgate. Jai had been determined to take son Archie (Kai Assi) with him, but was surprised when Archie instead opted to stay with Laurel and his step-siblings.

“I’ve lost my wife, my home, my dad’s dead, and Suni won’t have anything to do with me,” a devastated Jai told Laurel. “And now, you’ve got my son too. So there you go, you’ve got everything you want Laurel, and I’ve got nothing. Well played.”

Embittered by the situation, Jai decides its time to take his revenge on Eric (Chris Chittell), whose blackmailing of Jai over the Amit/Suni situation had only added to his stresses over the past months.

Brenda (Lesley Dunlop) and Rodney (Patrick Mower) are extremely disappointed when Jai reveals Eric’s scheming to them, no doubt having believed Eric’s days of such deceit were well and truly in the past.

Jai is buoyed by an apparent turnaround from Archie though, with Laurel allowing the 11-year-old to move back to Holdgate with his dad.

As Jai and Laurel later plan to meet to mark the first anniversary of Rishi’s death, on what would also be their first wedding anniversary, things almost seem civil between the pair.

Will Jai and Laurel finally be able to move past their differences and remain amicable through their separation, or is there worse to come?