Emmerdale spoilers: Dea𝕕ly violence as three major characters set out to mur𝕕er villager

A murder plot is afoot in Emmerdale as Ethan Anderson (Emile John) becomes the centre of a violent plan for revenge after drink driving, crashing the car, and leaving Nicky Milligan (Lewis Cope) for dead.

Ethan’s identity as the driver was revealed when his own dad Charles Anderson (Kevin Mathurin) dobbed him into the police and Ruby Fox-Miligan (Beth Cordingly) witnessed him being arrested.

Until this point, Nicky’s parents had believed it was him who had crashed the car while drunk.

Now the lioness mother in Ruby has been awakened, and not far behind are Caleb Miligan (Will Ash) and Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley), who are also ready to fight for Dingle justice.

All out for revenge

Things are not looking good for Nicky, which stokes the vengeful fire. Ruby crumbles when Caleb tells her that Nicky is in too delicate a state to be brought out of his coma, things are much worse than she imagined.

When Cain, Caleb, and Ruby later spot Ethan in the village, it’s clear their intentions are murderous, and it’s not long before those intentions play out.

‘She’s terrified and she’s looking for someone to blame. It’s always an impulsive reaction for her,’ Beth Cordingly tells Metro.co.uk of Ruby’s instinct to make Ethan suffer.

Charles makes the fearful realisation that Ethan has mysteriously gone missing. The truth is, just outside of the village, Ethan is in a bloodied heap on the ground and a car can be seen speeding away. He’s the victim of a hit and run, and now it’s his turn to be left for dead.

The village fete gets underway, and the locals are stunned when a broken Ethan limps back into town before he collapses.

The question is, who was behind the wheel? Cain is more of a fisticuffs kind of guy, but he does have access to many vehicles and the knowhow on how to fix them.

Perhaps it’s Caleb, fuelled by his guilt at making his son feel undervalued as the accident happened following their blazing row.

Actor Will Ash revealed: ‘Caleb feels responsible for it but it’s pointed out – as it would be – by Ruby, who goes, “It’s your fault, this.” So there’s a fracture in the relationship.’ Caleb has two clear motives in wanting to mow down Ethan – to ease his own guilt and to save his marriage.

But Will may have hinted to us that Caleb’s conscience is clear.

He tells us: ‘There is some fallout for him if he finds out that someone in the family has done this to Ethan. What’s he going to think of that?’

So maybe it is Ruby, who’s unhinged enough to attempt a murder, and also is a bad enough driver too. It looks like the most likely suspects are Ruby and Cain – could they have teamed up?

That maybe just leaves Ruby or Cain. Could they have teamed up?