The following article contains spoilers from the episode of Emmerdale dated February 26. It hasn’t aired on ITV1 yet, but can be viewed on ITVX.
Things have escalated quickly in Emmerdale, as Arthur Thomas (Alfie Clarke) has gone off the rails and in a shocking turn of events, left his mum Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy) for dead.
Ray Walters (Joe Absolom) and Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths) might be gone, but the village is now seeing fresh torment, as Arthur’s violent side has reared its ugly head.
He’s been an absolute nightmare ever since the truth about Ray was revealed, but his anger increased again in today’s episode as he learnt about his mum attending Ray’s burial.
‘It’s just that he can’t understand why she would want to go and say goodbye to a monster, basically,’ actress Charlotte Bellamy explained.
‘I think it is closure. I think she has to kind of see it through. And she wants to say goodbye to the Ray that she knows, or you know, she knew. And I think with especially with the background of being with Ashley, I think it’s an important thing for her faith.
Fair reaction from Arthur though, given that Ray destroyed many lives. But interesting he would see Ray as a monster, given the monstrous act that he committed himself.
Arthur spent the majority of his day generally being annoyed at anyone who dared to give him eye contact. He was vile to Gabby Thomas (Rosie Bentham), who faced an emotional ordeal when she discovered Vinny Dingle (Bradley Johnson) was now with Lewis Barton (Bradley Riches).
He found another reason to be annoyed at his mum when he learnt that she attended Ray’s burial with Bear Wolf (Joshua Richards). In Arthur’s eyes, he cannot understand why Laurel would want to say goodbye to the man who ruined so many people.
In Laurel’s eyes, she went to say goodbye to the Ray she knew, and the little boy who existed beneath all of the abuse he also suffered.
Arthur has, for some reason, adopted the view that he is right all of the time, which meant Laurel had no chance of getting through to him. She tried to explain why she went, but her words flew right over Arthur’s head.
By this point, Laurel was exhausted by Arthur’s behaviour. She wanted to talk about it, but he didn’t want to be anywhere near her.
When Laurel refused to get out of the way, Arthur shoved his mum, and she ended up hitting her head on the bottom of the stairs.
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Things look dire and tomorrow, Laurel is rushed to hospital.
So, Arthur’s actions will lead to a whole new storyline and will raise the question, will Laurel tell anyone what her son has done?
‘I think the story is also about how much a mother or a parent protects their child,’ Charlotte revealed.
‘She doesn’t want people to think the worst of him. How do you explain to somebody, oh, yeah, my son got angry and he threw me over and everyone would go, oh, isn’t he awful? But of course, as a parent, you want to protect them, don’t you? So I think there’s stories about that as well.’
But keeping this a secret could end in tears, Laurel’s tears. Is an abuse storyline looming for aggressive Arthur and his mum?
This article was originally published on February 16, 2026.