Arthur Thomas (Alfie Clarke) had his problems early-on in Emmerdale, but the last time we spent a great deal of time with him was his heart-warming coming out story.
The young teen decided to live in his truth after coming out, initially to Nicola King (Nicola Wheeler). When Elliot Windsor (Luca Hoyle) overheard them and word spread across school, an emotional Arthur shared a tender, beautiful scene with mum, Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy).
He fell in love with friend Marshall Hamston (Max Fletcher) and the two grew incredibly close, though opposition came from Marshall’s homophobic dad, Colin (Mark Noble), who’d been abusing his son.
Noble Arthur did all he could to save Marshall, who was still dealing with his own sexuality and after Colin kidnapped Laurel amid a breakdown, the two found themselves under the same roof and eventually, became boyfriends.
As it often goes with puppy love, though, things didn’t last. While Arthur later made a stir when claiming he’d managed to seduce John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth), things have been mostly quiet for him since then…which he should be grateful for, given what we’ve since learned about John.
Mum Laurel, however, hasn’t had as quiet a time as her son. Not since she got into a relationship with psychopathic drug dealer, human trafficker and slave driver, Ray Walters (Joe Absolom). Despite falling in love with Ray, she immediately recoiled when learning from Dylan Penders (Fred Kettle) the truth about her new beau.
It was all such a shame. Ray had even killed his even-more-evil mother, Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths) so they could be together! If that doesn’t say romance, I’m unsure what does…
Incensed by Ray’s fooling of his mum, Arthur became determined to make him pay and stole his hold-all, bringing it home…
…which horrifies Laurel when she finds it’s stuffed to the brim with drugs.
After another conflict between mother and son, Lauren feels better about the state of their relationship, though little does she know that Arthur’s helped himself to some of Ray’s ill-gotten gains.
Arthur is certainly feeling a little flush with his enormous stash of dirty money, and while he and Laurel reconnect, his only focus is ensuring that she doesn’t see the envelope heaving with cash that he’s stuffed in his pocket.
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When April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) clocks Arthur’s tea, she brings him back down to Earth with a bump about her experience in the drug trade, leaving him truly cowed and incredibly guilty for profiting from her misery.
So our sweet, tender, adorable Arthur will do the right thing, won’t he? He’ll march right up to Smithy cottage and hand the cash over, yeah? Of course he will!
…well, he seemingly has every intention of doing so, he makes his way to April’s, but his feet won’t carry him all the way to the door. Full of shame and self-loathing, he hangs on to the money.
Has Arthur started on a dark path that will bring even more danger to the Thomas’ residence? Has the blood-soaked windfall he’s taken, made on the backs of several traumatised villagers darkened his sweet nature?
We sure hope not…
