The following article contains spoilers from an episode of Emmerdale that hasn’t aired on ITV1 yet, but can be viewed on ITVX.
Sam Dingle (James Hooton) arranged an illegal shoot on Kim Tate (Claire King)’s land in Thursday (December 11)’s Emmerdale – and you just knew it was going to end badly for someone.
Sam and Lydia (Karen Blick) have been more than usually strapped for cash recently. Their house needed rewiring, and then Sam was scammed out of money he couldn’t afford when he tried to buy Jason Donovan tickets for Lydia online.
The sneering attitude of Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) when Sam had to beg him for his job back after previously resigning, convinced Sam that he didn’t owe the Tates any loyalty. Meanwhile Lydia was feeling disgruntled with Kim after she only offered a cheap bottle of wine as a raffle prize for the Christmas Fayre. So when Sam suggested arranging an illicit shoot on Kim’s land, Lydia agreed to help out.
When the people who’d paid for the shooting party turned up it was clear they were a bunch of entitled idiots. They’d brought dogs and planned to take part in illegal hare coursing, something Sam slammed as being both illegal and cruel. Lydia managed to put a stop to that by telling them that pheasant shooting was more of ‘a man’s game.’
They also expected Lydia to provide them with lunch at Home Farm, which meant that for a big chunk of the episode Kim was wondering where she was – because Kim was planning surprises of her own.
Knowing that Lydia had been disappointed not to see her idol Jason Donovan in concert, well-connected Kim had managed to arrange for the man himself to come all the way to the Dales for a special appearance at the Woolpack.
Lydia made it back just before the star took to the stage – and she was a bit overwhelmed. ‘What if I faint?’ she worried when Kim suggested that she went to chat to Jason.
It’s not often that Kim Tate opens up about how she feels about somebody but she did so now. She told Lydia that Jason was only there because of her. ‘I am terribly fond of you,’ she said. ‘You’re my best friend.’
Everyone – apart from Bob (Tony Audenshaw), who’d been hoping to be behind the tinselled mic stand himself – enjoyed Jason’s performance and Lydia was in raptures.
But Kim wasn’t there. Vanessa (Michelle Hardwick) had told her she’d seen some dodgy-looking shooting going on on her land. ‘It looked dangerous,’ she warned. So Kim headed off to investigate.
And, cutting away from the jubilant scenes at the Woolpack, we saw Kim’s beloved horse Ice with his leg cut, and Kim lying on the ground near him in agony. It looked like a snare had gone straight through her riding boot and into her leg, and she couldn’t move, even to reach her phone.
Will anyone find her before it’s too late?
