Serena Sugden (Casey Al-Shaqsy) has been a mysterious soul since she arrived in Emmerdale, but the picture on her is starting to grow.
She showed up in the village as an unknown accidental confidant of Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins), who spilled all of her woeful beans to the stranger near the lake to offload some of her burden.
Charity was horrified to learn that the stranger turned out to be Robert Sugden’s (Ryan Hawley) cousin, who planned to set up her new life in the village – holding all of Charity’s secrets. Serena seemed weirdly moral on this point – vowing to keep schtum despite barely knowing Charity, all because she could recognise her pain.
Now let’s take stock of what we learned; Serena turned out to be a police officer, though not currently serving. Then it turned out she’s acting on someone’s behalf to dig into things on John Sugden.
But now this might not be the case at all. We’ve since discovered her strings are being pulled by DS Ramsden (Chelsea Edge), who is hellbent on bringing down Kim Tate! The misdirection here has been immense.
The latest is that DS Ramsden and Serena go way back and they’re in on something together, although it’s not clear yet what.
Serena star Casey Al-Shaqsy explained a little about what’s been going on: ‘They are very, very close friends. Serena’s sort of journey into the village was to see her family. She does want to get closer with her family. But she’s mentioned to her best mate, “I’m going to Emmerdale”. And she’s gone “I need you to do me a favour”.
DS Ramsden appeared on the scene in the aftermath of Dr Todd’s murder as the detective heading up the case. She scrutinised Charity’s story and made it clear she knows more is going on. She even confronted Serena, laying out that she knows that Serena is lying for Charity.
But Ramsden has bigger fish to fry, namely Kim Tate. The whole Caitlin Todd debacle is just a distraction as she tries to dig into the secrets of Home Farm.
While Kim was away, Ramsden took her chance to snoop around the manor but was caught by Lydia (Karen Blick) needing a wee. Ramsden covered, and Lydia left to relieve herself, but Graham (Andrew Scarborough) soon showed up with suspicions.
Ramsden told him she was there to check gun licences, a lie as thin as Graham’s smile.
While Serena has been somewhat complicit in this plot, until now it’s not been clear to her what Ramsden really wants. But for viewers, Ramsden made her ultimate intention very clear – she wants to destroy Kim Tate.
Ramsden is about to reveal her full plan to Serena, leaving her rocked to the core. There is a big old sting in Ramsden’s tail.
Fans have come to believe that DS Ramsden might be Jean Tate – AKA Zoe Tate’s daughter, which would explain the palpable contempt for Kim, given what she did to Zoe Tate’s dad Frank.
In a police interview room, DS Ramsden has a local villager in front of her and seems to be enjoying making them squirm with emotional pain. A flashback reveals more to this relationship, but who is she?
And though it’s seemed Ramsden has the control over Serena’s next moves, perhaps she doesn’t.
Producer Sophie Roper teased: ‘Serena is an incredibly moral character and, as Katie [Hill] was saying, there’s a lot of trust between these three women that we potentially will go on to test as the story develops.
‘But she’s a brilliant addition to all of this material, and it absolutely embeds her in the Sugden clan and embeds her in that relationship between Sarah and Serena as Sugdens.’
So perhaps Ramsden will lose her power over Serena sharpish, and where will that leave her secret investigation?
