Emmerdale is navigating the tough topic of county lines within the Dylan Penders (Fred Kettle) and April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) storyline, which sees the two naïve and innocent teens dragged into the dark world of child exploitation.

Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths) is the ringleader of it all, with Ray Walters (Joe Absolom) her adoptive son and lacky doing her bidding. He’s entrapped April and Dylan through lies, manipulation, and threats of violence and now they are in deeper than they even realise.

As things stand, April has moved out of home after accidentally drugging her brother, and Dylan has been trained up to do drugs runs in the vans. April also had a close call after a client cornered her in a bedroom.

Things are getting more unsafe by the day for these teens, and no one has any idea.

Ray is fuming that April didn’t go through with what the client wanted and pressures her to do it next time, whether she wants to or not, taking her involvement in his operation to new seedy and horrifying heights.

Dad Marlon (Mark Charnock) wants to get things back on track with April, so Bob (Tony Audenshaw) suggests speaking to Dylan to get to her.

Dylan tells Marlon all is ok, but Marlon can tell something is up. He plays a strategic card and offers Dylan a shift in the kitchen in the hopes it’ll bring April in and he can get closer to them. Could he be the one to see what’s going on?

It was revealed that Celia is Ray’s adoptive mother and is the ‘bosses’ Ray has so frequently referred to. She’s also the more frightening of the pair, with even Ray kowtowing to her every demand for fear of reprisals.

April and Dylan are becoming problems for Celia, and she is clear with Ray that they need sorting.

Meanwhile, oblivious Paddy (Dominic Brunt) treats Dylan to a driving experience as a way of showing how proud he is. Dylan is thrilled, but whenever he feels any kind of joy, Ray is quick to quash it.

On the day his driving experience is meant to happen, Ray demands he do a big job for him. The prep for the job involves Dylan stealing driving schedules from the Depot – a risky move in itself.

Dylan does as he’s told, but just as he’s laying his hands on the schedule, Jai catches him.

The quick-thinking kid worms his way out of it and successfully and gets the drive schedules for Ray, but he makes a potentially life-altering decision; he cancels his job for Ray to go off and do the driving experience.

When Ray finds out, there’s hell to pay – as well as his ginormous debt. What will Ray do for Dylan’s misbehaviour?