There may be another villain to watch out for on Emmerdale after a twist with Manpreet Sharma on Tuesday.
The character was sickened to learn who her blackmailer was, or so she thought, as she prepared to pay the money demand. As she met at the meeting place she was horrified to find Joe Tate there and immediately accused him of being her blackmailer.
But Joe claimed he was their by coincidence and soon convinced her he was not to blame, and he even offered her his help. He offered to pay off Manpreet’s harasser after they upped the demand to £10,000.
Manpreet was stunned over Joe’s generosity unaware he was in fact her blackmailer, with Dr Crowley being the one to send the texts. But if Joe was the true blackmailer and was at the scene, then who was driving the mystery blue car that was also there and clearly involved?
The blue car driver had seemingly followed or been watching Manpreet as part of the set-up with Joe, to convince her he was innocent. While one theory was that it was Crowley behind the wheel as he was the one sending the messages, soon another baddie entered the scene.
As Joe encouraged Manpreet to confront her blackmailer, in a twist it was someone else she met with who demanded the money. Joe then played along and confronted the mystery man, known in the credits as ‘man’.
He wasn’t named, but he was clearly in on it as he headed to the location and demanded Manpreet pay up. She asked him why he did it, and he seemed to have the blackmail images on his phone as he showed her the pictures being deleted for good.
So this mystery man went to the effort of downloading the images and stalking her before actually speaking with her, to make it all seem legit. He was doing this for Joe and Crowley given they were confirmed to be the true blackmailers, but why?
It also seems this is the guy that was driving the car initially pretending to catch Manpreet and Joe together before upping the demand. Crowley sent the texts, but given this was not Crowley’s car does this mean it belonged to the fake blackmailer working for Joe?
There may be another villain to watch out for on Emmerdale(Image: ITV)
Whoever he is, he was either being paid well or owed Joe or Crowley a favour. Joe hinted that he was someone known to Crowley and not himself, with fans suggesting he’d called him a thug and asked Crowley about him. What are the chances there’s more to him?
It comes after fans speculated a return for Manpreet’s killer sister Meena Jutla in the blackmail plot. Actress Rebecca Sarker appeared to address the idea, while it doesn’t seem to be happening.
Speaking on Lorraine, she said: “We might find out – we might not. It’s an hour long episode tonight so there’s more scope for that. She’s got herself into a bit of a pickle, posting some saucy photos on the internet on adult subscription sites … She needed affirmation, she needed a boost in her self-esteem. She did get that; it’s quite addictive actually. But then it turned quite toxic.”
