When Lewis Barton (Bradley Riches) first appeared in Emmerdale recently, he wasn’t exactly given a warm welcome.
He was there looking for answers about his mum, Emma Barton, and how she died – and this left Ross (Mike Parr) and Moira (Natalie J Robb) feeling decidedly uncomfortable, given that it was Moira who actually killed Emma.
Lewis is not a person to be fobbed off, however, and gradually with his disarming charm and charisma he’s started to win Ross over. Ross sees echoes of his late brother Finn in Lewis, which has helped him warm to the newcomer.
Something else that’s helped is the fact that Lewis has a nice little business going, growing cannabis plants which he makes into gummies for medicinal use.
Knowing that a nice profit could be turned on this illegal botanical empire has made Ross want a piece of the action. Moira is facing a huge fine for the slurry spill that Mackenzie (Lawrence Robb) thinks he caused, so Ross has been able to enlist his help in getting in on Lewis’s business.
Rather than be upfront about any of this, though, Ross decided they would simply steal the plants from Lewis. So in Tuesday (May 27)’s episode Ross stole Lewis’s keys and dispatched Mack to go and get the plants while he diverted Lewis’s attention with a brotherly bonding kayak trip.
They only made it as far as the cafe, where Ross kept in touch with what Mackenzie was up to. Mack, meanwhile, had his hands more than full as it turns out that Lewis’s horticultural efforts are on a much bigger scale than Mack and Ross realised. Struggling to deal with the sheer quantity of plants, he was quickly feeling irate and after a call to Ross he dropped his phone.
Back at the cafe, Lewis questioned why Ross had spent most of the time on his phone. Was Mackenzie at Aaron (Danny Miller) and John (Oliver Farnworth)’s wedding, he wondered. Ross replied that he probably was, as he was the best man.
‘So why is he in my loft?’ Lewis asked. Lewis is obviously no amateur when it comes to protecting his crops and he had a security camera in the loft.
This had alerted his phone some time earlier and he showed Ross images of Mackenzie trying to open the loft door – which Lewis had locked remotely upon seeing the intruder. Without his phone, Mack was unable to summon help from Ross.
Ross initially tried to pretend he knew nothing about it but Lewis insisted he knew he was in on the scheme. He seemed to find the whole thing quite amusing, as it was obvious that the hapless Mack had never had a chance of stealing his plants.
But he was bothered by Ross’s deception, because really all he wants is an open and friendly relationship with his brother.
‘Tell me why are you trying to steal from me?’ he demanded.
Can Lewis ever trust Ross again? Or will he use this situation to get the answers he’s been looking for about his mum, Emma Barton?
