Caleb Milligan (William Ash) came to Emmerdale on a mission. His plan was to take revenge on Kim Tate (Claire King) for the role she played in the death of his father and Kim’s former husband, Frank Tate (Norman Bowler).
Caleb, as the son of Frank and Faith Dingle (Sally Dexter), is half Tate and half Dingle, but as far as the villagers were concerned his only connection to Emmerdale was his Dingle blood as he’s the half brother of Cain (Jeff Hordley) and Chas (Lucy Pargeter).
Despite reassuring his son Nicky (Lewis Cope) that he’d make sure Cain and Moira (Natalie J. Robb) were looked after when his plan came to fruition, he’d tricked them into selling their farm which adjoined Kim’s property so that she would continue to trust him as they worked together to develop her stud farm. Meanwhile he was working to get access to all her bank accounts.
When his secrets come out in an explosive manner in upcoming episodes, there are plenty of people baying for his blood on both the Tate and Dingle sides of his family.
And when a mysterious figure follows Caleb to a woodland ridge and pushes him over the edge it looks like someone has enacted swift revenge. But who is the mystery attacker who leaves Caleb for dead? There are certainly plenty of people with a motive, including:
Will Taylor
The man Claire King described as Kim’s ‘favourite guard dog’ has to be very high on the list. He’s already crossed swords with Caleb on more than one occasion and never really trusted him from the outset.
As well as being rightly furious with Caleb over his plan to take all of Kim’s money and leave her with nothing, Will is also outraged on Gabby (Rosie Bentham)’s behalf. Knowing that Caleb set up Nicky to pretend to fall in love with Gabby and marry her as part of the scheme really sticks in Will’s throat. He’s come to think of himself as a father figure to Gabby, and seeing how distraught she is after Nicky admitted that he’s gay and can’t go through with marrying her is devastating.
Will has shown in the past that he doesn’t shy away from violence when he’s protecting those he loves – for example when he and Kim kidnapped Alex (Liam Boyle) when he was making Dawn (Olivia Bromley)’s life hell. Pushing Caleb off a cliff would be all in a day’s work for Will.
‘After being in prison for 18 years I’m sure he’s capable of many things,’ Dean Andrews agreed. ‘Cross his family and you’ll pay the price! Will is really angry about how Gabby has been treated by Nicky and blames Caleb. Will says he was drinking at the Woolpack when Caleb was pushed. He’d have happily pushed him I’m sure after all he’d tried to do to Kim.’
Cain Dingle
Though Cain Dingle has been trying his best to think with his head first and his fists second recently in order to set a better example to his children, it’s in his DNA to resort to violence whenever there’s any bother.
It took him a while to trust Caleb when he reappeared in his life at Christmas, and now, as Jeff Hordley told us, ‘he feels incredibly let down.’
‘I think Cain was beginning to accept the fact that he had a brother and he was beginning to quite like that they were starting to get on. It’s a shame, as far as Cain’s concerned, because once you let him down he isn’t the type of person to give you a second chance,’ he said.
Cain is certainly a prime suspect as he threatens to kill Caleb in front of a pub full of people.
‘I think there is always potential for anything with Cain. If he’s pushed in the wrong direction or if he flies off the handle then anything can happen,’ Jeff confirmed.
Leyla Harding
Emmerdale’s top wedding planner might seem like an odd addition to this list of suspects, as she doesn’t have all that much to do with Kim Tate or the other Dingles. So what’s her beef with Caleb?
She’s been dating the suave businessman on and off since his arrival in the village and their flirtatious relationship seemed to be going well. But Roxy Shahidi told us that Leyla is shocked to discover that Caleb isn’t the man she thought he was.
‘Even though the relationship is only in its early stages she fell for him quite quickly and she thought that there might be a glimmer of a future together. Something that really appealed to her was that he seemed really straight talking, so to find out that he is a completely different person just left her feeling completely foolish,’ she pointed out.
Though she’s tempted to forgive him at first, Leyla is in for another massive shock when she learns that Caleb slept with Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins).
‘Finding out that he slept with Charity is worse than finding out he is a completely different person,’ Roxy insisted. ‘That for her is confirmation that he mustn’t have cared about her at all if he could do that. That hits her much harder!’
But would it be enough to lead Leyla to murder?
‘I think it wouldn’t be a premeditated murder, but I can see them getting into a heated argument especially if Leyla has fallen off the wagon or had a drink,’ Roxy teased. ‘She could become very emotional and accidents could happen quite easily!’
Mackenzie Boyd
Next up on our list of chief suspects is Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb), and like Leyla his main motivation to hate Caleb is the fact that he slept with Charity.
Since his split with Charity, Mack has been getting closer to Chloe (Jessie Elland), the mother of his son Reuben. But Lawrence Robb says that his character’s feelings for Charity haven’t really diminished.
‘I think he definitely still has feelings for Charity – they were only married a few months ago!’ he told us. ‘But I think it’s more the fact that it is Caleb who Charity chooses to sleep with. Mackenzie hates Caleb, he’s never liked him. So ultimately, I think that’s the most hurtful thing for him.’
Lawrence is being cagey about whether Mack would go as far as murdering his rival, though.
‘Mackenzie definitely wants bad things to happen to Caleb. When things inevitably go wrong for Caleb, I’m not saying whether Mack will have a hand in it, but I’m sure he’ll be able to attest to the reasoning behind it,’ he said.
‘I think anyone in Emmerdale has it in them to be a killer. Mack definitely is troubled and estranged enough to push the limits of what he’s capable of but that will remain to be seen…’
Anyone else?
With Lawrence’s phrase ‘anyone in Emmerdale has it in them to be a killer’ ringing in our ears we’d have to say there are plenty of others who’d have motive or opportunity to want to do Caleb some serious harm.
There’s Kim Tate herself. She’s not a woman to allow herself to be taken in without wanting revenge, although Claire King has suggested that any revenge she’d want to take is of the ‘best served cold’ variety. She’s likely to preferred to bide her time and make sure she enjoyed every moment of showing Caleb she isn’t a woman to be messed with.
Talking of women to be messed with, Gabby Thomas has suffered more than most as a result of Caleb’s plan. Being publicly humiliated and having her dreams of a golden future with Nicky shattered would be enough to leave her fuming. And while she may be angry at Nicky, knowing that it was Caleb who forced his gay son to pretend to be in love with her might just channel her anger towards Caleb instead.
Similarly Nicky’s boyfriend Ally (Josh Horrocks) will most likely be livid about how Nicky has been treated during this whole saga. Could he decide to teach Caleb a lesson?
And what about Nicky himself? Blood is thicker than water, but Caleb has tested that blood bond between himself and his son to breaking point. Will Nicky decide to put an end to his father’s manipulation of him once and for all?
Finally, Chas let Caleb into her life and let him move into her home and she’s likely to feel as betrayed as Cain is. It’s an outside bet, but could Chas be a killer?
Source: Read Full Article
