Bear Wolf (Joshua Richards) has been in a very fragile mental state in Emmerdale for a long time. Feeling worthless and useless in his own family led him to leave the village.

He was eventually picked up by Ray Walters (Joe Absolom), who preyed on the fact that Bear was feeling adrift and got him working on Celia (Jaye Griffiths)’s farm under slave-like conditions along with other people who’d been similarly groomed..

Ray manipulated the already vulnerable Bear by making him feel that Ray was a friend who was looking out for him now that his own family didn’t care. Over a period of months, with Ray further undermining Bear’s mental state by giving him drugs, Bear became detached from reality and the farm and Ray were his whole world.

What Bear didn’t know was that Ray and Celia were evil, ruthless people who had dragged April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) and her family into a horrific world of drug dealing and violence.

When everything finally started to unravel for Ray, it was Bear who ended up killing him after returning home and finding Ray threatening Paddy (Dominic Brunt). But in the aftermath of this, Bear has been struggling.

As Joshua Richards explained, ‘He’s been successfully gaslit by these people. He actually believes that he’s lost a friend, if not a surrogate son. So I think not only is this guilt all-pervasive, but he’s grieving.’

This guilt and grief has led Bear to confess to the police that he killed Ray and he’s determined to plead guilty to the killing.

In upcoming scenes Ray’s funeral stirs up difficult emotions for several of the villagers. Dylan (Fred Kettle), who was gaslit by Ray much as Bear was but realised what was going on, has complicated feelings about the man who claimed to be his friend for so long – but who also once tried to kill him.

For Laurel (Charlotte Bellamy), she’d fallen in love with the man she thought Ray was, only to discover that there was a side to him she’d never known that was evil, criminal and ruthless. Nevertheless, Laurel is upset to think that Ray will be buried with nobody at the service. She asks Charles (Kevin Mathurin) and Claudette (Flo Wilson) to attend on her behalf, but eventually decides she wants to go herself.

Discussing the reason for her attending is the focus of this new video, as Laurel and Claudette reflect on how it’s okay to say goodbye to Ray, who was once a vulnerable young boy living on the street.

When Claudette sees Bear across the road, she unwittingly tells him where they’re going and Bear insists he wants to go, too, and say his goodbyes to Ray.

Paddy is worried to hear where his father has gone, thinking that the emotion of seeing Ray’s coffin could upset Bear too much.

Sadly this proves to be the case, as it soon becomes clear that Bear’s mental health is spiralling.

Part of his trauma is that he’s desperately craving the painkillers that Ray used to feed him to keep him compliant. He begs Manpreet (Rebecca Sarker) to prescribe him some but she refuses.