There is one Dingle who has always kept themselves away from the lawbreaking antics of their family members in Emmerdale, but even they are about to move over to the dark side in Cain Dingle’s (Jeff Hordley) hour of need. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
The Tates have won the fight for Moira Dingle’s (Natalie J Robb) farm, but Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) isn’t done twisting the knife. Though he’s got what he wanted, he’s having too much fun to stop making everyone else’s life a misery.
Robert Sugden (Ryan Hawley) and Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller) have retained Cain’s herd of cows, but as this was not part of their lease agreement with Joe, he blackmails them into selling them. Robert feels he has no choice, Aaron feels they need to fight.
Cain, meanwhile, is trying to get a Dingle farm up and running to distract himself from all that he’s lost and losing. But it’s falling at the first hurdle with Sam (James Hooton) struggling with this new task and Mackenzie (Lawrence Robb) and Matty (Ash Palmisciano) having to step in to help.
Cain then learns that Joe wants to sell the cows and is furious, especially when Mackenzie reasons that they can’t afford to keep the cows themselves. The nail in the coffin for Cain comes when Sam reveals he missed a meeting about the farm machinery, and Cain jumps straight to catastrophising that everything is over.
But there’s hope for Cain in the form of a hooded figure who wants to do their bit to save the family.
Robert and Aaron are shocked when a panicked Matty arrives to reveal that their herd has disappeared in the night. Joe furiously points the finger at Robert, who denies any involvement. Joe knows who to confront and grabs his wingman Graham Foster (Andrew Scarborough) to challenge the Dingles.
The Dingles are smug in responding that they had nothing to do with the theft, not realising that one of them did.
The culprit is seen out on a country road rustling the cows, and it’s none other than Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper), who fancies herself as a bit of a cow rustler.
She’s played a blinder in saving the herd, but being a novice, she’s forgotten one major detail – Cain rings her to warn that the bull she’s nicked has been fitted with a tracker.
