Ray Walters (Joe Absolom) has retuned to Emmerdale – despite being killed in January.

Don’t worry, the ITV soap isn’t doing a Graham Foster (Andrew Scarborough) again. Ray was back on our screens this evening as a figment of Bear Wolf’s (Joshua Richards) imagination.

Beloved Bear has been back in the village since the start of 2026, following months of working as a slave for Ray and Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths).

When Bear headed back into Tenants for the first time in months, he found Ray beating Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt), and Dylan Penders (Fred Kettle) begging for him to stop. At the time, a vulnerable Bear didn’t completely know what was going on, but he knew that he wanted the chaos and noise to end.

He grabbed Ray and squeezed his neck, but didn’t realise his strength was actually killing the evil man.

In the aftermath, Paddy and Dylan have worked hard to cover up the murder, all with the intention of protecting Bear.

The duo know that if Bear tells anyone else about killing Ray, there’s a very high chance he will go to prison.

They’ve tried incredibly hard to keep Bear safe and help him heal from his ordeal, but Paddy has now realised that there’s no chance of his dad completely recovering without some professional help.

In this evening’s episode, Charles Anderson (Kevin Mathurin) popped round and explained to Paddy and Bear that Lucy, a counsellor, will be visiting his house that afternoon for the session.

Paddy sat down with Bear and reminded him of their cover story, and reiterated the importance in not telling Lucy about Ray. Bear is still incredible traumatised by what happened on the farm, so Paddy left the conversation not really knowing for certain if his dad was going to keep quiet.

After dropping Bear off at Charles’, Paddy returned and started talking to Dylan. Meanwhile, April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) had decided it was time to open up to Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry).

The concluding scenes tonight saw the trio get ready to speak to Paddy, Rhona and Lucy about everything they’ve been through. They all looked as anxious as each other, but we then discovered Bear’s attempt at not telling Lucy about Ray was going to be more difficult than he thought, as the man was standing behind him.

Tomorrow’s episode of Emmerdale will focus solely on Bear, April and Dylan, as they attempt to find a way to move forward after the last year.