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Emmerdale airs huge Serena Sugden twist as Robert scrambles to hide a murderous secret in early ITVX release

Warning: Contains spoilers for Wednesday's hour-long episode of Emmerdale, which airs at 8pm on ITV1 or can be streamed now on ITVX.

Robert and Serena Sugden stood against a stone wall in a scene from Emmerdale

ITV

Published: Wednesday, 15 July 2026 at 8:00 am

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Serena Sugden (Casey Al-Shaqsy) clearly can't be trusted in Emmerdale.

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The newcomer arrived on distant cousin Robert Sugden's (Ryan Hawley) doorstep last month, and has proved to be quite an enigma.

Up until this week, there wasn't an awful lot that we knew about her. She claimed to have had brief interactions with murderous John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth), but this didn't quite add up as he was estranged from his father's side of the family for quite some time.

She was also asking a number of questions about the crimes he committed, and the death of his victim Nate Robinson (Jurell Carter).

There was also another mystery – Kev Barton (Chris Coghill) seemed to remember her from somewhere, but couldn't quite put his finger on how they'd crossed paths. She was insistent that they'd never met, and that he was mistaken.

Isabel Hodgins as Victoria and Oliver Farnworth as John Sugden in Emmerdale, Hodgins in a denim jacket and Farnworth in a suit

Vic (Isabel Hodgins) killed brother John (Oliver Farnworth). ITV

However, following a sudden brainwave, he realised that she was once a police officer.

This could be disastrous for Robert and partner Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller), as they've spent months hiding the truth about John's death.

As viewers will remember, in January, Robert's sister Vic (Isabel Hodgins) killed John. She soon came to the realisation that – although his death was ruled as suicide – life in the village would never be the same again.

To make matters worse, she was being blackmailed by devious Joe Tate (Ned Porteous), who had a video of her committing the crime and was going to take it to the authorities if she didn't sign over her half of Butler's Farm to him.

Vic eventually moved to Portugal, something which confused Serena in today's episode.

She asked Bob Hope (Tony Audenshaw) about the sale of Butler's, and he mentioned that it was quickly handed over to the Tates and didn't even go on the market. Serena's eyebrow was raised, and she headed to challenge Robert about it.

He sheepishly denied everything, and instead raised his own questions about her relationship with John.

Casey Al-Shaqsy as Serena Sugden in Emmerdale

Serena (Casey Al-Shaqsy) went to the police station. ITV

Finally, Serena opened up and explained that her mum was once in a pickle financially, and John had cashed in his army pension early to help them. She still had some of this cash left over, and wanted to put it to good use by helping his victims.

Eventually, she chose to gift this money to Tracy Robinson (Amy Walsh) – Nate's wife – though her sister Vanessa Woodfield (Michelle Hardwick) was doubtful whether she would actually want to accept the gift.

Aaron remained distrustful of Serena, and by this point, she was fairly certain that Vic had killed John. She promised to stay quiet about everything, though Aaron told Robert that it would only be a matter of time before she went to the police.

Despite assuring Robert that her policing days were behind her, that night, she strolled towards Hotten station.

Is she going to report them?

Read more:

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and from 7am on ITVX.

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Authors

Michael Adams wearing a white t-shirt and beige gilet against a white background

Michael AdamsSoaps Editor

Michael Adams is the Soaps Editor at Radio Times, covering all of the hot gossip and spoilers from Weatherfield to Walford, Emmerdale to Hollyoaks and everywhere in-between. He joined the team from Metro, where he spent two years as a Soaps Reporter and previously worked on the sets of both Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

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