The following article contains spoilers from the episode of Emmerdale dated November 9. It hasn’t aired on ITV1 yet, but can be viewed on ITVX and YouTube.
Emmerdale revealed exits for two residents in today’s episode.
2026 really has been the year of change for the ITV soap. To name just a few, we’ve said emotional farewells to Jimmy King (Nick Miles) and Dawn Taylor (Olivia Bromley) this year, who died in a tragic car wreck.
Vinny Dingle (Bradley Johnson) was sent to prison for causing it, and it was confirmed that Cathy Hope (Gabrielle Dowling) won’t be returning.
We bid less-emotional goodbyes to four of the village’s most evil residents; John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth), Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths), Ray Walters (Joe Absolom) and Dr Caitlin Todd (Caroline Harker).
We’ve also said temporary farewells to Victoria Sugden (Isabel Hodgins) and Tracy Shankley (Amy Walsh), as both actors headed off on maternity leave.
As today’s episode opened, Sam Dingle (James Hooton), Kammy Hadiq (Shebz Miah) and Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper) got to work preparing the house for Samson Dingle’s (Sam Hall) return.
The trio then discussed how Lydia Dingle (Karen Blick) isn’t around at the moment, as she’s had to visit her unwell mum.
Sam revealed to Kammy that he doesn’t know how long Lydia will be away for, as it all depends on what her mum’s doctor says.
While we can safely assume Lydia will be back in the near future, the Dingles will receive news this week about Samson’s comeback.
Once it’s revealed that Samson attacked Tom King (James Chase) and put him in hospital, Sam will discover that fresh charges will mean his son isn’t coming home just yet.
Also in today’s instalment, after nailing his trial for Robert Sugden’s (Ryan Hawley) new restaurant the Smokehouse, Kev Barton (Chris Coghill) arrived at Nicola King’s (Nicola Wheeler) to reveal that he’ll be leaving the café.
Last week, Kev and Nicola had another sweet moment together. Nicola had found Kev snoring on the sofa and, missing the sound of Jimmy King’s (Nick Miles) snores, she decided to lay beside Kev and fell asleep.
It’s clear something is developing between these two characters, which is perhaps why the moment where Kev broke the news to Nicola about leaving the café was so awkward.
Kev told Nicola that they probably won’t have time to hang out anymore because he’ll be so busy working for Robert.
He then declined the offer of one final cup of tea with Nicola and departed.
Both of them were quietly gutted to say goodbye to each other – but is this really the end of the dynamic?
Could working away from Nicola help Kev work out how he feels about her?
