Emmerdale's population is shrinking so fast it will be a ghost town soon! Farmer John's dead, Holly and Hannah have moved to London, Diane's disappeared, so has Betty, and Ashley's trying to get away but well-meaning villagers keep bringing him back. Now Paddy and Rhona are off to New Zealand for two years with Marlon's son Leo and Marlon's so unhappy about it that Paddy asks him to go with them! And he says he will! But now Laurel's unhappy because she really doesn't want Marlon to leave... Val really doesn't want Pollard sitting at home nursing his broken leg, where she can't get to him and try to worm her way back into his affections. So she sets Rishi to work in the B&B kitchen and he plans to change the menu. When Pollard hears this he's hopping mad (on account of his bad leg) and he hobbles back to the B&B to take charge. That's mission accomplished for Val. Victoria's mission is to make Alex into more of a man but her hopes of that are washed away when he floods their house and they have to move out.
