Love Rat is a gripping new Channel 5 drama that follows a divorced woman who gets robbed of her life savings during a whirlwind holiday romance.
Sally Lindsay and Neil Morrissey play a newly divorced Emma and Pete, who are navigating the harsh reality of dividing up the life they've built together. However, Emma's life gets even more complicated when she goes on her first solo holiday to Cyprus, only to meet handsome hotel owner Nico who isn't who he says he is and steals all her life savings in the first episode.
Here is everything you need to know about Love Rat episode 2...
The second episode picks up right where episode one left off, with Emma in a police cell after being arrested for affray in the bank as she was trying to get her life savings back.
Suzie, Emma's daughter, arrives after the police call her, and Emma is soon questioned about what happened. She tries to convince the police that she is the victim but the police aren't very helpful and claim this is simply a banking error and there is no proof that she was forced to hand the money over.
Emma and Suzie go to the hotel with a policewoman to question Maria, who works in the hotel bar. She lies to the police, just like she pretended to Emma, that she doesn't know who Nico is.
Emma is fuming that everyone is covering up Nico's crimes and even when the police say they will drop the affray charges against her if she goes home to the UK, Emma refuses. But it becomes clear that even if they find Nico, it would be hard to prove that a crime took place.
With the police no use at all, Emma and Suzie decide to check into the hotel and see if they can find Nico themselves. However, she has been labeled a troublemaker at the hotel and is refused a room. Soon Emma and Suzie are fighting about the money, and Suzie still can't understand how her mum could hand over so much cash to someone she barely knew.
However, their argument is interrupted by a call from home on Suzie's phone. She discovers her baby boy, Milo, has chicken pox so she wants to go home to be with him and heads back to the airport. She asks Emma to go with her, but she refuses and says she is determined to find Nico and get their money back.
Emma sees Maria and her son, Theo, leaving the hotel so she hires a car and follows them home. She goes to their apartment and confronts Maria, who initially maintains that she doesn't know who Nico is, however, when Emma breaks down in tears she finally cracks and although she doesn't give too much away, she says 'the British one' goes to a bar in town every day to drink.
Emma is determined to find her money, so goes to the bar. However, before she leaves, Maria warns her that she is playing a dangerous game.
Emma calls the police again after following George, Nico's British friend, home from the bar to a villa. She asks them to arrest George, but they again say they can't just arrest someone without more evidence. So Emma takes matters into her own hands and when George goes out, she sneaks into his villa through an open window and searches his office.
She finds the key to a locked drawer under a lamp and discovers a gun along with a photo of Nico with another woman, around the same age as her, and a passport for the woman. But before she can leave the villa, George comes home and catches her - although he doesn't seem that surprised to see her.
He explains that Nico works with some bad people who have links to the Mafia. He says no one ever gets their money back from Nico and offers to take her back to the airport before she gets herself in more trouble. George also explains that he doesn't want to be working with Nico but that his gang seems to think he owes them a favor, so he does what they say to keep them onside.
Seeming to be nice, George offers to drive Emma to the airport, but she says she has her own car, so he gets in with her, takes her to departures, and waits until she goes inside before getting a taxi home. However, once George is gone, Emma sneaks back out of the airport and checks into a new hotel.
While in her new room, Emma researches the woman, Annika, in the photo and whose passport George had in his draw. She finds her on social media and messages her, asking if Nico also took her money.
While she is doing her research, Pete, her ex-husband calls, having spoken to their daughter, Suzie, and tells her he is worried about her and that she needs to come home - but, of course, Emma refuses.
She looks again at the photo of Nico and Annika and sees they are standing outside a local hotel... so she goes there and, pretending to be Annika's friend, she asks the hotel owner if he recognizes her. He says he does, that she originally booked in for a week, but ended up staying longer after meeting Nico, who the hotel owner also recognizes from the photo.
But then he reveals that Annika suddenly vanished, leaving all her luggage behind and he thinks she might have moved in with Nico. Pretending to be a concerned friend, Emma asks to see Annika's suitcase and while she doesn't find much, she does get her address book which she puts in her bag.
Emma thinks she has got away with her digging, but as she leaves another receptionist makes a call telling the person on the other end that someone has come asking for Annika. She then demands that the person she is talking to now leave her alone, suggesting that, like Maria, she is being paid by Nico and his men to be the eyes and ears of the hotel for them.
Back in her car, Emma calls Freja, who she knows is Annika's daughter after seeing them in a social media post together. In the picture Freja is pregnant, and Annika's address book has a baby scan photo in, but when Emma calls Freja the new mum says that she hasn't seen or heard from her mother for months after she ran off with someone she met on holiday, and that Annika has no idea that she has a new baby grandson. Freja asks who Emma is, and she lies that she found Annika's passport on a beach.
Back in the car, Emma calls her own daughter and tells her that she promises to get the money back and that she loves her, but as she hangs up, a message pops up from Annika saying that Nico did steal her money but she managed to get it back.
Emma asks how she got the cash returned, and Annika tells her to meet her in a secluded area and not to tell anyone because she is worried Nico is still looking for her.
Desperate to get her cash back, Emma heads to the picnic spot, and by the time she gets there, it is dark and deserted. She gets out of the car, but of course, Annika is nowhere to be found, just a very angry George who has a gun.
He tells Emma she is stupid for not going home when she had the chance and now he has to kill her. She begs for her life, telling him she has a family, but he ignores her and says now Emma and Annika can be in eternity together, suggesting that he also killed Annika.
But just as he is about to pull the trigger, an animal makes a noise in the distance, startling George and Emma uses the moment to run away. George shoots at her, but she hides behind a tree, twisting her ankle as she goes.
She seems to have escaped him, and soon another car turns up in the dark, with its light on full beam. Emma flags it down, hoping they can save her, but instead, Nico gets out, grabs her, and shoves her into the back of his car - telling her to 'shut up or you're dead' before slamming the boot closed.
Love Rat airs on four consecutive nights at 9pm on Channel 5 from Monday, March 11 to Thursday, March 14, 2024.
