Emmerdale: Why Ella won't dethrone Meena as 'top village killer'

Emmerdale fans got a little excitable on Thursday (August 22) as Ella Forster went on a bit of a birthday rampage.

That doesn’t mean she got a bit tiddly on too many Proseccos, and demolished her birthday cake by herself (although she did do this… but not by scoffing it all down.)

Instead, Ella blew up at Mandy over a selfie shared online, had a rather awkward encounter with the brother of the girl she killed, punched a nurse, and got nicked. Not your typical celebrations, then. And she didn’t even get to blow out any candles.

However, while Ella’s meltdown left some fans wondering about whether she’ll return to the village, other viewers have tipped her to be the soap’s next big baddie.

But will she ever be able to top the malevolence of mad, bad, and deadly-to-know Emmerdale villainess Meena Jutla? In a word, no. And here’s why.

Ella is arrested — Ella doesn’t have what it takes to be a top tier soap serial killer (Credit: ITV)

Body count

It seems a little distasteful to highlight, but that won’t stop us: Ella is going to have to work on her body count if she’s to challenge Meena’s reputation.

Meena bumped off at least five other characters, including two (her dad and BFF) as part of her off-screen backstory.

At the moment, Ella only has one confirmed kill to her name. And, at this stage, we don’t exactly know all the details surrounding Joanne’s death. You never know, it might turn out there are as-yet undisclosed details around the killing which even Ella has buried deep, deep down… and portray her in a more sympathetic light.

So if she wants to be considered on the level of Meena, Ella needs to bury people, not feelings… and get those numbers up!

Meena was flipping scary

Sure, Ella’s a bit useful with her fists (as Wendy’s conk found out) and a little aggressive towards tasty tokens of endearment from her friends (why would anyone ever waste cake by decorating the ground with it?), but she doesn’t have the compassionless, merciless look Meena had.

Ella, meanwhile, is all doe-eyed and smoochy lipped for Dr Liam Cavanagh. If that happened with Meena you’d be concerned why her pupils were so enlarged – and whether she was about to lean in and bite someone’s throat out rather than linger about for a tender kiss goodbye.

Ella looks at Liam — Is this really a look a top village killer would give? We think not (Credit: ITV)

Family connections

Any soap murderer can bump off a few randoms to establish their murderous potential. But to really excel as a first class psychopath, it is necessary to take out a few loved ones along the way.

Meena’s dad and (other) sister may not have appeared on screen, but she had sister Manpreet to torment, and demonstrate just how much of a wrong ‘un she was.

Ella, however, doesn’t have any close relatives in the village to victimise, and really prove what a nasty piece of work she may be. So that goes against her, too.

Regrets? She’s had a few

To get ahead as a soap serial killer, you need to be more than a little bit dead inside yourself.

Ella seems – through her flashes of regret, and self-examination, and tears – to have a little bit of soul and humanity left. That won’t do – must die harder!

Soap serial killers needs to revel in and relish their dastardly deeds, too. Meena had the potential to murder while painting her nails. She gloried in the death and chaos she unleashed.

Ella, meanwhile, still hasn’t got over knocking off her best pal years ago. Some people just don’t have what it takes to be a bloodthirsty homicidal maniac, we’re afraid.