Emmerdale review of the week: Piper's alive, Ella and Dawn plot

This week’s Emmerdale review is an emotional rollercoaster – just like the soap itself! We’ve been pulled every which way this week and frankly we don’t know whether we’re happy, sad or just plain confused!

Read on to find out what’s been leaving our heads in a spin in this week’s Emmerdale review.

Tom with Piper the Dog in Emmerdale — Piper’s alive! But Tom’s still evil (Credit: ITV)

Piper’s alive!

Of course the big revelation this week was that poor Piper, Belle’s beloved pooch, is ALIVE!

We have to admit, we had our suspicions. We’ve been soap fans long enough to know that, in the words of Taylor Swift, ‘no body, no crime’.

But even though we didn’t see Tom run Piper over, we wondered if we were being a bit hopeful. Maybe the soap rules were different for animals. And things did look bleak when Tom brought Piper’s little wicker coffin up to Wishing Well to bury her beside Belle’s Shetland pony, Hamish.

And then! The best twist ever! Piper’s alive! For a second we were thrilled to bits. Except, Tom’s given her away, and Belle still thinks she’s dead. How evil can one man be?! Honestly, THIS is what we mean by an emotional rollercoaster!

Rhona points something out to horrified Ella on her phone in the village — Ella was furious when Amelia posted a photo of her on the salon socials (Credit: ITV)

Ella lashes out!

We can’t quite get to grips with how we’re supposed to feel about child killer Ella.

On the one hand, she’s done her time and everyone deserves a second chance. On the other – she doesn’t exactly help herself, does she?!

This week, when Gary – the cousin of her victim, Joanne – turned up at Ella’s birthday celebrations, Ella lost it.

Wendy tried to help but Ella lashed out, giving poor Wendy a huge thump in the face and scaring her. It turned out Ella wanted to be sent back to prison – the only real home she’d ever had.

But on top of our conflicted feelings about Ella, we also felt a bit odd about Liam and Manpreet trying to gaslight a frightened and battered Wendy into withdrawing her statement. Ella may have had her reasons, but she still attacked Wendy.

Maybe we just need to get to know Ella better, but for now, the jury’s out on how we feel about this former jailbird.

Emmerdale's Laurel and Jai are talking to the mediator — Jai’s up to something, but so is Caleb (Credit: ITV)

Jai and Laurel’s money battle

Jai and Laurel’s divorce is becoming more acrimonious by the day and this week things took a turn. Except we’re not quite sure what’s going on.

Everyone’s lying and scheming and covering things up and now Caleb seems to be involved and we’re completely baffled.

All we really know is we’re totally Team Laurel!

Will looks worried at his phone in Home Farm — Will’s fretting (Credit: ITV)

What’s Dawn up to in our Emmerdale review?

So Rose vanished, Will thinks Kim is responsible, Kim thinks Will did it, and she’s gone off to Dubai which makes Will even more suspicious that she’s the guilty party.

Meanwhile, Will’s sending Dawn messages from Rose’s phone and fretting, while Dawn worries about where her mum is.

Except.

In Friday’s episode we discovered that Dawn’s been lying. She’s setting Will up for something and we’re not sure who’s in on it? Is this Dawn working with Rose to take revenge on her dad?

Or is it Dawn and Kim who have teamed up? Could Dawn, Kim AND Rose all be in on it? What even is IT? We’re so confused – and looking forward to next week’s episodes when hopefully it’ll all be explained.