Ruby Miligan (Beth Cordingly) found herself connecting with Bear Wolf (Joshua Richards) during tonight’s episode of Emmerdale.

Bear spent the start of this week being questioned by DS Walsh, following his confession that he killed Ray Walters (Joe Absolom).

He faced a particularly large hurdle halfway through though due to Walsh believing that Bear wasn’t the only person involved in disposing of Ray’s body.

She brought Dylan Penders (Fred Kettle) and Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt) in for questioning as well, but they stuck to the story and continued to tell the detective that Bear murdered and covered Ray’s death up by himself.

The CPS granted Bear bail, which meant he was allowed to return home until the trial.

Paddy gently suggested to Bear in this evening’s instalment that they go to the café. He believed that it would help Bear see that no one in the village thinks he’s a bad man.

As they sat down, Bear immediately got overwhelmed at the amount of people in the building. A harmless comment by Lewis Barton (Bradley Riches) about Bear’s ankle tag, and one made by Vinny Dingle (Bradley Johnson) about him being a hero, then saw the character get up and leave.

Bear was found by Ruby at the Pavilion. With echoes of Paddy calling Bear’s name in the distance, Ruby sensed that the last thing Bear wanted to do was return home.

When Bear started talking about taking Ray’s life and the importance in facing consequences for your actions, Ruby started to allude to knowing a little bit about what Bear has been through.

When Ruby was a child, she was sexually abused by her father Anthony Fox. The evil man controlled Ruby for the majority of her life. In January 2025, Anthony died as a result of Ruby killing him.

Her ordeal isn’t the exact same as Bear’s, but she knows what it’s like to be controlled by a man, and to have that man stop you from living a life you deserve. Ruby said that if Bear doesn’t fight and ends up going to prison, Ray has still won.

Ruby took Bear home, much to Paddy’s surprise. The character was left further taken aback when Bear told Ruby to sit down as he was making her a coffee. Bear even joked about not having the posh coffees Ruby likes.

He told Paddy and Ruby that he quite liked the life he had before Ray took him to the farm, and that he wouldn’t mind getting it back.

It was a lovely moment but most importantly it was hope, something Paddy and Bear haven’t seen in ages.