Jason Merrells has backed his character Declan Macey's shock turn to the dark side, telling Digital Spy that it was the right move for the ruthless businessman's story arc.
Dramatic episodes airing this week see Declan plan to kill his deceitful wife Charity after whisking her away to a remote cottage, wanting revenge after discovering that she lied about losing their unborn baby.
The huge storyline means Emmerdale is airing some of its most dramatic episodes of the year this week, with Declan and Charity's ultimate fates being kept strictly under wraps.
Merrells told Digital Spy: "It's a great story - it's subtle and ambiguous. At any moment, the story can go from being a dark thriller and become something else. It's not clear-cut and you don't necessarily know what's going to happen next. I felt that just from reading the scripts, so it's been a real pleasure to film it.
"We feel it was earned, because it was the only way this story could go. There's such tension, so many lies and really high stakes between Declan and Charity. There's a lot to play for and lots of reasons why it gets to this extreme place, so we felt that it was a really good story."
Discussing Declan's motivations, he continued: "I think that there's a series of terrible things that have happened to him. He almost has a psychopathic inability to deal with his own feelings and emotions, so that has led him to real extremes of behaviour such as domestic abuse and attempting to take his own life last Christmas.
"Declan is only a whisker away from that sort of behaviour, but he's also good at painting on that façade of a very even-keeled and controlled businessman. However, since the fire last year, he's only able to do that because of Charity. Everything hinges on what he has with Charity being true, so if it isn't, he's just a whisker away from being at that dark place again."
Emmerdale's cast and crew filmed this week's dramatic episodes out on location away from the usual village set. The story could see Declan and Charity finally get their comeuppance after a year of bad behaviour.
Merrells added: "It's been great to work on. Usually you're filming out of sequence on a show like this, because you've got so many episodes interweaved. In this case, because we've got this pretty extreme week, we've filmed it pretty much in sequence which has been great.
"What makes a story good is how well it ends, and this ends well! Well, it doesn't end well for either of them but it does end in a satisfying way!
"All of the loose ends are tied up in this story - not necessarily in the way that you might expect, but they are addressed and that's what's great about it. It addresses all of the stories we've had."
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Originally Posted by Perdita
