Sadie King delivers what may be the fatal blow to Caleb and Ruby Miligan's marriage in Emmerdale next week, spiking Ruby's mocktails, staging a public collapse and finally bedding Caleb herself. The episodes air on ITV from Monday 3 November, according to Metro's report on the storyline.
Patsy Kensit, who plays Sadie, has laid out the mechanics of the scheme in detail, and it is an ugly business: manipulation, secret alcohol and a well-timed text message, all deployed at the behest of Joe Tate to obliterate the marriage of a woman who has treated Sadie as her best friend.
How Sadie's plan unfolds next week
The scheme rests on a simple, vicious premise. Ruby, played by Beth Cordingly, has decided to go sober. Sadie cannot allow that, because a sober Ruby is a Ruby who might see clearly. So she keeps ordering her mocktails and quietly shoving alcohol into them without her knowledge.
'Ruby thinks it tastes a bit strange, but she's got no idea what's really happening,' Kensit told Metro. 'It's such bad behaviour!'
The trap is sprung in the pub. Sadie flirts with Ross Barton, played by Michael Parr, encourages him into a ballroom samba, then grabs Ruby and throws the two of them together. Ruby, several spiked mocktails down, is falling all over the place.
Then comes the text. Sadie messages Caleb to say, in the classic poisonous formula, 'Listen, I think you should know.' He walks in and sees his wife collapsed on top of Ross on the floor. I Talk Telly reports that Caleb arrives just in time to watch Ruby collapse onto Ross, while Sadie clocks a furious Caleb storming off.
Caleb declares the marriage over
The damage is completed with a lie. Sadie later lets Caleb believe that a drunken Ruby has gone home with Ross. He swallows it whole, declares the marriage over and sleeps with Sadie. Digital Spy confirms that the scheming character finally succeeds in seducing Caleb as part of her plot with Joe Tate to destroy the Miligans.
There is something almost admirable in the efficiency of it, if one could admire a con. Sadie has run a campaign worthy of a professional saboteur: she has convinced Caleb that Ruby is an alcoholic while convincing Ruby that Caleb is controlling her, playing both sides against the middle until the marriage cracked.
Why Sadie is doing it: money and envy
Kensit is refreshingly blunt about her character's motives. Sadie has taken a hit in life, needs money, and wants her affluent lifestyle back.
'She likes an affluent lifestyle, and so I think she wants that back,' Kensit explained. 'She also looks at Caleb and Ruby's marriage and it's painful for her because she would love what Ruby has.'
There is the whole of the modern soap villain in that one sentence. Not ideology, not revenge, but envy dressed up as friendship. Sadie wants what Ruby has and, rather than earn it, has decided to take it. One is reminded of nothing so much as the old warning about the guest who eats your supper while complimenting the cooking.
Does Sadie feel any guilt?
According to Kensit, yes, and that is what makes the character watchable rather than merely repellent. Ruby has been genuinely kind to her, and that kindness has complicated matters.
'The old Sadie would just squash her like a fly, but Sadie sort of struck up a weird, good relationship with Ruby, so it's more complicated,' Kensit said. 'I can't reveal too much, but later on we will see she's adamant about her sorrow for hurting Ruby, and it's genuine.'
Genuine sorrow, one notes, that does not stop her from spiking the woman's drinks. Evil in soap opera, as in life, rarely announces itself with horns; it arrives with a smile and a mocktail.
Ruby fights back, but Sadie has a plan
The truth does begin to leak. Caleb's stomach drops when he realises Ruby and Ross did not sleep together, and Ruby gets wise to the lie Sadie told about that night. Back to the Bay reports that Ruby finds her decision to give up alcohol cruelly undermined as Sadie takes increasingly desperate steps to wreck the marriage.
Is Sadie worried? Not in the slightest.
'She's got a plan,' Kensit said. 'She's like a horse with blinkers on. She's very motivated by money and very used to the art of manipulation.'
Kensit's wish list: a partnership with Mandy Dingle
Off-screen, the actress is enjoying her second stint in the village and full of praise for her colleagues, particularly William Ash and Beth Cordingly, the very co-stars whose characters she is busy ruining.
'Will and Beth are brilliant,' she beamed. 'From the start coming in, I had a lot of stuff with Nicola Wheeler and she was so amazing to me. Now I'm filming lots with Will and Beth and again they are so kind. I've learned so much from them. It's been a joy, we've really got on, everyone's lovely. It's a really lovely show.'
She also has an eye on future storylines. 'I'd love her to have a relationship with Mandy Dingle because I get on with Lisa Riley really well,' Kensit said. 'She has a beauty bar, so it would be great if Sadie had a storyline where she had money to invest in that.'
Given Sadie's record, any business partnership should come with an audited set of accounts and a breathalyser behind the bar.
FAQ
Does Caleb sleep with Sadie in Emmerdale?
Yes. After Sadie leads him to believe that a drunken Ruby went home with Ross Barton, Caleb declares his marriage over and sleeps with Sadie, in episodes airing in the week beginning 3 November.
Is Sadie spiking Ruby's drinks?
Yes. Sadie secretly puts alcohol in Ruby's mocktails to undermine her attempt to go sober, as part of her plot with Joe Tate to destroy the Miligans' marriage.
Does Ruby find out what Sadie did?
Ruby gets wise to the lie about her and Ross, and the friendship is expected to be destroyed when the full truth emerges. Sadie, however, believes she can turn the situation back in her favour.