Yahoo News 10 clues that Emmerdale dropped over Caleb and Nicky secrets
Emmerdale spoilers follow.
Emmerdale aired a double-whammy twist last week, as the full truth about village newcomer Caleb Miligan was finally revealed.
The ITV soap has confirmed that Caleb is the father of Nicky the nanny, with the scheming pair in cahoots to take over Home Farm.
Caleb's motivation is personal, as he's the secret son of Kim Tate's first husband Frank.
Ever since Caleb and Nicky made their debuts in December, there have been clues to the truth scattered along the way – but did you manage to spot them all?
1. The closing credits
Emmerdale's closing titles usually confirm the surnames of every regular in the show. Many guest characters or villains-of-the-week are also billed with their full names.
When Nicky the nanny arrived in December, he was only credited as "Nicky" without a surname given. This unusual approach tipped fans off that Nicky could have a family connection that soap bosses were trying to keep under wraps.
2. Lewis Cope's first interview
Emmerdale announced Lewis Cope's casting as Nicky in December last year, promoting Home Farm's new nanny as a love interest for Gabby.
In his first interview to promote the role, Lewis teased that there could be more to his character than meets the eye – which sparked plenty of speculation from day one.
Lewis told Digital Spy and other media at the time: "At the moment, Nicky is a lovely person and there's nothing to say that he's not.
"But he's almost too good to be true – you'll have to wait and see."
3. Caleb's graveyard visit
In Caleb's first episode last year, he paid a visit to his brother Cain in prison, where he faced a frosty reception.
Despite stern warnings from Cain to stay away, Caleb headed to the village and crossed paths with Chas – his other long-lost sibling – in the graveyard.
Chas was paying an emotional visit to her late daughter Grace's grave. Although viewers will have thought nothing of it at the time, we now know that Caleb had his own reason for the graveyard visit – looking for Frank's final resting place.
4. Caleb and Nicky arriving at the same time
The possibility of Caleb and Nicky having a secret connection had been speculated for some time.
Both characters arrived on screen within days of each other in December and both found themselves with positions at Home Farm. In the real world, they were also teased at Emmerdale press events at the same time.
It didn't take a genius to figure out that Caleb and Nicky could be secretly working together, with some fans rumbling them as a father-son duo.
5. Nicky's focus on the Home Farm job
Nicky's position as the Home Farm nanny is a crucial part of the plan to take revenge against Kim. Caleb is using Nicky as his eyes and ears when he can't be present at the estate himself.
Earlier this year, Nicky firmly resisted Gabby's attempts to seduce him at Home Farm – making it very clear that the job was his top priority. Nicky feared being sacked by Kim if the truth came out, which would lose his potential to spy.
Over time, Nicky and Caleb clearly changed tactics by deciding that Nicky romancing Gabby could work in their favour – especially when it came to claiming her share of Home Farm too.
6. The mystery of the missing watch
In January, all hell broke loose at Home Farm when Will's watch briefly went missing. Will unfairly blamed Sam for stealing from him and his stubborn approach to the situation caused tensions with Kim.
Caleb came to the defence of his fellow Dingle, insisting that Sam was innocent.
Before things got too out of hand, Nicky pulled a rabbit out of the hat by miraculously presenting the watch and claiming that he'd found baby Thomas playing with it.
Since Will had left the watch on top of a kitchen counter, it always seemed unlikely that a tiny 1-year-old had reached up to grab it, so Nicky's claims appeared bogus from the start.
Fans rightly guessed that Nicky and Caleb could be working together to drive a wedge between Kim and Will, even though the histrionics over the missing watch later subsided.
7. Caleb's suspicious phone calls
Several Emmerdale scenes in recent months showed Caleb on the phone to a mystery contact, reporting back over his progress with worming his way in at Home Farm.
We can now assume that Caleb was calling Nicky, since they couldn't risk being spotted talking face-to-face.
Even after Caleb confessed to Cain that he wanted to claim Home Farm for himself, his furtive phone calls kept hinting that there was more to the story and that he wasn't telling his brother everything.
8. Nicky's slip-up at Home Farm
We know that Nicky has been struggling with the pressure of keeping up the ruse that he and Caleb are strangers.
One early clue to this aired before the big reveal, as Caleb caught Nicky and Gabby giving into temptation in the kitchen at Home Farm.
When Caleb made a show of questioning Nicky over what he was up to, Nicky snapped by asking why he was suddenly "big on trust".
Caleb pointedly replied: "Have you got information that says different?" This prompted Nicky to back down, but once again gave the game away that he knew more about Caleb than he was letting on.
9. Nicky's suspiciously quick marriage proposal
While soap relationships are known to progress quickly, the speed of Gabby and Nicky's engagement certainly raised a few eyebrows.
The couple had only been together for a matter of weeks before Nicky decided to pop the question, claiming that he'd been considering it for a while.
Nicky later expressed his resentment to Caleb about having to appear loved-up with Gabby. This confirmed that he had no genuine feelings for her – and that Kim was right to be worried about Gabby rushing into things.
10. Nicky's slip-up over his mum
Nicky recently made the effort to get to know Laurel and Bernice, who quizzed him about his past.
Nicky claimed that his mother had passed away when he was 15 and that this was part of the reason he'd bonded with Gabby, whose father Ashley died in 2017.
Slipping up in his sob story, Nicky said: "My mum is beautiful." He then corrected himself by adding: "Was beautiful..."
Subsequent scenes revealed that Nicky's mother is still alive, proving that the nanny's slip of the tongue had risked exposing his lies.
Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1, and streams on ITVX.
Read more Emmerdale spoilers on our dedicated homepage
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