Emmerdale villagers will face "big" repercussions of killer Meena Jutla's actions for a "long, long time" to come on the ITV soap.
Soap producer Kate Brooks has revealed a number of characters will feature in storylines in the fallout to Meena's exit and imprisonment, as they struggle to move on from recent events.
Amid speculation over what Leyla is hiding, she and husband Liam Cavanagh will feature in a "big" new plot - while Jacob Gallagher and Manpreet Sharma both face "new directions".
Speaking to The Mirror and other press, soap boss Kate revealed what was ahead for those impacted by Meena, with several characters taking centre stage.
She said: "This woman wreaked havoc in the village and destroyed people’s lives, Liam has lost his daughter, Manpreet... what hasn't she been through in the past 12 months?
"So I think we were very conscious not to just tie it up in a very neat bow and say okay, now Meena has left and gone from the village, let’s just move on.
"That is not what would happen or how we have made it. There's a massive story on the table for Liam and Leyla which is the result of what has gone down with Leanna and everything, there are big ramifications for Charles and Manpreet.
"Poor Manpreet. The only sister she has had has just turned out to be an absolutely evil, vindictive woman and she didn't see that, so that is gonna torment Manpreet for a long time after Meena has left.
"Jacob, he finally found love again with Leanna after Maya, so the fact Meena has destroyed that and took that away from him kind of sends him off into a new direction.
"So the ramifications will be felt for a long, long time after Meena has left the village. Loads of really exciting stories."
Kate also explained why they went for a full justice ending for Meena, and didn't kill her off like many viewers predicted would be the case.
She told us, of hopes fans would like the twist: "I really do, I really hope so, we could have killed Meena off but I like how we punish her and how weak she leaves the show.
"It's very fitting to her character, we take away the one thing Meena craves in the whole world, which is attention and notoriety, so once that is removed from Meena, I don’t know what she has got left.
"She very quickly realises that this is the worst fate imaginable, it’s worse than death or anything else."
Kate added: "They've waited quite a while to see this happen, with a serial killer story like this it can be quite Marmite but ultimately people love to hate Meena."
The soap producer also addressed whether there was temptation to keep the character on the show, despite her many crimes.
She explained: "Oh yeah, the amount of story Meena has given us has just been ridiculous, so of course there is always that temptation.
"Somebody who is capable of such heinous crimes and not showing any remorse for those crimes, they can't stay long in the village.
"They can't continue down that path because there is nowhere else for them to go. We knew we had to give people a sense of justice and not just viewers, but also for our characters who are left because if they didn't receive that sense of justice or feel Meena had been punished accordingly to those crimes, there is no way we could have moved them on as characters.
"We ultimately have got to let Meena’s fate rest in the hands of the Soap Gods and they need to punish her accordingly and I think and hope viewers will be satisfied."
Got any theories or thoughts on the storyline? Let us know in the comments section below.
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays.
