Emmerdale fans were left speechless on Monday evening as the ITV soap aired the truth behind Cain Dingle’s long lost brother Caleb in flashback scenes.
The Boxing Day episode saw younger actors play Cain, Chas and Caleb Milligan (William Ash) in the scenes after their mysterious newcomer brother arrived in the village on Christmas Day looking for answers.
The soap aired a major casting shake-up as, interspersed between scenes of Cain ( Jeff Hordley ) in prison, flashback scenes showed him and Chas (Lucy Pargeter) living together after escaping their abusive situation with Shadrach.
As the younger scenes showed the siblings struggling to buy food and get by, the question of why Cain hid the existence of his brother Caleb was finally answered in the 1991 scenes.
Emmerdale fans at home were left blown away by the scenes of the young Dingle clan, with many praising young Cain, played by Aiden Kane, who had the mannerisms and accent of actor Jeff Hordley down to a T.
Taking to social media to share their thoughts, one fan said: "Young Cain sounds just like older Cain lol."
A second added: "The actor playing Cain back in the 90’s got Cain's voice down to a tee."
While a third penned: "Young Cain is f***ing spot on omg."
"Emmerdale! This is brilliant and actor playing "young" Cain is so credible," a fourth shared.
The 90s scenes revealed what happened when Caleb (played by Riccardo Drayton in the flashbacks) first tracked his brother down, after he was born in prison while Faith ( Sally Dexter ) was serving a sentence.
Cain was seen working as a mechanic at the time, when the present day Cain told told Moira (Natalie J. Robb) he had been pretending to himself that Faith was dead – so when Caleb appeared in the workshop, he told Caleb that she was.
In later scenes, Cain had been about to introduce Caleb to Chas, when she told her brother that she was pregnant, with the baby who would turn out to be Aaron.
Chas and Celeb then never met, as Cain instead told his long lost brother to leave the village, shattering all chances Caleb had of being part of a real family.
He jumped into a car and raced off. Cain jumped in the passenger seat and it wasn’t long before they were being chased by the police.
When Cain found out that Caleb already had a criminal record he took the fall for him – much like he’s doing with his son Kyle now – and told the police he was driving, making Caleb stay away for good.
The worst part, for Cain, was that as he faced his first stretch in prison he told Chas, who was now several months pregnant, to move in with Gordon, the father of her baby – who proved to be a vile abuser.
Cain blamed himself for moving her from Shadrach to another vile monster, creating a whole new backstory for the infamous Dingles on the ITV soap.
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV.
Got any theories or thoughts on the storyline? Let us know in the comments section below.
