Emmerdale viewers left fuming over 'disgusting' Bear Wolf twist - 'So ridiculous'

Emmerdale viewers flooded social media with backlash after Bear Wolf's (played by Joshua Richards) whereabouts were finally exposed. The retired wrestler's location finally raised suspicions after his son, Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt), received a package from his dad's friend Gnasher, with whom Bear was supposed to be staying in Ireland. As Bear headed off for Ireland three months ago, Paddy finally realised something was seriously wrong and recruited the help of his mum, Mandy Dingle (Lisa Riley).

Together, they phoned mutual friends to see if anyone had heard from Bear, but quickly realised there was major cause for concern. Paddy told his mum: "Everyone's saying the same thing, they spoke regularly until a few months ago and then he went silent." After much hesitation, they finally decided it was time to report Bear to the police as a missing person, but as the episode came to a close, it was revealed that Bear had been abducted and was being forced to work as a modern-day slave for Celia (Jaye Griffiths) and Ray's (Joe Absolom) drug empire. Taking to X/Twitter with fury, one viewer penned: "Celia and Ray are disgusting! I wonder what Bear is doing there?" as a second raged: " Omg, I don't think I've ever been as angry at a TV show than the Bear storyline. Sorry, but how, HOW? Just so unbelievable and ridiculous Omg, I don't think I've ever been as angry at a TV show than the Bear storyline. Sorry, but how, HOW? Just so unbelievable and ridiculous."

A third added: "And now after all of this, Bear is now being dragged into the drugs story too!"

"Of course Bear is linked to the Ray and Celia storyline," complained another.

Meanwhile, one fan hit back at Paddy and Mandy and fumed: "Almost 4 months and NOW they're questioning where Bear is. Idiots."

Another echoed: "And it's taken you 4 months and over 100 days to work out that Bear never made it to Ireland Paddy!"

This comes after Emmerdale's producer Laura Shaw previously teased: "The character of Bear, we've got a big storyline coming up for him. He's going to go off screen for a little while, he's going to go missing.

"And when he comes back, what you'll see is a very different Bear in a really different situation. We're all going to be watching and going, 'What the hell has happened here?' That's going to be really exciting, she added to Digital Spy.

During the scene, viewers were led to a dark and derelict room, which opened to reveal a hooded man sitting hunched on a bed in the corner. Ray entered with a screaming girl, who turned out to be Anya, the stowaway Caleb and Ruby took in before her disappearance.

Ray ordered the man to clean Anya up and locked them inside again, but when he lifted his hood, it was revealed to be Bear. Anya recognised him and instantly broke down, indicating that they must have been held captive for a while.

Lisa Riley, previously, told Emmerdale Insider: "It is going to be harrowing viewing. But I think it's really important. When we tell these stories, we are informing people night after night of what's going on everywhere, there are these grooming gangs and they are all over the country."