Says Henry, who has been trying to phone Annie Sugden, but has found the line engaged: "Think I'll go up to Emmerdale - might as well wait there as anywhere else."
"I'm sure he must've been delayed, that's all," says Kate.
"I don't know what to think!" says Annie.
Kate advises her to put the phone down: "He might be trying to contact you."
"Maybe you're right," Annie agrees, replacing the receiver.
Having established that he is back for good ("Looks like it," says Jack) Kathy suggests that he phones Annie or Henry.
"Yeah, I know I should, but I'd sooner see them face to face," Jack replies.
"They went to the airport you know, they're not going to be very happy with you," Kathy tells him.
"Well, maybe that's where they were when I tried to phone them," says Jack. He says he'll go round soon.
Kathy tells Jack she can look after Robert whilst he does that - she has to help her mother pack.
"Pack? What for?" asks Jack. "Eh, it's not the honeymoon, is it?"
Alan Turner wants to help, but only succeeds in irritating Alice, Caroline's mother.
"Why don't you go to work, Alan?" suggests Mrs Bates. "We're not going to be leaving until five 0'clock."
Alan agrees, and asks if there's any chance of Caroline meeting him for a "bite of lunch".
"I'll try, but I doubt it," says Caroline.
"I feel sorry for him in a way," she tells her mother after Alan has left. Alice is more concerned about finding her second pair of slippers.
"When did she see her dad?" Joe asks Kate.
"Yesterday," Kate replies.
Joe does not sound happy: "You never said!"
Rounding the corner of the farmhouse garden wall, Rachel sees Matt Skilbeck with Pete Whiteley. She steels herself and walks towards them.
Joe is amused at the idea of Kate digging them out. He offers to give her a lift to Crossgill, but says that's all he can offer in the way of help!
"How can I be friends with you and Lynn after...?" Rachel replies.
"It doesn't mean to say we have to avoid each other," says Pete.
After an uneasy silence, Pete asks Rachel if she wants a lift to school. Rachel refuses and walks away.
Joe suggests that she cuts her losses and starts again in the spring. Kate refuses, and Joe tells her: "You won't get rid of them without pellets!"
"Look, I've started off organic and that's the way I'm going to stay!" says Kate.
Joe tells her she's wasting her time. "We'll see!" Kate replies. Joe wishes her good luck and leaves her to it.
Joe hasn't walked far when he sees David Hughes, Kate's ex-husband, approaching. There is a strained atmosphere between the two men, who wish each other good morning.
"Come to see Kate, have you?" asks Joe.
"Is that all right with you?" replies David.
"Fine by me," says Joe.
David asks Kate what she's doing: "I'm trying to get these wretched slugs out of my organic vegetables."
"It's organic, David, you've got to dig them out by hand," says Kate.
Kate asks if David will help her: "Joe thinks I'm wasting my time!"
"Well, I would, but... er..." David can't think of a reason - but he doesn't help.
Kate and David discuss Rachel. Kate tells him it looks like she's involved with "some bloke".
When David questions her further, she tells him she doesn't know anything.
"Look, Kate, I don't want some village idiot mucking up her chances of going to college," says David.
Kate tells him she's tried to talk to Rachel, but it's difficult without upsetting her. David says it looks like he'll have to talk to her, and Kate tells him to "go easy on her".
David asks when he's ever upset Rachel? "Now look, we used to be close. I'd like it to be like that again."
Kate looks sceptical.
"I hope so!" says Annie.
"We waited hours at the airport - we were worried stiff," says Annie.
"I'm sorry, I just didn't have enough money for the shuttle flight," Jack explains.
Jack tells Henry that Marian won't be returning.
"Why, what's happened?" asks Henry.
"Let's go inside, shall we?" says Jack.
Jack is temporarily sidetracked and exclaims at the decorating which is underway: "Joe been spending some of his money then?"
"For heaven's sake, Jack, never mind about this - what's happened?" asks Annie.
Jack explains that he gave Marian an ultimatum: he'd borrowed money from his landlord and booked tickets for the day before and told her that if she didn't turn up he was returning home without her.
"She wrote to me!" says Henry.
Jack says that he was surprised about that - "For a moment I really thought she was going to leave Paolo. Anyway, she didn't show up."
"So you left her!" Henry accuses.
"No - I didn't, Henry!" says Jack. "I decided to give her a chance to make the second flight. She didn't show up for that either. There was no answer at the villa. By this time I was getting a bit fed up. Eventually I flew into Manchester and then got a train. I'm sorry, Henry!"
Henry says he'll phone Marian and give her a piece of his mind. Jack says there's no point, he's been in touch with the nanny - and Marian, Paolo and the children are holidaying in Capri.
"Well, that's that then," says a devastated Henry. He adds that he'll take care of Jack's expenses - "You did your best, lad!" - and leaves.
Caroline says she really doesn't see how she can go on being a partner in the business. Alan tells her no one can foretell the future. He suggests that in a few months she might be back and everything back to normal.
"I doubt it," says Caroline. "I was expecting to be married by Christmas."
Alan tells her that just because she'll be in Scarborough doesn't mean that they shouldn't see each other and one day maybe think of setting the date.
"We were doing a little bit more than think about it, weren't we?" asks Caroline.
Somewhat bitter, she leaves him. "I'd better get back. And don't worry if you're not there to say goodbye - it won't matter."
“Is Annie upset?” asks Kathy.
“Oh, you know Ma - she copes. It’s Henry that’s choked. There’s nothing he wants more than to have Marian and the kids over here.”
Jack tells Kathy he’s given up on Marian. “There’s been times these past three months I didn’t know what I was doing. Especially after Jackie…”
Jack struggles to explain his feelings: “Sounds like I’m blaming him. But I don’t mean that.”
Kathy is puzzled: “Blaming him?”
“After the funeral all I wanted to do was to get home. Back to Beckindale. I think I might’ve put too much pressure on Marian - pushing her to come back. It’s funny, but I wanted to see you before I saw Ma and the others. Because of Jackie.”
Kathy is touched. “I’m glad you did. Do you think you'd ever try with Marian again?”
“She’s lived the good life too long, You don’t understand how she lives over there. Servants, flashy cars, swimming pool. She has everything. Doesn’t have to lift a finger. No, it’s finished.”
Jack picks Robert up and tells him it’s time for him to have a nap. Kathy tells Jack she’s seen Sarah Connolly and that she’s been asking after him.
“I think she’d be pleased to see you.”
Jack grins: “Don’t you ever give up?”
At Emmerdale Farm, Annie is dishing up dinner and talking with Joe about Jack’s return. Annie tells him that Jack is staying at Demdyke temporarily.
“He’s coming back, though?” Joe is anxious.
“We’ve got to offer him a place, Joe,” says Annie.
“Is he going to work here?” asks Joe.
“I don’t know. Not sure he will,” replies Annie.
“I don’t know, he goes off, leaves everybody in the lurch, then comes swanning back, expecting everything to be normal.” sighs Joe.
Joe harks back to the start of the decade, when Jack suddenly turned up and “turfed me off of this place”.
“He won’t do that!” Annie exclaims.
“What will he do?” asks Joe: “Spend a month here then go flying back to Marian?”
He explains to his mother that he is concerned that Jack will “pick holes” in all the changes he has made at Emmerdale. “From the beef herd to whatever. He won’t see this as a business. And he’s got to from now on because me and Kate are trying for a baby of our own.”
Annie is delighted at the prospect, but Joe tells her it’s early days yet and there’ll be no room for a baby with Jack and Robert coming back.
Joe says no more, but he is clearly very unhappy.
Alan calls on Caroline. Alice is resting and they are alone together. “Do we have to be like this?” Alan asks.
“Like what?” asks Caroline in return.
“So stiff and formal.”
“Sorry. It’s the way I feel today,” says Caroline, coldly.
“Hey, I’ve told you - I’m out the Army now - that’s all in the past!” says David.
Rachel asks him if he’s glad he’s out - “I should’ve left years ago!” says David.
“What, then you and Mum might not’ve split up?” asks Rachel.
Rachel doesn’t understand why he didn’t leave when Kate needed him to. David explains that he was “signed up” for twenty years - “Everything depended on it. My pension for one thing. And maybe I was a bit scared. Scared of what it’d be like. You don’t have to make your own hotpot in the Army! You don’t have to sign on the dole or look for jobs either. It’s all taken care of. I just got my timing a bit wrong though, didn’t I? She married Joe Sugden. I didn’t count on that.”
Rachel is startled: “Were you thinking of getting back with Mum?”
“Well, yeah!” says David. “It was so damned quick. I don’t know how Sugden managed it.”
Rachel thinks she now sees all: “Is that why you’re in Beckindale then?”
“Don’t be daft! I’m here because I want to be near you and Mark! Tell me what you've been up to, eh? It's a real treat for me having you here.”
Rachel smiles but is not convinced.
Kathy goes to see Archie Brooks in his makeshift home and finds him packing to leave. Kathy is surprised, and finds a statement daubed on the wall: “Archie Brooks wishes to inform all his friends of a change of address…”
The new address is 25, Belgrave Square.
“Are you moving to London?” asks Kathy.
“No,” says Archie: “I’m going to stay with my mother and her new boyfriend in Hotten. You’ve no idea how cold it is up here at night.”
The notice is a ruse - designed to put off official bodies trying to trace Archie - the Government, DHSS, Inland Revenue: 25 Belgrave Square is the address of the Norwegian Embassy. “I’d like to see the look on the Ambassador’s face when he gets my Poll Tax form!”
Archie doesn’t envisage being away that long - he’s already upset his mother’s new boyfriend: “I put all his records on a train to Penzance. There’s only so much Barry Manilow a man can take!”
Back at Caroline’s, Alan Turner tells her he knows he’s let her down: “Will you accept my very, very sincere apology?”
Caroline accepts.
“I’d hate us to part as enemies,” says Alan.
“Me too,” Caroline agrees.
The frosty atmosphere thaws and the couple smile and briefly hold hands.
They talk about their doubts - Alan says he’s always functioned better alone, Caroline tells him he hasn’t really let her down - she too was never really certain that they were doing the right thing.
“You will pop into Beckindale from time to time?” asks Alan.
Caroline says she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to with her mother as she is, but he’ll always be welcome in Scarborough.
Alan gives her a document he was studying earlier and asks her to sign it: “It’s undated - it's just a formality. When the house is sold it will terminate your tenancy here.”
The atmosphere turns frosty again. “You’ll never change will you, Alan? Never,” says Caroline. She rips the document in two and goes to check on her mother who is still resting upstairs.
At Home Farm, Rachel tells her father that her problems at school are “nothing serious”.
David tells her that he just wants her and Mark to do well - “I don’t want you ending up like me!”
David asks if it’s true that she’s got herself involved with “some bloke”. Rachel initially denies it. But David is not to be put off - demanding to know who the bloke is. Rachel becomes overwrought as her father wears her down. “I just can’t tell you!”
“Well why can’t you tell me?”
“Because he’s married!”
Amos asks if Henry has tried phoning Marian. Henry asks what can he say if he did? “I can’t tell her to leave her husband - even if that’s what I really want.”
“I were looking forward to young Nicolo running around,” says Amos.
“Not half as much as I was, Amos - not half as much,” sighs Henry.
Back at Home Farm, Rachel runs from her father’s questions into the kitchen. David pursues her and the atmosphere becomes charged with emotion. David insists that Rachel must tell him the identity of the man she is involved with so that he can be warned off if he comes bothering her again.
Rachel finally caves in: “Pete Whiteley!”
Rachel says she’s loves him. David is furious, telling her that Pete has used her, that he belongs to someone else, that he’s married.
“So’s my mother!” Rachel cries, and runs out of the back door, leaving a wide eyed David staring after her.
Caroline is in tears as she embraces her daughter.
“Good luck, Caroline,” says Alan, rather awkwardly. He moves to kiss her, but Caroline, tears streaming down her face, moves away.
“And you, Alan.”
It’s woefully inadequate, but Alan says: “I’m sorry.”
“Bye, Kathy,” murmurs Alan. He stands alone on the pavement for a moment, before slowly making his way back into the house.
At this time the end credits scrolled upwards and disappeared into the silhouette of the farmhouse and tree.
Cast:
Annie Sugden - Sheila Mercier
Matt Skilbeck - Frederick Pyne
Amos - Ronald Magill
Mr Wilks - Arthur Pentelow
Joe Sugden - Frazer Hines
Alan Turner - Richard Thorp
Mrs Bates - Diana Davies
Kathy Merrick - Malandra Burrows
Kate Sugden - Sally Knyvette
Rachel Hughes - Glenda McKay
Jack Sugden - Clive Hornby
Archie - Tony Pitts
Pete Whiteley - Jim Millea
David Hughes - Martyn Whitby
Alice - Olivia Jardith
Robert Sugden - Christopher Smith
Written by Barry Woodward
Producer: Stuart Doughty
Director: Terence Daw
An episode of endings: Jack’s relationship with Marian, which had been on-and-off since the very early episodes, finally seemed to be over - as did the relationship between Caroline and Alan. Archie was temporarily terminating his stay in the village.
Henry Wilks was stunned at the fact that his daughter would not be returning and his future relationship with her would undoubtedly be affected.
It was also an episode of suggested change, continuity and hints of fresh beginnings. There was redecoration going on both at Emmerdale Farm and Home Farm. At Emmerdale Farm, the long running saga of Joe and Jack seemed to be about to come to the simmer again; Home Farm was undergoing a transformation ready for its new owners.
The room which had been the NY Estates office shared by Alan Turner and Mrs Bates from 1984 to 1988 was already witnessing fresh dramas as the couple prepared to go their separate ways elsewhere.
Farming was still on the agenda - with Matt and Pete discussing sheep and Kate getting into growing trendy organic veg at Crossgill.
1990s Emmerdale, complete with plane crash, Dynasty style villainess, exploding post office and rapidly decreasing farming content could not be envisaged at this point.