Massive twist as Emmerdale brings beloved character back from the dead

Hold the Ofcom complaints! Emmerdale has dealt a dramatic twist in last night’s episode – revealing that Piper the dog wasn’t killed by Tom King (James Chase) and is actually alive.

Poor Piper has had a terrible few months in the village, used as a pawn in vile Tom’s abuse and manipulation of wife Belle (Eden Taylor-Draper).

850 soap fans wrote to the broadcasting regular earlier this year when he poisoned the pooch, and last week he sunk to another low when he mowed her down.

When Belle refused to accept his gift, a vintage Mini Cooper which he had rigged with a GPS tracker, he drove off in a huff and noticed Piper on the road outside of Holdgate Farm.

With nothing to lose, he accelerated towards her, and later carried her lifeless body into the vets.

Tom drove towards Piper (Picture: ITV)

Following the canine’s death, Tom decided he would swoop in and comfort Belle over the incident, but she soon had a moment of clarity – he was the one who’d killed Piper.

It’s no surprise that more complaints then flooded in, as viewers of the ITV soap watched Belle bury her remains in a basket on some farmland near Wishing Well Cottage.

In last night’s episode, she began researching how to access domestic violence records through Clare’s Law, in an effort to determine if her husband has a history.

After spotting her quickly closing her laptop in the cafe, he later let himself into Dale Head using the key he stole, and began trying to guess her password.

PIPER IS ALIVE! (Picture: ITV)

Several attempts later, he found that she had wiped her search history and began to upload malware onto the device so he could watch what she was searching remotely.

Back at Victoria Cottage, he saw that she had made a request to view any records, and had also looked up ways to tell her family she was a victim. When his friend Ollie arrived, he asked him for advice on the ‘lies’ that she was spreading about him.

As the episode came to a close, Belle sat beside Piper’s grave sobbing, whilst Tom drove to a cottage.

Climbing out of the car, a couple approached him… and he handed over a very much alive Piper, telling them that the ‘awful woman’ who owned her had tied her up 24 hours a day, and ‘won’t even realise she’s gone.’

Can Belle be reunited with her dog?