Emmerdale fans are struggling to work out what is going on with Serena Sugden, who turned up as the long-lost second cousin once removed of Robert and Victoria, and has been hellbent on asking questions about John's death

Emmerdale fans are struggling to work out exactly what is going on with Serena Sugden. The newcomer is played by Casey Al-Shaqsy, who previously enjoyed success playing Elphaba in the smash hit musical Wicked, and was established as the long-lost second cousin once removed of Robert and Victoria Sugden.

Before her arrival in the village, viewers will remember that Victoria killed brother John Sugden after he unleashed his reign of terror as the latest serial killer on the Yorkshire-based ITV soap and quite what she had turned up for remained a bit of a mystery for weeks.

Now, it's been revealed that she is an ex-police officer and explained to Robert on Wednesday night's episode: " Turns out me and the police weren't a good fit. Felt too hard to make a difference, for starters. Not that I've ever been idealistic. Don't grow up expecting life to be a breeze in a mixed-race farming family.

"It wasn't awful but it wasn't always great either. The Yorkshire Dales aren't a melting pot of diversity. You get used to feeling on the outskirt of things." Even though Serena claimed to "hardly know" John, she has been peppering the locals with questions about his death and then confirmed that she lied about just how well she knew him. Revealing more to John, she said: "I didn't tell you all of it. We were closer than that.

"When my mum got ill... ..we were struggling to keep the farm. He cashed in his army pension and gave us the money. He knew we were in a mess... ..and... he said he didn't need the money for anything. The John that I knew....it can't really have been him, not... not if he could do all that other stuff. The problem is, he stopped our lives from falling apart. Do you get to feel angry or tricked when you've benefited from someone else?"

She then revealed that she still had money left over from what John had given her and her mother and was hoping to do something positive with it, so she offered it to Vanessa Woodfield. Later on, Serena continued to pester Robert with questions and insisted she couldn't believe the claim that John had taken his own life.

Robert, aware that his sister has run off to Portugal, said: " Don't know how many times you wanna go over it all. That's the truth. It doesn't matter how much you wanna go through all of this. You already know everything there is to know. Vic's done nothing wrong. I sounds like you're trying to accuse her of something."

Choosing another tactic, Serena said: "If she did do it, I'd be buying her a drink, not turning her in. I'm agreeing with you, she did do nothing wrong and I wanted the truth, now I've got it," as she read the look on Robert's face.

Having sussed everything out, Serena, was then seen in one final twist, marching up to the police station as if she were indeed about to give information about Victoria. Viewers of the programme were quick to react to the scenes involving Serena, and immediately took to social media to speculate about what might happen next.

One fan wrote on Reddit: "Robert, can you be any more incriminating? Don't think Serena is grassing them, but wonder what her true motive is behind investigating John!

Another said: "The reaction to Serena being an ex-copper is ridiculous; it's literally nobody's business. She's a stranger to everyone in the village, even Robert, so why do they feel entitled to her life history? Even if she wasn't intentionally not talking about it, it's been what, two weeks? Realistically, her job history may just not have come up.

A third wrote: "At absolute worst they're hiding a self defence kill but there's no need because the police should already know that. Everything Serena wants to know is like a file search away.

A fourth said: "I still can't work out Serena? But I stand by the fact that there are Sugden branches that knew of his existence but not Jack and his children, seems a bit nonsense. I do like her, I always give newcomers three months."

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX.

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