It was a big day for Jacob (played by Joe-Warren Plant) on Emmerdale as the 16-year-old finally found out his GCSE results.
After months of heartbreak and stress after being abused and manipulated by former teacher Maya Stepney (Louisa Clein), Jacob’s future was on the line.
Unfortunately for the teen, Jacob failed all of his subjects apart from one, putting his career options in jeopardy.
David (Matthew Wolfenden) was determined to be supportive, and with the help of Jacob’s biological mother Leyla Harding (Roxy Shahidi), the duo assured their son he could simply retake his exams and the results weren’t the end of the world on the ITV soap.
Unwilling to take their advice, Jacob was happy to turn to Priya Sharma (Fiona Wade) instead, but their innocent lunch turned nasty when the teenager misread her kind nature.
Jacob was convinced Priya was “hitting on” him, as after encouraging Jacob and showering him with praise, the Home Farm businesswoman rested her hand on his leg.
Sadly, after the amount of pain and abuse he suffered at the hands of the twisted Maya, Jacob lashed out in response.
“You hypocrite,” he snapped. “Criticising Maya for cheating and you’re doing this? Coming on to me.
“That’s why you invited me round. Well guess what, I’m not interested, so don’t touch me.”
Horrified by his reaction, Priya cried: “Jacob you are joking.”
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“Don’t try and pretend – you were hitting on me,” Jacob insisted. Before claiming he wouldn’t tell anyone “what she did”.
After a conversation with Liv Flaherty (Isobel Steele), Jacob decided to go and report Priya’s actions to his dad, but she’d gotten there first.
Assuring Jacob she thought of Jacob as family and would never do anything like Maya did, Priya eventually managed to get through to the teen.
His face falling, Jacob was upset at how he’d taken the situation, despite receiving support from all the adults around him.
Becoming angry David and Leyla were trying to blame Maya for his reaction once again, Jacob shut down the conversation.
“I read it wrong, that’s all it was,” he insisted, turning cold against his family once more.
After the teenager had gone though, Priya offered: “He’ll get it back, he just can’t see it.”
“No, we’re kidding ourselves,” David declared. “The damage is done.”
David’s sharp words suggest nothing the family can do will ever help Jacob recover past Maya’s heartbreaking torment, and could be a sign of things to come.
But it could also simply be a struggling father’s emotions getting the better of him, as the soap has been determined to deliver a positive outcome for Jacob.
Will Jacob end up leaving the village after his family give up on him? Or will they make a breakthrough in future episodes?
Emmerdale continues tomorrow at 7pm on ITV.