Emmerdale fans are fearing another brutal death has just aired, as Sam Dingle suffered a deadly accident on Monday night.
The character, who has been on the ITV soap for more than 20 years, appeared dead if not seriously wounded during the second episode of the big storm week, which is celebrating the soap's 50th anniversary.
Sam, played by actor James Hooton, was trying to outrun a stampede of cow when it appeared he had reached safety.
But as he launched himself over some hay barrels he took a tumble, and it wasn't revealed until moments later that he was in grave danger.
As Belle Dingle and Nate Robinson came to find him, Sam's upper body was impaled on a spike attached to a tractor by the barrels.
The gory moment left viewers horrified, as Sam remained lifeless as Belle screamed out to him.
Now, actor James has hinted it could be game over for Sam after more than two decades on the show.
With it not looking good for him, James hinted Sam could die – and he teased that the fallout would be huge for the family.
On filming the big stunt scenes, he said: "It was a bit of a break from the norm and you never know what the show is gonna throw at you.
"I was told this was happening and you don't know what the outcome is gonna be for a story such as this.
"It was good, it was really interesting. The costume team went all out to try and deal with this spike scenario, it looks ultra realistic when you see it on screen.
"It was really interesting to film all that stuff because we spent the whole day on one scene, which is unheard of in soap territory spending so much time preparing and shooting a single scene."
Asked whether the fallout to the scenes and the 50th week would be "huge" for the Dingle family, he said: "Yeah, absolutely."
Asked about his time on the show, he said: "It has been fantastic," while he remained coy over his character's fate.
Got any theories or thoughts on the current storylines? Let us know in the comments section below.
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV and ITV Hub, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays.
