The following article contains spoilers from the episode of Emmerdale dated July 27. It hasn’t aired on ITV1 yet, but can be viewed on ITVX and YouTube.

It was Lewis Barton’s (Bradley Riches) birthday in Emmerdale today, and his father Kev Townsend (Chris Coghill) was determined to not mess things up.

Kev went to great lengths to prepare some birthday surprises for Lewis due to the fact this is the first time he’s been in his life for the big event.

After spending hours on a birthday cake, Kev was busy putting the final touches to it as today’s episode opened. He had decorated it to look like Lewis’ favourite jumper, and even asked Claudette Anderson (Flo Wilson) to source some white plates to create a contrast with the colourful icing.

It was pretty perfect. When Kev arrived at Dale View, things got even better for him as Lewis was genuinely moved by the birthday cake. Kev also handed him a birthday card that said ‘son’ on the front, and Lewis loved it.

Everything was going so well, something was bound to happen to put Kev’s connection with Lewis in trouble.

His challenge came in the form of Steve (Jason Done), who is Kev’s old mate. In the past, the duo worked together to commit robberies. Steve was keen to do the same in the Emmerdale village, but Kev told him that he wasn’t interested.

Kev’s a changed man now, which meant robbing Home Farm or taking advantage of other well-to-do residents wasn’t really an attractive idea. It wasn’t something that interested him, but Steve, on the other hand, was very much up for it.

A crowbar in hand, Steve headed out of the Anderson household. Kev tried to stop him, but he ended up getting into the car with his mate.

Witnessing this was Vinny Dingle (Bradley Johnson). Of course, due to the fact Vinny couldn’t hear what Kev and Steve were saying, he assumed that they were off to partake in crime.

Heading back home, Vinny couldn’t hide his concern at Lewis’ birthday party. He told Ross Barton (Michael Parr) and very quickly, Lewis discovered that they were hiding something.

When Kev returned to Dale View, he was immediately faced with a sea of angry faces. None of them had any substantial proof, but it didn’t stop them making the leap and assuming that Kev had let Lewis down, and robbed somewhere with Steve.

Kev tried to protest his innocence and state that he hadn’t done anything, but nothing worked.

He was encouraged out of the house by Ross, but a devastated Kev tried to provoke him into having a fight.

Amid the scuffle, Kev fell and accidentally smacked Lewis in the face.

He couldn’t believe he had hurt his son, but no amount of begging and apologising was going to see Kev secure another chance.

Is there any way back from this?