Emmerdale spoilers: Rhona and Marlon's showdown has a devastating ending | Soaps

Emmerdale viewers saw one of the show's most beloved couples, Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) and Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock), completely fall apart in Tuesday's episode (May 7) as their marriage imploded in front of some of their best friends.

The previously solid couple has been at loggerheads ever since Rhona got Gus Malcolms (Alan McKenna) given a lengthy prison sentence after unexpectedly changing her clothes. Victim statement in court.

For Rhona, the man who stole her embryos and then tried to take baby Ivy from her deserved justice. From Marlon's point of view, Rhona was being unnecessarily cruel and punishing a man who had already agreed to them having custody of Ivy.

In this episode we saw them invited to dinner at Tom and Belle King's house (James Chase And Eden Taylor Draper). Tom and Rhona's other vet colleagues Paddy (Dominic Brunt) and Vanessa (Michelle Hardwick) were also invited, along with partners Mandy (Lisa Riley) and Suzy (Martelle Edinborough).

It was a difficult watch. Viewers could see the underlying thing tensions between Tom and Belle, as we know that Tom's treatment of his wife is manipulative and controlling and this storyline came to the fore in the second half of the episode with shocking consequences.

The first half focused mainly on Marlon and Rhona, and again because the viewers know what happened going on behind the scenes for them we could understand – in a way that the other dinner guests could not – that every comment they made to each other had a double meaning.

“The more alcohol they have, the freer they become in what they say to each other and the less subtle their mutual resentment becomes, to the point where it just explodes,” Mark Charnock told us.

After a while, the couple got into a screaming argument with each other in front of everyone else, with Marlon calling Rhona “selfish” and her saying he was “boring.” When Marlon accused her of stabbing Gus in the back, she mocked him by calling him “Saint Marlon.”

They eventually revealed that they had been sleeping apart and Rhona brought up Marlon's earlier comment that he sometimes wished she wasn't there. She said she wouldn't do that from now on – and walked out.

Marlon followed, just like the other guests, because the party was definitely over.

Zoe Henry told us that Rhona has let her feelings get away from her at this point and that deep down she doesn't really want to end things with her husband.

'That's definitely not what she wants. But she is humiliated and hurt by the way she and Marlon treated each other that night and leading up to it. And it's like a runaway train that she just can't stop. Once she opens her mouth, it's done, everything comes out.'

Is there a way back for the couple after this?

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