What a journey it’s been (Pictures: BBC)

‘It’s been an absolute pleasure, Dr Hardy.’ With those words and an actual tear in his eye, Dylan (William Beck) said goodbye to Ethan (George Rainsford) as Ethan left the ED – and Casualty – to go travelling with his young son Bodhi and spend as much time as he possibly can with him while he has the chance.

Ethan went out on a high, having done his usual excellent work in the ED but also having won the prestigious Jac Naylor award. Not that he plans to accept the award, as it would have meant six months away from Bodhi.

Earlier on Ethan had been on a video call with Bodhi and his grandparents Pen (Narinder Samra) and Ashley (Alison Dowling), who take care of him most of the time while Ethan is working. Ethan was disturbed to hear Bodhi call Pen ‘Daddy.’

While taking care of a young boy called Nathan who’d had acid thrown over him, Ethan employed his parental skills to make the child feel more comfortable, but in the process of looking after him and helping his father Ezra to focus on his child, Ethan’s priorities were shifting.

Meanwhile Ashley was brought into the ED in cardiac arrest. Even though she recovered from this and she and Pen insisted that Ethan should live his life and accept the Jac Naylor prize, he wasn’t convinced.

We can’t believe he’s actually gone! (Picture: BBC)

He went to see Dylan and told him he was turning down the award and handing in his notice. He said he’d never get the time with Bodhi back, and as he has Huntington’s disease he knows his life may be limited. ‘I don’t have forever,’ he told Dylan, who was looking emotional by this point. Ethan said he planned to take his little boy travelling, first going to India to show him where his mum Fenisha, who died in a train crash, was born.

So with a hug for a surprised Stevie (Elinor Lawless), Ethan left the building, without fuss or fanfare, off to make some memories with his son.

‘I had this line where I had to say something like “I’ve loved working in this ED, with my friends”, and I really just said that completely honestly, because I have truly enjoyed working with my friends’, George Rainsford told us recently, reflecting on Ethan’s final scenes in the ED.

‘I have got to work with so many different people – so many people come through the doors, some of them have been there for a long time, like Amanda, Will and Mike and Derek, I really hate the word blessed but I feel so privileged and pleased that I got to work with so many amazing people.

‘It’s been such a laugh; we sometimes have really long days and it is quite stressful but there is a real sense of camaraderie and humour that gets you through as well.’

Meanwhile Jacob (Charles Venn) was surprised to draw back a cubicle curtain and see Wonder Woman on the bed. She turned out to be May, an old colleague who’d had an accident with some superglue and her false eyelashes.

After a few flirtatious exchanges May invited Jacob out for a drink after she was discharged, which he accepted. Things were going well between them and they kissed, but then May wanted to move things forward very quickly.

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Of course she had no idea of Jacob’s history of being in a relationship with the controlling and violent Tina (Adele James), so she wasn’t prepared for his reaction as he fled from the pub in a panic. It looks like Jacob still has some way to go before he feels recovered from the trauma of what Tina put him through.

And when Paige (Shalisha James-Davis) was worried about a patient, Josh, she mentioned to Dylan that he had a slash on his neck. Dylan had a look and it was exactly the same injury that Jemima (Souad Faress) and other residents of the Willco House care home had had.

The puzzle was that Josh had apparently had nothing to do with Willco House – which has made Dylan suspect that the abuse goes much further than the care home. The mystery deepens – but Marcus (Adam Sina) is doing his best to stop Dylan pursuing it.

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We miss him already!