The following article contains spoilers from the episode of Emmerdale dated May 20. It hasn’t aired on ITV1 yet, but can be viewed on ITVX and YouTube.
It was confirmed in yesterday’s episode of Emmerdale that Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) knows what Dawn Taylor (Olivia Bromley) has been up to. You probably assumed immediately after this that Joe would be hellbent on dark revenge – but his real plan is actually quite heart-breaking.
Dawn wants to take everything from Joe because she discovered he had spent most of this year destroying villagers’ lives. First on his list were Robert and Victoria Sugden (Ryan Hawley and Isabel Hodgins), who were blackmailed by Joe into giving him their farmland. Joe told them that if they didn’t hand it over, he’d tell the police about Victoria killing their brother back in January.
Next was Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb). Amid his aim to gain access to Butler’s Farm, Joe framed Moira for human trafficking. Moira was then sent to prison for this crime and also double murder, after Celia and Anya’s bodies were found on her farm
Joe didn’t stop there though. Obviously the power had gone to his head by this point, so he had to do something else that left everyone disgusted. After taking over Butler’s Farm, Joe organised for Holly Barton’s memorial tree to get cut down.
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Dawn had questioned Joe about all of these events and asked if he was involved but he said no. She discovered the truth, and decided to completely destroy him.
The beloved character was under the impression that Joe had been totally oblivious to her plan. He had thrown money her way for a new business venture and even set up trust funds for Clemmie, Lucas, Evan and the new baby Tate. It looked like the love Joe has for Dawn was blinding his vision, but it’s now safe to assume these moves were part of his own plot.
Joe has secretly been aware of Dawn’s revenge this entire time. In today’s episode, Graham Foster (Andrew Scarborough) wondered what they were going to do about Dawn, but he snapped and told Graham that he wants to deal with this situation on his own.
Graham feared that Joe had opted for something more violent when he returned to Home Farm a while later and found Dawn at the bottom of the stairs. It certainly looked like he had done something dark, but it turns out even Joe doesn’t stoop this low when it comes to the woman he loves.
In the hospital, Graham asked Joe what he actually had planned for Dawn and I’ll be honest, it took me by surprise.
It turns out that Joe has tried to prove to Dawn over the past few weeks that he can change and put his family first. He really wants her to stay – but wanted her to make her own choice. There was no dark revenge plan this time – just a man who has made a number of really bad decisions, and someone who doesn’t want to lose the woman who’s taught him how to feel genuine love.
Dawn collapsed due to low iron, so she returned to Home Farm a few hours later. She was taken aback when Joe spoke honestly about how scared he was when he saw her at the bottom of the stairs, and his comments made Dawn’s guilt increase a great deal.
She braced herself to tell Joe about wanting to ruin his life, but couldn’t quite bring herself to do so.
With tears in his eyes, Joe encouraged Dawn to say what was on her mind, but she was too focused on how she was seconds away from breaking his heart.
Dawn kissed Joe and said that she will always love him – so what will happen next?
Will Dawn leave Joe anyway after this?
Or is she going to work through things with him?
