Emmerdale spoilers are now unfolding for Tuesday’s episode (April 28), which is already available to stream on ITVX. The episode will air on ITV1 at 7:30pm, and Joe Tate’s latest crisis is set to leave viewers stunned.
Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) is about to regret the moment he tried to convince Dawn Taylor (Olivia Bromley) that his past held no more secrets, after insisting there was nothing else left to expose.
The hard-nosed businessman has spent the past year stacking up betrayal after betrayal, behaving in ways so ruthless that even his younger self might have struggled to recognise him. Behind him, he has left shattered families and a trail of chaos.
Joe has always justified himself by claiming that business is business. But Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb) was never likely to see it that way after Robert Sugden (Ryan Hawley) revealed Joe’s part in her nightmare behind bars.
In the soap world, where “worst year ever” is always a fierce competition, Moira may well be sitting near the top of the list.
The popular farmer lost her home, her land and her freedom after Joe became determined to secure Butlers. He had Robert plant IDs and passports belonging to victims of Celia Daniels’ (Jaye Griffiths) modern slavery ring on Moira’s property.
The police were tipped off, and Moira was arrested. She was facing potentially decades in prison on modern slavery charges, and also murder allegations after the bodies of Celia and victim Anya were found on her land.
Joe felt no remorse for what he had done, while Robert made it his mission to free Moira, eventually succeeding. But he couldn’t stay silent about his role in her ordeal for long, and when he finally told Moira everything, she blasted him before heading to Home Farm with a shotgun.
Moira was furious, and with good reason. Not only was she facing years behind bars, but Cain (Jeff Hordley) had also received a cancer diagnosis while she was away. That meant she could not be there for him and their sons during one of the most frightening periods of their lives, especially while the prognosis remained uncertain and Kyle and Isaac feared losing both parents.
Joe froze as Moira stood over him, and he desperately tried to talk her out of pulling the trigger. Graham Foster (Andrew Scarborough), who arrived in the middle of the confrontation, also urged her to think again. Then Dawn walked in and was horrified by the tense scenes unfolding before her, pleading with Moira to lower the gun as she revealed she is pregnant with Joe’s baby.
The bombshell stunned Joe. After all, having a child of his own has always been one of his biggest desires.
Moira eventually backed down, and Joe quickly spun more lies to Dawn, insisting Moira had misunderstood what she meant when she said he took everything from her. But Dawn was already suspicious, and the conversation only made her doubts grow stronger.
Dawn has already been left reeling multiple times by the lengths Joe has gone to in order to clinch business deals.
Blackmailing Robert with a video of Victoria Sugden (Isabel Hodgins) fighting for her life, and then later killing John (Oliver Farnworth), should have been the final straw. Instead, Dawn agreed to give him one more chance on the condition that there was nothing else left to hide.
Joe insisted there wasn’t anything more to tell. But with Moira about to reveal the full extent of what he put her through, could Dawn finally realise that Joe Tate, who once stole a kidney from Caleb Miligan (William Ash), is not the man she wants as the father of her unborn child?
With reports suggesting that Dawn star Olivia Bromley is set to leave Emmerdale after eight years, could her character decide to flee the village with her baby and protect the child from Joe’s growing darkness?
Moira vowed revenge as she stormed out of Home Farm, and Dawn hearing the truth could be exactly what pushes Joe toward losing the picture-perfect family life he has always wanted.
Is Joe finally about to face the consequences of everything he has done? And when the fallout begins, will he understand what it feels like to lose everything, just as so many others have suffered in the chaos of his schemes?
