Emmerdale’s Joe sends shockwaves following shock death

I love Dawn Taylor (Olivia Bromley) in Emmerdale, but it’s hard to not feel frustrated by her constant ability to fall back under walking red flag Joe Tate’s (Ned Porteous) spell.

This week, Dawn remained determined to finish her revenge plan against her partner. She had been plotting to take everything from Joe after discovering that he had blackmailed Victoria Sugden (Isabel Hodgins), framed Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb), and cut down Holly Barton’s memorial tree.

She was aiming to gain access to Joe’s money and then leave him, but her naivety over battling a Tate meant Dawn didn’t pick up on Joe acting differently because he knew about her plan.

Graham Foster (Andrew Scarborough) assumed – along with the rest of us – that Joe would want to get dark revenge against Dawn, but his actual intentions took everyone by surprise.

It turns out that Joe was being overtly kind and thoughtful because he wanted to show Dawn that he can change and put his entire family first, rather than just think about himself. Joe really loves Dawn and didn’t want to do anything that encouraged her to walk out of the door.

Dawn got very close to leaving the village, but chose to stay when Joe alluded to the fact that she still doesn’t know everything about him.

Ah, sigh.

At Home Farm, Joe revealed that he believes the death of Dawn’s father Will Taylor is partially his fault due to the stress he inflicted on him at the time.

Will died in 2024 as a result of a massive heart attack. A coroner concluded that Will’s death happened because of nautral causes, but the stress he was under as a result of Joe’s meddling more than likely played a part in bringing the heart attack on.

Dawn stood in the living room staring at Joe in utter horror, wondering why he thought that she’d stay following this revelation. Joe broke down at this point and begged Dawn not to go, telling her that he will do anything to make this situation better.

Dawn spent a few hours away from Joe pondering over her next move. The problem she has is that whenever Joe is vulnerable, she knows it’s coming from a place of genuine honesty. That is what has stopped Dawn from leaving in the past – and that is what stopped Dawn from leaving today.

She returned to Home Farm and told Joe that they can work through this, as long as his war with the Dingles ends today. Dawn also said that if Joe lies again, it really will destroy them.

But lying for Joe Tate comes as easily as breathing does to him – can he really go the rest of his life on the straight and narrow for Dawn’s sake?

Don’t forget Olivia Bromley is leaving her role as Dawn Taylor this year, suggesting that happy ending with Joe may not be on the horizon…