Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) was rushed to hospital in tonight’s episode of Emmerdale after someone pushed him out of a window.
Since his return last Christmas, Joe has done nothing but cause trouble among the village residents. He started an affair with Dawn Taylor (Olivia Bromley), stole Caleb Miligan’s (William Ash) kidney and manipulated the likes of Manpreet Sharma (Rebecca Sarker) and Noah Dingle (Jack Downham), and that’s not even all of it!
Yesterday, Joe’s secrets were exposed in front of a whole host of characters at Home Farm. It then left a number of them with reason to get revenge on Joe, but only one person was succeeded as that afternoon, he was pushed out of a window.
The instalment of the ITV soap that aired this evening saw Joe rushed to hospital and then put in a coma after experiencing a bleed on his brain.
As news of his condition travelled to the village, no time was wasted in terms of spreading rumours and gossiping. Kerry Wyatt (Laura Norton) was acting strangely, Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) was accused by Ruby Miligan (Beth Cordingly) and the spotlight was also put on Noah, who had found out about Joe spiking him a few hours earlier.
In upcoming episodes though, fingers are pointed at Billy Fletcher (Jay Kontzle), as the police realise he has a strong motive for wanting Joe dead.
Prior to the party, Billy was trying to adapt to his new life after being dumped by Dawn. He had spent time convincing himself that there was more to Dawn’s reasonings for wanting to end their marriage, but didn’t find out the truth until a few days ago.
After Joe threatened Clemmie (Mabel Addison) about going back into care, Billy found her in tears. He eventually discovered Joe’s threats and the fact he kissed Dawn, but then told his daughter reacting to a situation with violence is not the answer.
‘He’s cautious about it because of the kids. It’s a juggle between what’s right and what’s wrong’, star Jay Kontzle said at the time.
‘What Joe has done is completely wrong so do you fight fire with fire, or do you see the logical approach and think of the children. The fact Joe has threatened Clemmie, and gone behind his back, it’s disrespectful and it feels like there should be some sort of repercussion from it.
‘In Billy’s eyes, he’s lost everything. He’s potentially going to lose his children as well, Billy will eventually have nothing. He won’t have the kids, Dawn, a house, so does he just risk it all anyway?’.
It was Caleb who fuelled Billy’s anger, and worked out if he did something to Joe, he would feel the satisfaction of watching his downfall, without actually doing the dirty work.
As the aftermath unfolds, the police begin questioning people at Home Farm and it isn’t long until Billy is arrested, but did he really do it, knowing he’d risk his future in the process?
