Emmerdale’s Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) has managed to prove he definitely doesn’t have a heart by organising to have Holly Barton’s memorial destroyed.
The Tates are now the owners of Butler’s Farm, which means they technically can do what they like with the land. However, when Kim Tate (Claire King) spoke to Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb) about her shares getting sold, she made sure that Moira knew she’d be able to access Holly’s memorial whenever she wanted.
Holly Barton was Moira’s daughter and died in 2016 after consuming drugs. A tree was planted in her memory, which the likes of Moira and Holly’s brother Matty Barton (Ash Palmisciano) regularly visit.
Joe had no qualms about telling two builders to tear the memorial in tonight’s episode. Afterwards, Matty was walking through the fields and found the tree cut down alongside the decorations, he was devastated.
Matty immediately told the Dingles and then headed to Home Farm with Lydia Dingle (Karen Blick). A horrified Kim and Graham Foster (Andrew Scarborough) stated that they had nothing to do with it, but the group could sort of sense that Joe was responsible.
Joe was confronted by Graham about the memorial, but he denied being involved. At Wishing Well, the Dingles also knew that Joe was probably responsible, but they faced a problem due to the fact none of them could prove it.
Forced to clear up Joe’s mess once more, Graham called Cain, Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter) and Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb) over and said that they were going to tell the builders to fix the mess, and they wouldn’t stop working until the Dingles were satisfied with the result.
The fact that Graham had to pick up after Joe left him a very angry man. He told Joe that he should probably let the grown ups do the planning in future, because he clearly can’t handle it.
Knocking down Holly’s tree was clearly just another way for Joe to try and give the impression that he’s in charge now – but it really didn’t work. He was even left fearing his relationship would fall apart when Dawn Taylor (Olivia Bromley) stated that she wouldn’t be with Joe if she knew that he took the tree down.
He lied, and it worked, but how long for?
As I mentioned, the Dingles don’t have any proof that Joe destroyed the memorial, but they’re all as determined as each other to put the vile man in his place.
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Who will spot the right moment to expose Joe once and for all?
And will it be enough for Dawn to leave him?