Emmerdale’s Robert dupes distraught Joe as he hatches plan to bring him down

Robert’s got a plan (Picture: ITV)

Everyone is out to destroy Emmerdale’s Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) and people are getting pretty close.

Caleb Miligan (William Ash) hatched a convoluted plan to see Joe dethroned as the lord of Smugtown by destroying his marriage before it even began. He convinced Billy Fletcher (Jay Kontzle) that Joe was the one who’d attacked him, who in turn convinced Joe’s fiancé Dawn Taylor (Olivia Bromley) that her only chance at a safe life away from Joe was to go on the run.

Caleb facilitated the escape with money and fake passports, all the while knowing Kev was the one who attacked Billy, not Joe. He then gleefully told Joe Dawn had left him.

The truth dawned (soz) on Joe’s bride while on the road with Billy, and she ran back to be with Joe – a fatal decision, it would transpire. While she begged for his forgiveness and before he could give it, she was mowed down by Jimmy King’s (Nick Miles) runaway car.

Initially it seemed Dawn had escaped the collapsed marquee unscathed, but Dawn later succumbed to her injuries and her baby was delivered prematurely.

Caleb had spent ages working on the plan to destroy Joe (Picture: ITV)

Joe’s world collapsed with the marquee and he’s left mourning the loss of the one woman he’s truly loved.

Now is the time to kick him while he’s down.

Joe has never been so vulnerable and Robert Sugden (Ryan Hawley), who was royally screwed over by Joe earlier this year, spots an opportunity.

Joe blackmailed Robert into selling him his farm firstly by using the video he had of Robert’s sister Victoria killing John, and secondly by getting Robert to plant documents on Butlers Farm to frame Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb) for the people trafficking that happened on Celia’s farm.

Karma has been coming for Joe for a long time.

As Joe grieves, Robert feigns a truce. But in his back pocket is a hidden agenda to get his hands back on the beloved farm once and for all. Joe will never see it coming.

Dawn and Jimmy died last week (Picture: ITV/Metro)

Robert reveals to Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller) that his plan stretches quite far – he intends to also swipe the Hide out from under Gabby (Rosie Bentham) and Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy) too.

It’s quite the scheme, and with Joe preoccupied with his baby and his loss, it’s the perfect time for Robert to strike. Will he manage to pull off this cold-hearted plan?

Robert is forgetting one thing – Joe has nothing left to lose in terms of getting revenge.

As actor Ned Porteous shared with us when speaking of Joe’s loss of Dawn: ‘If you were to take that from a man who is outwardly volatile and dangerous as is, unable to regulate his emotions, if you were to take the final thing tethering him to a life of moral good, what could that man then be capable of?’

In other words, Robert will be reviving the monster, and chances are he’s the one who will lose.

Comments Add as preferred source