Dawn Taylor died in today's episode of Emmerdale, after giving birth to her son on Friday (August 28). The character, played by Olivia Bromley, has been at the centre of a dramatic storyline involving her planned wedding to Joe Tate (Ned Porteous).
Dawn had been planning to jilt Joe at the altar and flee the country with their unborn child to start a new life with her ex-husband Billy Fletcher (Jay Kontzle). Her desire to escape stemmed from her conviction that Joe was the one who attacked Billy from behind in the depot after discovering their almost kiss.
Escape plan with a cruel condition
Billy had not told Dawn that it was actually Kev Barton (Chris Coghill) who attacked him. Caleb Miligan (William Ash) and his wife Ruby Fox-Miligan (Beth Cordingly) had been helping Dawn and Billy to escape, even providing them with fake passports, due to their own scores to settle with Joe.
However, their help came with a cruel condition – for maximum humiliation, Dawn needed to abandon Joe on the day of his wedding and not before. Dawn ultimately learned the truth as she and Billy were escaping, and when she did, she headed right back to Joe to fix things, hoping he'd still want to marry her.
Devastating twist
As she did, Jimmy King (Nick Miles) crashed his car into the wedding marquee, ultimately succumbing to his injuries. It turned out he wasn't the only one who would.
While the episode suggested that Joe and Dawn would get to live out their happily ever after, Joe left to get Dawn some water and, upon returning, discovered that she'd died.
What happens next?
It was reported earlier in the year that Dawn would be leaving Emmerdale, and the Joe Tate saga proved to be her final storyline. With Joe now firmly in the knowledge that Caleb, Ruby and Billy conspired to utterly annihilate his life, will his grief crystallise into a thirst for vengeance? Or will he be too broken to even consider taking on his enemies?
