Joe Tate's fate was left hanging in the balance on Emmerdale after a deadly explosion tore through the wedding marquee he was trapped in. The character, played by Ned Porteous, appeared to be killed off in Thursday's cliffhanger, just moments after Jimmy King died in tragic scenes.
Dawn Taylor and Nicola King escaped the smouldering marquee just before it exploded. As the episode ended, Graham Foster raced to save Joe, only for tragedy to strike. The last viewers saw of Joe, he was trapped under debris with Dawn unable to free him.
Explosion and aftermath
As Dawn and Nicola fled, at Joe's request, the flames grew bigger in Joe's eyes. Suddenly, the whole tent blew up, and Dawn screamed out for her fiancé. The episode ended with no sign of the character.
Jimmy King, played by Nick Miles, was killed in the initial crash after 22 years onscreen. For an unknown reason, Jimmy crashed his car into the marquee where Dawn and Joe were set to wed. Jimmy suffered serious injuries and was trapped, so Nicola joined him in the car.
Producer's cryptic spoiler
Joe's future may have been revealed in a cryptic spoiler shared exclusively with the Mirror. Emmerdale producer Laura Shaw recently said a big 2027 plot had been planned, teasing that a current storyline was about to escalate and would continue into the next year. Laura was discussing the dangerous feud between Joe and his uncle Caleb Miligan.
Laura said the wedding aftermath would see Caleb and Joe feuding once more, hinting it would get worse and continue into 2027, amid some "gothic" autumn content for the Tates. She said: "I mean, they're still talking about the kidney! Let it go, let it go now. Obviously as we can see in the run-up to the wedding, that feud becomes bigger and bigger."
She added: "And certainly, what I can say is off the back of the wedding, there's going to be... that chasm is going to open even wider between those two. It will be one of our kind of big stories, certainly through the rest of this year and into next year."
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
