Joe Tate collapsed and was urgently treated by his mysterious doctor
Emmerdale fans spotted the truth behind Joe Tate’s mystery illness on Thursday’s (27th February) episode after Ross Barton kidnapped him.
Ned Porteous made his return to the ITV soap in 2024 as Joe Tate made a surprise visit to Home Farm as he was revealed as the puppet master behind Will Taylor’s revenge plan for Kim Tate.
As always in the land of soaps, things didn’t go as planned when Will Taylor unexpectedly died from a fatal heart attack moments after Joe revealed all to Kim. Since then, he’s stayed in the village but suspicions around why he’s really there have continued to grow, particularly with his attempts to get close to his half-brother, Noah Dingle.
During Thursday’s (27th February) episode, Noah had a flashback after Joe said “get over it” and said it was before the limo crash and he appeared to be in a hospital room.
Joe then made a comment about Noah being injected by whoever had spiked him – a detail that no one had previously mentioned. Charity clocked on informed Ross Barton who then took it upon himself to kidnap Joe and confront him.
Viewers have watched Joe as he’s struggled with his mystery illness for weeks, along with phone calls to someone telling them that it’s not working.
Eagle-eyed viewers noticed the black case(Image: ITV)
However, on Thursday Joe fled the barn and made it back to Home Farm before collapsing. He called his secret doctor who promptly arrived. Fans spotted that the mystery doctor a mystery black case that saved Joe’s life.
Named as Dr Crowley in the comments, he told Joe that whatever he just gave him wasn’t a “long-term plan”, where he responded that he knows but they need to hurry up as he doesn’t have much time left.
While fans have speculated that Joe is using Noah for a kidney transplant, they’re even more certain after the episode. On a Reddit thread, u/SoapFan85 asked: “So we know Joe is hiding something and it seems to be something health related, and then there’s the mystery plan for Noah after the flashback with the doctor.
“I watched Thursday’s episode and was surprised that we finally saw who the doctor was after Joe collapsed, but also there were so many hints about what was in the black case or box and what was wrong with Joe while nothing confirmed. What do people think is in that case? And what do we think is wrong with Joe? What is he and the doctor planning?”
u/More_Awareness_8771 replied: “I think it’s some kind of dialysis kit in that box. He’s probably got kidney failure and is after one of Noah’s.”
u/Parsnipnose3000 added: “It’s either a dialysis machine in the black box and “all” he wants is a kidney, or Dubai is a cover and he needs an organ that would kill Noah, like a heart/liver. If it’s the latter though, what’s in the box? So my guess was dialysis/kidney.”
Emmerdale airs on weekdays at 7:30pm on ITV1 and is available to stream on ITVX.
