Joe Tate

Joe Tate is a fictional character of the Emmerdale franchise.

He first appeared as a minor character in 1995-2005 and went on to serve as the secondary antagonist in 2017, the main antagonist through the first quarter of 2018 before becoming an anti-hero for the rest of the year.

History
Joe Tate first appeared on the day of his birth; 8th June 1996, with parents Chris Tate and Rachel Hughes subsequently raising him over the years - even when their marriage quickly ended a year later in 1997, during which Chris grew increasingly distant from his son following the death of his father and Joe's grandfather: Frank Tate. Rachel continued to raise her son through 1998 as Chris was in the midst of his longstanding feud with his father's second wife and killer: Kim Tate. Following Kim's eventual departure in January 1999, Chris was left as Joseph's sole parent four months later when Rachel gets murdered by her fiancé: Graham Clark. Although Chris was too compelled with his business practices over the course of the early 2000s, he still managed to spend some quality time with his son; Joseph even supported his father when he got married to Charity Dingle, which unfortunately came to an end in 2003 when Chris learned that Charity was having an affair with her cousin Cain Dingle. In that same year, Chris discovered that he had a brain tumour and - knowing that it's merely inevitable before he dies - spends his last moments with his son before surrendering his birthright to his aunty: Zoe. At this time, Joseph was unaware that his father had a brain tumour and had go on to proceed in staging his own death to frame Charity for his murder in revenge for cheating on him. Eventually, after coping with his father's death throughout 2004, Joseph left with Zoe and the rest of her family in 2005 after she sold their home to Frank's former rival Tom King.

Prior to reappearing in 2017, twelve years later, Joseph slowly learned the true about his father's demise and sought to exact his own revenge against Charity and the Dingle clan. To do this, he started his own company called "Waterhouse Industries" and used the alias as "Tom Waterhouse" to cover up his true identity when targeting the Dingles at Emmerdale. His plan was eventually revealed: to knock down the Dingle house and transform it into a golf park resort. He took advantage of his agenda when Charity's daughter Debbie becomes involved with his developments, ignoring his new partnership with Chrissie White in the process. Eventually in January 2018, Joe revealed his identity after Charity learns about his plan and he himself proceeded to buy Home Farm from Chrissie's father Lawrence.