Emmerdale fans have ‘worked out’ major return that will rock the Tates to the core

Emmerdale’s Tate family have one of the most twisted lineages soapland has ever seen.

A dark, ruthless dynasty steeped in old money and the hoarding of power, they’ve suffered countless losses and spent plenty of time breaking into factions to war against each other.

For a while, the current line up of Kim and Joe (Claire King and Ned Porteous), alongside their faithful ally-cum-henchman Graham Foster (Andrew Scarborough) and Joe’s girlfriend Dawn Taylor (Olivia Bromley), were existing quite harmoniously.

While Joe devoted a great portion of time to accumulating as much farm land as possible to enhance the Tate grip on the village in order to win the favour of Kim with a hideous scheme against Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb), his actions caused a seismic rift in the family, as Dawn began to question whether or not she could spend her life with someone so vicious and cruel.

She’s also deeply wondering whether her feelings for ex-husband Billy Fletcher (Jay Kontzle) are really as dead as she previously believed.

In the meantime, a beef is brewing between Joe and distant relative Caleb Miligan (William Ash). You know? The one whose kidney he stole?

I told you the Tates were a law unto themselves!

A comment between the two has led to an eruption online, with the mention of New Zealand and fans remembering that there’s a long-missing Tate who lives there – Jean, the daughter of Zoe Tate (Leah Bracknell).

@TheTateDynasty tweeted: ‘”Try New Zealand?” Caleb…do you know who lives in New Zealand?’, to which @dbella91 replied: ‘Is this a nod to Jean ??? Hope she’s coming back to dales’, later adding: ‘They’ve said another Tate is coming, they are taking along time to announce who it is lol’

The ‘they’ that @dbella91 is referencing is Emmerdale producer Laura Shaw, who previously said: ‘At the heart of last year, I wanted to cement the families in our show,’ she confirmed.

‘Everyone always talks about the Dingles, but I felt like we needed to build up some of the other families – that’s probably what I’m most proud of.’

‘About building the clans, I’ve been trying to do the same with the Sugdens as well as the Tates. There’s going to be a couple of arrivals to strengthen both the Tate and Sugden clans’.

Speaking of Kim and Joe’s, she mentioned her intention to ‘…really cement Kim and Joe as surrogate mother and son, which was important to me, to try to build that family of Tates up at Home Farm.

‘Similarly, we brought Dawn and the kids in to bolster it.

‘Then we were missing the dad of the family, so we went mad and brought Graham back!’

With another Tate apparently to be added to the Home Farm mix, will it be Jean?

Unseen since she was a baby, Jean was named after her late grandmother,and Zoe initially decided to put her up for adoption, though when a family was found who were to adopt her, Zoe changed her mind and returned to the village with her daughter.

As Zoe was suffering a schizophrenic episode when falling pregnant, she initially didn’t remember who Jean’s father was, later learning that it was Scott Windsor (Ben Freeman), and after Jean suffered injuries while left with child minders, the two entered a battle over the custody of their baby.

Amid brother Chris’s death, Zoe suffered a mental health relapse, and Jean was taken by her dad. Once healthy, she reclaimed her daughter, but the war between the parents intensified when Zoe made it clear that she would be taking Jean abroad for a fresh start, which she did after a showdown with Scott and a gun.

21 years later, could Jean be on her way back home?