Emmerdale fans 'solve' who's helping Crowley target Joe after 'obvious' scene

The drama with Emmerdale villain Dr Crowley ramped up again on Tuesday, as the surgeon continued his plan to blackmail Joe Tate.

Joe has been tasked with stealing money from his somewhat grandmother Kim, to give to Crowley after his threats. Joe is fearful of turning against Kim as they're finally on track, and have quite the history.

But he knows that Crowley isn't going to back down, and he's already threatened harm towards his love interest Dawn Taylor and her children. Joe is clearly fretting, and he knows to get Crowley off his back and out of their lives, without Kim learning the truth, he needs to pay up.

Their feud stems from Crowley helping Joe to secure a kidney in recent months. Joe had been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and time was running out for him.

Instead of going through the usual process he paid Crowley a lot of money to keep him alive, and then transplant a kidney into his body in secret. But their plan turned dark when Joe had his uncle Caleb Miligan stabbed by accomplice Shaun in a fake car theft.

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Crowley was horrified when a lifeless Caleb was brought to the place where he was waiting to perform the operations. Once he realised what Joe had done he saved Caleb and performed Joe's operation, but quickly fled and has not been seen since.

Recently Joe teamed up with Shaun once more amid him being harassed with messages, threats and someone being in his room. Shaun turned on him and knocked him out., seemingly helping Crowley, after Joe accused him of being the one targeting him.

But with Crowley revealed as the culprit, he soon made his demands and threatened his life. Now Joe is being blackmailed into stealing Kim's money to give to Crowley.

Crowley won't leave until this happens, and Joe has faked an investment scheme for work with Kim to try and get the money. But amid theories Kim could be aware of what is really going on, some fans think another villager is actually in on it all.

A recent scene between Caleb and his attacker Shaun was very random, and it got people thinking they were in cahoots. So now that Crowley is back, Crowley being the one who saved Caleb, fans have questioned whether Caleb has teamed up with Crowley, and maybe even Shaun, to destroy his nephew Joe.

The recent scene saw emphasis on Caleb trying to remember where he recognised Shaun from, not remembering him as the man who stabbed him. Caleb has met Crowley before so would be able to identify him too.

So is Caleb helping Crowley? After all he has a long-running feud with Kim too. One theory read online: "I think there's more to it than meets the eye. I don't think the Caleb and Shaun's scene was coincidence when Caleb's barely been in any scenes for a while, what purpose did it serve him bumping into Shaun other than to hint at some sort of involvement?"

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , and Threads.