Emmerdale legend Kim Tate (Claire King) is someone who enjoys the power of money – the luxuries it can buy and the power it can give. But it seems that she’s overestimated how much influence money can have after she tried to pay off Rose Taylor (Christine Tremarco).
Rose, who is Will (Dean Andrews)’s ex, walked out on him and their daughter Dawn (Olivia Bromley) when Dawn was just five years old.
Recently she reappeared in the village and wanted to talk to Dawn and explain why she’d left. After a lifetime of knowing nothing about her mum except that she’d abandoned her, Dawn wasn’t interested and told her to leave.
Kim tried to buy Rose off, offering her £2,000 to return to Spain where she’d been living. Rose at first refused so Kim upped the offer to £3,000 and accompanied it with a threat that she was capable of far more messy solutions to annoying problems. Rose took the money and left.
Tuesday (April 30)’s episode saw her at the Woolpack, having a drink before she headed off to the airport. Soon she was knocking back drinks and bonding with Kerry Wyatt (Laura Norton) – and then Billy (Jay Kontzle) came in. He wasn’t pleased to see her and soon Dawn, Kim and Will arrived on the scene.
With a full audience, Rose announced that Kim had tried to pay her off. She insisted she was ‘going nowhere’ and handed the money back.
Kim’s plan had totally backfired. Made to look a bit of a fool in front of everyone in the Woolpack, and with Will and Dawn angry about what she’d done, it was one of those rare moments when Kim is no longer in control of the situation.
Things got even worse for her because Dawn insisted on talking to Rose alone in the cafe, and during that conversation Rose made some progress in convincing Dawn that it was worth putting some time in to get to know her mother – so she invited Rose to come and stay at Home Farm.
Straight away it was clear that Rose intended to make herself at home as she settled down in an armchair with a drink – which she was pleased to find wasn’t the cheap stuff.
‘I don’t like to have cheap stuff in my house,’ Kim informed her and she was clearly not just talking about the alcohol but about Rose herself.
Unfortunately for Kim she’s totally played a wrong hand this time and it looks like she’s going to be stuck with Rose for the foreseeable future – particularly as we know that Dawn is soon to be hit with shock news about baby Evan’s health.
And any hope that Rose might settle down and become best mates with Kim appears to have been dashed by Rose’s final comment to Kim in the episode: ‘Here’s to letting a fox in your lovely little hen house.’
