Emmerdale’s Kim Tate (Claire King) has no idea DS Thea Ramsden (Chelsea Edge) is her daughter.
Thea came to the village to investigate the death of Dr Todd (Caroline Harker), with a secret revenge plot to target the mother who abandoned her.
She’s in the throes of getting one over on Kim by becoming her friend, and Kim is none the wiser.
Kim is too preoccupied with the fact that step-grandson Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) has given his baby away completely against her wishes, while she’s secretly taken the child to live in a cottage with Graham (Andrew Scarborough).
Joe thinks the illegal adoption went ahead and that Graham kept to his word and left as well, when really, Joe is down the road from his son.
He has no idea as he can’t see past the bottom of a bottle of whiskey. No clue that Kim has been sneaking off to see the baby.
It poses a huge problem then when Kim has the startling realisation that the baby is gone. Kidnapped.
The kidnapper starts sending ransoms via a tablet, giving Graham instructions.
‘She can’t believe it’, actress Claire King said.
‘She doesn’t know if it is kidnappers wanting some ransom or whether somebody in the family has taken him. She is in complete panic mode, so she has to ring Graham immediately and find out what’s happening.’
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Desperate to keep this away from the police, Kim enlists Thea to help, the irony completely lost on her that Thea is her own daughter who was given up for adoption. Thea has been playing Kim to get close, so sees this is the perfect opportunity and she agrees to help.
Thea appears all too keen to help, when Kim has another startling realisation – Thea went for her in the wake of Dawn’s death, making out she’d caused Dawn’s death by dangerous driving, with some fabricated evidence.
Why would someone so keen to bring down Kim suddenly want to help her?
Kim knows the reason – Thea stole the baby. Her theory holds water and Kim directly accuses her. But until this moment, Kim had no idea how unhinged Thea has become through her hatred of her birth mother. Thea loses it and her temper escalates rapidly.
Kim is left fearing for her life and rushes to leave. In her panic, she grabs a knife and stabs Thea.
Star Claire explained these scenes: ‘Thea turns up and at first, Kim doesn’t think it’s her at all. She tells her what’s going on, the noises, the bangs, things like that. Then Kim suddenly thinks ‘oh my Gosh, it’s Thea’. So she tries to run and escapes, she hides. But Thea comes through the back door before she can bolt it.
‘As she’s running round the tables, she slips and Thea manages to grab hold of her. In a panic, she’s thinking ‘I am going to get hurt’. She just happens to stumble across a sharp cheese knife, and in her panicked state, she stabs Thea.’
It’s bad. Really bad. Thea is bleeding out and yet still Kim pushes her to confess she stole the child. When a weakened Thea accuses Kim of trying to sell the child, Kim realises she is innocent, and thus her mistake. But then Thea passes out and Kim enters a race against time.
She rushes Thea to hospital where a doctor immediately plans to call the police, as a terrified Kim starts to see prison bars in her future. Has Kim killed Thea without even realising she’s her daughter? Or will Thea make a deathbed confession?