7 times Emmerdale let us believe a character was dead – from Kim Tate to Ross Barton, it’s happened a lot!

Emmerdale is leading us to believe Rose Jackson is dead. The last we saw of her, she was stranded on the side of the road after Kim Tate and Will Taylor had discovered her plot to split them up.

Kim and Will told her to leave and never come back. They made her leave a message for Dawn saying she was going and then  left her in the middle of nowhere. Rose sobbed over a picture drawn by her grandkids at the side of the road, but then looked relieved when a car – bearing the Home Farm logo – drove by and stopped for her.

Was it friend or foe, however?

It seems like the latter as the next we saw, Rose’s belongings were strew by the side of the road and Rose was nowhere to be seen. Kim and Will simultaneously returned home looking pretty shifty and no one knows what has happened to Rose.

Emmerdale definitely want us to think she’s dead – and that either Kim or Will have killed her. But could there be a twist in the tale? Is she actually still alive and hiding out somewhere or being held captive? It wouldn’t be the first time Emmerdale has faked a death…

1 & 2. Kim Tate in Emmerdale faked being dead – twice

Rose need look no further than her nemesis Kim Tate for tips on faking your death – she’s done it twice!

In February 1997, Kim went missing from the village. A few days later, a woman was found dead at the wheel of her car after plunging into a quarry. Frank identified the body as Kim.

However, it wasn’t her! In May Kim waltzed back into Home Farm and told Frank she’d paid a prostitute to drive around the village pretending to be her, when actually Kim was sunning herself in the Caribbean. The body belonged to that woman, not Kim. The prostitute hadn’t been supposed to die, but she got stuck in the car and ended up making Kim’s fake death look even more authentic.

The shock caused Frank, who had been on remand for Kim’s murder, to have a heart attack. Kim stood by and watched him die before uttering the immortal line: “You’re a dinosaur, Frank, and you know what happened to them.” She then checked he was dead with her compact mirror before redoing her make-up. Brutal.

Then in June 2021, Kim reused her infamous plan to catch out son, Jamie Tate. He’d been drugging her and she wanted to expose him.

She hired actors to play the parts of the police, doctor and undertakers and even her then-lover Will Taylor was in on the act. Jamie was completely bewildered and upset – but even more so when he realised it had all been a plot against him!

3. Jamie Tate

So Jamie then decided to play his mother at her own game. After his poisoning attempts, Kim disowned and disinherited him. Then-girlfriend Dawn then ended it because he Jamie had tried to frame her dad, Will, for targeting Kim.

With nothing left and determined to get his hands on Kim’s money, Jamie offered to elope with Gabby so their baby (she was pregnant after a one-night stand) would get the money and therefore so would Jamie.

However, Jamie soon decided he couldn’t bear to be married to Gabby and asked Dawn to run away with him instead. She turned him down, so Jamie decided to flee to escape Gabby and Kim.

As he sped out of town, he drove off a cliff edge into a lake. The car was dredged up, but there was no sign of his body. Kim was sure he had faked his own death, but viewers had no idea whether he was actually gone or not.

When his ex, Andrea, died months later, Kim organised a memorial hoping Jamie would come. He didn’t and that seemed to seal he was dead.

But he wasn’t!

Instead he was hiding out with Andrea’s mum, Hazel.

4. Joe Tate also not dead in Emmerdale

It seems no one in the Tate family has an original idea because Joe Tate, Kim’s step-grandson also pulled off the trick.

When Kim got out of prison, she ordered Joe dead and her henchman, Graham, urged Joe to flee. It meant Joe not turning up to marry Debbie Dingle, which sent her dad, Cain, into a fury. He punched Joe who fell and hit his head on a rock.

Graham stepped in and said he would dispose of the body. But when he put Joe in the boot of the car, his hand twitched. Graham was loyal to Joe and was later seen sobbing at the wheel of his car before telling Kim the job was done.

It was presumed Joe was dead, but viewers weren’t so sure. And it turned out they were right when five months later it was revealed Joe had escaped abroad and was living off money from Kim’s businesses.

5. Ross Barton

In 2015, Ross Barton was having an affair with his brother Pete’s fiancée Debbie Dingle. After a helicopter crashed on their wedding day, Debbie was taken to hospital where Pete confronted Ross.

They fought in the hospital grounds and Pete charged at Ross, who hit his head on a stone wall. Pete continued to beat him until he realised his brother was dead. Desperate Pete drove Ross’ body to the woods and buried it in a ditch covered with leaves.

Viewers believed Ross was a goner, however, when Pete went back to get him with dad James three weeks later, they were stunned Ross was no longer there. In fact, he was in a coma in a hospital who thought his name was Stephen! Ross returned to the village shortly after and tried all he could to exact revenge on Pete.

6. Rebecca White

Rebecca and her nephew Lachlan were the only survivors of a crash that killed their family. She spent a month in a coma following the accident and was left with a brain injury. As she started to remember what had really happened – that Lachlan had been responsible for the deaths of his mother and grandfather – Lachlan knew he needed to silence her.

When Rebecca came across Robert Sugden and Liv Flaherty unconscious, Lachlan stopped her calling an ambulance. He was later seen in the woods clutching a bloody wrench. It was believed he had killed Rebecca.

However, just a few days later we discovered Rebecca was alive and being held hostage in a wooden chalet. She then confronted Lachlan and tried to escape and he strangled her. Once again we thought she was dead, but she was actually locked up in a psychiatric hospital, being kept captive by retired nurse Mrs Sykes, who Lachlan had hired.

7. Sadie King

Sadie King was ruthless and vengeful and she proved to be just that when she enlisted Cain Dingle to shoot her. Out for revenge on the King family, who had left her with nothing, Sadie wanted what she believed was rightfully hers.

Cain kidnapped her and Tom and shot Sadie, seemingly killing her. But actually she was still alive and it had all been staged. She then left the village after Cain double-crossed her too.

Read more: Kim’s revenge was more damp squib that explosive fireworks

Emmerdale usually airs weeknights on ITV at 7.30pm.

Classic Emmerdale usually airs every weekday on ITV3 at 6am and 6.30am, plus 1.40pm and 2.10pm.