Emmerdale star says 'days are numbered' on soap as Dawn unmasked as Joe's attacker

Time could be running out for one resident, as actress has spilled all on a major Joe Tate twist.

Olivia's character Dawn Taylor was unmasked as the culprit behind the attack on Joe that aired last week, with him shoved out of an upstairs window at Home Farm. Joe's scorned lover Dawn took brutal action last week, before confirming her "crime of passion" to her husband Billy Fletcher during Monday's episode of the soap.

Now, actress Olivia, who has been on the show for seven years, has teased her days "could be numbered" in the fallout. With Dawn committing such a dark crime, amid her many other troubles over the years, might she face justice this time?

Then there's the fact that if Joe survives his deadly plunge, there's every chance he will plan a brutal revenge on the young mother. Speaking out in the immediate aftermath of the attacker reveal, Olivia teased what really happened between the characters, why Dawn took action and what might come next.

She spilled to The : "I would say it’s a classic crime of passion, really. Obviously she’s given up everything for this man, which is a little bit silly. I think she’s so overwhelmed by all this new information. Dawn is someone who doesn’t always think about what she does.

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"She’s quite rash. In the moment, the scales have fallen from her eyes and she’s seen this man that she thought was so different, and she’s like ‘Oh my God.’ Then she finds out what he did to Clemmie. I think it was that moment of lioness mother power, basically. Also the way he tried to manipulate her in the moment."

Olivia added: "You don’t see on screen what actually happened, so I don’t know what happened in that moment but how I imagine what happened is that she comes in and tries to confront him and he turns on his manipulation and enough is enough. I think it’s an accident, a pure accident. It wasn’t like ‘I’m going to kill you', it just happened."

On what Billy will do after the confession, Olivia told us: "Billy and Dawn have this history where they’re quite a good unit and they come together and manage to protect each other and stuff. So they kind of form a little bit of an alliance to protect each other. But obviously Billy’s been massively betrayed by this woman, so will he ever trust her again?"

But it might not be enough, and with the threat of prison and Joe wanting revenge, if he survives, it could lead to an exit for poor Dawn. Olivia teased: "I think with Dawn, constantly the days could be numbered in many ways! She’s murdered someone before, she’s killed Malone, but that was self defence.

"Whenever Dawn does something that’s really terrible I think there’s always a heart behind it. Even though it seems like she’s being really cruel to Billy at the moment, she’s not a vindictive, evil person. That’s what’s quite interesting with her being with someone like Joe, who does have that streak of malice and evil. I kind of thought it was more of a crime of passion but whether she’ll go down for it, I don’t know."

On Joe potentially wanting payback, she added: "I think she is worried about that, but I think her main concern is to protect her family. The biggest thing she might lose is her children if she’s been involved in a violent crime like this and potentially killed someone. She is very, very worried about losing the children. I think that’s the constant thing running through Dawn - she messes up and then panics and hates herself for what she’s done. She’s constantly having to scrabble to keep this family together. She’s got a lot to lose. Everything she’s built, she could be in prison just like that."

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