Kim Tate

""You're a dinosaur Frank, and you know what happened to them!"

- Kim Tate's most famous quote as she watched her husband Frank die of a heart attack; the quote became one of the show's most iconic lines of all-time

Kim Tate is a fictional character and recurring antagonist of the British soap opera Emmerdale.

She first appeared as a central character in 1989 and went on to become the show's overarching antagonist throughout the entire 1990s saga.

Two decades after departing the show in 19 January 1999, Kim returned as the hidden secondary antagonist in 2018 before becoming the show's primary antagonist once more from 2019 onwards.

1989:1997 — FIRST STINT
Prior to the events of her first appearance within the show, Kim Baker became Frank Tate's secretary whilst the duo were having an affair. Frank's wife Jean — who was dying of cancer in the midst of the affair — eventually died and the two went on to proceed in marrying before they moved into Home Farm by the end of 1989.

Kim initially appeared to be a nice person as she developed an friendly interaction with her stepson Chris, his wife Kathy, and his sister Zoe. Her true colors were soon revealed when she embarked on an affair with Neil Kincaid, and Frank subsequently disowned Kim by the time he found out on Christmas Day; she would later go on to end her relationship with Neil.

Following her divorce with Frank in 1993, Kim established her own stables under her maiden alias — Kim Barker. This, however, didn't last long as the stables were destroyed in the plane crash in December that year, killing many of the horses as well as four local residents; with Chris getting completely paralyzed in the process. Frank, feeling sorry for Kim, would comfort her for the loss of both her horses and stables, which granted her the opportunity to manipulative her former husband into remarrying in December 1994. Despite winning back Frank's trust, however, Kim was unable to recoup the respect from her stepchildren — with Chris already becoming her prime adversary whereas Zoe was also beyond trusting Kim ever again.

In 1995, Kim began an affair with Kathy's new boyfriend Dave Glover— with Kathy having previously ended her marriage with Chris over their differences — and was far more determined to leave no stone unturned in preventing Frank from unearthing this discovery. Her ruthless methods were exemplified when she trampled Kathy's brother Nick with her horse when he threatened to expose her, and went as far as to threaten Nick's daughter Alice as well. When Frank had a heart attack and was advised to take it easy, Kim encouraged him to sleep with her in the hope of inducing another heart attack. Kim became pregnant and wasn't sure who the father was. When Frank overheard Dave and Biff Fowler discussing the situation, he did have another heart attack and ended up in hospital. He then had time to think and decided to pretend not to know about the affair while hiring a private detective to follow Kim and Dave before confronting his wife with the evidence. He also hired scheming Tina Dingle as a secretary in Home Farm who used to wind Kim up by wearing her dresses that Frank had bought. He offered her a million pounds to dump Dave and name him as the father and Kim accepted. Their son was named James Francis Tate.

However, after bonding with the baby, Kim and Dave resumed their relationship, despite the fact that he was now married to Kathy. They planned to run away together, but a fire broke out at Home Farm and Dave died - of injuries sustained while rescuing baby James — in hospital on Boxing Day 1996.

1997:1999 — SECOND STINT
In February 1997, Kim disappeared from the village and was presumed death when a woman was found dead at the wheel of her car; Frank had identified the body as Kim. By the time Frank was released from prison after spending months on remand for the accusation of her murder, he once again started to settle in an attempt to forget about Kim. However, he received a number of mysterious calls which were made by none other than Kim Tate herself. She then confronted him in person, surprising Frank, and the two began to interrogate each other over their motives to get rid of one another; on this occasion, Kim explained that she had paid a lookalike prostitute to drive her car around the village to fool people into thinking she was still there and that it was her body, not Kim's, that Frank had identified. The bitter confrontation between the two slowly escalated into an argument that caused Frank to have yet another heart attack when lashing out at Kim, who callously disregard his pleas for help and instead blackmailed him into granting her full custody of James. Frank was forced to agree, but he soon discovered that Kim had earlier sabotaged the phone line which would prevent him from calling the emergency services. Watching Frank succumb to his heart attack, Kim delivered her famous quote "You're a dinosaur Frank - and you know what happened to them" to her dying husband and then checked to confirm his death with her compact mirror, thus coolly redid her make-up. Kim toasted his death and secretly left Frank to die at Home Farm; he ultimately passed away when Zoe found him and she alerted the news to Chris, who blamed her stepmother for his father's death and swore revenge.

When Frank's will was read out, Kim inherited the majority of Home Farm and soon began managing "Home Farm Estates" with his trustee: Steve Marchant, They soon got married in May 1998, but Kim became furious when Steve confessed that he was financially broke — just as she was as well. Needing to prevent their estate from facing liquidation, the couple planned to make money by stealing a horse after replacing it with an older horse in the hope that no-one would notice the difference — and then selling it. Whilst driving the horse-box, however, Steve happened to run over Kathy. Upon learning about this, Kim confronts Steve just as he is about to silence her in hospital and manipulates him into allowing her to speak to Kathy alone. Once Kathy regained conscious, Kim deceptively persuaded her into believing that Steve never stopped bis vehicle just after ramming into her — thus rendering her soon-to-be ex-husband as the sole mastermind while withholding her involvement within the theft of the horse.

On the day of trial in January 1999, with the lawyers questioning Kathy's validity as a witness for Steve's hit-and-run crime, Kathy herself questioned how true Kim's words had been. It was at this point that Chris started to puzzle the truth behind his father's death, even though Kim had constantly reminded him that Frank died of a heart attack. By the time Kathy had realized that Kim was indeed involved in the horse theft, she gave out her statement about this theory and the police began to investigate her trail — albeit she is given bail prior to the final court day whereas Steve is remanded in custody. Needing to escape, Kim discovered that Chris had found the money from the robbery that she had buried in Frank's grave. She confronted Chris at Home Farm where he once again interrogated her about Frank, sparking yet another argument that merely escalated when Chris gave her an ultimatum; he will help Kim escape with the money at the expense of granting him Joseph, with Chris not wanting his brother to grow up with his ruthless mother. Kim instead tries to seduce him, but ends up knocking him unconscious when he rejects her false advances. Unable to get her stepson into revealing the money's location, Kim eventually coerces Chris when she confirms his story about his father; she killed Frank by pressuring him into a heart attack before watching him succumb to his condition — the place where he died is ironically where Chris is now lying in. She then takes the money and bids Chris an ungrateful farewell by pouring his father's whisky onto him and leaving him behind. Taking James with her, Kim approaches a helicopter that she had earlier summoned as her getaway vehicle. The pilot asked her if she was Kim Marchant, and with her final words on the show she replied, "No, Kim Tate". She then hops onto the helicopter with James and the duo leave just as Chris unsuccessfully tries to stop her.

As Kim had already left the village before the trial even began, Steve was solely found guilty of the crimes which she had singlehandedly staged and was consequently sentenced to over 10 years in prison; much to his chagrin. Before his sentencing, Steve and the rest of the villagers became aware that Kim had skipped bail and alert Zoe about this — which finally caused her to realize how Kim had been manipulating her since her return two years later; Zoe later apologies to Chris by the time she found him unconscious, and they reconciled despite having to accept that Kim had won.

2000-2017 — ABSENCE
Although Kim was never seen or heard from ever again since her escape back in 1999, she has been mentioned on several occasions over the next two decades; one such example was the night Chris died in 2003 upon committing suicide — as part of scheme to frame his third wife Charity Dingle for her affair with cousin Cain — and that Kim was mentioned when Frank's former enemy Jack Sugden recalled the differences of how Chris and Kim were long gone. In 2005, the year in which Zoe left the village upon losing Home Farm to her father's old rival Tom King, she sent flowers to Emmerdale for the funeral of Seth following his death; it was unknown how Kim had learned about Seth's passing, albeit it was assumed that she found out from the website or even newspapers whilst laying low from the country. It was believed by a number of fans along with some village residents that Kim has been residing in Ireland since her escape.

2018-2019 — RETURN
In October 2018, nearly two decades after her departure from Emmerdale, it's transpires that Kim is the puppeteer behind the events that involve her step-grandson Joe Tate — formerly Tom Waterhouse, the namesake CEO of Waterhouse Industries — and his legal guardian: Graham Foster, who collects Kim from prison following her release. After being given the keys to Home Farm, Kim and Graham discussed the situation with Joe in regards to his financial problems on the day of his wedding to Cain and Charity's daughter: Debbie. Despite Graham's objections, Kim ordered him to get rid of Joe and later stayed at a hotel to finalize her plans of retaking Home Farm.

This indeed came into fruition the next day when she arrived at Home Farm, where Joe and Graham were hosting a party — which she later announced to be her "welcome home event" — to raise money for Debbie's daughter Sarah. After declaring ownership of Home Farm, Kim was introduced to the guests by Eric Pollard — who is one of the few people to have been fully aware of her nature back in the 1990s — before the party resumed, though not before she met Debbie and told her about Joe's deceit. She later checked on Graham to see if the deed was done; he slyly confirms this, but Kim quickly deduced that Graham had actually let Joe go and warned him that she'll have her violent henchman named "Vincent" kill Joe if Graham doesn't silence him first. After Graham left to comply Kim's orders, she went on to antagonize nearly all the guests upon clashing with Charity and her girlfriend: Vanessa Woodfield. Kim also became enemies with Chris and Charity's son, Noah, when he confronted her over Joe, and she taunted him over his father. By the time Eric has warned the guests over Kim's nature by recalling the time she killed Frank as well as mentioning her past activities, Charity's cousin Sam and Eric's girlfriend Faith grew to openly dislike her as well. Eventually, Kim grew tired of the situation and ordered the guests to leave Home Farm before heading upstairs to bed. There, Kim gleefully watched the guests until she suddenly fell off the balcony and landed on the champagne table. The guests rushed over to Kim, who was lying unconscious, and emergency services were being called over; an ambulance arrived for Kim, whereas the police also turned up to interview the guests over Kim's accident — as it transpired that she had been pushed off the balcony from the fall.

As a result, many of the guests were forced to stay and be interviewed. When Charity grew unimpressed and tried to leave, she was arrested and was named prime suspect. Meanwhile, Kim had survived her injuries — though the nurse told Graham that she caught head trauma following her fall. The next day, Graham arrived to collect Kim before informing her of Joe's fate; she was impressed and requested Graham to track down her son James. However, her victory was short lived when the police arrived and detained her for speeding without a drivers license — thus remanding Kim back to prison for the rest of the year, much to her outrage.

List of Victims
A list of people whom Kim has victimized throughout her reign of villainy.
 * Kathy Bates — Victimized by Kim on two different occasions; one where Kathy's husband Dave had an affair with Kim before getting killed whilst trying to save her son, James; and the second where Kathy was caught in a hit-and-run by Kim's husband Steve amid their fraudulent scheme, which led to Kim manipulating Kathy into believing that Steve was the sole mastermind behind the plot.
 * Nick Bates — Kim repeatedly trampled Nick in an attempt to coerce him into keeping quiet about her affair with his brother Dave, further issuing a threat in regards to his daughter: Alice.
 * Dave Glover — Kim manipulated Dave into having an affair with her, culminating in Dave being killed whilst managing to rescue Kim's son James under her behest.
 * Frank Tate — Kim watched Frank die of a fatal heart attack without helping him; she previously caused Frank to have two heart attacks in the midst of affair with Dave, before going on to frame her husband for her "murder" in a vengeful plot against him.
 * Steve Marchant — Kim framed Steve for her fraudulent crime to steal a horse as well as implicating him for his sole involvement in Kathy's hit and run.
 * Chris Tate — Kim physiologically tormented Chris following his father's death, culminating when she struck an ornament on him before fleeing with the money he hid to protect his father's business interests.
 * Joe Tate — Kim arranged for Joe to be murdered by his legal guardian Graham Foster as penance for betraying her; this indirectly succeeded when Joe was fatally knocked out by his fiance's father: Cain Dingle.

Personality
""No, Kim Tate!"

- Kim Tate's final words as she apparently departs from the show after a decade of duration from 1989-1999

""You know it's true what they say. You learn a lot in prison. Careful who you trust; do it to them before they do it to you. And if you really want something, I mean really want it. Don't let anybody or anything stand if your way!""

- Kim Tate's monologue following her return in 2018; nearly twenty years after her 1999 departure

Kim Tate is a calculating, glamorous, manipulative, ruthless, and sadistic mastermind who simply causes trouble around the local Emmerdale village for her own endgame.

Trivia

 * Consequently, she is one of the few soap opera villains to not get killed off nor receive any comeuppance for her outrageous crimes.
 * This all changed, however, at the end of her 2018 week stint when she got arrested for speeding without a drivers license and was remanded in custody for the rest of the year.
 * In September 2018, Emmerdale released a trailer for their autumn storyline featuring a woman whose face is covered in a mask which ties in with the storyline in Emmerdale’s October week. At the end of the trailer, it is revealed that the woman is that of Kim herself - a return to Emmerdale for the first time in nearly 20 years; she reappeared as the main antagonist of her week-stint 2018 story from 8th October up until the 12th October.
 * Following her 2018 departure, actress Claire King confirmed that Kim will return as the show's primary villain in 2019.