Jamie Tate (Alexander Lincoln) is not exactly the most popular person with his fellow villagers in Emmerdale these days.

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He's had a life that has been full of scandal in 2020 and it has been going off the rails for some time now. First, he began an affair with Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor Draper) and had a stressful end to his marriage to Andrea (Anna Nightingale).

The affair was revealed in a very public way when intimate details of it were shared for all to see in The Woolpack, which led to Andrea mysteriously disappearing for a while. And as if things were not complicated enough for him, he hit Moira Barton (Natalie J.Robb) with his car and left the scene, trying to cover up his involvement in it from a vengeful Dingle family and the police.

But he seems to always have something up his sleeve to get out of trouble and despite many finding out what he did, he was able to keep it from becoming public knowledge. Well, that was until Belle turned on him and had him arrested, having played him for weeks to try and get justice for Moira.

belle jamie emmerdale

But as for what happens next and whether Jamie will get his comeuppance, that seems murky at the moment as there have been no indications that Lincoln will be finishing up his time on the ITV soap any time soon.

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With him seemingly sticking around for the longterm, it seems unlikely that he will be sent to prison for his crime - nor does it seem likely that he will be put out of his misery by an angry Dingle - or Cain (Jeff Hordley) as he is otherwise known.

So it would seem that there is more scheming to be done for Jamie as he continues to dig himself out of this hole. What we know so far, other than Jamie being left injured on the floor of Home Farm, is that things are going to get worse for Belle and she could end up regretting siding against him.

Recent scenes have shown Jamie begin to twist the events of the hit and run to make it look like other people were to blame - namely Belle and Nate Robinson (Jurell Carter). Both have been questioned about that night and it is clear that he is willing to do anything to avoid paying for the crime himself.

With it looking like Belle's mental health problems, including hearing voices from the dead, is in danger of returning, we would not put it past Jamie using that to his advantage and making out that she has not been of sound mind for some time.

Belle has been on a knife's edge for a while now. Not only did she have to pretend that she was still in love with Jamie, but she had to act like she had betrayed her own family in the process. The added stress of the police looking into her actions has been taking its toll and we do worry that she will start to unravel.

There is the hope that Andrea will help her out. She knows what Jamie did and is not her husbands biggest fan. But then she is not the biggest fan of her husband's former bit on the side either so she remains a wildcard. Andrea's loyalty could go either way and she has shown that she too is quite the schemer - things would have to work out in her favour for her to help Belle and we have seen her pick Jamie's side before, even after she knew of the affair.

However this storyline plays out, we expect it to run for some time yet and we can see things getting much worse for Belle before they get better - with Jamie benefitting from it in the process. Shall we get ready to start the 'Free Belle' campaign now?

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