The following article contains spoilers from an episode of Emmerdale that hasn’t aired on ITV yet, but is available to view on ITVX.
Emmerdale fans have been suspicious of John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth) for ages, but they’ve seemingly got his true character nailed following Anthony Fox’s (Nicholas Day) death.
Sex abuser Anthony was murdered last week after multiple people discovered he raped daughter Ruby Fox-Miligan (Beth Cordingly) when she was a child.
One person among the group learning of this revelation was Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller). He recognised his own fear in Ruby and set about confronting Anthony.
In the depot, Aaron told Anthony that his own father sexually abused him when he was a child, but the evil man ended his life in prison a few years ago.
He went on to say that he could kill Anthony, but didn’t want to go to prison because he has people in the village who love him. Aaron aimed to drive Anthony to the police station, but the character wound him up, resulting in Aaron attacking him.
He left Anthony in a bloodied mess on the floor and returned home. There, John found Aaron acting strangely and once he noticed blood on his neck, demanded to know what had happened.
When Aaron and John got back to the depot, Anthony was dead. As Aaron panicked, his partner took control of the situation and removed the man’s body from the floor.
The next day, Aaron continued to feel overwhelmed with his guilt. Behind the pub, as he wondered what they’d do with Anthony’s car, John snapped at his boyfriend, in a way we’ve not seen before.
It was these scenes, coupled with previous speculation that John is hiding something, that has left fans of the ITV soap convinced he was the one who really murdered Anthony.
‘Could John have finished him off? We only have his word Anthony was dead. Could he have finished the job when Aaron was gone?’, one user of X wondered.
Echoing this, and the possibility John is trying to frame Aaron, this audience member wrote: ‘Something is off about John. Did John kill Anthony and wants Aaron to think he did? Why?’.
To further fuel this theory, tonight’s episode of the ITV soap saw John encourage Aaron to continue helping with covering their tracks in the aftermath of Anthony’s death.
Once they discovered Cain Dingle’s (Jeff Hordley) garage would be empty for a few days, they put Anthony’s car inside.
Just before they started stripping down the vehicle, Aaron found a CD in the glove compartment. He assumed Steph Miligan (Georgia Jay) had made it for her granddad, which made him feel even worse.
John said that he could strip the car on his own, but he doesn’t have any idea of how to do it. Aaron said he would help, leaving John pleased to have control.
Is John working hard to involve Aaron, so he can later report him to the police with proof he killed Anthony and covered up the crime?
