Emmerdale’s John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth) isn’t your typical soap villain. Following his introduction last year, the character has now been responsible for a variety of crimes ranging from drugging to murder, and they were all committed with one aim in mind – to be a hero.
His complex mindset was explored in great detail last week, when John rang a mental health helpline and unknowingly spoke to Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt).
He mentioned his distant brother Robert Sugden (Ryan Hawley), and how he’s been compared to him for most of his life.
It was this moment that got us thinking about John’s character arc, and how his plan for Aaron was highlighted in his very first scenes.
What we know about John Sugden’s mindset
Let’s discuss John’s mindset first of all. When his connection to the Sugden family was revealed, we learnt that John was born as a result of his mother and Jack Sugden having a brief fling.
In the phone call with Paddy, he revealed that he had constantly been compared to Robert. The severity of Robert’s crime that saw him sentenced to prison in 2019 meant John could’ve easily researched his sibling and discovered where he used to live.
Because we live in a world where everything is online now, John would’ve also been able to access pictures of Robert and Aaron together.
Desperate for approval and to be better than the sibling he’s never met, John’s plan to steal Robert’s life began prior to his first scenes.
The dating app
In 2024, Aaron set off out of the village to meet a man from a dating app in a hotel. On the way, he stopped due to John flagging him down. He revealed that his van was broken, and needed to borrow a phone to call a garage.
John and Aaron got talking as Aaron had a look at the vehicle. It was then confirmed John was the man from the app and instead of sleeping together in a hotel room, they did it in the back of John’s van.
Hanging around near the village meant the chances of John landing on Aaron’s dating radius were pretty high.
John could’ve driven off there and then and never laid eyes on Aaron again.
Instead, he waited until Aaron was going to the loo in a bush and sped away, knowing the keys to Eric Pollard’s (Chris Chittell) car were inside his van.
It left Aaron stranded, and with also no choice but to find John again to get the keys back.
As John ‘reluctantly’ waited in the village for Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) to fix the van again, he began a casual relationship with Aaron.
Does anyone else think John broke the van deliberately?
Meeting at the side of the road and matching on the app wasn’t coincidence or fate – it was all part of John’s plan.
As the relationship started to blossom, we started to see more of John’s hero complex.
He orchestrated deadly events with residents at the centre of them, knowing he could swoop in at the last moment and save their lives. Sometimes, John would plan these because he felt paranoid about Aaron potentially leaving him. Other times, they were committed because he wanted to impress someone else.
Take Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter) for example. John drugged and then saved her because he could sense that she wasn’t a huge fan of him. He was hailed a hero by Chas and her family after and ever since, she’s seen him as an incredibly good person.
Covering up Anthony’s murder
Disposing of Anthony Fox’s body (seriously where is it) was also an event that saw John praised by Aaron’s family members.
It was obvious that everything had been carefully thought out and as a result, John was getting what he had craved all of his life – to not get compared to Robert.
Meeting his brother
Shortly after Robert’s return earlier in the year, he was placed back inside due to breaking his bail conditions. During this process, John properly met Robert for the first time, and was thrown when his sibling was able to work out there was something dodgy about him.
Robert called John the ‘unwanted rut’ and said that he’s trying to ‘take his life’. Unbeknownst to Robert, he had John’s plot nailed in that exact moment.
The cottage
An oblivious Aaron agreed to a holiday with John, unaware they would be staying in his childhood home.
They arrived at the house days after John’s violent showdown with Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb). As Aaron got settled in, John headed to the woods and was seen trying to shoot a deer with a bow and arrow.
He couldn’t bring himself to do it, and headed back to the cottage. There, John asked Aaron if he thinks he’s a weak man. Aaron reassured his husband, telling him that he’s the strongest person he’s ever met.
Given everything we’ve just discussed and what we know about John now, this would’ve worked wonders on him. Again, he wasn’t being likened to Robert. If anything, Aaron’s comments proved he thought John was better.
The gorge
Even when John told Aaron everything about his crimes, he still believed that they could be together forever.
The arrival of Robert moments before John reported himself to the police caused more drastic action from the deranged man. A paranoid John knew that if he went to prison, Robert and Aaron could reunite – and that was quite literally his worst nightmare.
He grabbed Aaron, told him that no-one else can have him, and jumped off the cliff.
Overall, it was a clever, complex and cunning plan from John Sugden, but he chose to move to Emmerdale, where secrets never stay hidden forever.
It was never going to work.
