Emmerdale ‘confirms’ major John fan theory in early ITVX twist

The following article contains spoilers from an episode of Emmerdale that hasn’t aired on ITV1 yet, but can be viewed on ITVX.

A pretty major twist has aired in the last episode of Emmerdale, which may confirm a fan theory about John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth).

John first met Victoria Sugden (Isabel Hodgins) on the day of his mother’s funeral. He was outside the church and introduced himself to Vic as a Sugden, unaware that she was one as well.

The news that her dad had fathered another baby and never bothered to tell anyone was hard for Vic to process. However, with Jack no longer being around and Vic keen to have more Sugdens close by, she decided to spend time with John – despite the fact he wasn’t really interested at first.

Now, John thinks of himself as a loyal Sugden sibling. He cares about Vic a lot, and now expresses how much he loves his nephew Harry.

A theory that’s been circulating for a long time now is that John Sugden isn’t actually a Sugden at all. Some believed last year that Aidan Moore was John’s real identity, while others think that the man stole the real John Sugden’s identity after his death.

While we don’t know the exact details just yet, a massive clue was dropped tonight that suggests John has been pretending to be someone else this entire time.

In the shop, Tracy Shankley (Amy Walsh) was taken aback when a man walked in. She instantly recognised him as the bloke who picked up Nate Robinson’s (Jurell Carter) belongings and took them to Shetland.

At the time, Tracy was still under the impression that Nate was alive and treated it as a sign he no longer wanted anything to do with his family in the village. The man took the boxes, but we then saw John setting fire to them.

Because of the murder development between then and now, Tracy wasted no time in asking the man, Ben Flint, a few questions. She showed him a picture of Nate and asked if this was the guy who organised the removal, but Ben said no.

When DC Cole arrived, Ben told him that it was Owen Michaels (Simon Haines) who sorted it. Given Cole’s suspicions yesterday that Owen didn’t kill Nate, Ben identifying him was enough to confirm that he definitely did.

Listening in on this was Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb), who was preparing to head to London for a week.

A while later, Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) found John and Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller) in the street. He updated them both, saying the police are now certain that Owen murdered his son.

John was relieved. It was very clear that the phone call he made yesterday was to Ben, and he had organised for him to lie to the police. As far as John was concerned, this was a sign things were finally looking up for him.

He then headed to Butlers to pick up a few more things ahead of his and Aaron’s temporary-but-will-probably-turn-permanent stay away from Emmerdale. At the same time, he had also agreed to drive Mack the train station.

As John headed off to grab a few more bits, Mack was seen snooping through his things.

He then picked up a scrapbook, which revealed some pretty game-changing information.

Mack saw a picture of John holding a bow and arrow, which could be a pretty dangerous weapon if it was to end up in the wrong hands.

Anyways.

Mack then turned the page and saw a picture of John beside removal guy Ben. The two men were standing close to each other in their army gear and the caption read: John and Ben, Brothers in Arms.

Well, well, well.

The fact that the two men are in camo could suggest they were quite close while in the army together, but then they look remarkably similar. Are they siblings?

Regardless of the connection, the fact Mackenzie was present when Ben spoke to DC Cole earlier in the day means he now has proof that John is dodgy. Even if John was to deny Mack’s claims about Ben, it’s still awfully strange that he never bothered to tell anyone he knew the person who picked up Nate’s stuff.

Whichever way tomorrow’s episode plays out, one thing is for certain – Mackenzie Boyd is in terrible danger.

And he may not make it to London.