Fans of Emmerdale think they know what is causing John Sugden’s secretive behaviour, amid his violent outburst on Tuesday night.
The latest episode of the ITV soap saw John acting strangely before storming out, heading to the scrapyard where he smashed a car in a violent rage – just as partner Aaron Dingle told him “he can’t always be the hero”. Amid new scenes set to expose his past and his lies, it’s only caused more speculation that he’s a serial killer and the person who murdered Nate Robinson.
Now, fans think they know what’s really going on with John and what he could be hiding. After a number of sinister incidents when he’s been around and one on the way, viewers believe he is linked to it all and has committed more than one killer crime.
Viewers think army medic John might be experiencing a psychological phenomenon called hero syndrome, also referred to as saviour complex or hero complex. The phenomenon causes the person experiencing it to seek recognition for heroism. Fans think something happened in the army that has left him with survivor’s guilt, and now he has a complex which leaves him wanting to play the hero and save lives.
As a result, fans think he might be causing near-death experiences for characters and that he’s done it in the village already. The idea is that he puts them in harm’s way to be able to save them.
Viewers think he killed Nate by accident intending on saving him, while he went on to rescue Ruby Miligan from the barn fire. They also think he is the one who drugged Chas Dingle with her painkillers recently, with him shown saving the day there too.
With him being the hero by helping to cover up Anthony Fox’s murder, they think his next target could be Jacob Gallagher. Jacob suffers an allergic reaction after drinking the wrong coffee while at the surgery later this week.
It’s John who springs into action hoping to save the day, and after seeing the spoilers fans are already speculating John has orchestrated the whole thing to save his life. Sharing the theory online, one fan posted: “I definitely think he killed Nate but I’m unsure on whether it was intentional or not.
“My theory is he makes people ill to ‘save’ them and be a hero and maybe Nate died before he got the chance because John got distracted by the fire.” A fan responded: “This is a good theory,” as another viewer said: “Think you might be right there, mate.”
A further comment said: “Okay is it just me or does anyone else feel John has this hero syndrome? Because whenever there’s someone hurt he always knows what time and what place like is that just me thinking that.”
Another viewer commented: “I have thought this. Everyone thinks he’s a serial killer but I think maybe he just gets off on saving people and even hurts them in order to be able to save them.
“I don’t know how that explains Nate’s death though unless it was an accident that went wrong.”
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.