John had flashbacks as he failed to save Nate’s life(Image: ITV)

Emmerdale fans praised the ITV soap for the “sinister” John Sugden revealed as Nate Robinson’s final moments before his death aired.

John has been raising suspicions ever since he arrived in the village last year. After striking up a romance with Aaron Dingle, his usual composed behaviour has been starting to crack in recent episodes.

John misdiagnosed Kerry declaring her “hungover”. Liam double checked and realised that John had missed that she had diabetes – Liam informed John of his mistake which left the mysterious individual rather angry.

He took his anger out on Aaron and told him he couldn’t always “be the hero”. He decided to call Aaron later while at a scrapyard as he said: “Aaron, look I’m really sorry, I just needed some time to think. You were right and I’ll be fine. I’ll be coming home in a bit. I’ll pick up some pizzas on the way. Love you too. Bye.”

In a shock twist, after hanging up John picked up a sledgehammer and repeatedly hit a car in the yard, leaving it smashed up into pieces with his rage.

It was revealed that Nate’s death was accidental(Image: ITV)

During Thursday’s (10th April) hour long instalment, flashback scenes showed Nate Robinson’s final moments before he died.

Nate “left” the village last year but hadn’t been heard from since. That was until the Valentine’s limo crash and Amy Wyatt spotted his dead body at the bottom of the lake.

Unfortunately, Amy died in the aftermath and no one else – apart from John Sugden – is currently aware of Nate’s whereabouts.

In flashback scenes, John was trying to rescue Nate as he sat in front of John’s van injured after a fight with Cain. Next to them was the barn fire where Moira had her shotgun. John said: “Moira’s in there with a shotgun and god knows who, and I’m stuck out here with you.”

John was attempting to save Nate and give him some sort of injection to revive him. However, he was too late as Nate dropped to the ground leading to John shouting in defeat.

We were then shown him wrapping Nate’s body up in chains, followed by him pushing Nate’s body into the lake, which is where he is yet to be discovered.

John wrapped Nate’s body up in chains before pushing him into the lake(Image: ITV)

The soap aired the flashbacks in between a present clip of John being praised by the Dingles for being a “good guy” and always helping them out.

On a Reddit thread, u/Buzzybee_02 wrote: “I know people are going to be disappointed with how Nate died but I actually liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Yes, John might not have meant to kill Nate but watching those scenes play out felt just as sinister.

“Nate’s injuries from Cain surely were not enough to need dire medical attention. John said he was going to give him something for his headache and then gave him a shot that Nate clearly did not want and caused him pain. Then he passed out almost instantly. That surely is not something you would administer for a headache? Then John comes back with a second shot to “wake him up” (John’s words) but finds Nate wheezing before slumping over, presumably now dead. He’d obviously had a reaction to the first injection that John gave him. Yes, the death itself was somewhat accidental, but the motive behind it was anything but. He saw the opportunity to ‘play the hero’ when a hero wasn’t even needed and took it.

“There’s something creepy and sinister about that. Purposely bringing someone to the brink of death just to revive them and play the hero is a dangerous game to play.”

u/Equal-Competition930 replied: “Great episode . He definitely has hero complex. I don’t how you put people in danger like Chas and Jacob and then save them and think that’s normal.”