Aaron’s agony eased by mystery ally — but Cain’s hatred over Nate’s demise is about to ignite
With John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth) finally revealed to be Nate Robinson (Jurell Carter)’s k.i.l.l.e.r on Emmerdale, Nate’s father Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) finally has someone to direct his rage towards.
When Nate’s body was discovered in the lake, Cain soon found himself as chief suspect. He’d had a violent argument with Nate prior to his disappearance, as he wrongly believed Nate was once again having an affair with Moira (Natalie J Robb), so he seemed to have the motive.
Knowing that he’d behaved in such a way the last time he saw his son preyed on Cain’s mind as he tried to work out who really had been responsible for k.i.l.l.i.n.g Nate – with his focus initially turning to Nate’s wife Tracy (Amy Walsh), before he and Tracy finally decided to join forces to try to work out who the real k.i.l.l.e.r was.
Now with the truth finally out, Cain has a target for his anger. But there’s someone else apart from John who he blames for Nate’s d.e.a.t.h, and that’s Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller).
His reasoning? If it hadn’t been for Aaron, John would have never stayed in the village.
And Cain can’t work out why Aaron, who’s been living with John all this time, couldn’t have spotted any clues in John’s behaviour that might have pointed to him being a k.i.l.l.e.r. With John having gone to ground, Cain has nowhere to direct the anger he feels towards him, so he focuses on Aaron instead.
Aaron is, of course, not in the best way himself. Having been through a physically traumatic ordeal with the cliff fall following days of being drugged by John, his health is still not good. At the same time, he’s mentally tortured by the knowledge of his husband’s crimes and his head is full of dark thoughts.
He’s somewhat cheered by a surprise visitor. Ruby Miligan (Beth Cordingly) goes to the hospital to see him. Ruby and Aaron have had a connection since he was the first person to notice that there was something amiss in the relationship between Ruby and her father Anthony (Nicholas Day) as he spotted the signs of abuse.
Eventually Aaron angrily confronted Anthony and attacked him. He thought he’d k.i.l.l.e.d him, but it was later revealed that Ruby had found him still alive and had finished the job herself.
With this shared background between them, Ruby tries to convince Aaron that what happened with John wasn’t his fault. She draws parallels between what happened between her and her father with what John put Aaron through, that they were both victims of dangerous, manipulative men.
Aaron is still remorseful that he didn’t spot any signs of John’s true nature, wishing he could have stopped him from k.i.l.l.i.n.g Nate. But he is glad to have Ruby’s support, especially because Cain is blaming him.
Ruby and Chas (Lucy Pargeter) try to reassure Aaron that the ordeal is over and John has gone, but Aaron knows that while John is still at large, nobody is safe.
