Emmerdale's Mack 'dead' as killer John wields axe in nerve-racking showdown

There was hints of another sickening murder twist on Emmerdale on Thursday night, cruelly as Mack Boyd made his bid for freedom.

After days of being held captive and chained up by killer John Sugden, who had attacked him two weeks ago, the character managed to break free. John had set up cameras though and amid him drugging his husband Aaron Dingle, he realised Mack was out of the bunker.

John set off to stop Mack fleeing, vowing to put an end to him only for an unwell Aaron to stagger out into the woods. With it clear something was wrong, Mack began calling out to Aaron after realising what was happening.

He then begged John to save Aaron, saying he clearly needed help and John made the decision to leave him, not before hitting him over the head with a rock to stop him fleeing. Mack managed to get up though, and towards the end of the episode we saw him staggering towards a road.

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With his ankle broken and him in a bad way, Mack managed to get to the road and let out a smile of relief to be free. But as he fell to the floor, his hopes of being rescued soon faded.

As a vehicle pulled over, Mack's thoughts were on Aaron and his fears of what John would do to him. Knowing Aaron needed help and had been drugged, this was the first thing he said when the driver got out of the vehicle.

Mack begged for the mystery person to help Aaron, not even thinking about himself. But in a horrifying twist, following what had already been a tense showdown for Mack and John, the driver was revealed to be John.

He'd managed to catch up with Mackenzie, and his very near freedom was cruelly cut short. But events then took an even more horrifying twist, when John emerged wielding an axe.

As Mackenzie laid on the floor helpless, his eyes widened with terror when hen saw the weapon and John sinisterly walking towards him. John claimed "he'd helped Aaron like he said he would" before edging closer to his victim.

With that, as Mackenzie looked up terrified, the screen faded to black. So has John just killed Mackenzie, and has he claimed him as his next victim after recent exit rumours?

With Mack already surviving a brush with death once, just weeks ago, will he manage to do this again? Or has John silenced him for good? Aaron will somehow find out that John knows more about Mack's disappearance than he's let on so could this be the moment his fate is revealed?

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 , and Threads.