Emmerdale‘s John Sugden was left pleading for his life in a dramatic gun showdown – but is he still alive?

In tonight’s episode, John prepared to leave the Dales for good, blackmailing Caleb Milligan into sneaking him out of the UK in one of his lorries, in exchange for him keeping quiet about Anthony Fox’s murder.

Caleb looked to be going ahead with the plan, but later took a detour into some woods where a more sinister plot followed.

The episode began with Caleb trying to quietly leave his home early in the morning without waking his wife Ruby. Ruby however heard him walking around and questioned what he was up to.

Related: Emmerdale reveals who crashes Vinny’s tense court appearance

Caleb told her that he had a job and had to go away for a day to drive a lorry to Hull and then Rotterdam, claiming the company was “understaffed” with no other drivers available to do the job.

Ruby bought the lie and Caleb hurried along to work, receiving a message from John that he was at the depot and waiting for him.

At the depot, Caleb first headed into his office and gave Jai Sharma an important meeting to go off and attend to, to get him out of the way. He then disabled all the security cameras on site.

Related: Emmerdale reveals Mack’s new suspicions in 25 spoiler pictures

Caleb then met John at the lorry and a reluctant John got in the back, but not before questioning whether Caleb still intended to carry out the plan.

“Don’t forget I’m the one holding all the cards,” John reminded Caleb before setting off.

Later, Caleb parked the lorry up in a woodland and opened up the back of the truck, pointing a shotgun at John.

Related: Emmerdale forced to write real-life drama into Mary’s storyline

Caleb told John he was “tearing up the cards” and that he wanted John to pay for killing his nephew Nate.

John called Caleb’s bluff, telling him if he wanted to kill him he would have done it by now. To which Caleb replied that he wasn’t the one who was going to pull the trigger.

Cain Dingle then appeared, leaving John terrified. Cain took the gun from Caleb and ordered John to move, telling Caleb that he wanted some alone time with John to chat.

John began apologising to Cain for killing his son Nate, but an emotional Cain wasn’t buying it.

“You killed him and then you wormed your way into my family,” Cain said. “You made everyone think he had abandoned us. And then you turned up at his funeral and carried his coffin. You read out Tracy’s words and watched me put my son in the ground. You’re sick.”

John responded by telling Cain that Nate always hated him and that Cain hated his son too, never forgiving him for sleeping with his wife Moira.

Cain beat John up with the gun and forced him further into the woods to where a grave had been dug. Cain ordered John into the grave and Caleb arrived shortly after, having sought the pair out to see what was taking so long.

John then revealed that Caleb and Cain had to keep him alive as he had scheduled an email to the police, which disclosed that Caleb’s wife Ruby had killed her dad Anthony Fox. He added that the email could only be stopped by him if they let him go.

“The only way to save her [Ruby] and your family is to let me go,” John told the pair.

Cain told Caleb that John was lying, but Caleb grew concerned and begged Cain to reconsider. The two started arguing and John saw an opportunity to escape, grabbing a rock, ready to hit Cain but Cain caught him in time.

“That is the last mistake you’re ever going to make,” Cain told John as he pointed the gun at him.

The camera then panned out to a wide shot of the woods and a gunshot was heard being fired. But is John Sugden really dead?