The beloved character was captured by John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth) towards the end of August. He was shot with a bow and arrow, had his ankle broken, got drugged and then placed in an underground bunker near John’s childhood home.

Up until last Thursday, Mackenzie remained trapped in the lair.

 

 

His escape plan took place thanks to John dropping a pocket screwdriver. At the time, he was incredibly erratic after finding out that Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller) had slept with Robert Sugden (Ryan Hawley).

In order to make Aaron completely dependable on him, John drugged some whisky and manipulated his partner into drinking it.

As his deadly plan got underway, John failed to realise that Mack had freed himself from the wall he was chained to. With a little bit of time, Mack forced himself through the pain and managed to open the door to the bunker.

 

 

He was above ground, but his poor health meant he couldn’t move very fast.

An absolutely horrifying showdown in the woods that we are not over saw John attack Mackenzie with a brick and then race to find Aaron, who had stumbled into the woods. As he tended to his husband – who had suffered a seizure – John failed to spot Mack making one final attempt at freedom.

He ended up on a road and for the first time ever, Mack felt a tiny bit hopeful that things were about to change.

Sadly, the van that approached Mackenzie ended up being John’s. Poor Mack was captured and placed back in the lair.

Due to the fact we didn’t see the character in Friday’s episode, as it primarily focused on John and Aaron, we had to wait until tonight’s instalment to find out whether the Sugden psycho had done anything else to him.

He hadn’t hurt Mackenzie anymore, but the time spent “looking after” Aaron seemingly allowed John to decide what to do next about his victim underground.

In this evening’s episode, John visited Mackenzie and told him that they wouldn’t see each other anymore. This left Mack with crippling fear that John was just going to leave him to die.

This was true to some extent, but he also had another option. John handed Mack a syringe and said that if he wants to put himself out of his misery, he can just inject himself with the drug, which would send Mack into a deep sleep.

He was horrified, but John’s mind was made up. He climbed up the ladder and left Mack all alone.

The episode ended with three lives hanging in the balance.

Mackenzie – who genuinely looked as though he was contemplating using the syringe.

Aaron – who had fallen from a gorge.

John – who had also fallen from the gorge after throwing himself and Aaron from it.