Silent Witness finale sees romance for Jack and Nikki

The pair first shared a kiss roughly 25 minutes into tonight's episode, but that suggestion of romance was initially short-lived – with Jack later hearing the voice of Nikki's student Ollie (Jack Bandeira) on a voicemail, which led him to believe a relationship might be off the cars. Ollie himself, as forward as ever, seemed especially keen to turn his fling with Nikki into something more concrete, but she wasn't having any of it, initially telling him that there was too much of an age gap before informing him that she needed to be "somewhere else." His response? "Somewhere else, or with someone else?"

And then, at the end of the episode, with the case having been closed, we saw Jack return to his house – where Nikki was lying asleep on the sofa. In the very final shot, she opened her eyes and the two shared a loving look at each other while holding hands, irrefutably suggesting a romantic connection. And it looks very likely that this will continue going into the landmark 25th run, with Emilia Fox recently explaining (via Express.co.uk) that "The end of series 24 is picked up directly after, by the beginning of series 25." And so looks like fans have finally got their wish: Jack and Nikki are an item.

It was something of an eventful episode for Jack altogether, with the popular character briefly emerging as a suspect in the murder inquiry. DS Galloway (Stephen Wight) was particularly suspicious of him, especially after Simone informed him that Jack had been left alone with the murdered Derek shortly before his death. Thankfully, just as he was about to be taken off the case, Jack was able to solve it on his own – it turned out that elderly resident Beattie (Sian Phillips) had been responsible, having murdered both victims in an attempt to stop their suffering and put them out of their misery.

As for the other cliffhanger at the end of yesterday's first part, thankfully it didn't take too long to find out that Connor Hodgson (Richard Durden) had survived his fall. Towards the beginning of the episode, we saw him being treated to while he phoned Nikki to try and get in touch with Jack – and when he was reunited with his son later on he seemed keen to downplay the seriousness of the accident. Still, he's had a rough old time in the last few episodes and could probably do with a good rest.

The finale episode also gave newcomer Simone Tyler another chance to prove her worth to the Lyell crew, and Genesis Lynea is so far proving an excellent and charismatic addition to the cast, with Simone's new area of expertise also adding another new dimension to the Lyell's skill set. It looks like she'll be sticking around for the series 25, which seems likely to see a rather more settled team than we've had this year.

All in all, it's been another hugely rewarding series for Silent Witness fans – and the romance between Jack and Nikki will likely be the icing on top of the cake. It will certainly be interesting to see how the new couple will navigate their relationship in series 25 and beyond...

Silent Witness will return in 2022. Check out what else is on with our TV Guide, or visit our Drama hub for all the latest news and features.