By Abby Robinson

Published: Tuesday, 07 June 2022 at 12:00 am

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Last night, there was another significant development in the penultimate episode of Silent Witness season 25.

Jomo Mashaba’s son David and his wife Fiona pledged to reveal the identity of the Big Bad in exchange for protection. Their request was granted and the couple were whisked off to a safe location, accompanied by DS Martine Chalal.

But they didn’t make it to their final destination.

***MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD***

Silent Witness season 25 ending explained

The trio were involved in a serious collision, in which the detective lost her life. Fiona was also left in a critical condition. David, however, was able to limp away from the wreckage.

It later emerged that the crash had been planned to ensure that David and Fiona kept their mouths shut about the identity of the puppet master or masters. Initial evidence indicated that the lorry driver had gone into anaphylactic shock while behind the wheel, but further examination revealed that he was a hit-man who had purposefully eaten fish containing a toxin which mimicked a severe allergic reaction, rather than causing one.

Before David fled the scene, he stole Chalal’s phone, which he later used to make a call.

“He will speak to me because if he doesn’t, I’ll talk,” he said.

A short time later, David was killed.

When Detective Superintendent Ronnie Boyle tracked him down, he found David with a bullet wound to the head. The assassin, who had remained at the scene, then attempted to kill him. But just in the nick of time, Jack Hodgson swooped in and prevented Boyle from meeting a grisly end.

Despite Jack’s best efforts, the gun-for-hire managed to escape, with the authorities still in the dark about who was responsible for the murders – that is until they uncovered one particular call made by David before his death.

He had reached out to Ethan Daley, the brain behind surveillance and monitoring network Vigil. The government had invested millions of pounds in the technology, with police forces up and down the country utilising it in their investigations.

In response to that development, Nikki Alexander examined Lewis Daley’s medical records – Ethan’s son had been arrested on suspicion of killing his wife – to see if there was anything they could run their samples against – and there was a big discrepancy: Lewis had Hepatitis C, but there was no evidence of that in the blood found under his step-mother’s fingernails.

The evidence against Lewis had been fabricated by Fiona, just as Tom Faulkner’s DNA had been manipulated to frame him for murders he hadn’t carried out.

Through David, Ethan was hoping to gain access to Unitas Health’s intelligence to bolster his data domination. Health secretary Alice Reynolds wanted to block that contract, which resulted in her death, and anyone else who tried to obstruct his route to the top was also snuffed out.

But Ethan wasn’t working alone. Oscar Harris, a government special adviser, was also involved in the scheme.

Ethan needed someone in government to lobby for Vigil and Oscar was more than happy to oblige, for the right price. Oscar would ensure that the necessary palms were greased, with Vigil’s critics, such as Alice and journalists Dan Clemence and Oliver Meehan, silenced.

Before long, Vigil’s power was unmatched and Oscar’s pockets fattened significantly.

But there was still one piece of the puzzle left to solve: what had happened to Sam Ryan?

Oscar managed to locate her thanks to Simone Tyler’s research. She was holed up in an abandoned building, very much alive, with a makeshift laboratory. Having twigged that Oscar was corrupt, she decided to fabricate his DNA using Fiona’s research as guidance, and she was successful.

Oscar planned to have Sam killed, but his fabricated DNA was her insurance policy. If she was killed, his samples would be released and ultimately implicate him.

He demanded that she recall the samples, but Sam refused and his henchman moved in for the kill.

Fortunately, Tom rushed in and shot the assassin, before turning the weapon on Oscar. But before he pulled the trigger, Nikki appeared and convinced him not to act – and initially, he listened to her advice.

Ethan was arrested while trying to leave the country, as was Oscar. But there was one final twist.

Nikki received a text from Tom which read: ‘I can’t let it go. I’m sorry.’

He posed as Oscar’s lawyer to gain entry to the cell he was being held in.

“It’s all over now,” he said, before taking a step towards him. We weren’t privy to what happened next, but we assume it didn’t end well for Oscar.

As for Nikki, we’re predicting additional challenges in her future.

When she headed to the airport with Jack to wish Simone well on her travels, a man with his head buried in his phone bumped into her – a forgettable moment that’s framed as an accident, and nothing more. But this is Silent Witness, so forgive us for reading into it and assuming that there’s far more to this so-called mishap than initially meets the eye.

The BBC has yet to announce if the crime drama will be back for season 26, but if Nikki and co do return to our screens, we’d expect that brief encounter to have a larger impact – and one that spells trouble for Nikki,

Silent Witness season 25 finale airs on Tuesday 7th June at 9pm on BBC One. Check out what else is on with our TV Guide, or visit our Drama hub for all the latest news and features. 

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