Silent Witness divides fans with cryptic clue about Jack and Nikki's future

Silent Witness returned on Tuesday night, and it's caused quite a stir. After concluding their latest investigation with help from Chief Superintendent Jane De Freitas (Zoe Telford), Nikki (Emilia Fox) and Jack (David Caves) worked out who was behind those grizzly hammer murders, before setting another mystery in motion.

In a full-circle moment, the episode ended with old pals Jane and Nikki talking about the future. Years after Nikki told the DCI that she'd been married before but it hadn't worked out, Jane remarked, "Just thought, you know, happy endings…still happen," while looking at the pathologist and her new fiance. As the scene cut to a clip of a random couple walking with a pram, fans began tweeting about the cryptic clue.

"The way Jakki looked at each other at the end and then the cut to a couple with a pram…are we actually going to get Jack & Nikki being parents?" asked one. "If Jakki are not pregnant by the end of this season… riots will happen!" tweeted another.

While fans were delighted at the prospect of Nikki and Jack as parents, several worried that it could spell an exit for the characters.

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"I hope the 'happy endings' line at the end was in reference to the next shot of the woman with the pushchair but my pessimism makes me worry it means they're both going to leave," a viewer mused.

"I did enjoy that, but I always feel a bit sad and anticlimactic when they wrap up the storyline. I have an uneasy feeling about a Jakki happy ending marking the end of an era. Still, next week to look forward to!" noted a second.

While the TV couple's future remains unknown, we do know that Jack and Nikki will be getting to grips with wedding planning at the very least. Joining HELLO! and other publications in a roundtable interview, Emilia Fox teased their storyline in season 28.

"I think the interesting dynamic is that Jack… he's got his mind on working out what a good wedding will be for them, and Nikki's a little bit in denial about it, like the organisation of wedding preparation and what kind of wedding they're going to have at this stage in their lives," she began.

"They're two people who've been great friends and who have loved each other and supported each other in different ways. Then they've admitted their love for each other and come together and now they're seeing whether they can work together and have a relationship. This is the next stage of commitment."

Remaining tight-lipped about the duo's future, Emilia noted that their unconventional engagement in season 27 was a reflection of their "fascinating" relationship. "We wanted to make something special for them [the audience] and the proposal worked," she explained.

"We were very conscious of that, but also conscious around wanting to make it different and thoughtful. I think it deserves it – their relationship – but who knows what could happen at the end of that, whether it goes right, whether it goes wrong."