Dudi Appleton and Jim Keeble were brought in to write the 20th series finale Awakening, which Dudi directed. It's one of those in-a-strange-land ones, and especially being a finale you worry someone's not going to make it.
We're in an extremely dangerous part of Mexico, Sinoloa (actually the Canary Islands!) A former colleague of Nikki's has been killed but there's no body. She was connected to a group trying to reunite families with 30,000 people lost to the cartels. Jack joins her to try and track what happened to her and co-workers who have gone missing, and are present when a horribly tattooed murderer is arrested - can he help them find the missing workers? He's Rick Genest and the tattoos were real - he was something of a celebrity. With Raquel Cassidy, Ben Cura.
Nikki ends up kidnapped and buried alive. Jack goes out of his mind trying to find her. (They have mobile phone contact but she's running out of battery and air.) When he thinks he's failed there's a fade to black - a merciless black which seems to go on forever, like we're going to get the end credits music. But then mercifully we are back on to Nikki... and her escape.
And the farewell message she left on the phone - that the team were like her family - will never be heard. Little nods to Harry (in dialogue) and Leo (quick flashback) were also poignantly placed.
So yes, a good season finale and an onscreen tribute was given to all the people who had worked on the first twenty series. Editor Al Morrow does some good stuff with the missing colleague Elena Saurel.
So in Season 21, episode 1, in which Ed Whitmore plays his usual hand at throwing lots of characters and stories at you, Nikki is off work recovering and Jack's not communicating with her. Q gets it at once - he feels guilty for not saving her, but as she says 'We're still here!'
Nikki is lured back by Alex Macqueen who thinks pathologist Julian Rhind-Tutt may have something to do with the disappearance of his colleague.
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