Silent Witness season 28 episode 6 recap: Who killed Faith? And why?

Silent Witness season 28 episode 6 sees Nikki and Jack investigate the death of a lawyer. The theme running through this two-parter is the decay of the justice system. Ex-EastEnders star Tamzin Outhwaite is among the guest stars.

The episode begins with Nikki, Jack and DS Blake (Gloria Obianyo) arriving at the chambers. There's a lot of press. And yes there's a head in a box! David, the suspicious head of chambers, gives a statement to the media paying tribute to Faith. DS Blake breaks the news to Faith's wife Lucy that she's dead.

Back at the Lyell, Harriet checks Nikki is ok and tells her she had to deal with a severed head once. "Whoever sent that box wants to shock, to derail, but it's not going to work," says an ice-cool Nikki.

Jack and Kit look at the towel the head was wrapped in and the box it was sent in. DS Blake tells DI Fisher (Lisa Palfrey) they haven’t found any evidence of Stefan, who they arrested in the first episode, being with Faith at his bedsit or allotment.
Inspecting the head, Nikki says it may have been frozen and it was expertly severed, like the hand and the ear. There’s some vomit in Faith’s hair, could it belong to the killer?

Nikki suggests Faith was strangled and decapitated after death. DI Fisher and DS Blake question Stefan, who admits to seeing Faith by the river near her office on the day she vanished. He says he asked her about his trial but she said she couldn’t help and ran off. He ran after her, he says, and she pushed him away and scratched his arm. He says he'd never hurt her.

We see a distressed Sally (Tamzin Outhwaite) at her home recalling Faith's head in the box and arguing with her when she was alive. Her mobile rings but she doesn’t answer. She then hears a noise and is scared. It turns out to be her cat. Jack tells the cops that none of Stefan's knives were used in the murder. They have camera footage of the box being sent. Nikki observes the suspect has hair, whereas Stefan is bald. DI Fisher tells DS Blake to "bail him".

Nikki is talking about her case where the accused's lawyer claims the victim's MS was a factor in her death. Nikki doesn’t believe it was a factor. Nikki is in court and repeats that she doesn’t believe the victim fell. The defendant starts abusing her, which presumably won’t go down well with the jury. Afterward, the victim’s son thanks Nikki for her strong testimony.

They get closer to the killer

Kit has managed to get a camera shot of the man who sent the box — it's the older mystery man from the first episode. Kit gets a match for the image, it's Perry Lorne, who's out of jail after being inside for GBH. Kit also finds Lucy's distressed message amongst Faith's voicemails.

Perry goes to see his daughter but he is arrested. Perry said he was paid to post the box, he didn’t know it had a head inside. He reveals he also delivered a parcel to a house. DI Fisher says they have to release Perry, DS Blake suggests following him, but Fisher says forget it, too expensive.

At the chambers, Sally and David show they have a romantic history.
Kit, who seems to be doing everything (not sure what the police are doing in all this), has found out that Faith’s car was being driven by someone else by the time it emerged out of the woods.

Perry demands more cash we presume from the killer. Not sure this is a wise move.
Kit tells Jack and Nikki that Faith’s car is on the move near Epping Forest. The police find the car on fire. Nikki tells the police there’s a body in the boot.
Nikki inspects the body at the Lyell and drops the bombshell that it’s a male body. "So who the hell is this?" asks DI Fisher.

Perry is the dead man. They break the news to his daughter, Amber. DS Blake shows a picture of a man driving Faith's car and Amber says he's Liam, who used to work at the salon. The team study data from where the car traveled and they can see a house where the car was parked. Jack says Liam was recently acquitted of murdering his girlfriend and Faith was the prosecutor.

Armed police go to Liam's home but he's not there. Nikki and Jack go to the house. And it’s a very creepy house! Nikki finds blood and then what looks like the knife used to cut up the bodies. In the freezer, they find Perry’s head. Back at the Lyell, they talk to Lucy and give her Faith’s wedding ring, which they found at Liam’s house. Lucy doesn’t recognize a photo of Liam. Lucy recalls that Faith was crushed by losing the case against Liam. She says it was an issue with a witness and we flash back to the trial we saw in the first episode. Lucy goes on to say they had big debts and she went to a loan shark called Travis, from Amber’s salon, recommended to her by Sally. Faith was furious when she found out and said Travis was part of a big crime family.

We learn the truth about Sally

Jack says he's found a memory stick in Faith's bag of court cases going back years. They have a DNA match for the bone found in the canal and it's that of a witness for a big drug trial. A man was convicted of his murder and yet the same blade used on the bone was also used on Faith. DS Blake and Nikki go to speak to the man convicted of murdering the witness. They show murderer Matty the photos of the body parts. Nikki suggests that Matty is a cutter, employed by gangs to dispose of bodies. Nikki then asks Matty if he taught Liam how to dissect a body. Matty gets up to leave and Nikki shows him the photo of Faith's head with no message. "Wasn’t the head message enough," says Matty. Blake asks Nikki what Matty meant and Nikki suggests Sally knew why she received the head. We see Liam walking by the canal.

Jack discovers Faith had drawn up a list of cases where the witness withdrew or went missing. They all had links to organized crime and were all represented by David from Faith's chambers!

At the chambers, the police start searching the files for evidence of witness intimidation. We then go back in time and see Faith telling Sally this has got to stop while brandishing the memory stick. David says Sally also has access to the files of vulnerable witnesses. Jack says they suspect someone is passing information on witnesses to a criminal gang.

Liam is at Sally’s house! The police arrive and Liam is dead on the floor. Sally has fled for the airport. Sally has a text from David asking what has she done. Nikki and DS Blake arrive at a car park and see Sally's car. Sally is poised to jump off the roof of the car park. Sally says she never meant for Faith to get hurt. Blake pleads with her to come away from the edge. Sally says Liam was only meant to warn Faith off. But Faith said she was going to tell the police everything. DS Blake gets closer and tries to talk her away from the edge. But Sally jumps to her death. Blake's boss tells her to go home and she's going to put her forward for promotion.

Nikki and Jack say goodbye to Blake.

Nikki and Harriet put Faith’s remains in a body bag. The episode ends with Nikki giving a lecture in honor of Faith's life.