[Spoiler] Dead in Shocking Season 3 Episode 2 Twist

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 3 Episode 2 “Badge #41870.”]

Alert: Missing Persons Unit just delivered its most shocking episode yet. Ahead of the season, the trailer revealed that Nikki (Dania Ramirez) would be kidnapped, and that moment comes at the beginning of the second episode, “Badge #41870.”

The episode also introduces Chief Inspector Bill Houston (recurring guest star Malcolm-Jamal Warner), who wasn’t a fan of the way Jason (Scott Caan) did things in the past; he says that they’re going to start over because he’s learned to take the good with the bad. There are more pressing concerns: He’s looking for Nikki because someone she arrested for felony assault, Raina (Sharon Taylor), is out on early parole. Nikki’s phone is going straight to voicemail, and then GPS of her car leads them to it … outside the city and completely burned. The only good news? It’s empty and there are no bodies inside. Houston orders an alert to be issued for Nikki.

After opening the episode with Raina initially attacking and taking Nikki, the next time she’s seen is in the criminal’s trunk; her attempt to alert an officer, however, gets him shot (but not killed) by Raina. When that call comes in, the team knows that Nikki broke the taillight to get someone’s attention.

“No detective should have to investigate the disappearance of his own wife,” Houston offers to Mike (Ryan Broussard). It’s too close to home, he says, but Mike insists on staying on: “It is home. Nikki is my home.” But as he admits to Jason, all he can think about is all the things that Raina could be doing to Nikki. At her last known location, camera footage shows Nikki’s abduction. Kemi (Adeola Role) assures Mike, “She’s not dead. … Some things you know, and some things you feel.” She encourages him to have faith.

Katie Yu / FOX

Jason and Mike track down Raina, but she’s not talking. Helen’s (Diana Bang) only lead doesn’t get them anywhere; only one of Nikki’s keys was in the car, suggesting she left it on purpose, but Mike’s never seen it before. He says if he goes back in with Raina, he’ll kill her, so Jason takes point — and gets her to talk by threatening to put her girlfriend back in prison on parole violations and other crimes. “It was just a job,” she admits. A lawyer got her paroled early (and cash and passports), in exchange for her kidnapping Nikki and dropping her off. When she describes a tattoo on the man responsible, Jason realizes it’s Irish mob boss Charlie McGannon (Ian Tracey). Kemi confirms that the lawyer who visited Raina defended Charlie in the past. But why would Charlie grab Nikki, Houston asks, and the team alerts him to their history.

The chief inspector then finds out where Charlie has lunch and confronts him. “Where is she?” Houston demands, and Charlie plays dumb. “You know what the most successful symbiotic relationship in the natural world is? It’s the relationship between ocean coral and saltwater algae,” the mob boss says. “You got a partnership so prosperous, it built the Great Barrier Reef.” Houston likens it to how both Nikki and Charlie benefited from each other over the years. Nikki set a meeting with an FBI agent next week, and Houston knows someone tipped Charlie off to that. If Nikki delivered what she said she would, an arrest warrant was going to be issued for Charlie, so he couldn’t let her make it. Houston reminds Charlie that Nikki saved his daughter.

Houston returns to Mike and Kemi and shares that he called a friend whose agency has an unwarranted tracking device on Charlie’s vehicle. He has the coordinates of where it’s been all day, including one spot for an hour. Jason and Mike head to that location, where the former finds a body. Emotional himself (Nikki is his ex-wife), Jason tries to keep Mike back, then hugs him and tells him to stay there. Jason holds him as he cries. Nikki’s dead?!

Nikki was shot in the head, and the coroner tells Jason and Houston, “For what it’s worth, it was quick.” Jason tries to get Mike to leave the scene, but Mike tells him he needs to be alone and walks off. “It’s a bad idea,” Jason tells him. Houston knows that Mike “is in for the longest, darkest night of his life.” He also checks if Jason’s okay. “Point me in the direction of okay,” Jason says.

Back at HQ, Kemi, crying, shares memories of Nikki with Helen, who thought she’d have more time with her. “You would’ve had a friend for life. That’s Nikki,” Kemi says. Then she notices the key and, after checking the video footage, realizes it’s for a mailbox. There, Jason finds all the evidence she had on Charlie. Inside is a letter: “If you’re reading this, I’m already dead. You’ve found the contents of my secret mailbox. I’ve been adding to this mailbox for years. Call it my insurance policy. I’m going to give Kemi the key for safe keeping. Let me tell you what you have in your hands.” She’s had it for eight years. Jason calls the team, but no one knows where Mike is. When Kemi tracks his car, he’s heading for Charlie’s house. Houston warns Jason that he can cover for them, but only to a point, and not if Mike kills Charlie.

Mike crashes his car into Charlie’s then drags him out of the car. He puts his badge in Charlie’s pocket then tosses him in his car. He brings him out into the woods and forces Charlie to get on his knees. “Did you say goodbye to her, Charlie?” Mike asks. “Did you say goodbye to my wife before she died? See, Nikki knew what you did to your accountant and the man who took your daughter. She told you a long time ago, no bodies. Murder was always her line, and you crossed it. See, some people, they’re just born broken, and you’re one of them. … Nikki knew it was a risk, taking that meeting with the FBI, after all these years, she knew she had to do the right thing, even if it cost her.”

“It cost her? It cost me!” Charlie protests. “Round and round we go in the circle game. I was just taking care of business, looking after my interests.” Mike aims his gun at Charlie: “If you see Nikki on the other side, tell her Mike sent you.” Then Jason pulls up and asks what he’s doing. “A bullet ain’t going to fix this,” he insists. “It’s not [a start]. He doesn’t deserve that. He’s a cop killer. He’s going to spend the rest of his life in prison. Let the law deal with him.” Mike refuses: “I’m done with the law. He’s just going to get away with it like he always does.” Jason promises he won’t get away with it this time and fills Mike in on everything Nikki kept over the years on Charlie. “He’s done. I promise you. Let Nikki have this win.” Mike lowers his gun and tells Charlie he’s going to tell his daughter what he did before walking away.

With Charlie in custody, Houston checks with Jason on how Mike’s doing. “He’s standing up. Nobody else died today. That’s the best I can do for you,” Jason says. Houston assures him he’ll get Nikki’s evidence in the right hand.

Back at HQ, Jason reads the rest of Nikki’s letter to Kemi and Helen (and Mike, sitting away from the others, crying): “To my MPU team, you were my family. Go out there every day, every single day, and save people, save as many as you can. To both my husbands, Mike and Jason, take care of each other, Sidney needs you, and you need each other. I’ll be watching over you somewhere close by. Con todo mi amor, goodbye.”

And then Nikki gets a heartfelt sendoff both for just her MPU family, as Kemi lights a candle and speaks about her faith (“growing up, we were told that death isn’t the end of a life, that it marks a passage from one realm of existence to the next”) and as an officer (with a plaque hanging at MPU).

Did you see that shocking death coming Let us know in the comments section below.

Alert: Missing Persons Unit, Tuesdays, 9/8c, Fox