Note: Major spoilers ahead for the first season of “Black Doves”
In a world of spies, can you really trust anyone? Well, in “Black Doves” at least, the answer is a surprising yes.
Now streaming on Netflix, the series centers on Helen Webb (Keira Knightley), a woman living the life of a loving wife and mother. In reality, she works for a secret organization known as the Black Doves, and is feeding information from her government official husband to her bosses.
When Helen’s true love Jason is killed though, she’s set on a warpath, determined to figure out who killed him and why, and whether or not her family is in danger. She does all this with the help of her assassin best friend, Sam (Ben Whishaw).
It gets pretty twisty, as tends to happen with spy stories, so let’s break down how it all shook out.
Who killed Jason, actually?
As Helen pulls a gun on her, Alex Clark swears up and down that the Black Dove got the wrong people, and that she never ordered the hit. And that’s true. But technically, it was still the Clarks that killed Jason.
Remembering that Williams was instructed to call a number should she and Kent find anything at Jason’s apartment, Helen instructs Williams to call it. If anyone in the room’s phone goes off, Helen vows to kill them. And yes, someone’s phone does ring: Trent Clark’s.
Unbeknownst to his mother, Trent tried to clean up his mistake on his own, and sent out a surveillance crew to take care of anyone who might see or have the tape proving he killed the Chinese ambassador.
Was Jason really just a civil servant?
No, of course he wasn’t. No one in “Black Doves” is exactly who they say they are. In the end, Maggie was posing as Kai-Ming’s friend, but was actually selling stories about her to the tabloids. As a result, Maggie got recruited by MI5 to sell Kai-Ming’s best stories to them.
Jason was a fellow MI5 agent. He was part of a team designed to sniff out if and where the British government had any leaks. Helen was pointed out as a possible problem, so Jason targeted her to find out for sure.
Helen, of course, had no idea, believing their relationship to be true love.
So, did he really love Helen?
Yes, he did. When Helen explained to him who she really was, he didn’t rat her out. Instead, when he turned his report into his superiors, Jason went to great lengths to say that Helen was a devoted wife and mother, and not a threat to the government at all.
With that move, even Mrs. Reed conceded that Helen’s relationship with Jason was as close to real as it could probably get.
Is Helen still a Black Dove?
Seems so! She has some concerns about whether her husband still loves her, but in the final minutes of the finale, we learn he does, and he welcomes her back to their life.
There’s no indication on Helen’s end that she’s leaving, so it stands to reason that she has decided to stay with the Doves, continue spying on her soon-to-be-Prime-Minister husband, and carry on with the life she’s created for herself. At least she’ll have her best friend by her side.
Does Sam stick around?
Yes he does. He’s opted to take a job with Hector, as new muscle for the crime family, in exchange for protection from the Clarks for killing their matriarch. Sadly, this means that he’ll never be out of the dangerous world he lives in, and has to say goodbye to Michael, forever this time.
Will there be more “Black Doves”?
Once again, the answer is yes! “Black Doves” was renewed for a second season before its first even premiered. It’s unknown at this time when the next season will come or what it will be about, but we will get more of the spy show.
“Black Doves” is now streaming on Netflix.
