Black Doves (Season 1) Review, Recap & Ending Explained – Will Sam’s Decision to Walk Away from Hector Lead to More Conflict in the Future?

From the creator of “Giri/Haji” (Joe Barton) comes a spy show that is part espionage drama, part holiday cheer-filled movie with a sublime balancing act with the two disparate tonalities. “Black Doves” (season 1) joins “Slow Horses” and “The Agency” in ushering in a renaissance of spy thrillers in television.

Black Doves (Season 1) Recap – Flashback Sequences in Episodes 1 – 3:

How do Sam and Helen meet?

Back in 2014, a rejection from the job as a translator due to the shady connections of Helen (Keira Knightley) related to the death of her stepfather leads to “a door closes and a window opens” when the interviewer connects Helen to Mrs. Reed (Sarah Lancashire). Their meeting at a parking lot would echo the feisty relationship the two women would share in the future.

Helen would finally realize her job as a spy for an organization in extracting information for the highest bidder. To that end, she is asked to change her name (Helen Dewson) and to cozy up with a young, impressionable senator named Wallace Webb. As it turns out, Helen does it with not much effort, but she also begins to like this man. To that end when she finally copies the information and walks out of the hotel room to give it to the messenger, she is positively shaken.

The messenger, as it turns out, is Sam (Ben Whishaw), a triggerman working for Mrs. Reed who seems to be a contractual killer rather than a fully employed member of the Black Doves. Their relationship hits a bump when Sam’s unusually chipper mood irritates Helen. However, he calms her down by congratulating her for a job well done. When Helen realizes she’ll have to go back to the hotel room, Sam reassures her that he will wait for her until she signals him otherwise.

As Helen returns to the hotel room to fetch her mother’s lighter, she slowly gets into the groove of her job and signals Sam by drawing the blinds of the window, to let her be. Later Sam would voice his desire to walk in his father’s footsteps as the “triggerman” to Reed, which would entail Reed releasing Sam to the hands of Lenny (Kathryn Hunter), who essentially supplies high-profile missions to other contract killers in her employ.

What caused Sam to leave the country?

It seems Sam’s prowess would be mildly doubted by Lenny, as she would send him on a mission to assassinate his target at a Chinese restaurant. It would be heavily implied that the target had been his father, and in a twisted fashion, he would be passed the torch of his father by Lenny. Sam meanwhile would be requested to train Helen in the art of fighting dirty and shooting, which also leads to their friendship growing more and more, Sam also revealed that he might be interested in Michael, a man he had met while drinking at the bar he and Helen had frequented post their training session.

This, along with his noticeable sadness at having to spend a couple of weeks not training Helen because she is doing her job well and getting closer to Wallace and his family, highlights his sense of loneliness. Thus when the show time jumps three years later to show Sam and Michael moving together in a new apartment and throwing a housewarming party, we are overjoyed.

But the happy moment would be doused with cold water as Sam would be assigned a mission that day itself – the murder of the Newman Brothers, leaders of a drug cartel. On that rainy night, Sam stops the car and manages to kill three of the brothers but hesitates in killing the fourth brother, a child. He would be following one of his father’s codes, i.e., he should only be killing those who deserve it, and children do not deserve death.

However, that decision turns out to be the wrong one for Sam, as he and Michael would be attacked the next morning as retaliation. Sam would get into a shootout and barely manage to ensure Michael is brought out of the apartment safely, and he would also risk calling a heavily pregnant Helen to help him out of the jam. However, Helen agreeing to help Sam out of her loyalty works counter to her plan to walk away from the Black Doves, as this request enabled Reed to blackmail her to stay at her post and keep watch on her husband, as much as it emotionally pained her. Michael would be sent away from London to a safe place, while Sam, wounded physically as well as heartbroken, would leave London for over seven years.

Black Doves (Season 1) Episode 1 – To Love Then

How was Helen Webb connected to Jason Reeves?

Back at the house, Helen would open the secret compartment in her wardrobe, revealing her stash of weapons and Jason’s gift, which contains a necklace in an embossed package. She cuts through the package and examines the necklace but identifies nothing important. Making up her mind, she decides to go to Jason’s apartment. Identifying as his partner, she gains access to the apartment by gaining sympathy from the landlady. She locates a secret compartment behind a picture but is interrupted by the presence of two assassins dressed as police officers searching for a young woman, who shoots the landlady.

How does Sam get involved in Helen’s issue?

Sam would be brought back to London after seven years, specifically by Reed to keep a watch on Helen and ensure in untangling Helen out of this mess. While Sam is working for Reed, there is of course a loyalty for Helen due to their shared past that works in his moral compass in getting back to a city that he had wanted to avoid.

With Helen compromised due to the appearance of the police, she texts Reed for help, who instructs Sam to aid her. As Helen skillfully battles with two of the assassins, Sam walks up from the courtyard and fires a shotgun, killing one of the assassins and drenching Helen in blood, while the other assassin – Williams – escapes. As Sam and Helen reunite, Helen escapes from the flat but not before getting the hard drive from the safe behind the picture.

What progress do Sam and Helen both make in the investigation?

Sam is reluctant to involve Helen in the investigation but acquiesces to protect her kids if something happens to them. He would later go down to a music shop that doubles as an arms dealership where he would load up guns. But as he walks out, he bumps into an old friend of his and Michael, who coerces him to come up to their house for dinner. Sam, unable to refuse, merely acknowledges and moves forward with his investigation. He examines the building opposite the park bench where the sniper could have been present and finds a bullet casing at the ledge.

He takes it to the Liberty where he asks one of the people working at the counter to examine the bullet casing, clearly making us realize that this is a world of subterfuge within plain sight, and in places one wouldn’t expect. While spending time with his friends, Sam would indulge in drinks and a bit of ketamine. He also learns that while Michael is back in London, and has a daughter, he is also single. Moreover, he learns the name from the DNA result – one Elmore Fitch.

Meanwhile, Helen breaks through the hard drive using Wallace’s computer and her skills and reads Jason’s messages. She finds an unknown number that Jason had tried to call unsuccessfully the night of his death. A message from Philip Bray also reveals a character named “Sy” whose presence in the video recording would be huge. Helen’s suspicions are also aroused by flirty messages sent to Wallace from Dani, his new assistant at the office.

Sam calls Helen after learning of the shooter’s identity and informs her of that as well as the phone number belonging to Kai-Ming Chen, the daughter of Ambassador Chen. Chen’s death had been a bit of a political crisis for Webb and the administration, as the “suicide” is now believed to be foul play. Helen, however, is driven by revenge and wants to make Elmore pay, which Jason had already suspected, so he comes to pick her up from her place.

Black Doves (Season 1) Episode 2 – A Little Black Dove

What happens to Elmore Fitch?

The night beginning with Sam and Helen breaking into Fitch’s flat, and barely managing to escape in time by breaking through the window and jumping in the Thames as the apartment explodes does reveal that both of them are compromised. Helen though is clear-headed enough that she can relocate her dislocated shoulder by hitting hard on a wall. But that doesn’t change the fact that Sam couldn’t discern the obvious trap because of the dinner, and especially due to the line of ketamine that he had snorted.

Helen too, hadn’t been thinking straight, as she couldn’t realize that Fitch had sneaked into her apartment and held her at gunpoint. However, Helen is nowhere near rusty, as her fierce battle with Fitch proves how efficient she is. As she holds Fitch at gunpoint, we learn that he too is searching for a pinhole camera and the recording of said video camera, as well as searching for Kai-Ming Chen. She walks Fitch to her garden shed where she shoots him dead.

How is Sam’s past integrated with Helen’s investigation?

Helen meets up with Sam and Reed, where she reveals what occurred last night and deduces that Kai-Ming Chen’s involvement is at the center of it all. Reed reveals that Maggie had been Kai-Ming’s schoolmate. Philip had written over five tabloid articles about her, and Jason had called her over five times. Jason’s involvement seems minimal, almost like collateral damage, which further angers Sam, who is unable to follow through with Reed’s mission. Later, his lunch is interrupted by Lenny, accompanied by Williams and her new partner, Eleanor.

Lenny reminds Sam of the mission he had failed to complete: the death of Hector Newman. Williams takes pleasure in informing him that if he doesn’t complete the mission, Michael and his daughter will be killed. And Sam, unlike his codes taught to his father, is still a decent person, who spends his time standing opposite his ex-boyfriend’s house looking at it longingly.

Thus he reluctantly takes on the mission and goes to kill Hector at the address Lenny supplied to him only to find the place not just empty, but with dead bodies strewn about. What he also discovers is a room fitted with a video camera, which Sam plays through and not only recognizes Hector as the adult version of the child that he had failed to kill seven years prior, but the room had housed Kai-Ming Chen pretty recently, until a shootout had occurred, with Chen being taken away to another location.

What does Helen learn from following Wallace to the funeral?

Jason had been a Civil Servant, and to that end, Wallace and the rest of the administration would have to attend a small memorial. Helen is reluctant to attend it for obvious reasons but also because we learn throughout the season that she might have revealed her duplicitous identity as a Black Dove to Jason, and now is always affected by paranoia on top of being clouded with grief.

Helen’s research on Kai-Ming Chen at home, through the tabloids written by Peter Bray leads her to pursue Stephen Yarrick, the chief of the London Metropolitan Police, as well as close friends with Webb and his family, including Helen. However, reading his name makes Helen realize that “Sy” is Yarrick. This revelation encourages her to go to the memorial, disguising herself by wearing a hat and attaching a bug to one of the flowers.

She goes back to the car and tries to narrow down and listen to Stephen and Wallace’s conversation, where we learn that Philip Bray had called Wallace to inform him about a story that has footage of Stephen involved, hours before Bray had been murdered, which had aroused Wallace’s suspicions about Stephen being involved.

Black Doves (Season 1) Episode 3 – The Coming Night

What happens at the Nativity Play?

The Nativity Play of the kids becomes a sort of confluence point because Helen has deduced that Yarrick knows about this rigmarole of a case. Thus she plans that while Helen and her husband along with Yarrick’s wife would be busy watching the play, Sam would take this opportunity to interrogate Yarrick.

The plan goes to fruition, with Sam distracting Yarrick via a telephone call, and then holding him at gunpoint and begins to question him about his involvement in this case, and who else is involved. Stephen is clearly scared, but it seems not of Sam, because he calls Sam’s bluff, informing him that he is already dead, suggesting that the people at the top are too powerful to be detected, and he walks away.

Sam had managed to go through Stephen’s phone and noticed a number saved as “Repair Shop”, which he marked as a person of interest. He leaves the phone behind in Helen’s daughter’s book bag. Later back at their house, as Helen goes through Yarrick’s phone, she makes a rash decision and texts the Repair Shop number, informing her that the phone is in her possession, and she will find whoever it is. As it turns out that threat doesn’t affect the person on the opposite end at all.

What happens at the Party?

Wallace had been invited by one of his colleagues to a pensioners party which is actually a cover for Wallace to meet with Chinese Agents currently in the UK. Helen gladhands and awkwardly tries to make conversation with Wallace’s new assistant, with her suspicions growing more pronounced when Dani voices Reed’s platitude of  “A Door closes and a Window Opens” effectively signaling her identity as a Black Dove.

In the hotel’s kitchen, the conversation between the Chinese agents and Wallace is uneasy. We learn that when Ambassador Chen died, footage of Kai-Ming Chen’s flat had gone missing. However, traffic camera footage reveals that Kai-Ming Chen’s boyfriend – Cole Atwood – would escape from that event and run straight to the US Embassy.

Atwood being a CIA agent complicates matters, because it suggests that not just the US was directly involved in Chen’s death, but that Yarrick and the entire Metropolitan arm of the UK had been responsible for covering it up. The problem with that is Yarrick is being punished for his sins, with a call to Helen followed by a live video recording of Yarrick being tortured in front of the camera and then his throat being slit. Helen watches that while attending the party which sickens her.

Black Doves (Season 1) Episode 4 – Go Bang Time

What does Sam’s attack at Peckham lead to?

In the previous episode, Sam’s attempt at not capturing Hector wouldn’t be looked at too pleasingly by Lenny, who informs him that Hector might be hiding at the Newman’s hideout in Peckham and that Michael would be kept a close watch on until Hector is offed. To that end, he reluctantly offers Williams and Eleanor to team up with him so that they can kill Hector.

Williams reminds him nonchalantly that this doesn’t mean their enmity is over, but it’s paused for capitalism until the job’s done. It results in one of the best odd-couple team-ups and banter between the trio that highlights the quirky nature of their dynamic, especially considering Eleanor does have a mild streak of psychopathy in her.

What does Helen learn from Reed and Kai-Ming?

Wallace comes to know the next day about his close friend Yarrick’s horrific demise, which would break him mentally, leading Helen to console him by making love with him, even though she is plagued with her worries about revealing her identity to Jason, Meeting up with Reed, she learns essentially what Wallace had been caught up with at the PM’s office, and that Atwood is currently kept under asylum at the US Embassy, and to convince him to take the fall, betray his country but for a sizable amount of money. Helen agrees to it, but she has become more and more desensitized to these games. She knows that Reed is hiding something important, and Dani’s presence and closeness around Wallace and their family eat at her craw.

Meanwhile, Helen meets up at Sam’s behest at Williams’ where they try to control a suddenly awakened and terrified Kai-Ming looking around at a gaggle of unfamiliar faces – Helen, Williams, Sam, Eleanor, and Lenny. After calming her down, and reassuring her that she is safe, Kai-Ming reveals that after her father’s death, she had lost her mind and went on a spree, which is how she had come across Hector’s place. But Hector, upon realizing her identity, had imprisoned her, asking her questions about Trent, her friend and presumably drug dealer.

Helen asks her about Jason, and she acknowledges that she had known him as “Maggie’s Partner”, and that she hadn’t picked up his phone that night. The revelation of Jason being referred to as Maggie’s partner leads to Helen further spiraling in her doubt about Jason’s identity as well as her love for him, which she recounts to Sam as they drive up to the US Embassy.

The plan is for Helen to meet with Vanessa, and Sam would call Vanessa to her office phone and try to distract her, while Helen makes his way to the top floor and tries to convince Atwood to join them. The plan is executed but of course not without a hitch. Sam isn’t entirely very successful in distracting Vanessa, primarily because he isn’t as convincing as a member of the Secret Service, and also because he cuts to calls from his ex-boyfriend Michael.

What does Atwood finally reveal?

As Atwood joins Sam and Helen and drives away in Sam’s car, Atwood reveals that the group responsible for the murder of Ambassador Chen and this entire rigmarole is done by the Clarks – a criminal conglomerate with reach as far as the Freemasons. Atwood’s assignment had been to spy on the people who had killed Chen, and one of their friends – Trent – is a Clark.

The Clarks want Cole to take the fall for the Chen murder because that would gain more notoriety and more importantly take the spotlight away from them, as miniscule as it might have been. And as if to prove Cole’s point of the Clarks owning everybody, they arrive at Reed’s designated drop-off point only for Helen to realize that Reed’s envelope had been a veiled threat towards Cole’s family.

The Chinese had been waiting for the trio at the drop-off point under the instructions of Clark, who it seems had acted on her ideology – capitalism – and sold the information to the highest bidder. This results in a chase concurrently as Clark soldiers and snipers attack Williams’ apartment. The shootout commences with Eleanor shooting her rocket launcher, as Kai-Ming hides herself in the bathtub.

Black Doves (Season 1) Episode 5 – The Cost of it All

What is the cost of this investigation on Sam and Helen’s relationships?

The chase by the Chinese stops due to the traffic, which leads to the trio escaping on foot. Mid-chase, they get a call from Williams, who reveals her apartment is being attacked. The trio rushes through and hijacks a taxicab, which they use to drive to the warzone — the apartment complex of Williams. Sam barely manages to escape with a shot at Williams, by jumping through the window. Williams reveals that Eleanor and Kai-Ming had been taken by the Clark soldiers.

Finding no way out Sam takes the motley crew to Michael’s apartment, much to his legitimate consternations. Helen meanwhile is called by the “Repair Shop” AKA the secretary to the Clarks, who reveals that they would exchange Eleanor and Kai-Ming for the video recording, which leads to Helen requesting Cole to provide her access to Trent.

As Sam tries to ensure that Michael doesn’t lose his cool and that Michael’s daughter is not woken up by the commotion, Helen returns home. Unbeknownst to her strain in their marriage had already begun to show, on account of Dani at Wallace’s office ensuring seeds of mistrust in his mind by revealing “rumors” about his affair. This is compounded with a meeting at 10 Downing Street with the new Chinese Ambassador, where he directly threatens retaliation if the UK doesn’t supply military contracts to China, a deal similar to one that Wallace had been provided earlier.

Thus Wallace feels very insecure, which Helen too notices, and I can surmise feels guilty about it. His suspicions are further raised when an agent from MI5 comes to their house to question Helen about her appearance at the US Embassy that night. She managed to bypass it but she had been mildly rattled. As she prepares to leave to meet up with Reed at the library, Wallace emphatically states that he loves her, which further deepens Helen’s guilt.

Questioning Reed about her plan to give up Cole to the Chinese again reveals her ideology of selling to the highest bidder, while Reed also points out that MI5 hasn’t been visiting everyone who had been at the embassy. Thus some sort of flag had been raised regarding Helen, and maybe Jason hadn’t been just an ordinary civil servant. Handing over Cole the next morning is the only route Helen has to untangle herself from this mess, according to Reed.

What were Reed’s backup plans in case Helen fails to comply?

Untangling Helen from this mess also requires the death of Alex Clark, which she instructs Sam to do, much to the chagrin of Sam and Michael, who were slowly and steadily on the path to repairing their relationship. Considering that Atwood in the commotion had also escaped from the flat, presumably to rush back to the US Embassy, Sam had no choice but to go along with the instruction, bypassing Reed’s order to hand over Cole. However, Sam’s sneaking around at Alex Clark’s compound backfires because he is discovered and knocked out by Clark’s bodyguards.

Meanwhile that night, Helen finally realizes that the jewelry shop where Maggie had worked might hold the video camera recording everyone is looking for. To that end, she goes to the jewelry shop the next morning and tranquilizes the jeweler, before sneaking to the back room, unlocking the safe, and locating the camera.

However, her victory lap is short-lived, because Dani, who has shed any pretensions about being a Black Dove, enters the shop, and clearly under orders from Reed, is supposed to take the camera if Helen fails in her mission. Helen, clearly emotional and angry regarding Dani’s repeated attempts to destroy her relationship with her husband, attacks Dani with a vengeance, and essentially chokes her out, before reminding her that Helen Webb doesn’t kill young women with shards of glass, and thus she is letting her go.

What was in the recording?

Connecting it to a phone, Helen sees the recording in the camera, and finally, the full impact comes to the forefront. It seems Chen had come to know about his daughter’s drug indulgences, and had been waiting for Trent to give a piece of his mind. However, Trent, reacting harshly, hits Chen, and Chen hits his head on the table and is killed. It’s an accidental death, but Trent, in fear, calls his mother to fix it.

She acquiesces, calling her contacts out, who turns out to be a couple of Metropolitan police officers led by Yarrick. Yarrick injects Chen’s body with drugs. The coup-de-grace is Yarrick being caught on camera talking about how pissed the Prime Minister would be upon learning it. Helen now realizes the full breadth of the conspiracy Jason had found himself in, and to an extent, she had fallen into.

Black Doves (Season 1) Episode 6 – In the Bleak Midwinter

How does Helen track Trent down?

Decisive in her attempt to work independently without being governed by Reed on her shoulder, and unbeknownst to Reed informing the powers-that-be that the recording is now at play after having been located, Helen zooms in on the recording, identifying the stables that Trent works at. Picking up Williams, Helen drives up to the stables, and holding him hostage, calls up Alex Clark and invites her for a face-off at the location where her friends are being kept hostage. Having learned from Reed that Sam had also been taken hostage, Helen had no compunction about going rogue.

The exchange would take place at the Borough Market, where “coincidentally”, both Mitch Porter and his protege Cole Atwood would also drive towards, Porter having learned about the device from Mrs. Reed. As Helen and Williams escort Trent inside Borough Market, Helen surreptitiously shoves a small gun inside Trent’s jacket pocket. Williams and Helen free their imprisoned friends only to be met by Alex Clark accompanied by his secretary.

Black Doves (Season 1) Episode 6 Ending Explained:

What happens to the Clarks?

Like most of the women in this show in a refreshing way, Alex Clark is in a major position of authority and her bluster belies that authority. She allows Helen and the rest of the motley crew to walk away in exchange for her son, but Helen is not ready to listen. She has been unfettered in her quest for revenge and searches for answers, and thus she needs a concrete exchange, otherwise, she is going to kill Clark, consequences be damned.

To that end, she brings out the gun from Trent’s jacket pocket and without warning points it at Clark. Sam, horrified at things not going according to any conceivable plan, tries to convince Helen to walk away, realizing that if she takes any major steps she could be killed. To compound their troubles, the CIA and the Chinese both have arrived at the location and are facing each other off downstairs. But Helen, unfettered, keeps asking questions about the death of Jason, to which Clark finally responds that she hadn’t ordered that hit.

But Trent had, without consulting his mother, because he wanted to make his mistake right. Williams had called the number that had hired them for the job at Jason’s flat under Helen’s instruction. It revealed Trent, and upon learning of Trent’s plan, Alex Clark is now on the back foot, scared of her no-good son and eager to take all the blame for herself. Sam tries to convince her again, reminding her that this is a kid. However, Helen, adhering to her code of teaching those who think they can do whatever they want that they can’t, remains unmoved.

A scuffle occurs with Alex trying to grab Helen’s gun, while Sam takes the secretary’s gun and shoots him. That shot resounds with a bang, leading the Americans and Chinese to start shooting at each other, and Atwood is barely able to protect himself. In the commotion, Sam does his duty to protect Helen and shoots both Trent and Alex Clark, wiping off that family in one fell swoop. As Sam instructs Helen to walk away, reassuring her that they will clean it up, Helen comes across Atwood, who had walked away unscathed from the massacre. Helen hands over the recording to Atwood. He reveals that he knows her true identity, but that he would keep her secret.

What is the political fallout of this debacle?

The show had been stating quite clearly that the Prime Minister had been heavily involved in the cover-up as well, even informing Alex at the meet-up about the CIA and the Chinese converging on her location. However, after Porter obtains the recording, he realizes that unlike Yarrick and the Prime Minister, Wallace Webb hadn’t been part of the cover-up. Instead, he had been reacting honestly and trying to salvage the situation as diplomatically as he could. As a result, Porter would navigate the administrative game of thrones, such that 10 Downing Street would have a new Prime Minister.

Was Jason a spy?

At the church, Helen meets with Reed, where Reed reveals that the pinhole camera belonged to Maggie, who had been working covertly for the MI5. MI5 had hired her once they learned she had been selling these secrets to Philip Bray, the tabloid reporter, and instead employed her in their service. Jason Reeves came into the picture because he is Maggie’s colleague, an agent of MI5.

Yes, Jason had been a spy. He was part of a small task force assigned to investigate leaks into the British government. His assignment had been to get close to Helen once he had zeroed in on her being the most logical leak. However, Jason, a few hours before his death, had sent in a report exonerating Helen of any wrongdoing and essentially saving her.

Thus it provided closure to Helen’s conflicted feelings about her love for him and whether her hunt for revenge had been worth it. As it turns out, it had been, but the cost was also too great. In the process, Helen proved her prowess to the organization again, and now that Wallace is the strongest candidate for the PM job, she will serve as a direct line for the Black Doves organization.

Does Sam get a happy ending?

We see Sam returning to Michael and both seemingly agreeing to rest for the night and talk about it the next day. However, Sam’s slumber is interrupted by movement down the hall. He moves with his gun to find Hector Newman sitting there. Seemingly Hector realizes that Sam is a triggerman with a conscience, and thus one that could be useful to Hector, and thus offers him a job. Michael upon seeing Hector walking away, makes a silent decision which Sam too silently agrees, As long as Sam is with Michael, his life will always bring danger to Michael and his daughter’s world, and Sam loves him too much to make that choice. Instead, he walks away.

The next morning, he meets up with Lenny where he essentially holds her at gunpoint and proclaims that Hector had offered him a job and thus he is going to walk away from Lenny, ensuring that everything is over. He wants her to say they can move on, and if he doesn’t believe her, he will kill her. Lenny doesn’t respond either way, and Sam walks away, the creators leaving this door open for more conflicts down the road.

The show ends with Sam attending Christmas at Helen’s place, and meeting Wallace for the first time in person. As the two reminisce about their paths and lot in life, Sam announces that he will be hanging around in London for a while now, though he would ensure she won’t have to unless it’s safe. The show moves back in showing characters celebrating Christmas in their way, most notably Reed celebrating Christmas with the woman we had seen as the babysitter to Helen’s kids. Reed still doesn’t trust Helen fully and is covering all her bases.

Black Doves (Season 1) Review:

It’s always fascinating when creators try to shoehorn espionage or the paranoiac nature of spy thrillers into a convoluted thriller that mostly centers around a specific city. Creator Joe Barton (Giri/Haji) attempts to integrate such an espionage story into a crime-ridden underbelly of London with its own set of quirks.

It’s funny too how Barton mildly tweaks traditional mores of the genre templates. The character of Helen Webb (Keira Knightley) is the honeytrap utilized by a secret organization to extract secrets until the mark’s usefulness runs out. Helen becomes too deeply embedded in the story, starting a family with her mark as her husband finds herself being promoted to higher echelons in the administration which increases her value. But she also finds herself emotionally vulnerable to that family unit, which also comes into jeopardy when she embarks on an affair that ends unceremoniously when her lover is killed by a sniper.

An investigation into that murder ensures the return of Sam (Ben Whishaw), a freelance triggerman who has returned to London seven years after having left due to the horrific fallout of a mission gone wrong. His return to aid Helen results in his past intertwining in Helen’s world of the murky present that slowly threatens to break apart administrative relations between the UK, the US, and China. All the while Christmas is brewing.

The Achilles heel of the show is hinting at backstories without delving into details. The existence of the secret organization of the Black Doves is exhibited only by the conversations between Helen and her handler only known as Mrs. Reed (Sarah Lancashire) and the hints of other such honeytraps.

Barton is more interested in fleshing out the criminal underbelly within Sam’s vicinity, which results in colorful characters like his former handler, or other assassins initially hired to target Helen, and then forced to aid her and Sam. It is weird because it almost feels that the central plot is instrumental to Helen’s choices without actually making us invested in her past relationship with her lover. It counteracts her somewhat passive love for her husband which does seem genuine, and thus her affair truly renders itself “silly”.

However the convolution of the plot and the fun flourishes within the world allows for an engaging experience, helped furthermore because at its core “Black Doves” is a Christmas show. The festival isn’t remotely involved in the plot. However, its emphasis on love stories, interactions between lovers hijacking major espionage stakes, or Sam crashing into his ex-boyfriend’s house with a motley group chased by assassins in tow, feels strangely charming, revealing a gooey, beating heart at the center.

The action sequences, especially the hand-to-hand combat, are well-edited, as are the shootout sequences. The car chase sequences needed a bit more coverage to get more of a sense of the scale of the locations. The show is more interested in dinner-table conversations and personal dynamics in tandem with high stakes, which it manages to balance admirably.

It’s a show that feels strangely comforting even within its convolutions. It’s helped by the central performances of Knightley and Whishaw, but more importantly, aided by their chemistry. The shorthand and the cavalier nature of their conversations suggest a deep history and friendship for each other that offsets the somewhat lax backstory of Helen. A similar chemistry between Knightley and an insidious Lancashire grounds the story into the double-dealing world of espionage.

“Black Doves” is a highly engaging show, able to mix disparate tonalities into a potent warm soup that feels strangely comforting even as stakes rise as the plot becomes clearer and murkier simultaneously. The show has already been renewed for a second season, and how it leaves both the characters in a suspended state of comfort and limbo, will be fascinating to look forward to.

Read More: Unveiling the Top 15 Spy TV Series to Stream on OTT Right Now

Black Doves (Season 1) Trailer:

Black Doves (Season 1) Links: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Wikipedia
The Cast of Black Doves (Season 1) Cast: Keira Knightley, Ben Whishaw, Sarah Lancashire
Black Doves (Season 1) Genre: Action/Drama/Mystery & Thriller

Where to watch Black Doves (Season 1)