Ending an espionage thriller conclusively is almost impossible, so you have to respect the effort Black Doves goes to in order to tie Season 1 up in a neat little bow. It doesn’t quite manage it, but that’s probably by design – after all, Episode 6, “In the Bleak Midwinter”, is the end of this batch of episodes, but not the show overall, since it was already renewed for Season 2 back in August.
With so much having gone on – a lot of it very suddenly – in the preceding five episodes, it’s a wonder the finale can function at all. The fact it’s a pretty coherent hour that addresses the most pressing plot details and leaves all of the main characters at logical points in their personal arcs is worthy of praise. Joe Barton knows what he’s doing.
But let’s unpack it all anyway, and perhaps even take a moment to explore what Season 2 may look like since I’m feeling speculative.
Swapsies
In the penultimate episode, Helen picked up the recording device that everyone had been chasing for the entire season and briefly perused its contents. The footage confirmed that the Chinese Ambassador, Chen, was killed accidentally by Trent Clark after they had a little scuffle over Trent feeding the heroin addiction of Chen’s daughter, Kai-Ming.
Since Sam, Eleanor, and Kai-Ming are all being held captive by Trent’s mother, Alex, Helen picks up Williams to visit Trent. They threaten him to strongarm Alex into an exchange. If she hands over her hostages, she can have the footage and her son back. Fair’s fair.
It’s important to note that the Americans want the footage because it exonerates them and will help to avoid a mutually destructive nuclear exchange with the Chinese, but certain members of the British government would prefer the Americans didn’t have it since those certain members of the British government helped to cover up Chen’s death in collusion with the Clarks. In particular, Yarrick is on the video asking to be put in touch with the Prime Minister. So, it’s all a bit of a mess.
Sam Kills Everyone
Keira Knightley in Black Doves | Image via Netflix
Black Doves has been powered almost entirely by Helen’s thirst for revenge for what happened to Jason, so she’s not exactly thrilled by the idea of just handing the footage over to Alex and leaving, even when she gets the opportunity to do so. But Alex is earnestly clueless about Helen’s motivations. She claims she didn’t order the hit on Jason, and it’s clear she’s telling the truth.
Helen tells Williams to call the number she was given when she was hired, and she does – Trent’s phone rings. I guess the idiot son took it upon himself to try and cover up his mistake and set this entire chain of events into motion. Helen is furious. Sam is frantic. Kai-Ming is still a bit taken aback by what Trent did to her father. A standoff ensues and, predictably, descends quickly into chaos.
In that chaos, Sam kills Alex’s right-hand man, then Alex, and then, to spare Helen’s conscience, Trent. She pretends to be annoyed at having been denied the opportunity to enact vengeance herself, but we’ve seen through Sam’s arc and his history with Hector what it would have done to her. Sam did her a favor.
And it seems like he’ll be made to pay for it. Alex’s phone rings immediately after, and when Sam answers it, he’s told by a mysterious voice that he has been watched and will be held accountable. Oops.
The New Status Quo
Sarah Lancashire in Black Doves | Image via Netflix
While everything described above was happening, the Americans and the Chinese shot each other to death outside. The only survivor was Cole, and Helen hands him the footage as she leaves. The Americans will be exonerated, but as Porter explains to Wallace a little later, the official account will unfortunately reveal that the upper echelons of the British government colluded in the affair.
Reed explains this to Helen, among other things. Pretty soon, the Prime Minister will resign. He’ll cite ill health, but he’ll be lying, and someone else – most likely Wallace – will take his place. And Helen will remain by his side, as a Black Dove, keeping the organization abreast of the latest developments in Downing Street.
Reed also tells Helen the truth about Jason. He was an MI5 agent. So was Maggie, who was feeding information about the ambassador’s family back to the Firm. It was her recording device that captured everything, which is how the footage got to Phillip Bray, which is how word of it got to Wallace, and then to Yarrick, and then the Clarks. When Trent tried to cover it up, the trail led back from Phillip to Maggie, Jason… and Helen.
Why, then, was Helen not a target when the other three were assassinated at the start of the season? Well, because of Jason. Despite having been assigned to investigate Helen specifically by an MI5 task force concerned about government secrets being leaked, he filed a report the day before his death that said she was clean (despite the fact we know she confessed being a spy to him.)
Jason really did love Helen after all.
The Ending of Black Doves Leaves Things Open For Season 2
I mentioned at the top that Black Doves has already been renewed, and the final scenes of Episode 6 are mostly devoted to setting that up, but they’re well-written enough to provide some decent character moments as well.
Of course, Sam has to leave Michael. He’s now going to be hunted by the Clarks – whatever’s left of them, anyway – and he knows that sticking around will endanger the love of his life. Curiously, it seems like his best option might be Hector, who turns up in Michael’s house in the middle of the night to offer Sam a job.
Sam also cuts things off with Lenny, pointing a gun at her and using the look in her eyes to determine whether she’ll hold a grudge and he’ll have to kill her, or she can let bygones be bygones and he can leave her alive. She’s so unphased that he lets her live. I sincerely hope we see her again.
Helen obviously stays with Wallace. She’ll probably have some explaining to do – he still knows about the affair, for instance, and she has been behaving very oddly this Christmas – but things seem relatively pleasant between them. She even invites Sam around for Christmas, and we see in a montage that Kai-Ming spends hers with Williams and Eleanor.
As for the information that Reed gave to Helen about Jason’s real identity, she throws it in the Thames. After all, some information isn’t worth having.
