Key Points
Netflix debuted the second season of its spy thriller Black Doves on Nov. 5.
The season kicks off with the disappearance of Helen’s handler, Reed.
Black Doves has yet to be renewed for a third season.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Black Doves season 2, episode 6, “Peace Summit.”
After a two-year hiatus, Netflix’s snappy spy thriller series Black Doves returns with an even bigger conspiracy to unravel.
The first season followed Keira Knightley’s Helen Webb, wife to the U.K. Secretary of State for Defence, mother to two children, and also secretly a spy for a covert organization known as the Black Doves. When Helen’s lover, Jason, was killed by someone in the London underworld, she teamed up with longtime friend and assassin Sam (Ben Whishaw) to find Jason’s killer.
Season 2 begins with the disappearance of Reed (Sarah Lancashire), Helen’s handler with the Black Doves. Helen tries to keep her marriage stable as it enters a delicate new chapter: As foreshadowed at the end of the first season, Helen’s husband, Wallace Webb (Andrew Buchan), has become British prime minister. Meanwhile, Sam finds himself blackmailed into working for a shady organization called Kestrel — which has designs on taking down the Black Doves for good.
After a bombshell twist, the thrilling season ends on a cliffhanger that leaves us wanting more. Keep reading for our full breakdown of the Black Doves season 2 ending and how the final moments set things up for a potential season 3.
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What happens at the end of Black Doves season 2?
Ben Whishaw and Keira Knightley on ‘Black Doves’
Credit: Matthew Towers/Netflix
Throughout season 2, Sam has been plagued by Patrick (Sam Riley), an agent working for the Black Doves’ rival organization Kestrel. Patrick has been blackmailing Sam with incriminating footage of Helen from early on in her career, and the finale thus opens with Sam finally settling his debt. Sam delivers Reed to Patrick alive, and Patrick then agrees to delete the footage of Helen.
In episode 4, we learn that Reed had once betrayed Kestrel’s founders while on a job in East Berlin, an incident that separated her from her young daughter (more on that later).
The main action of the episode happens around Wallace’s peace summit, where Kestrel agents launch an ambush and seemingly take Katia Chernov (Sylvia Hoeks) and U.S. defense envoy Cecile Mason (Neve Campbell) as hostages. The two are taken to Black Doves headquarters, where Patrick arrives holding Reed at gunpoint. Kestrel receives further help from turncoat agent Dani (Agnes O’Casey), a Black Dove left resentful of the way the agency overlooked her.
Eleanor (Gabrielle Creevy), Williams (Ella Lily Hyland), and Laila (Ambika Mod) enter the chaos to rescue Reed, and a gunfight ensues. When the smoke clears and weapons are lowered, multiple Black Doves agents are dead, including the ill-fated traitor Dani. Elsewhere, Helen kills her nanny, Marie (Molly Chesworth), for endangering her children and secretly working for Kestrel. To make matters worse, Patrick has escaped, and Black Doves leaders Mr. Conteh (Babou Ceesay) and Reed are left to pick up the pieces.
Who is Vita?
Keira Knightley on ‘Black Doves’
Credit: Ludovic Robert/Netflix
The biggest twist in the season finale is that Katia, widow of Alexi Chernov (Goran Kostic) and a scheduled speaker at Wallace’s peace summit, is not actually a hostage. Not only is she the mastermind behind the plan to force Helen into murdering Wallace (an act which would help bring down the Black Doves), but her name is not Katia Chernov.
Her real name is Vita, Reed’s long-lost daughter whom she left behind as a child — and she’s spent years plotting revenge against the mother who abandoned her and the Black Doves as a whole. However, Vita is fatally wounded in the gunfire at Black Doves headquarters. As she lies dying, Reed finds her and explains that she never tried to reunite with her daughter in order to protect her from her life of espionage. Reed tells Vita she never stopped loving her, and Vita dies.
Does Helen tell Wallace the truth?
Keira Knightley and Andrew Buchan on ‘Black Doves’
Credit: Stefania Rosini/Netflix
In a particularly candid moment during the finale, Helen says to Wallace, “In some ways, you know me better than anyone else in the world. And in other ways, you don’t know me at all. I was born with a different name, a different voice.”
Helen is ultimately forced to reveal some of the double life she has desperately tried to keep hidden from her prime minister husband. Through an earpiece, Vita instructs Helen to kill Wallace, and though she hears a shot fired, Wallace is not killed. Instead, Helen fires her gun into their vehicle’s bulletproof glass. The entire sequence of events — which includes Helen telling Wallace that the kids are in danger and that she needs to hijack the car — leaves Wallace ever more certain that his wife isn’t who she says she is.
But instead of acting on his suspicions, Wallace covers for his wife when MI5 questions him about her. The two finally sit down to talk and, presumably, dig into the truth. Wallace asks Helen about her real name: “Let’s start with your name and work from there.” Just as Helen seems about to begin her confession, the screen cuts to black. A conversation for another time, and another season.
Why does Sam leave Helen?
Ben Whishaw and Keira Knightley on ‘Black Doves’
Credit: Ludovic Robert/Netflix
Following the deadly attack on the Black Doves, Sam and Helen meet at Trafalgar Square to say goodbye. Despite the fact that this season has only confirmed just how much the two need each other, it’s not necessarily a healthy relationship. It’s become clear that this very bond is why they need to take some time apart.
Sam has spent much of season 2 thinking that the people around him would be safer if he took himself out of the picture, and so he decides to retreat to the Italian village where he previously sought refuge. Ultimately, Sam wishes for a quiet, simple life, though it’s unclear whether that idyllic existence is attainable for a guy like him — especially because he leaves Helen with the promise that she can call him again in the future if she needs him.
What happens between Eleanor and Williams?
Amid a sea of violence and carnage, there’s at least a little romance toward the end of season 2. Eleanor and Williams, the pair of quick-witted Gen Z assassins, have a will-they-won’t-they dynamic, as Williams finds herself spending much of the season jealous of Eleanor’s relationship with another woman.
Finally, in episode 4, Williams admits her feelings for Eleanor while engaged in a gunfight: “I love ya. Probably. Definitely, actually,” she says. In episode 5, Eleanor reciprocates Williams’ feelings and the two share a kiss — again while under gunfire.
Where can I watch Black Doves?
Black Doves is available to stream on Netflix.
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