Spoilers ahead for the Black Doves season two finale.
Sam and Helen are stuck in a toxic friendship. The two main characters of Netflix’s thriller Black Doves—played by Ben Whishaw and Keira Knighley, respectively—are continuously encouraging each other’s bad (sometimes murderous) decisions. But in the final episode of season two, Sam makes a different choice: He decides to leave his life as an assassin behind. Helen, meanwhile, stays to try and mend her relationship with Wallace (Andrew Buchan), the UK’s Prime Minister and father of her children who has just discovered she is a spy.
Despite Sam’s departure from London, he tells Helen to call him if she needs him. “I think he loves Helen so much that he would come back,” says Whishaw. Netflix has yet to renew the show for a third season (as of this writing), but Knightley and Whishaw already have thought on what could come next for Helen and Sam.
Ben Whishaw and Keira Knightley at the Black Doves season two premiere earlier this week.Gareth Cattermole – Getty Images
Here, Knightley and Whishaw break down the finale and speculate on what a possible third season could look like.
To start, talk me through Helen’s decision to reveal herself to Wallace. What comes next for them?
Keira Knightley: What does come? I mean, who knows? If we get a season three, we’ll find out. That’s the big question. I guess she didn’t really have much of a choice. He he has found her out, really; she’s backed into a corner. The whole of season two is about backing her well and truly into a corner. [To Ben] And of course, you save the day again, kind of.
Do you think she’s relieved that Wallace knows about her true identity?
KK: I don’t think she’s relieved. The whole of season two is about the noose kind of tightening around her neck more and more and more. And it’s an interesting thing because I think season one is much more—she’s a liar by omission, whereas in season two, everything’s being shoved up in her face and she’s having to openly lie to people. It ups the ante. She’s suddenly the Prime Minister’s wife, so she’s exposed. She’s exposed in a way that is a whole other level of exposure. So relieved…. I don’t know that she’s relieved, but probably she recognizes that her options are limited.
Wallace (Andrew Buchan) learns in the finale that his wife is not who she says she is, and covers up for her to a MI5 agent.Matthew Towers
Ben, what do you think about Sam’s final moments? Do you think he’s done with this life or is he going to get pulled back in?
Ben Whishaw: Well, I feel like I hope that he’s free, because I would wish that for him. But he does say to her, “Just call me,” so…
KK: He’s like, “Bye and I don’t need to be here anymore, but by the way…”
BW: And I don’t know when I was saying that, whether he really meant [it], but I think he loves Helen so much that he would come back. He wants to be happy, I think. He wants to be.
KK: They are two people that have really, really made some very bad life choices and really can’t get out of it. Quite like to get out of it in different ways, but really can’t.
The duo are locked in a toxic friendship.Matthew Towers
If you could sit down with them, what advice would you give them?
BW [to Keira]: That you’d give to Helen?
KK: Or you’d give to Sam? Maybe stop being a murderer? [Laughs] Maybe. What advice? Gosh. What I’m impressed with… Helen wants it all and Helen won’t compromise, or won’t admit that she needs to compromise. There’s something very impressive, maybe, in that. But I think I’d probably be like, “Babe, priorities! You really need to look at your priorities and maybe make some choices, difficult as they are.” I don’t think all of the balls being up in the air is quite working for her.
BW: It’s not. It’d be so unbelievably stressful! I would tell Sam that next time Helen Webb’s number comes up on the phone, just ignore it.
KK: Don’t answer! You really mustn’t answer.
BW: Actually, block the number.
KK: Actually, this is toxic friendship. We know love each other, but it’s actually very toxic.
BW: It’s not working for either of you, really.
KK: Although you do keep saving my life, so it very much works for me.
BW: It works for you.
KK: Not for anybody else [laughing].
Sam keeps saving Helen’s life, and helps her rescue Mrs. Reed (despite having other motives to get Mrs. Reed).Netflix
If the series does return, what do you hope to explore in the season three?
BW [to Keira]: Well, we need to know properly about your past, don’t we?
KK: Yes.
BW: And so does your husband.
KK: Does he?
BW: Well, I think—
KK: Well, well I don’t know about that.
BW: You have to face us to your monstrous duplicity and—
KK: Yes, but again, I don’t know! I don’t know, Ben, that she’s able to do that.
BW: Will she triumph or will she not?
KK: Well, you know that she’ll try her best to triumph. Well, and what does that look like? Because in the duplicitous life of a spy, you’ve got to the pinnacle if you’re married to the prime minister, really.
BW: You couldn’t be in a better position.
KK: You’re going to have quite a big life crisis afterwards, aren’t you? Because ultimately when he’s not prime minister anymore—
BW: It’s a crash.
KK: It’s going to be a crash, and he’s not going to be prime minister for long, I should imagine, because actually we talk about his poll numbers being very bad, so it doesn’t sound like he’s going to be prime minister for that long. So there’s an existential crisis coming up on what she does with her life.
BW: And whether she has a life at all.
KK: And whether she has a life at all, because at that point, do they just kill her if they don’t need her anymore? So I should imagine—
BW: Dicey!
KK: I don’t see it getting less stressful for her.
Sam and Helen’s relationship is at the heart of Black Doves, even though, as Knightley and Whishaw point out, the two of them keep making bad decisions.Matthew Towers
Shortly after season one premiered, Prince William revealed he’s a fan of Black Doves. What does it mean for you to have the royal family watching your series?
KK: It was so lovely that so many people loved the show. That was really nice about it. It’s a wonderfully strange mix of ridiculous romp and a friendship sort of caper and a spy caper. And it’s all of these different things, and a love story. And it’s got all of these with these strange characters that are morally very complicated beasts. So it was always a tightrope to see whether it was something that people would enjoy as much as we enjoyed the idea of it. So the fact that people loved it as much as they did from all sorts of different walks of life was amazing.
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