Black Doves is Netflix’s action-packed spy thriller set during Christmas. With an all-star cast including Keira Knightley, Ben Whishaw, and Sarah Lancashire, it tells the story of Helen Webb (Knightley), an undercover spy for the Black Doves organization.
As the web of lies she finds herself in begins to unravel with the impending threat of global war hanging in the balance, she finds herself caught up in it all. Throughout, she must fight against London’s criminal underworld and global political powers to uncover the truth.
Here's a recap of everything that happened in Black Doves episode 6.
The final episode begins with Sam waking up, tied up helplessly next to Eleanor and Kai-Ming. Meanwhile, Helen calls Reed angry about the fight with Dani, but Reed says that she and Sam are unreliable. She reveals she sent Sam to kill Alex, but he didn’t do it. Instead of saving Sam, Reed wants the recording device to stop a war. She refuses and instead uses the footage to track down Trent Clark at London City Stables, by zooming into the logo on his hat. She calls in Williams to help.
As Helen and Williams find Trent at the stables, they threaten him with the video and a gun. If he doesn’t call his mum, Kai-Ming will die, and he wouldn’t let that happen because he loves her. Admitting it, he agrees to call her and Helen speaks, arranging a meet up in person, or Trent will get hurt. Trent admits he only got drugs for Kai-Ming because he liked her and that he’s not a drug dealer. But, he is a murderer after killing her father. Helen offers him redemption by helping save Kai-Ming’s life.
Reed tells someone on the phone that the recording exists and is about to switch hands, but that they can act swiftly. She addresses him as Mr Porter, aka Mitch Porter, the chief of the CIA. He says he’s glad that he could be the highest bidder. Cole meets with Mitch Porter and they agree to go to the exchange at Borough Market where the Clarks will be.
Helen, Williams, and Trent arrive at the Clarks. Helen plants a gun in Trent’s pocket. They get inside and free Sam, Eleanor, and Kai-Ming, but before they can leave Alex and her gunman show up. She wants the device, as promised. Helen is surprised Alex didn’t bring much protection, but Alex reveals that if something was to happen to her, the consequences would be ‘bubonic’. Helen hands over the tape. They watch and Kai-Ming finally sees the recording of Trent killing her dad.
At Downing Street, Wallace finds out that the Americans think there’s a tape that exonerates them. Wallace tells the Prime Minister who pretends he doesn’t know. The Prime Minister texts Alex Clark to warn her that the Americans are on their way.
As Alex gets the text, she goes to leave, but Helen won’t let her. She wants to avenge Jason’s death and also wants answers. She grabs the gun from Trent’s pocket and holds it up to Alex. Alex’s gunman holds a gun up to her. In a stalemate, Helen demands answers, though Alex insists she doesn’t know anything about Jason’s death. While Sam begs Helen to leave, Alex tells Williams to call the number she was supposed to call if they found anything that night in Jason’s flat, the number that would belong to whoever hired her.
When they call it, a phone rings, but it’s not Alex. Instead, it’s Trent. He admits that he wanted to show he could protect himself and wanted to get rid of everyone that knew about the tape. Alex tries to say it was to protect her son. At the same time, the Americans and Chinese show up outside, holding guns up to each other. Sam says they need to go and that Helen wouldn’t shoot someone still so young. She says she knew a man once who thought he could do whatever he wanted and he learned that he couldn’t.
In a scuffle, Alex grabs the gun and Sam grabs the man’s gun to make him shoot himself. This triggers the Americans and Chinese to start shooting each other in the street outside, thinking someone had opened fire. Sam shoots Alex dead and then shoots Trent. Helen says he shouldn’t have done that, it was her kill, but he says it’s okay, it’s over. Alex’s phone rings and they answer, a voice says, “You have been watched and you will be held accountable.”
Helen leaves and walks through the street of dead bodies. Cole jumps out from behind a car, but Helen hands over the recording to him. She tells him to show it to the Chinese and that Trent and his mother are dead.
At Downing Street, Mitch Porter tells Wallace that Cole’s got the recording of Ambassador Chen’s death which proves they weren’t involved, meaning China will back down from their threats of war. He tells him Stephen Yarrick was on the tape and that it implicates some people. When Wallace asks who, Porter chuckles and says, “You could actually be clean, that’s good to know.” He bids him Merry Christmas and leaves. On Wallace’s way out, he sees the Prime Minister on the phone to Porter, looking stressed.
Helen goes to a church to meet Reed. She reveals everything she knows about the Clarks and the deaths. As expected, the pinhole camera belonged to Maggie who was spying on Kai-Ming and selling stories to Phillip Bray, the tabloid reporter. MI5 asked her to keep doing it. But, where is Jason’s involvement in all this? He was an agent too, working for MI5 with Maggie.
As Helen is shocked and upset, Reed says she continued to look into Jason. It turns out he was part of a small task force looking for leaks in the government and they were looking at Helen. He’d been assigned to find out the truth. Yet, when he filed his report to his superiors, he said he could find no evidence that Helen was a spy. He saved her, despite her telling him directly who she was. In an unlikely moment of compassion for Reed, she says, “That sounds a bit like love to me.” With that, Reed hands Helen everything she could find on Jason and tells her the PM is going to resign and that it’s time for her to go to work as they’ll be looking for a new PM and Wallace is fit for the job.
Elsewhere, Sam goes back to Michael and they hold each other. As they fall asleep together in Michael’s bed, Sam wakes to a noise. He goes to the lounge to find Hector Newman sitting there. Hector offers him a job working for him, saying if he wants to stay, you need to be with me. Hector asks Sam why he didn’t kill him all those years back. Sam tells him it was because he was just a child. Hector says, I knew you had good in you. As Sam says he’ll think about it, Hector leaves and Sam walks up to Michael and puts his coat on. They kiss and hug and Sam leaves.
Meanwhile, Helen drops the chip that Reed gave her about Jason into the Thames, next to the bench where he died, closing the chapter on their story.
Sam goes to see Lenny and reveals that Hector has offered him a job. Sam pulls out a gun and says he wants her to say they can move on and if he believes her, he’ll leave. If he doesn’t, he’ll kill her. She looks him dead in the eye and he walks away. He believes her, but it’s not clear if he should.
Helen goes home. It’s Christmas morning and the kids come running downstairs with Wallace. Helen and Wallace hold hands and she leans on his shoulder. Helen calls Sam and invites him over.
Sam and Helen stand outside in the snow. They talk about what’s next and while Sam says he’s sticking around, he says they’ll only see each other if he thinks it’s safe. He also admits that he’d do what he did again, every time. She thanks him. When she asks about Michael, he shakes his head. Poignantly, he says, “We don’t get to ride off into the sunset, but we get to stay around and watch the stars come out and that’s not nothing, I suppose.”
As the Christmas music plays, Eleanor and Williams celebrate on their canal boat with Kai-Ming, Michael celebrates with his daughter and their friends, Reed stands in her apartment with a woman we’ve not seen before behind her, and Helen uses her mum’s lighter to light the Christmas pudding.
All episodes of Black Doves are available to stream on Netflix now.
