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 and the impending threat of global war hangs in the balance, Helen finds herself caught up in it all. In each episode, Helen 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 1...
The series opens as it means to go on, setting the scene for Christmas. In a crowded pub, revellers enjoy festive tunes as the TV plays out breaking news of the death of the Chinese ambassador. A Father Christmas walks through the pub merrily onto the streets outside. He passes a suspicious man who walks briskly through the London streets at night. Over a bridge, he answers his phone, “Maggie?” He tells her he thinks he’s being followed. Their call is joined by a man called Phillip and they question him on whether he’s spoken to anyone.
Maggie hangs up to take another call, but when she rejoins the three-way call, she isn’t speaking. Instead, Maggie lays dead on the floor with her throat cut. The assailant’s black gloved hand holding the phone with the names; Jason Davies and Phillip Bray.
At the same time, Phillip also gets strangled in his apartment. Jason loses contact with them both and continues his way across a dark London. He tries to call a contact saved as ‘Soft Play’ on his phone as he sits on a bench by the river. He says he shouldn’t be calling, he thinks he’s in trouble, but as he goes on, a shot is fired and he’s killed.
It cuts to Rome. Sam (Ben Whishaw) answers a call from Mrs Reed. He replies that he understands and it cuts back to London filled with Christmas music and lights.
Helen (Keira Knightley) shouts to her kids and takes a hot drink to her husband, Wallace, who is on an important phone call to the Saudis who are upset about the Chinese ambassador’s death of a drug overdose. Helen asks what happened to Ambassador Chen’s daughter, he replies she’s probably in hiding.
They head to a party where Helen thanks everyone for coming. A woman arrives and approaches them. She addresses Wallace as the defence secretary and thanks them for the invite. As she walks away, they both say that they don’t know who she is.
Helen heads downstairs to speak with the woman and says she can’t just turn up. They get into a heated discussion about Jason Davies dying, which upsets Helen. While she pretends she doesn’t know him, the woman reveals she has been following Helen and knows that Helen and Jason have been having an affair. Helen admits it, but says it wasn’t an angle or a job, it was love. They discuss how Maggie James and Phillip Bray were also killed - Maggie, a jewelry shop assistant and Phillip, a tabloid reporter.
The woman begins to question what Jason gave Helen in a bag, but she says she hasn’t opened it yet as it was a Christmas present. The woman asks if Jason knew Helen’s real identity and the identity of the Black Doves. Helen says no, but the woman is angry. She says Helen is in danger and she may have compromised herself, endangering the whole organisation.
Helen reveals that if the woman tries to pull her out, she will take her children and leave and if the woman tries to stop her, she’ll kill her. She pulls out a knife to the woman’s neck. The woman says she wouldn’t pull her out - Helen is their line into Downing Street.
Sam arrives in London and finds a car waiting for him. Christmas music is playing as he drives to the Royal Lancaster hotel and meets Reed in a hotel room. Reed is the woman that met Helen at the party. She thanks Sam for coming back to London and he admits he wouldn’t do it for anyone but Helen. They discuss Helen's affair and that she’s been feeding them government secrets for ten years. Reed asks Sam to find out if someone is after Helen and remove the threat. She says he owes her.
Back at Helen’s home, Wallace has to go into work because the Chinese don’t think the ambassador died from a drug overdose, but foul play. She asks if he knew Jason, he says no, but suggests they buy a gun.
Helen goes into a secret compartment in her wardrobe full of guns and gets out the Christmas present from Jason. She opens it, cutting a knife into the box to see if anything is hidden, but it’s just a bracelet. Looking for answers, she goes to Jason’s flat and speaks to the landlady who lets her in. In the apartment, she notices a picture on the wall with something behind.
She’s interrupted by police turning up. She texts Reed that she’s compromised and sends her location. Reed asks Sam to come and help. The two policewomen enquire about Jason and the landlady tells them his girlfriend is upstairs. To this, they shoot her dead and run upstairs to find her - assassins in disguise.
Helen and the two women fight and as Helen nears defeat, Sam turns up and fires a shotgun into one of the women’s heads. The other woman flees out the window. Helen is delighted to see Sam, but first she pulls a hard drive out of the wall behind the picture and they leave.
In the car, they talk like old friends. She asks if he missed home, but he doesn’t know, only that he missed her. He’s sorry about Jason and sorry he left her. She asks him to keep her and her family alive so she can take revenge. He says, “Darling, I will certainly endeavour to try.”
At home, Helen breaks into the hard drive and looks at Jason’s outgoing calls. There’s unanswered calls to an unknown number and a message from Phillip Bray. “If it really is sy on the video footage then this is huge.” She writes down the number and sy.
Sam goes to a music store and the shop owner leads him upstairs to fill a guitar case with guns. When he leaves, a man approaches him, an old friend, and he invites him round for dinner. The man asks if Michael knows Sam is home. He says, no and don’t tell him. He asks if Sam is still working in insurance. As they part ways, Sam heads to the bench Jason died on to try and figure out what happened.
Helen breaks into Wallace’s computer and calls Sam. She wants Reed to run the number she found on Jason’s phone. While she’s looking at Wallace’s computer, flirty messages from Dani (new assistant) pop up.
Sam goes to the ledge he thought the assassin shot Jason from and finds a bullet casing. He goes to Liberty in London and speaks to a person called George and pays them to run the prints and DNA on the bullet. A little while later, she texts that she has an ID to follow. He goes to dinner at his friends’ house.
Helen meets Reed at the cinema and she tells her about the Saudis and Chinese ambassador. Reed asks Helen to let Sam deal with the people from Jason’s flat.
At Sam’s dinner party, Sam has flashbacks to a violent scene when his friends ask why he left. He recalls his relationship with Michael, but his friends say Michael never told them what happened and why he left. He only said that Sam had had a mental breakdown. Another flashback shows Michael holding bloodied hands to Sam’s face. When asked, the friends say Michael is now in a relationship and has a daughter. Later on, one of the friends tells Sam that Michael is actually single now and that he told Michael Sam’s back.
An ID comes through for the bullet casing - Elmore Fitch. Sam calls Helen and says he knows where the shooter lives and the number Jason was calling was Kai-Ming Chen - the Chinese ambassador’s daughter. Helen wants to kill Elmore together. He says he knows, so he’s outside her house. She grabs a gun and leaves.
All episodes of Black Doves are available to stream on Netflix now.
