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 4.
The fourth episode picks up with Sam and the assassins at Hector’s hideout. Donned with Christmas attire, they pretend to be revellers, but instead shoot the doormen guarding outside and break in. A gunfight ensues and Sam goes to find Hector. When he walks into a room, Hector whacks him round the back of the head and he drops his gun.
Sam tells him he’s looking for a girl. Hector, smiling wryly, says, “You don’t even know what you’re dealing with, do you?” Hector kicks him the gun and says you would have killed me by now if you were going to.
It cuts to Wallace trying to call Stephen Yarrick as he goes into Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister. A MI5 agent is there too, as well as Mitch Porter, the CIA station chief. They discuss how the Chinese think the CIA killed their ambassador and that high-ranking members of the MET are covering it up. PM’s phone rings - Yarrick’s body has been found.
Helen calls ‘Repair Shop’ again and they address her by her full name. When she asks if her family is safe, there’s no reply. Meanwhile, the PM says to Wallace he knows Wallace is after his job, but if he gets it one day he’ll see the world doesn’t work the way he thinks it does.
Sam comes back to Williams and Eleanor and says there’s no sign of Hector. Instead, they find Kai-Ming Chen and take her to safety. Williams agrees to look after her at their flat. Elsewhere, Helen finds Wallace crying at home. She consoles him and they make love, but while they do, she thinks of Jason and remembers when she told him who she really is.
Sam goes to visit Michael, though he's not pleased to see him. Angrily, Michael says that he only thinks of Sam whenever he's scared of something. That he’s scared that he fell in love with a stranger and he’s afraid it will happen again. He calls him a monster wearing the mask of a nice man. When Michael asks if he is in danger, Sam lies and says no. He asks him to leave.
At Helen’s home, she goes downstairs and finds Dani playing with her kids. She’s come to visit to send condolences to Wallace about Stephen Yarrick. The atmosphere is frosty, and not because it’s Christmas.
Helen goes to meet Reed at a Christmas tree farm where Reed asks Helen to deliver a note to Cole Atwood at the US Embassy. She tells her it’s lots of money to throw ice on the situation - to betray his country to avoid a war and get filthy rich in the process. Helen agrees to go and meet her friend Vanessa who works there.
Sam calls Helen to say they’ve got Kai-Ming, though she’s a drug addict and she’s also been tranquilised so she hasn’t woken up yet. At Williams, Lenny is there and then Helen arrives. Kai-Ming wakes up and says she doesn’t know what happened to her dad. She said Hector kept her prisoner after they found out who she was and they kept asking her questions about her friend Trent - someone who helps her get heroin and his family has some sort of connection. Helen asks Kai-Ming about Jason, she says he left her a message saying he was Maggie’s partner and needed her to call him back, but she never did.
On the way to get Cole, Helen questions her love for Jason after finding out he had a partner, though it's unclear whether it’s love or work. While Sam waits outside and Helen goes into the US Embassy to meet Vanessa, they plan that Sam will call to distract Vanessa so Helen can sneak off to Cole. While he’s waiting outside though, Michael calls him and texts him and he gets distracted, which makes Vanessa suspicious.
Helen leaves while Vanessa is on the phone and goes in a lift. A man joins her who asks to see her ID badge, which she stole from a man by bumping into him. Seeing it’s not her, they fight. Helen wins and gets out to find Cole, but while she’s speaking to Cole, someone finds the body and raises the alarm on the building. Panicked, she tells Cole to meet her outside if he wants to accept the offer.
At Wallace’s office, Dani offers him a drink. They talk about Stephen again, and secrets. Dani tells Wallace she heard a rumor about Helen. Meanwhile, Williams is smoking outside the window looking at all the partygoers, but then all of a sudden they’re all gone.
Cole comes to meet Helen and Sam outside. Cole says he knew Maggie and Phillip, but didn’t know Jason. He says if the people he thinks actually killed the ambassador are after them, then they’re already dead. He says he wasn’t spying on the Chinese, he was spying on the people that killed Chen. Helen asks who. He says, the Clarks. He describes them as the Kray twins meet the Freemasons and that they’ve taken over London without anyone noticing and it’s gone international.
Cole says they traced Kai-Ming to drug dealers - Trent. And it’s revealed that Trent is in fact a Clark, son of Alex, the head of the London operation. He says the Clarks know what happened to the Chinese ambassador and they’re only saying Cole did it because they can gain a lot from that being the case. He says the Clarks own everybody. As they arrive at the drop-off point for the deal, something’s wrong. Cole keeps saying he wants them to hold up their end of the bargain and Helen says, “don’t worry, you’ll get your money”, but Cole reveals the threat in the envelope was photos of his family, not the offer of any money. Helen panics - that wasn’t what Reed said.
Meanwhile, gunmen start turning up at Williams and Eleanor’s apartment for Kai-Ming and Dani tells Wallace that Helen was unfaithful and had an affair with a civil servant.
The Chinese agents arrive to take Cole while Reed sits in the back of a car watching. Helen asks Cole, can you help me get to Alex Clark? He says he will, so Sam spins the car round and drives off, being pursued by the Chinese.
All episodes of Black Doves are available to stream on Netflix now.
