Warning: Spoilers for Black Doves.
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A spy thriller set against the backdrop of the Christmas season in London, Black Doves follows Helen Webb (Keira Knightley), the wife of the UK’s Defence Secretary, who doubles as a spy for the Black Doves, an organization that retrieves industrial, political, or diplomatic secrets for the highest bidder. The series begins with the death of a civil servant named Jason Davies (Andrew Koji), with who Helen has been having a love affair for months. Without any knowledge of who killed him or why, the Black Doves bring in a triggerman and old friend, Sam (Ben Whishaw), in order to protect her just in case she might be next. With vengeance on her mind, Helen begins looking into Jason’s death on her own and quickly unravels something larger than she could have imagined.
While Helen searches for Jason’s killer, her husband, Wallace (Andrew Buchan), is dealing with his own emerging political crisis. Shortly before Jason’s death, the Chinese ambassador was found dead in his daughter Kai-Ming’s (Isabella Wei) apartment, and his government is crying foul despite the UK’s claim that it was merely a drug overdose. However, with Kai-Ming missing and the Chinese throwing around accusations that the Americans actually killed their diplomat, it becomes clear to Helen that everything is somehow connected.
Before long, she encounters the man who actually killed Jason, Elmore Fitch (Paapa Essiedu), but is unable to find out who hired the man before she kills him. What she does discover is that whoever hired the contract killer believes Helen has a recording device that Jason might have slipped her. Unfortunately, she does not, which makes her wonder how Jason fits into all of this and if he really was the man she fell in love with.
How Does Jason Fit Into the Chinese Ambassador’s Death in ‘Black Doves?’
Release Date December 5, 2024
Seasons 1
In a series with so many moving pieces and hidden truths, the reason behind Jason’s death was actually quite simple, and it all began with Kai-Ming and the Chinese ambassador’s death. Given Kai-Ming’s drug addiction, she had plenty of seedy friends, including Trent Clark (Angus Cooper), a son belonging to a dangerous crime family known as the Clarks, who supplied her with drugs.
One evening, while at her apartment, Kai-Ming’s father confronted Trent about the pair’s relationship. The encounter prompted Trent to aggressively push the ambassador, who then hit his head and died. In a panic, Trent contacts his mother, whose people, including corrupt UK official Stephen Yarrick (Sam Troughton), swoop in to make the death look like a drug overdose.
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However, what no one knew at the time was that Kai-Ming’s friend Maggie (Hannah Khalique-Brown) was secretly selling stories about her to a tabloid journalist, Phillip Bray (Thomas Coombes), as well as MI5 via a stashed recording device in Kai-Ming’s apartment. After the ambassador’s death, Maggie checked the footage and realized the incident and its evidence were clearly above her pay grade.
Unfortunately for her, Phillip also had access to the footage. He began digging deeper and confronted those involved, which prompted Yarrick to contact the Clark family. Trent then began following Phillip in an effort to cover it all up, which led him to Maggie, who led him to Jason, who then led him to Helen. After that, the killing began, as did the search for the recording device. The only reason Jason was brought into the fold was because Maggie simply knew him and trusted him, and as Reed (Sarah Lancashire) reveals to Helen in the final episode, he too was an agent working for MI5 just like Maggie.
Did Jason Really Love Helen in ‘Black Doves?’
Ultimately caught up in the crisis of a scared boy from a dangerous family, Jason’s only connection to the Chinese ambassador and the damning recording was through his friend Maggie, a fellow MI5 agent. Without her, Jason would likely still be alive. Helen then becomes part of the cover-up because of her affair with Jason, which only begins after he is sent to gather information on her as a potential spy. Whether he intended to spark a romantic relationship with her from the beginning is unclear. That being said, Helen fell hard for Jason and even told him the truth about who she was and who she ultimately worked for.
Having doubted Jason’s intentions and true identity since his death, Helen eventually discovers the truth, which finally puts her mind at ease. During their final meeting in the series, Reed informs Helen that the day before Jason’s death, he filed a report stating that after a thorough investigation, there was no evidence indicating Helen was a spy. As far as he was concerned, she was a loyal citizen and wife, which ultimately saved her, clearly an act of love on his part. Despite all the lies, what he and Helen felt for one another was real. All episodes of Black Doves are currently streaming on Netflix.
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