'Black Doves' Season 2 Unpacked: Don't Call Helen A Spy Wife

After making us wait 2 years, Netflix finally dropped the second season of Black Doves, the spy series that announced itself with a Christmastime romp packed with stylish gunplay, colorful underworld characters, and more quips than you could shake a stick at. Forget the sophomore slump; Black Doves’ second season builds boldly on its solid foundation, expands its fascinating world, introduces new characters, and deepens the angst. Helen (Keira Knightley) and Sam (Ben Whishaw) find themselves trapped between their careers in the world of crime and espionage and the lives they desperately wish they could lead. The season is an excellently balanced spy thriller with as much verve and wit as genuine emotional stakes. Black Doves has done it again! Now, who do I have to see about season 3?

One of the smartest things Black Doves does this season is create a rival to the Doves themselves: the also bird-themed organization, Kestrel. Kestrel is out to destroy the Doves and all their deep-cover operatives, seemingly because of a past operation in Russia known only as Wildflower. Helen’s old handler, Reed (Sarah Lancashire), knows all about it, but isn’t telling. Besides, Helen has her hands full with her new handler, Conteh (Babou Ceesay), who isn’t so indulgent of Helen’s curiosity about what’s going on. Helen links up with fellow Dove, Laila (Ambika Mod), who’s gone AWOL after leaving active duty, and dismissively refers to Helen as a “spy wife.”

Over in gunman-land, Sam has taken Williams (Ella Lily Hyland) and Eleanor (Gabrielle Creevy) under his wing as mentees, with guidance from gravel-voiced Lenny (Kathryn Hunter). Sam even has a new love interest in Jerry (Samuel Barnett), the concierge at the hotel where Sam lives. Threads collide when Kestrel emissary Patrick (Sam Riley) hires Sam to do their dirty work: hunting Doves. Patrick shows Sam a video of Helen killing a target, and then presents a cruel choice: either Sam kills Jerry to prove he’ll do as he’s told, or the video gets leaked. It’s one of many moments in the season when Sam and Helen’s connection to each other, and to people outside their world, is challenged or weaponized. Sam kills Jerry out of devotion to Helen, and kills off another part of himself in the process.

Is it possible to have love and personal relationships in such an underworld? Black Doves offers several answers. Williams has fallen hard for Eleanor, and chooses possibly the worst possible moment to tell her: during a hit. The feeling is mutual, but it has to wait for when they’re not fighting off waves of armed goons. Helen and Sam have a big argument about their friendship, and come away realizing that in a world where almost no one actually knows them, they can be themselves with each other. Wallace (Andrew Buchan) still doesn’t know exactly who Helen really is, but they share a new understanding once Helen acknowledges the secrets and lies between them. It’s far from settled, but it’s clear they love one another, and Wallace even lies to an investigator to save Helen from exposure. But Reed’s star-crossed past blows them all out of the water.

Back in the 80s, Reed was a deep-cover Dove embedded in East Berlin to keep tabs on Kestrel and its leader Franz (Artjom Gilz), which involved birthing Franz’s daughter, Vita. Franz was helping disgruntled KGB agent Alexei defect. When Franz pitches that he, Reed, and Vita move to Amsterdam, Reed fabricates an emergency report that results in the Doves assassinating every member of Kestrel. Reed left Vita behind and scrubbed all mention of her from the files. Franz survived, and he took Vita out of an orphanage to restart Kestrel and take revenge. When Reed learned Franz was still active, she sent Helen to kill him, and the video of that is what Patrick used to blackmail Sam. It turns out that Katia Chernov is actually Vita, and she’s been pulling the strings the whole time, including Alexei’s death and Kestrel’s attack on Wallace’s summit. It’s all cover for her and Kestrel to storm the Black Doves’ offices and take Reed out. Helen, Sam, Williams, Eleanor, and Laila join forces like criminal Avengers to save Reed, defeat Katia, and let the Doves live to spy another day.

So will there be further misadventures of Helen, Sam, and the underworld friends they’ve collected? Netflix hasn’t announced anything yet, but the show is steadily climbing its most-watched charts. Maybe if we all wish it together, we can return for another caper with this irresistible cast of characters.