Black Doves Ending, Explained: Who Ordered the Hit on Jason?

Netflix’s spy action thriller, ‘Black Doves,’ stars Keira Knightley as Helen Webb, the wife of the Defense Secretary of the UK who is secretly a spy for the eponymous organization. She has been working for them for 10 years and is too deeply embedded to be pulled out. This is why, when the civil servant she was having an affair with is killed, an old friend of hers named Sam is brought in to keep her safe and figure out who killed her lover and is now trying to kill her. While Sam is happy to return for the sake of his friend, it also brings back some difficult times for him. In the end, all the problems merge together as Helen and Sam try to survive against all odds. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Who Killed the Chinese Ambassador? Who was Behind the Hits?

At first, the death of Helen’s lover, Jason, seems like an isolated incident. But then, it turns out that it may have something to do with the death of the Chinese ambassador, who is believed to have died of an overdose. The Chinese government does not believe this explanation, and they think someone murdered the ambassador. As Helen and Sam get to the bottom of Jason’s death, they discover that both the murders, including two more, are inextricably linked. They discover that there is a crime family called the Clarks, who have become incredibly powerful by snaking their way into the government. After becoming basically invincible in the UK, they decided to move to the other side of the pond, which brought them on the radar of the MI5. Now, the young Clark scion, Trent, was friends with Kai Ming Chen, the daughter of the Chinese ambassador.

Not only this, but he was also in love with her. However, because she already had a boyfriend, Cole, who she didn’t know worked for the CIA, Trent couldn’t make a move. Instead, to be close to Kai Ming, he decided to bring what she wanted the most: drugs. The part about becoming her drug dealer might have sounded sane to Trent, but her father disapproved of it. One day, he confronted Trent, telling him to leave his daughter alone. An angry Trent pushed the man so hard that he hit his head on a table, and that was the end of him. If it had been anyone else, it wouldn’t have mattered, but Trent had killed the Chinese ambassador, which meant that he couldn’t get away with it so easily. So, he asked his mother for clean up, who called Stephen Yarrick, a minister in the UK government, to get things done.

What none of them knew was that Kai Ming’s friend, Maggie, had been spying on her. She had placed a camera in the room to get dirt on Kai Ming, which she could sell to the tabloids. But before that, she would give the recordings to MI5 in case there was something they needed to know before the others got all the gossip. The night of the murder, the camera was right there, and it recorded everything. It wasn’t just the murder, but everything that happened afterward, including Stephen Yarrick, that was caught on tape. Moreover, the recording also had Stephen calling the British PM to update him on the situation, which meant that the PM was involved in it as well. This whole thing was already huge, and the girl didn’t know if she could share it with anyone. But by mistake, she shared it with Phillip, the journalist whom she always approached to share a scoop about Kai Ming.

When Phillip found what was on the recording, he pushed her to get the whole thing out, especially after they discovered that the government was trying to cover up the whole thing. At the same time, she also told her MI5 contact about it, who happened to be Jason. When Trent discovered what the trio was planning, he decided to get them out of the picture. He was the one who hired Elmore Fitch to kill all three of them and Helen. Trent had no idea who Helen was and had only found her while following Jason, who met Helen immediately after his meeting with Phillip and Maggie. By killing Jason and sending the hired killer after Helen, Trent had no idea what trouble he’d stirred for himself.

Why Does Sam Shoot Trent? Who Calls and Threatens Him?

Having worked as a Black Dove for so long, Helen knew better than to get involved with the powers beyond her reach. However, she also felt strongly about the people she loved, as few as they were. If someone harmed the ones she loved, consequences would follow. When her mother was hurt by her stepfather, Helen killed him and moved on. When someone killed her lover and threatened her children, there was no way Helen would let them go so easily. This is why, right from the beginning, she is completely focused on finding the ones behind Jason’s death and killing them with her own hands.

When the involvement of the Clarks comes into the picture, Helen has no qualms about killing their head as they are already criminals, and she doesn’t have to wrestle with her conscience before murdering them. But unexpectedly, it turns out that Trent, who is much younger than the person Helen thought she’d be killing, was behind the hits; Helen is thrown off for a minute. In front of her, he is just a kid, and it is one thing to kill his criminal mastermind of a mother and entirely another to kill him, even though he already has blood on his hands.

What makes the situation worse is that if Helen kills Trent, his mother and the rest of her organization will come after her. Blinded by revenge, she doesn’t consider this possibility, but Sam does. He tries to dissuade her from killing Trent but is entirely unsuccessful. In the end, bullets are fired, and it is Sam who shoots Trent. He does it to save his friend, knowing exactly what is coming for them now. But by killing Trent, he also, in a way, makes up for not killing a young Hector all those years ago. He had been haunted by the image of that young boy, who later returned with an army to exact vengeance on him. It made Sam feel a bit insufficient in his job as a triggerman, especially when he couldn’t kill Hector even when he was not a boy anymore.

Helen is shocked that Sam took away Trent’s blood from her hands, especially when he knows how important it is for her to kill the one responsible for Jason’s death. Before they can process it, they receive a call on Mrs. Clark’s phone. A person on the other side says that their actions have been registered and there will be consequences; this validates Sam’s fears. Knowing how powerful the Clarks are and how much trouble they can cause for their enemies, Sam didn’t want Helen to live the rest of her life looking over her shoulder. But now, the same fate has befallen him, and he must prepare for it.

What Happens to Cole Atwood?

Before the video from Maggie’s phone surfaces, the private detectives sent by the Chinese government rely on the hotel’s CCTV to piece together the final night of the Chinese ambassador. They see his daughter’s boyfriend, Cole, running away from the room a bit after the murder. What makes them more suspicious is that Cole is found to have been working for the CIA. This makes the Chinese think that the Americans assassinated the ambassador. To get justice, they want Cole.

While the Americans completely deny any involvement in the death of the ambassador, they also cannot ignore how delicate the situation is. They try to keep Cole safe in the embassy, but there are other powers (like Helen and Sam) working behind the scenes, which are completely out of the CIA’s control. In the end, the recording is the only way to prove that the Americans didn’t assassinate anyone and prevent a potential war from happening. When the part about the recording comes to light, so does the involvement of the Clarks. Just as Helen, Sam, and their friends are done dealing with Trent, his mother, and her bodyguard, the building is surrounded by the CIA, brought there by Cole, who is desperate to prove he is innocent.

However, the Clarks are not happy to see the Americans there, and a shootout takes place where all the Clark men and all the CIA men, except Cole, die. In the end, when Helen comes out of the building and sees Cole, she gives him the recording. He thanks her but also mentions that he knows who she is, as in, he knows she is a Black Dove. This is just an acknowledgment and not a threat, as having seen everything transpire over the past few days, Cole knows better than to mess with Helen. For now, he has the recording, which is proof enough to show he didn’t kill anyone and the only way to keep the Chinese from coming after him.

Was Jason a Spy? Why Does Helen Throw Away the Info on Jason?

While Helen had been married to Wallace for ten years, she didn’t really love him. For her, he was the job, and it didn’t matter what she felt for him. With Jason, things were different. Over the course of their affair, she fell in love with him so hard that she ended up telling him she was a Black Dove. He was the only person with whom she could be herself, and this is why his loss hit her so hard. It was all about love. Or so she thought. Once the dust clears over the entire thing and Helen has had her revenge, she meets with Mrs. Reed, who tells her that the connection between Maggie and Jason was that they were both working for the MI5.

Jason already suspected Helen was a Black Dove, and he had been tasked to lure her into his trap and get information out of her. She was his job. This revelation completely rewrites Helen’s relationship with Jason, as it seems that everything between them was a lie. He was pretending to be in love with her when, in reality, he was trying to get information out of her. Reed could have let things be and let Helen believe that Jason didn’t love her. But she is not as cruel as she seems. She reveals that when Jason came to deliver his report on Helen, he cleared her of all suspicion. Even when she was already suspected, he gave her a clean chit. This shows that he really did love Helen, and while it may have started out as a lie, it wasn’t so in the end.

To give Helen a better sense of who Jason really was, Reed gives her a drive with all the info she needs about Jason. It is the man’s complete background, giving Helen the things that he most likely kept from her to keep his cover. The drive is the only chance for her to find out Jason’s true identity. Instead of immediately looking into it, she throws it away in the river. It might seem illogical to a curious person, especially considering that this could be the only connection she had to Jason now that he was dead. However, Helen was not ready for it. Looking into the drive and finding out all the stuff about Jason’s real background would make her think about all the lies he made up about himself to get close to her. It would make her question his every word, intention, and feeling, and this wasn’t something Helen wanted to live with. The only thing about Jason she wanted in her mind was the good memories they made and the fact that despite everything, in the end, he loved her, and she loved him. What came before and after that doesn’t matter anymore.

Why Doesn’t Sam Kill Hector? Does He Accept Hector’s Offer?

Seven years before the death of the Chinese ambassador and Jason’s murder, Sam was hired to kill a street gang that was still working its way up very quickly. The other gangs wanted this gang of brothers gone, which is why Sam was hired. He had to kill all the brothers, but he left one: Hector. When Sam took the job, he thought it would be just another kill. But then, he saw a boy sitting in the backseat, covered in the blood of his brother he had just shot, and he couldn’t pull the trigger. It is the image of this boy that stays with him over the years, especially when this boy becomes the reason for Sam to run away from London and leave the love of his life behind.

The image persists when Sam is hired to kill Hector again. He is unable to do it, even though Hector is a grown man now compared to the boy he was seven years ago. He is also more criminal, bloodthirsty, and ruthless. Despite all this, Sam is still unable to pull the trigger. Hector, too, has some mixed feelings for the assassin. Had it been any other killer, Hector would have died seven years ago. But Sam let him live, which made Hector grateful for his existence. However, at the same time, Sam had killed his brothers, and it was the most traumatic thing Hector had been through. Due to this, Sam was both the guardian angel and the devil for Hector. The boy leans more towards the former when Sam continues not to kill him, and in the end, Hector’s entire gang is gone, and he is the only one left behind.

Young as he might be, Hector is extremely ambitious. When he discovers that the Clarks have been dealt a massive blow, he sees the power vacuum created in London’s criminal underworld. He could fill that vacuum, but it’s a huge endeavor, and it needs some muscle, which he doesn’t have anymore. Due to his own criminal outfit, he already has a lot of people who want him dead, and with all his people dead, he doesn’t know whom to trust. This is when he thinks of Sam. Having escaped the killer more than twice now, Hector knows that Sam will not kill him. He further finds common ground between them when he discovers that it was Sam who killed Trent Clark and her mother. This means that the other Clarks will come after Sam, and he will need someone who can back him. Hector could be that for Sam, which puts both of them on the same plane.

Hector’s offer is a bit weird, but Sam understands its importance. He has lost the goodwill with the Black Doves, and with the Clarks coming after him, he needs all the help he can get. However, this would mean getting deeper into the business he had hoped to leave for good. He wished to go back to Michael, who was ready to accept him, only if he could let go of his past completely. Even if Sam did stay with him, he knew that one day, his past would come calling, and this time, the stakes were much higher. He had barely saved Michael the last time. He wouldn’t be able to do it this time if the Clarks came calling. So, with a broken heart, he says goodbye to Michael, who understands his decision, especially now that he has the whole picture in front of him.

Does Wallace Become PM?

The whole purpose of getting Helen to stick with Wallace through thick and thin was the knowledge that Wallace was meant for greater things. When Helen was first sent to seduce him, it was supposed to be a one-night thing. But then, she went back and kept the connection alive. Then, Wallace turned out to be a fish that only grew bigger. Within a couple of years, it was clear that Wallace was on his way to 10 Downing Street someday. When that happened, the Black Doves needed one of their own in his inner circle, and who better than a wife for that role? While her organization was glad they had Helen with Wallace, she became more despondent with each promotion he received. But by the end of the first season, things have changed dramatically.

The fiasco of the recording of the Chinese ambassador’s death leads the current PM in a very tight spot. Due to his culpability in covering up the murder, he knows he will have to resign soon. To the absolute glee of the Black Doves, the person that everyone agrees should pick up the role is Wallace. The mandate is so clear that no one has any doubt about it. The possibility becomes even stronger when the corruption of the previous PM also brings the chastity of other ministers into question. The Americans believe that Wallace might be the only clean guy in the British government, and they are ready to back him, too. Considering all this, it seems that Wallace’s path to becoming PM has been cleared. More importantly, this means that the Black Doves finally have what they wanted: a Black Dove in the topmost rung of the government. It doesn’t get better than this for them. But this also means that Helen’s real task begins now.