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 3.
The third episode begins again in 2014. Helen is staying with Wallace in his hotel room and Sam instead goes to meet Reed to hand over the laptop files that Helen stole. Reed says Lenny called her and told her that Sam wants to be a triggerman for her. He says he does and she says she doesn’t employ killers, so he can’t work for her anymore, but can go to Lenny instead.
Sam goes to see Lenny and she says, “it’s in your blood, isn’t it?” She sets Sam up with his first target and says they’ll be sitting alone in a Chinese restaurant. He enters wearing a motorcycle helmet, lifts his visor, kills the man, and leaves. Lenny tells him that’ll be the hardest one he ever does.
Six months later, Sam trains Helen in the basics of fighting and killing. At the pub after, Sam tells Helen his dad used to be a triggerman too. He has flashbacks to when he was a boy and his dad telling him how every killing is a code. Sam stays to finish his drink and that’s when he meets Michael for the first time.
It cuts to 2017, Sam is still with Michael and they’re throwing a party. Sam sees Helen on TV with Wallace as Conservative are voted into government. Afterwards, Sam meets Lenny and she tells him about the Newman brothers, a new outfit in town. She says there’s a fourth one, Hector, but won’t show him a photo.
That night, he pretends to be broken down under a bridge and the Newman’s pull over. Instead, he pulls out a gun and kills all three brothers. He opens the back door of the car to find Hector, but discovers he’s only a child. Sam looks at him, but can’t kill him. He leaves, but tells Lenny it’s done.
The next morning, gunmen turn up at Sam and Michael’s home. Sam fights them off, but terrifies Michael who had no idea who he was. More gunmen show up with Hector instructing them - perhaps he should've finished the job.
It cuts to the present day as Sam explains what happened when he went to kill Hector - all the dead bodies and footage of him escaping. Lenny says he’ll be at his hideout in Peckham, so he can go and finish the job.
Meanwhile, Helen is looking through a bag she had packed with passports and one in her old name. She has flashbacks to Jason asking her to come away with him, with the children. Wallace and Helen discuss the kid’s nativity and she tells him not to miss it.
Sam goes to Williams and her new partner, Eleanor, to ask them for help killing Hector. While Williams is still angry Sam killed her previous partner, she agrees, while bargaining a good fee.
Helen goes to Sam to talk about Stephen Yarrick, aka Sy. She asks Sam to come to the nativity later and talk to Stephen alone, but not to hurt him. Their kids go to school together, so he’ll be there.
At work, Wallace’s colleague says the Chinese want to meet with Wallace later that night at Christmas drinks. But, first they go to the nativity and as per the plan, Stephen’s phone rings and he waits behind. Then, Sam holds a gun to the back of his head and takes him into a classroom, undetected. As Sam questions him, he takes his phone and sees late night calls to a number saved as ‘Repair Shop’. He threatens to call it, but Stephen calls his bluff and says you won’t shoot me here and he leaves. Sam plants Yarrick’s phone in Helen’s daughter’s book bag. Later on, Helen texts Repair Shop on Yarrick’s phone and says she’ll find whoever it is. The reply - “not unless we find you first.”
At Christmas drinks, Wallace meets with the Chinese envoy who says they’re doing an investigation and that there’s footage of Kai-Ming Chen’s flat when Ambassador Chen died that has gone missing. They do though have footage of a man fleeing from the scene - Cole Atwood, Kai-Ming’s boyfriend and a CIA agent. They say he ran to the US embassy and never left. Envoy says they want the category 1 military contacts revisited or they’ll start war.
Meanwhile, Stephen Yarrick’s phone rings and it’s ‘Repair Shop’ calling for Helen. She answers and they send her a video of Stephen getting tortured. Helen receives more videos of Yarrick until a final one where his throat is cut and he's killed. She goes to the bar and meets Wallace’s new assistant, Dani, the one he was texting flirtatiously with. As Wallace comes over to tell Helen they need to go, Dani says, “A door closes, a window opens,” which stops Helen in her tracks. Dani looks serious and Helen looks very concerned.
A flashback to the past when Helen is heavily pregnant with her twins. She meets with Reed and says she wants out. Reed says if she goes, they’ll replace her with a new relationship and then, she says, “A door closes, a window opens as I always say.” Suspicions are raised about who Dani really is.
The episode cuts back to Sam after he’s beaten the gunmen. He calls Helen, heavily pregnant and looking at her packed up bag, but Sam tells her he’s been compromised and needs her help. She say she’s coming. Sam leads Michael out behind him and tells him to close his eyes. As they descend the fire exit, Sam shoots more gunmen.
As they arrive at the bottom, Sam is shot in the stomach and in dire straits. But then, Helen turns up and shoots the gunman. Sam tells Michael he’s sorry and Helen takes him away saying she’ll fix it, but Sam has to run.
Helen rings Reed while she drives away and tells her about the bodies. She says she needs an exit strategy for Sam and his partner needs protection. Reed says it’ll cost a lot of money and Helen promises that she won’t leave and that instead she’ll stay to make up for it. Helen tells Michael to tell their friends he had a breakdown and had to leave.
In the present day, Sam, Williams, and Eleanor turn up at Hector’s hideout. As Sam gets his gun out the boot, he has a flashback to the first man he killed in the restaurant. As he lifts his visor to look at the man, it’s his own father.
All episodes of Black Doves are available to stream on Netflix now.
