WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for the first season of Black Doves.
Keira Knightley's Netflix spy series Black Doves features a robust cast of secret agents, undercover spies and lethal assassins. Created by Joe Barton (The Lazarus Project, Giri/Haji), Black Doves opened to excellent reviews, earning a perfect 100% critic score from Rotten Tomatoes on its release date of December 5, 2024. Knightley (Atonement, Pirates of the Caribbean) leads the cast of Black Doves along with Ben Whishaw, best known for playing Q in Daniel Craig's last three James Bond films. Black Doves also features a stellar supporting castincluding Sarah Lancashire's Reed, Kathryn Hunter's Lenny, Ella Lily Hyland's Williams and Omari Douglas' Michael.
Black Doves follows Knightley's Helen Webb, the loving and supportive wife of Andrew Buchan's Wallace Webb, a prominent British politician. Webb is also a secret agent working for the mysterious secret spy organization known as the Black Doves.of which Mrs. Reed is the head. Reed confronts Helen about an affair she was having with a civil servant named Jason (Andrew Koji), who was shockingly shot and killed in a park long distance. Suspecting that Helen may be in trouble with a powerful criminal conspiracy, Reed recruits a trusted sniper named Sam Young (Whishaw) to help Helen avoid threats to her life and family.
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Helen Webb
Black Dove
Helen Webb is the obvious Black Dove protagonist of the series. Helen Webb is introduced as one of Black Dove's main agents who has one of the biggest responsibilities as the wife of a prominent British politician. Helen Webb was formerly Helen Dawson before meeting and marrying the ideological Conservative Minister of State for Defense, Wallace Webb. Before joining the Black Doves, she was called Daisy Bradshaw, although the leader of the Black Doves, Mrs. Reed, suspected that Daisy was not her real name the first time the two characters met. Helen has a mysterious past that involves an estranged half-sister named Bonnie, who is in prison for murdering her father.
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Young Sam
Assassin
Sam is a killer in Black Doves who has a long history with Lenny Liles. Lenny gave Sam the unthinkable first blow to his own father, Frank. When Sam was a boy, he closely watched his menacing, imposing father and listened to his oblique advice about how to be an assassin. His father used to tell him that he “I've never pulled a trigger that didn't make the world a better place“an ideology that Sam also adopted when he initially approached Reed and Lenny to become an assassin. Sam used to be a sidekick for Reed before becoming a killer through Lenny. Sam fled the country after failing to kill Hector Newman, a target who at the time was just a child.
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Mrs.
Black Dove
Mrs. Reed is a mysterious and high-ranking member of the Black Doves. It is unclear whether she had any field experience herself. or what exactly his origin story with the secret organization is. She has a sort of motherly relationship with Helen and guides her as Helen tries to deal with the intense emotions of losing Jason, with whom she reveals she is in love. As Reed explains to Helen when she first offers him the job, the Black Doves acquire confidential information to sell to the highest bidder. They do not operate for any specific country and have no bias towards England.
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Lenny Liles
Assassin Wrangler
Lenny Liles is the point of contact for many of the local killers in London, such as Sam, Williams and Eleanor. Although she acts as the boss of a mob, she appears to be an autonomous figure with her own private network of assassins and assassins. Lenny gives Same several chances to redeem himself after failing to kill Hector Newman when he had the chance. She also threatens Sam with Williams and Eleanor, who end up helping Sam and Helen find Kai-Ming. Lenny's story remains a mystery after one season Black Doves but judging by the amount of flashbacks used in the series, viewers will be able to learn more about its upcoming season.
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Williams
Assassin
Williams is one of the London-based assassins in Lenny's network. Funny but lethal, she is hired by Lenny to intimidate Sam. in killing Hector Newman before becoming work friends trying to uncover the Clarks' conspiracy. Williams is relatively young for an assassin, but appears quite experienced in combat. Sam almost kills her when Williams initially attacks Helen in Jason's apartment in episode 1. Not much else is known about what got Williams into the game of secret agents and assassins.
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kent
Assassin
Kent was Williams' killer who fought Helen in Jason's apartment before she died. Sam saves Helen with a shotgun, killing Kent in a brutal death while Williams escapes. Kent had no speaking role in Black Doves and is only in the series in that scene. There is no accessible information about her in the series except that she was Williams' partner for a while.
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Leonor
Assassin
Eleanor is a London-based assassin who becomes Williams' second partner after Kent is killed by Sam. She, like Williams, is quite funny in a deadpan way, and the two make a good pair. During a shootout in black doves, As the Clarks try to find Kai-Ming, Eleanor fires a rocket launcher in a memorable scene. She and Kai-Ming disappear for a while before emerging for the season 1 final showdown with Helen, Same, and the Clarks.
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Cole Atwood
CIA operative
Cole Atwood is a CIA agent working at the US Embassy in London. He often went undercover with Kai-Ming and Maggie to extract information about Chinese Ambassador Chen. The Chinese discover his identity and accuse him of murdering the Ambassador when, in fact, it was an accident by Trent Clark. Helen catches Cole at the Embassy and almost hands him over to the Chinese until she and Sam realize something is up. Cole is eventually cleared, but his CIA cover is blown. He also learned the truth about Helen being a Black Dove, which could make him a threat in Season 2.
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Daniel
Black Dove
Dani is a Black Dove who reveals herself to Helen at the end of season 1. She was introduced as Wallace's seductive assistant, but Helen quickly caught on to her and discovered she was a spy. Although the two secret agents are technically on the same team, Dani and Helen have an epic fight at the jewelry store after Reed determines that Helen has gone rogue. Helen gets the best of Dani and makes her back down, sparing her life. The two Black Doves could work more cooperatively next season.
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Elmore Fitch
Assassin
Elmore Fitch is an SAS sniper turned assassin who is not associated with Lenny or the Black Doves. He was hired by Trent Clark to kill Jason, Maggie and a tabloid reporter named Phillip.. Maggie captured footage of Trent killing Chen and told Phillip and Jason about it, which is why they also became Fitch's targets. Fitch attempted to kill Helen in her own home, but Helen defeated him and took his life in her garden shed. Fitch hardly appears in the series, so his non-military background and relationship with the Clarks are not explored.
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Frank
Assassin
Frank is Sam's father, on whom Lenny orders a hit and becomes Sam's first kill as an assassin. Shown only through flashbacks, Frank was haunted by his line of work, but he still instilled some valuable lessons about how to be a killer that Sam would eventually adopt into his own professional code. Frank and Sam never have a full conversation in the series and Sam pulls the trigger before Frank can say anything. Frank worked for Lenny but crossed an unspecified line with her which resulted in his death, which is also not very well explained.
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Jason
MI5 agent
Helen's secret lover, Jason, is an MI5 agent who was spying on Helen. Jason's task was to report on Helen to the British government, as she was married to a prominent British politician who will now be the new Prime Minister in season two. It's unclear exactly what Jason was instructed to find out from Helen, but it appears to be more sophisticated than testing her character alone. Jason finally discovered that Helen was a Black Dove but kept her secret until his death to protect her out of love.
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Maggie
MI5 agent
Maggie, who is only seen in a few flashbacks in the series, is also an MI5 agent and Jason's associate. His mission was spy on Kai-Ming and collect information on Ambassador Chen for the British government. She was killed because she had the recording device that captured Trent Clark killing Chen. It's unclear if she knew about Jason and Helen's affair, but there's a good chance she's known about it since she told Jason about Chen's death.
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Maria
Black Dove
One of the biggest twists at the end of Black Doves The first season is that Wallace and Helen's nanny, Marie, is revealed to be a Black Dove at the end of Black Doves season 1. She is the young woman who sits on Reed's couch following the Christmas-themed ending of Season 1. It is not yet determined whether Marie has been a Black Dove for some time or if she is a new recruit. What is clear is that Reed plans to use Marie to maintain control over Helen after Wallace becomes Prime Minister in Black Doves season 2.