WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for the first season of Black Doves.
The Clarks and the Newmans are two feared and dangerous London-based criminal family organizations in the Netflix spy series. Black Doves. Created by Joe Barton (The Lazarus Project, Giri/Haji), Black Doves has excellent reviews, earning a 98% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes following its December 5, 2024 release date. Knightley (Atonement, Pirates of the Caribbean) leads the cast of Black Doves together with Ben Whishaw's Sam Young, best known for playing Q in Daniel Craig's James Bond films. Black Doves features a stellar supporting cast, including Sarah Lancashire's Reed, Kathryn Hunter's Lenny, and Ella Lily Hyland's Williams.
Black Doves follows public figure 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 this Helen may be in trouble with a powerful criminal conspiracy led by the notorious Clark familyReed enlists a trusted sniper named Sam Young for assistance.
The Clarks and The Newmans are two criminal family organizations
The Clarks are a much larger and more dangerous criminal conglomerate
In Black Doves In the first season, the Clarks and the Newmans are two distinct organized crime families operating in London, England. The Newmans are the first of the two crime families to be introduced in the series through a flashback involving Sam several years before the main plot of the series takes place. As one of Sam's first tasks after Lenny ordered him to kill his father Frank for his first hit Sam kills three of the four Newman brothers who were starting to become known as drug dealers.
The Clarks are a much larger criminal family conglomerate outside of London. They have international reach and have established connections in several countries, including the United States. Alex Clark was the mob boss of the Clark family before Sam killed her at the end of Black Doves season 1. His son, Trent Clark, was not a prominent figure in the organization other than being Alex's son. He appears to be of little use to Alex in the series, but is the main reason why several deaths occur, most significantly Ambassador Chen, who he accidentally killed, and Jason, who he hired another assassin named Elmore Fitch to assassinate.
Sam was hired to eliminate the Newmans, but spared Hector's life
Sam couldn't kill Hector because it would break his code
Hector was the boy Sam let live, which forced him to step away from the assassin business and leave London for seven years. When Sam returns to London, Lenny contacts him and wants him to resolve the failed coup in Hector Newman, who grew and expanded his own lucrative drug network. Lenny still considered Hector a nuisance in London, even after all these years, and forced Sam to keep his promise. Newman became more powerful and disturbing after Sam let him off the hook.
Sam didn't pull the trigger on Hector when he had the chance because he was just a child and that would have violated his own moral code as a killer. In addition to Hector, Black Doves the first season features no other prominent Newmansindicating that Hector may be the last man in his crime family. Hector's operation was weakened after the Clarks eliminated dozens of their men in search of Kai-Ming, Ambassador Chen's daughter. That's why Hector doesn't kill when he has the opportunity and shows up at Michale's apartment asking to join forces at the end of the season.
Trent Clark is the son of notorious mob boss Alex Clark
He is the reason for many of the deaths in the series
Trent Clark is the main reason why the entire plot unfolds in Black Doves and that's why Ambassador Chen, Jason, Maggie, Phillip, Stephen Yarrick and even Elmore Fitchthey were all killed. Despite his pleas of innocence and his admission of guilt in Black Doves At the end of season 1, Trent had a lot of blood on his hands. In the final moments of Black Doves Season 1, Sam felt that Helen was about to get revenge on Trent for killing Jason and taking more lives by trying to cover it up. Sam kills Trent, Alex and his bodyguard so Helen doesn't bring danger to her family.
There's nothing truly tragic about Trent's death, as he is by far the most irredeemable character in the series. The same can be said for Alex Clar, who was completely unaware that Trent was trying to protect himself by ordering attacks on everyone who knew of Ambassador Chen's death. Although Alex and Trent don't appear much in the first season of Black Doves and are not included in the second season, their deaths could spell trouble for Helen and Sam in future episodes. As the Clarks are intentionally known, There will likely be another prominent Clark who becomes the main villain in Season 2.
Are the Newman and Clark crime families in Black Doves connected?
The Newmans and Clarks are rival gangs and do not work together
In fact, the Clarks and Newmans are rival crime families with very different levels of power and scale. The Clarks are internationally recognized whilst the Newmans, or at least what's left of them with Hector, are a more local clan operating in the UK. Hector Newman may have additional connections throughout Europe, as his main trade appears to be selling and distributing drugs. The Newmans could turn out to be a bigger conglomerate than they seem Black Doves 2nd seasonespecially since Newman feels like he'll be a bigger character now that he's teamed up with Sam.
One of the greatest mysteries Black Doves season 1 is how Hector Newman found Kai-Ming in the first place and why she was trapped in her warehouse. Since the Clarks were looking for Kai-Ming and shot up the Newmans' warehouse, it wouldn't make sense if the two crime families were operating on the same team. It's more than likely that the Newmans and Clarks are rival gangs, although the Clarks are much more sophisticated than the Newmans in the first season. Since Alex Clark is dead, Hector Newman could try to gain power among the Clarks or recruit some of his henchmen and resources to expand his organization into Black Doves season 2.