Ah, a season finale: alliances renewed (Williams and Eleanor, yay! Reed and Helen, tread lightly!), alliances formed (Sam and Hector, strategic!), scores settled (byeeeee, London branch of the Clark Family!), sides of one’s life integrated (Sam attending the Webb Family Christmas, aww!). For all that Black Doves’s first season has been a fun roller coaster of international and interpersonal intrigue, I love that at its center, it’s a gooey love note to how important it is to have friends you can rely on.
Every woman for herself, stay cold, stay alive, it’s just business — that big, Fortress of Solitude-inspired claptrap Williams was spouting earlier; what a relief that she’s thought better of it. First of all, it’s not a viable long-term strategy, and most of the good (or at least non-fatal) outcomes we’ve seen in Black Doves argue powerfully against it. Everyone is calling people they trust for help when they’re out of their depth, and the vulnerability in relying on others has been lifesaving, over and over again. That happens for good — Sam saving Williams, Michael sheltering everyone, Sam protecting Helen — and for ill, as in Trent Clark begging his mother Alex for help after he accidentally kills Ambassador Chen.
It turns out to be the most consequential phone call Trent ever makes, as it ultimately leads to the final moments of his own life, as well as the lives of Maggie, Philip, Jason, Jason’s landlady, Kent, Yarrick, Alex, Alex’s mouthy and menacing deputy, and the many other people who found themselves facing the business ends of everyone else’s guns. Trent is every bit the dingus Cole described him as, but still makes two modestly worthwhile contributions to the entire affair. His acknowledgment that he deserves to face some kind of punishment for his role in Chen’s death and its coverup is correct and a proper moment of contrition. The other is his description of his mother as “not a mob boss; she’s a criminally-adjacent person of influence,†which may be the funniest line of the entire season.
The big showdown with the Clarks — featuring the Tracey Ullman in a far-too-short guest role — ends with several bangs, courtesy of Sam, who insists on protecting Helen from both harm and regrettable murders, and also with the whimper of realizing the whole revenge plot was kind of a nothingburger. By removing the London leadership of the Clark Organization from the chessboard, Sam has actually done his nation a service, but how long will that last? In his “let’s team up/hey kids, let’s put on a show†pitch to Sam later, Hector Newman himself points out that the vacuum Sam created won’t stay empty for long. The Clarks are down but not out, and giving them something to prove will make them even more dangerous. For her part, Helen finds that avenging Jason’s murder doesn’t make her feel any better about his death, and she’ll need another path to resolving her grief. Perhaps she’ll find it in her next professional and personal chapter as the wife of the incoming Prime Minister? At their post-mortem for the whole operation, Reed shares some vital bits of intel, including the news that the current Prime Minister is going to step down in the spring “for health reasons,†a “sure, Jan†reason if ever we’ve heard one.
I’m curious to see how Helen fares in an even more significant formal role alongside Wallace as he ascends to his premiership, not least because tracking down and scooping up Trent at the stables where he worked revisits Black Doves’s case for the notion that nations and their formally-recognized organizations can do their thing all they want, but individuals and networks outside of that structure can be just as significant in making the world spin in a different direction, too. That argument is further bolstered by how little it shows of the CIA vs. Clarks gun battle in the warehouse’s courtyard and by Jason’s warm-hearted, deeply risky MI5 report exonerating Helen. It’s dead handy to be in the clear again (though who knows what Wallace will be on the lookout for as time goes on).
The first season’s remaining plot resolutions are all what they should be. Sam gets a proper, bittersweet goodbye with Michael, affirmation and love with Helen at her family’s Christmas, and bygones with Lenny. Helen is secure enough in what she knows and feels about Jason to let go of the supplementary information Reed dug up for her and enjoys being snugly embedded in her family. Wallace learns from CIA Station Chief Porter that he might be the Tories’ highest-ranking member free from any whiff of the Chen murder scandal. Michael and Ruby spend their Christmas safe and sound with Arnie and Zack. Williams, Eleanor, and Kai-Ming get to enjoy not dying and, later, are partying it up on Eleanor’s houseboat. I’ll throw in my hope for a blood transfusion and/or a massive helping of leafy greens for Williams, and a cozy group watch of The Santa Clause for them, too.
Bookending this season with “Fairytale of New York†is a little heavy-handed, but justifiably so. It’s the best Christmas song for singing along with gusto until you get to a lyric that breaks your heart (and your voice) while also leaving you with a glimmer of hope. It mirrors the structure and themes of the show: rowdy in some places, melancholy in others, funny and spiteful, and lovely in the end.
Closing Doors, Opening Windows
• It’s too bad that Helen’s solid dating advice to Trent — “The next time you like a girl, maybe just talk to her about her interests instead of trying to buy her love with heroin.†— will go unused by him, but it’s pretty evergreen, so she should be able to pass some version of it along to her kids when the time comes.
• It’s easy to miss in the Christmas celebrations montage, but it looks as if Webb Family Nanny Marie is perched on Reed’s couch — is she a visitor, or does she live there? Is she a Black Dove? Reed’s daughter? Both???
• Speaking of Reed, the sight of her calmly wrapping Christmas gifts in her enormous, window-rich apartment and, with equal equanimity, cutting herself off from anything resembling responsibility for everything that’s happened in the last 24 hours is one of the most chilling scenes of the year. Bad bosses can quite literally be toxic, huh? Shudder.