As much as I loved Black Doves Season 1, Season 2 already feels like a deviation that lacks the spirit, mystery, or raw thrill of its freshman season. And it’s not because of the cast. Everyone that we loved from Season 1 is pretty much back with some new delightful additions like Ambika Mod. It’s that I’m not so much buying this shift in Helen’s life as a spy or the mystery surrounding whoever is killing the Black Doves in Season 2 Episode 1 “Black Door.”
There’s also the sheer unbelievability of it all when it comes to Helen and how she’s moving now as the Prime Minister’s wife. Because I believed in her ability to sneak off in Season 1 because she wasn’t a huge player within the government. But now she’s the Prime Minister’s wife. And moving around is not going to be that easy, no matter what spy gadgets she has or how sneaky she thinks she is.
And that’s without getting into the mess that Sam has found himself in. Now that bit feels like the Black Doves we know and love.
MORE: Where did we last leave off? Read our review for Black Doves Season 2 Episode 1 “Black Door.”
Helen’s New Life is in Shambles
When it comes to who Helen Webb is in Black Doves Season 2, I believe in her marital woes. It doesn’t matter if she and her husband seemed to leave on a good footing at the end of Season 1. They never really talked about what the problems were in their relationship. So the problems are just going to persist with them just getting better at hiding there’s something wrong. And that really is the last thing that Helen needs now that Wallace is Prime Minister. But it’s believable because marriage isn’t easy and she totally cheated and was planning on leaving him multiple times.
What’s not believable when it comes to Helen and her journey in Season 2, is how easily she has been able to skip around and do her spy stuff. You mean to tell me that the wife of the highest politician for modern day UK politics can just leave her hotel and go on a run with no security? She can just exit a side door and go on a secret mission with a new agent where a bunch of bodies are dropped? She can leave Downing Street with no tail to meet a secret contact in a public park?
In the grand scheme of Black Doves, this could be a tiny thing. But Black Doves has made Wallace’s ascension to the Prime Minister role as something super important. So an important position of that caliber would require higher security for his loved ones. And it just takes me out of the entire first episode when Helen is just getting around to do her spy stuff with no problem. Because instead of me worrying about who is killing the doves and what happened to Reed, I’m thinking about how much Helen would be in the public eye, how she would be recognizable, and how she wouldn’t be able to get away so easily.
MORE: Black Doves Season 1 Review: Keira Knightley is Still That Girl
Then There’s What’s Happening with Sam
When we first hear from Sam in “Black Door,” it’s a truly sweet moment. Because Helen and Sam’s relationship is the beating heart of Black Doves. So when Helen smiles at the sound of Sam’s voice, we’re brought back to that scene at the end of the Season 1 finale where they were together for Christmas, everything seemingly looking up. But the reality is that Sam is now under the thumb of someone who caught him on a job on purpose to get him to kill the doves.
Obviously someone is cleaning house when it comes to the Black Doves. And I can’t help but think that it’s a result of what happened with the Clarks in the Season 1 finale. You don’t just take people down like that and not expect retaliation. And I think whoever is retaliating is using Sam as a specific chess piece to hurt him but also to hurt Helen. Because he doesn’t know who is on his roster. And I bet all the money in the world that Helen’s face is one of the people he’s supposed to kill.
Outside of Sam’s relationship with Helen, Sam is more isolated than ever before. And that means that whatever burst of hope that he had for his relationship with Michael, that’s dead. So if he doesn’t have Michael and he can’t be in regular communication with Helen, what does he do? What does he live for? Also, what happened to Hector? Whatever happened to Sam between Season 1 and 2, he’s drinking himself to death. And this new complication where he is killing the doves, that’s going to be his wakeup call.
What’s Up with Wildflower and Reed?
I know I started this review for Black Doves Season 2 Episode 1 kind of calling out the unbelievability of what Helen was going through. It’s a major critique that really throws me off and out of the show. But one of the things that pulls me back in, besides Sam, and keeps me locked in is what’s happening with Reed.
Sarah Lancashire is an enigmatic actress and it has been a joy seeing her take on the role of Reed. Because she’s mysterious, lethal, determined, and written in a way where you know she cares for you but she will take you down at a moment’s notice if you mess with her plans. And something has happened to her to take her off the board. But even before that, something happened during that Wildflower exchange with Helen that scared Reed.
Showing a scared Reed, or her version of being scared, is that kind of raw thriller that so far this Season 2 premiere has been missing. This feels like a shake up that belongs in the world created by Joe Barton. And I’m really hoping that this isn’t the last that we see of Reed. Because I understand that she’s part of a bigger organization and now Helen has a new handler. But when I think about Black Doves I think about her. And I’m praying that she’s not dead.
Black Doves Season 2 is now on Netflix.
