“Black Doves ”Ending Explained: Here’s Who Killed Jason — and Why the Creator Teased Helen’s Not in the Clear in Season 2

Warning: Black Doves season 1 spoilers ahead!

Keira Knightley's character, Helen Webb, is seeking revenge in Netflix's Black Doves.

Created by Joe Barton, the thriller series, set at Christmastime, follows Helen (Knightley), who works for the Black Doves — a shadowy corporate organization of international spies led by Mrs. Reed (Sarah Lancashire), who gather information and sell it to the highest bidder.

Helen is married to a prominent British politician, Wallace Webb (Andrew Buchan), on the path to becoming the country's next prime minister. Unbeknownst to Wallace, their decade-long marriage is purely for Helen's secret-mining gain.

At the beginning of Black Doves, which premiered on Dec. 5, viewers watch as Helen's life begins to unravel when her lover — a low-ranking civil servant working in the Department of Justice named Jason Davies (Andrew Koji) — is killed. Mrs. Reed enlists assassin Sam (Ben Whishaw) and one of Helen's oldest friends to help solve the murder and tie up any loose ends.

Helen is hellbent on finding Jason's killer and taking her revenge however she sees fit, but Knightley says the "heart of the whole series" is Helen's dynamic with Sam.

"There was a deliciousness in showing that kind of friendship in the midst of murder and mayhem," she told Extra in November 2024.

Here's everything to know about how Black Doves ends, including the identity of Jason's killer.

How did Black Doves season 1 end?

At the end of Black Doves season 1, Helen learns that Trent Clark (Angus Cooper), son of London crime boss Alex Clark (Tracey Ullman), was responsible for the hit on Jason (who was secretly an M15 agent investigating Helen).

Trent ordered the hit to cover up accidentally killing his girlfriend's father, Chinese Ambassador Chen (Andy Cheung). This all comes to light in one of the final scenes where Sam, Helen and the infamous Clark family come face-to-face in an abandoned building.

Helen is irate and prepared to kill Trent on the spot, but in a turn of events, Sam kills Alex, his wife and Trent — all in a matter of seconds.

“He does it because he loves [Helen] and because he owes her and because he’s trying to protect her from the burden of killing that kid,” Barton told Tudum of the show's dramatic ending.

Who killed Jason in Black Doves?

Trent hired assassin Elmore Fitch (Paapa Essiedu) to kill Jason.

This was after he learned that Jason, along with jewelry shop worker Maggie (Hannah Khalique-Brown) and tabloid journalist Phillip (Thomas Coombes), had video footage of him killing Chinese Ambassador Chen.

Desperate not to get caught, Trent had Fitch eliminate all three people.

While speaking to Tudum, Barton shared that Trent wasn't always who they had in mind as Chen's killer. “There was a different reveal about who killed the Chinese ambassador that we filmed and didn't end up using," he shared.

In alternative versions of the script, Agent Perryman (Adam Best), the Irish MI5 agent, was responsible.

What happens to Sam in Black Doves?

Sam has much to consider at the end of Black Doves season 1. After killing three members of the Clark family, Sam understands that he has a target on his back. He can run or join forces with Hector Newman (Luther Ford), a member of another crime family and someone Sam spared when he was just a little boy.

It's unclear what Sam's decision is, but he comes to terms with the fact that it's too dangerous to be with the love of his life, Michael (Omari Douglas).

"The consequence [of his and Helen's job] is that it takes a little bit of their happiness or freedom away," Barton told Tudum.

Will there be a Black Doves season 2?

Yes, Black Doves has been renewed for a second season. The announcement was made at the Edinburgh TV Festival in August 2024, per Tudum.

Barton would like to watch Helen "get pulled deeper into the world of spies having been so close to leaving," he told the outlet. He also imagines the dangers for Helen and her family will ratchet up with Wallace as prime minister.

“Just seeing the tension of that, seeing Sam back in London ... I would like to see more Eleanor and Williams, Kai-Ming, all those people," Barton added. "I’d like to start to throw them up against one another again, and maybe make things more dangerous and challenging for them."

As for whether season 2 will be set during Christmastime again, viewers will have to wait and see.

"It’s all about when it would be released. It doesn’t need to be constrained by the Christmas holiday," the creator told Variety.

Barton continued, "There’s a part of me that’d be like, 'Yeah, let’s always do it at Christmas!' But also it slightly sent everyone crazy to be stuck in a permanent Christmas state for six or seven months. Then in the edit, I mean, we were listening to “Good King Wenceslas” in July. And I don’t know if you want to put people through that again."

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