- Title: Black Doves – A Little Black Dove
- IMDb: link
There’s an awful lot to like in “A Little Black Dove” which gives us a terrific kitchen confrontation between Helen Webb (Keira Knightley) and the hired assassin (Paapa Essiedu) who killer her lover but also flashbacks to Helen’s recruitment into the Black Doves, her first meetings with both Sam (Ben Whishaw) and Mrs. Reed (Sarah Lancashire), and the first assignment which went a little too well and ended up changing her life forever. By the end of the episode we not only have far more context for Helen’s career as a spy but also a measure of victory in her besting the assassin.
The show’s second episode is also notable for Sam running into the assassin he didn’t kill (Ella Lily Hyland), her new partner (Gabrielle Creevy), and their employer (Kathryn Hunter) who has unfinished business with Sam insisting he complete the job he ran out on 7 years ago. It’s this thread that ties back into the background story of the dead Chinese ambassador and his missing daughter (Isabella Wei) who it turns out to be in the possession of the man Sam has been instructed to kill to settle his debts. But Sam’s suicide mission to take him out is all for naught, as someone has gotten their first killing all his security and forcing him on the run. We also see a bit of spy craft by Helen getting info from her husband at her lover’s wake which also points to something far more murky about the ambassador’s death than anyone on British soil would like to admit.
