WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for Black Doves season 1.
Keira Knightley’s Netflix espionage series Black Doves has a major twist that reveals the true identity of her secret love interest, Jason. Created by Joe Barton (The Lazarus Project, Giri/Haji), Black Doves has opened to outstanding reviews, earning a perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes critic score upon its December 5, 2024 release date. Knightley (Atonement, Pirates of the Caribbean) leads the cast of Black Doves along with Ben Whishaw, who is best known for playing Q in Daniel Craig’s final three James Bond movies. Black Doves also features a stellar supporting cast, including Sarah Lancashire’s Reed, Kathryn Hunter’s Lenny, Ella Lily Hyland’s Williams, and Omari Douglas’s Michael.
Black Doves follows Knightley’s 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 covert spy organization known as the Black Doves, which Mrs. Reed is the head of. Reed confronts Helen over an affair she was having with a civil servant named Jason (Andrew Koji), who was shockingly shot and killed in a park from long range. Suspecting that Helen could be in hot water with a powerful criminal conspiracy, Reed enlists a trusted triggerman named Sam Young (Whishaw) to help Helen avert threats to her life and family.
Jason Was Secretly An MI5 Agent Trying To See If Helen Was A Spy
Jason successfully learned that Helen was a Black Dove
Mrs. Reed tells Helen at the end of Black Doves season 1 that Jason had been a secret MI5 agent working for the British government. Helen also discovers that Jason and Maggie were both MI5 agents, which is how Jason became aware of Ambassador Chen’s death and acquired the recording device that captured Trent Clark killing him. Maggie worked at a jewelry shop as part of her cover, which allowed Jason to drop a hint to Helen when he gave her a luxurious bracelet the day before his death. Helen is able to trace the bracelet Jason gave her back to the jewelry store and finds the recording device locked in a safe.
Surprisingly, Helen doesn’t pick up on Jason’s potential ulterior motives before he is killed. Jason is only seen in flashbacks through Helen’s biased and love-blind perspective of their affair. Because Helen was lost in her romantic feelings for Jason, trying to escape her seemingly loveless marriage to Wallace who she married only to extract information from him for the Black Doves, she was blindsided by the news that Jason was a government agent. Since Wallace is a prominent politician with close proximity to Downing Street, Jason was ordered by MI5 to earn Helen’s trust and find out whether she was a spy, which he successfully did.
Why Jason Lied To The British Government About Helen Not Being A Spy
After Helen discovers that Jason was an operative, she wonders whether he ever loved her or if he was just playing her like she had done to Wallace. Jason certainly was manipulative in getting close to Helen by “spilling a drink” on her to initiate the affair. Part of his mission was to form an intimacy with her and extract information to inform the British government of whether she was who she said she was. In the end, however, Jason could have ratted on Helen after she revealed to him that she was a Black Dove, a truth that Helen adamantly denies to Reed because admitting it would be a death sentence.
Since Jason never revealed Helen’s true identity to the British government or MI5, the fact that he covered for her implies that he did grow to love her despite the false pretenses. Jason betrayed his command and his country in order to protect Helen from being exposed as a Black Dove. When Jason reported back to MI5, he told them Helen was clear, with a normal background and life as a mother of two and a politician’s wife. Even though Jason knew that she was a Black Dove, he lied and covered for her because he grew to love her.
Did Jason Really Want To Run Away With Helen?
It’s quite possible since Jason really fell for Helen
Had Jason not been killed by Elmore Fitch as part of Trent Clark’s cover-up for killing Chen, his own career could have been at risk if his affair with Helen had grown into a serious relationship. By the end of Black Doves, it appears that Helen and Jason were truly in love and they both might have gone to drastic measures to leave their undercover lives behind in London and make a break for it, perhaps by traveling the world together. Technically, when they started, Jason was only trying to play her for his job, as Helen did to Wallace, to see if she was a spy. Ultimately, Jason really fell for Helen. When the time came to make his report in Black Doves season 1, Jason saved Helen’s cover and her life.
