Honestly, don’t we all just need some Sarah Lancashire right now? I know I do. I’ve been away and missed this new show on the Netflix, Black Doves, so let’s roll right into some Slancs after the break in my Black Doves series 1 episode 1 To Love, Then recap.

We open at a Christmas party, much merriment and imbibing crammed into a large pub chock full of ugly Christmas sweaters and singalongs. A TV chyron warns of ‘CHINESE AMBASSADOR DEATH INQUEST’ but nobody is paying attention. Our intoxicated Santa Claus (Robert Ashe) rolls out of The Coal Hole (THE COAL HOLE), followed by a grim-looking Asian man in a heavy jacket.

Or but rather, our shady gentleman is Jason Davies (Andrew Koji) and he’s the one being followed. He calls Maggie Jones (Hannah Khalique-Brown) to tell her someone’s on his tail and they talk a bunch about a woman who is not answering, not calling at the right time, and not being connected to either of them. Phillip Bray (Thomas Coombes) beeps into their call to verbally spar with Jason before Maggie hangs up as ‘She’ is ringing again. It seems nobody is supposed to know where Jason is, that’s why he’s grilling this lot as to whether they’ve told anyone where he is.

Maggie’s number calls back into the group chat, but she is dead on the ground and Phillip is garrotted immediately after. A gloved person surveys Maggie’s group call, with both Phillip’s and Jason’s full names listed.

The tempo is fast, so fast we almost miss all three people we’ve met properly (not Santa) are dead within the first 3 minutes and 22 seconds. Jason is last, as he calls into a clearly private line to say goodbye and lovely things to someone’s voicemail as he is shot.

We move to Rome, where Sam Young (Ben Whishaw) smokes in a bar and how subversive that looks now! When’s the last time you saw someone smoke in a restaurant or pub?? He ignores a call from a Mrs. Reed and heads out into the night, when he does answer a different call, if briefly.

We go back to England on a blustery day in the holiday season, Helen Webb (Keira Knightely) wrangles kiddos and brings Wallace Webb (Andrew Bechan) a steamy cuppa before the whole family heads off to for a massive Christmas party.

At the back of the room appears an older woman with a grave air (Sarah Lancashire! Oh, she looks fantastic!) who is not at all in the holiday spirit as she watches Helen make a speech. The older woman makes her way across to the Webbs, where she thanks Defense Secretary Wallace and drifts away.

Helen goes looking for her under the pretense of using the loo, this lovely calm older woman is Reed (Mrs. Reed?) and she gives Helen the news about Jason, who was Helen’s lover as late as yesterday. That must have been who he was calling when he was killed. Reed says she has ‘had eyes’ on Helen lately, no need for Helen to lie about the nature of her relationship with Jason.

Reed probes; what was Helen doing? Was she ‘developing’ a contact in the Justice Department or…? Helen calls it love, she is all icy calm after the brief storm of feeling, masked by cigarette smoking. Reed produces a photo of Jason dead, and Helen loses her composure again, just a little.

Reed would like Helen to concentrate, please, since Reed knows Maggie (a shop assistant) and Phillip (tabloid reporter) were also killed yesterday, after meeting in the morning with Jason. Before he met with Helen for lunch.

A tense exchange follows; a negotiation, Jason gave Helen something at that lunch, what was it? Helen drags out of Reed whether or not Jason suffered (he did not) in exchange for what was handed over at lunch (Christmas present – as yet unopened) but it gets hostile quickly. Helen threatens an unafraid Reed with a knife; if ‘They’ try to pull her out, she’s taking the children.

Are they…her children?? Does her husband know all of this? And who are the Black Doves Reed mentions, that Helen has let down so spectacularly? Reed references Helen’s affair(s) plural, so maybe Jason was love but others were less…significant.

Reed takes her leave after some more dire warnings, Helen returns to the party with a smile on her face to draw her husband onto the dance floor with a flirty air.

Yikes.

A friend of mine recently called her teenage daughter a ‘sneaky little liar’, mostly with chagrin, but I like to imagine there was a small note of admiration in there as well.

Helen remembers the beginning of her relationship with Jason as the tired family makes its way home after the party and Sam flies…where? Somewhere with un-monitored long term parking and people who leave their keys in unwise places.

He slides into a swanky hotel room to find…Reed. Hai fella. They’re old friends, and perhaps it was his own car he stole from the airport parking lot. He never intended to return, however, and wouldn’t have, if it wasn’t for her. Her being the adulteress spy with twins via the Defense Secretary, Helen, who’s been feeding ‘Them’ government secrets for 10 years.

Sam has been brought in to hunt down any assassins on Helen’s tail; Reed gently reminds Sam that he owes Helen. He agrees, and queries as to why Helen initiated this affair with Jason? ‘Ah. To love, then.’

Helen watches the news at home about the 3 murders, now connected in the press. Her husband (suspiciously) is called away due to something about the Chinese coroner’s report, but he doesn’t lie half as well as she does when he says he doesn’t recognise Jason’s name. He definitely looked shady then.

Sam sits alone at the hotel bar, drinking champagne, when a party-hatted stubble-jawed reveler wanders over for a drink top-up. Daniel (Philipp Christopher) starts with some chitchat but Sam cuts to the chase: he’s going up to his room. If Daniel takes the hat off, he can come with him.

Daniel takes the hat off.

Helen opens up the Christmas present from Jason, stored in a secret compartment in a dresser. It’s a beautiful bracelet, very delicate, which is the opposite of how Helen treats it initially, dropping it to one side and cutting the jewelry box open with a knife. She pulls out the phone Jason called the last seconds of his life, listens to the voicemail and destroys the SIM card.

Helen leaves her home late at night; taking a cab to the flat rented previously by Jason. She talks her way into his space by identifying herself as Jason’s partner, which is a bit dicey given that she’s a politician’s wife and the missus (Lizzie Hopley) has had the news on all day.

She curls up on the couch in Jason’s flat, smelling his clothes then later blowing into his vape. Although the police have been there previously, they come knocking again, and Helen pulls the plug. She texts the word ‘COMPROMISED’ to? Reed?  along with her location and that’s her life as she’s known it for 10 years, gone.

Sam is interrupted mid-rogering up against the glass in his swank suite; Daniel is not happy to dis-engage.

The police are Williams (Ella Lily Hyland) and Kent (Eniko Fulop), they’d just like to gather any of Jason’s electronic devices left behind, if that’s alright? Sure, they could ask his girlfriend, upstairs right now.

Helen listens to muffled gunshots and a thud, then runs and hides in a room. Her phone starts ringing immediately, it’s her adorable daughter wondering where she is and did she not have a nanny there?? We saw a nanny! Why are these small children alone when we know Helen herself is under siege? The ‘police’ just shot the poor landlady!

All Helen has with her is a knife, both FakePolice have weapons drawn, but Helen has the advantage of surprise, which she uses to plunge her wee knife into Kent’s thigh. She disarms and is on the brink of defeating both when Sam joins the fight with a shotgun, blowing Kent all over Helen’s face.

Helen is as stunned by the brain matter all over her face as she is with Sam’s unexpected re-entry into her life. They run, after Helen grabs some things hidden in a vent behind a picture hanging.

They get caught up in the car; of yes, same old Wallace and yes, twins! You’ll love them! EXCUSE ME. There is no way any of this is going any further, let alone to Prime Minister’s wife as they chat about. She wangles a promise to try his best to keep her family safe, her alive and able to get her revenge on whomever killed Jason.

Huh. So she just goes home. Silly me thinking ‘COMPROMISED’ meant- ‘PULL ME OUT’. It was just like an Uber if your driver also carried a literal shotgun.

She showers off all the bloody brain matter out of her hair, tucks in a sleepy kiddo and goes and reads all the messages she and Jason sent back and forth. The ones she asked him to delete daily. There are other messages to others as well, to Phillip, to Maggie.

One from Philip, the journalist, says ‘If it really is sy on the video footage then this is huge’ and now I’m wondering if this overlaps with Helen’s husband ongoing concern with the Chinese government.

Also, earlier we saw Helen take full responsibility for initiating the affair with Jason, but it sure seems as though he was a spy too, and in watching their love story unfold in flashbacks, he was staring at her first. So now, I’m not sure about Jason, although he did use his dying breath to **almost** profess his love to her.

Sam heads to a guitar shop to pick up some more guns, commiserating with shop owner Bingo (Rat Scabies – apparently this is a name. I really thought there might be a dog) about the lack of class of the agencies these days. Just killing all over at the ripe age of 22.

Sam steps outside and just as I’m thinking – I wonder if that’s safe? A man shouts ‘Sam? SAM!’ from across the street. Arnie (Adam Silver) can’t believe his eyes; Sam has been gone for 7 years without a single call. They clearly used to be quite close but Sam is not overjoyed to see his friend. He agrees to meet for supper, but makes Arnie promise not to tell Michael. Who is Michael? I don’t know, but I feel like Arnie is inviting him to supper right now.

Sam heads over to where Jason’s body was found to scope out likely sniper spots, he gets a call from Helen looking for more information as she digs through whatever she can find.

**She brings up her ability to spy, by that I mean, lie, manipulate and spin stories on a dime to investigate, but she calls it her ‘nous’, pronounced like mouse. Hm.

Technically, Sam is supposed to be the one doing all the investigating, but he’s really more of an assassin. Not so much of the soft skills. They agree he will not see Michael, who I am now convinced will be at supper this evening.

While she and Sam are chatting, messages start popping up on her husband’s computer; flirty messages he’s having that very moment with a young woman with the name Dani (new assistant). Interesting. Is she in an agency or just the same old same old; creepy older boss using his position to lech all over his office helper or a young woman attempting to absorb wisdom, prestige, experience and adoration through her wobbly bits?

Sam find a bullet casing in one of the places he checks for a sniper location. (Okay, it may have only been one place he checked, but that strains credulity.)

He brings the casing to a high end makeup store, where a very pale woman with orange eyeshadow and David Bowie’s hair agrees to run them for him. For once, Sam is the one forcing the personal side of things, but Georgina (Antonia Campbell-Hughes) could not seem to care less that he’s been gone for 7 years and they don’t take cash any more, thanks.

Sam rocks up to supper with Arnie and his husband (maybe Zack?), who gets along famously with Sam.

Helen meets Reed at the cinema and now I want popcorn. Reed listens to Helen’s report patiently, then brings up the small matter of two dead people and a wounded FakePolice officer the evening before. Helen’s instructions were to “Do nothing. Arouse no suspicion.” That is essentially the opposite of what Helen has been doing. She’s not leaving it to Sam.

Helen persists, bringing up the unknown and unsaved number Jason called five times before his death

Sam’s friends believe he is in Insurance, and you know how that goes, right? Well, actually, I do, and it doesn’t cover near the multitude of sins that Sam is using it for. We see a flashback of Sam kicking someone, then he tells them he went to France and carefully asks after Michael.

Ah, Michael.

Michael did not tell their friends that Sam went batshite crazy and he was covered in blood when he left, so Michael remained loyal. He is newly married with a daughter with his new partner, however. Sorry, Sam, nope.

Oh. But later, during after-dinner cocaine bumps, Arnie reveals that Michael WAS married, but is now single. Sam is electrified. That could also be the blow. After a few minutes of junior high hijinks (what did he say when you told him I was back? He said that? What else did he say?), Sam gets the name of the person attached to the bullet casing via fingerprints and he’s off to find an Elmore Finch.

On the TV, more about the governmental woes; the exact thing Helen’s husband Defense Secretary has been going on about, Beijing has rejected the UK’s coroner’s report. China thinks their ambassador died under shady circumstances and they are not satisfied with the findings of a drug overdose. This is why Wallace was staying ‘at the office’ the night before, not just to see Dani (new assistant)’s new cheerful socks as they messaged about.

Wallace and Dani watch the news as we learn that its not just the Chinese ambassador’s death that is hinky, his daughter Kai-Ming Chen (Isabella Wei) is also missing. And she was the person Jason called 5 times right before his death. Sam thinks this is much bigger than someone gunning specifically for Helen.

Helen kisses the kids and leaves them with her nanny (whew), loads her weapons and prepares to ride with Sam to find out exactly who Elmore Fitch is and how Kai-Ming Chen fits into everything we know so far.

And that’s it, we’re out!

Well. That was quite a lot. I LOVE Sarah Lancashire, she always embodies every character she plays, from the bottom of her shoes to the top of her head. She holds her own beautifully against movie stars Keira Knightely and Ben Whishaw; she’s bantering and threatening as she deftly navigates an England full of intrigue.

I also love that they made Sam a real person, with foibles and exes and random hookups and cocaine and junior high conversation breakdowns.

It’s interesting that they made Helen’s superpower the most unlikable one of all: the ability to deceive, duck and weave and survive through unfortunate choices. I don’t imagine her character is received with as much fondness as Sam’s.

As for the show, I have many, many questions:

• Will we find out about Michael?
• Will we find out why Sam left?
• Is Dani also an operative?
• Does Wallace know that Helen is a spy?
• Was Jason spying on Helen?

All these and so many more questions! Alright, everyone, thanks for reading along. Until the next episode! Cheers