Black Doves – Episode 1 “To Love Then” Recap & Review

To Love Then

Episode 1 of Black Doves begins with Christmas celebrations which overlook the death of a Chinese ambassador which is making the news online. Outside a busy pub, a man called Jason Davies bides his time before walking home hurriedly. He’s spooked as he walks along South Bank and phones Maggie, who in turn rings Phillip. Jason is worried that he’s being followed by someone. However, his two contacts are assassinated.

With no other choice, Jason rings someone else as a desperation move… but it’s too late. He’s shot in the heart and left for dead on a bench.

Now, it would appear that some of this stems from the death of that Ambassador, and eventually this all collides into the story of Helen Webb. She’s married to the Defence Secretary, Wallace, who’s obviously pretty stressed with everything that’s been going on.

At a big Christmas charity party, Helen is approached by a mysterious lady called Reed who brings up Jason’s death. It turns out she’s been having an affair with him for around 3 months and she claims that it’s love, rather than any other motivation.

Helen seems to be hiding something, but apparently Jason gave her a Christmas present which she hasn’t opened yet. Whether this is relevant or not, remains to be seen. The trouble is, Helen could be a target and it’s clear she’s working undercover in Downing Street, on a job. For now, Reed tells her that the family are safe and she doesn’t need to leave, but mostly because they don’t have anyone else at the organization to take over.

Helen does her job well, despite getting sloppy with this affair, as she’s been feeding them government secrets for nearly 10 years. However, Reed is not taking any chances so she calls in a contact called Sam from Rome to hunt the assassins that could be after Helen.

When Wallace is called in for urgent matters at the office, Helen decides to dig into Jason’s world. She shows up at his apartment, claiming to be his partner. After listening to one of the voicemail messages, the police show at the door. Unfortunately, they’re actually assassins in disguise.

Helen manages to take them both out, although the second takes an absolute age to fire her gun and could have easily killed her. Anyway, the trio scuffle around the apartment, but it’s Sam who makes the difference. With a shotgun in hand, he shoots one of them, leaving Helen a bloody mess. She grabs a hidden hard-drive from the vents and takes off with Sam.

Helen isn’t exactly happy in this relationship with Wallace, but she’s finding it hard to leave given she now has two children, and she’s got a pretty good life, all things considered. She’s also on-course to be the next PM’s wife too.

Helen does eventually head home, where she boots up the hard drive. Along with all their old messages (which they were supposed to delete) are a number of missed calls from a mysterious number, and word to Philip that someone called Sy has been caught on video footage.

As fate would have it, it’s not just Helen who’s having an affair here. Hacking into Wallace’s computer, Helen soon learns that he’s having a cheeky fling with his new assistant, Dani. As for Sam, he finds the sniper’s location and, subsequently, the bullet casing. He visits his contact, George, needing to run prints and DNA. It’s done quickly, and we get a name too – Elmore Fitch.

Helen heads off to visit Reed at the cinema, who warns her off from getting too involved. She hands over a newspaper, with the number Jason rang, and encourages her to follow up this lead. This is particularly troubling because the Chinese call foul play on the Ambassador’s death. Even worse, her daughter Kai-ming Chen is missing.

Turns out that mysterious number Jason was ringing? Yep, it’s Kai-ming Chen’s.

The Episode Review

Black Doves gets off to an intriguing start, with an enticing mystery involving the Chinese, a dead Ambassador and agents called back into the fight again. It’s a pretty standard set-up, and so far there’s not too much to really set it apart from other series in this field.

It doesn’t have the charisma or charm of something akin to Slow Horses, nor does it have the high octane action seen in something like 24 or The Terminal List. It also doesn’t have the tense atmosphere seen in Day of the Jackal or The Agency. Instead, this show falls somewhere in the middle of being watchable and being a little too mediocre.

Hopefully things improve as we go along though as this definitely has some potential.