*Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Black Doves season 2.*

Black Doves season 2 shakes undercover spy Helen Webb (Keira Knightley) and her icy handler Mrs Reed (Sarah Lancashire) to their core, with a conspiracy that strikes at the heart of their treacherous lives.

The series begins with Reed's sudden disappearance, which leaves Helen more uncertain than ever as she attempts to keep her marriage afloat.

For her, that is quite literally a life-or-death task, since husband Wallace (Andrew Buchan) has assumed the office of Prime Minister and remains her primary source of classified intel.

Meanwhile, Sam (Ben Whishaw) lands in debt to an even shadier organisation, known only as Kestrel, who are on a vengeful mission to bring down the Black Doves for good. But why?

You can find all the details of the Black Doves season 2 ending below, as six brand new episodes finally arrive on Netflix.

Black Doves season 2 ending explained: Who lives and who dies?

The Black Doves season 2 finale teases shifts in the show's power dynamics, after Helen Webb narrowly prevents her life from falling apart.

The episode begins with Sam clearing his debt to the organisation known as Kestrel by delivering to them – but killing – Black Doves spymaster Reed.

As revealed in episode 4's flashback, she had led a deadly betrayal of Kestrel's founders decades earlier while working undercover in East Berlin. The ambush caused her to abandon the daughter she'd had with her unwitting target Franz Meyer.

Capitalising on a moment of confusion from Black Doves season 1, writer Joe Barton briefly has us believe that the child, named Vita, grew up to be Marie (Molly Chesworth); the suspicious woman who works as a nanny to Helen's children.

However, episode 6 exposes this as a red herring when Kestrel finally swoops in to exact their revenge.

Helen and her husband, Prime Minister Wallace Webb, are travelling by motorcade to a peace summit that he has organised when the vehicles are intercepted by armed agents.

They abduct US defence envoy Cecile Mason (Neve Campbell) and Katia Chernov (Sylvia Hoeks), the widow of murdered diplomat Alexi, whose defection from the USSR was sabotaged by Reed back in 1988.

The hostages are taken to Black Doves HQ, which is raided by Kestrel with help from turncoat agent Dani (Agnes O'Casey).

Reed is among the Black Doves staffers held at gunpoint in this nightmarish scenario, as her long-buried sins are finally about to resurface.

It's here, with the scheme seemingly beyond foiling, that the unassuming Katia reveals her true identity to be Reed's long-lost daughter, Vita.

After time spent in a Soviet orphanage, she had been reunited with her father, Franz, and together they spent years plotting revenge on both Reed and the organisation she represents.

Vita nonchalantly shoots Cecile in the head when the feisty official threatens retaliation from the United States government, before proceeding to the final stage of her plan: coercing Helen into killing the Prime Minister.

As the unhappy couple sit in their waylaid vehicle, Vita informs Helen via earpiece that she must choose between her husband and her kids, who have been whisked away by Marie – Reed's daughter, but a Black Dove-turned-Kestrel agent.

The deaths of a senior US diplomat and a UK Prime Minister would certainly cause a geopolitical storm, but global instability is not Vita's aim. Rather, she simply wants to see the Black Doves forced into the cold light of day, and brought down for good.

Vita hears a gunshot ring out over the phone line and is satisfied that her plans have come to fruition.

That's when Helen and Reed's somewhat reluctant allies Williams (Ella Lily Hyland), Eleanor (Gabrielle Creevy) and Laila (Ambika Mod) arrive to break up the party, sparking a chaotic gunfight across the office floor.

Meanwhile, we learn that Helen did not, in fact, shoot Wallace, but instead fired a shot into their vehicle's bulletproof glass to get Vita to drop her immediate threat.

The intensely stressful incident confirms Wallace's suspicions that his wife is not who she says she is, but that's a conversation for later.

Back at the Black Doves offices, Vita suffers a serious gunshot wound and flees downstairs, while Williams and Eleanor make short work of Dani by throwing an armed grenade into the lift in which she attempts to escape.

Reed follows a trail of blood to bid Vita a sombre farewell. The spymaster reveals that she hadn't attempted to find her as she wanted to keep her daughter from a brutal life of espionage. It was, in Reed's own warped way, intended as a loving gesture.

Helen and Sam reach Marie at London Zoo to rescue the kids, who mercifully had no clue how much danger they were in, and their protective mother *ahem* her nanny's employment. Get it?

Looking ahead, Reed has reaffirmed her position at the Black Doves and forged a fragile truce with colleague Mr Conteh (Babou Ceesay), but it won't quite be business as usual.

Helen intends to use her recent victory to secure more power and transparency over her activities in the field. That is, if she can dig herself out of a rather large hole at home.

Upon returning to No. 10 Downing Street, Wallace is waiting for a difficult chat about the truth of Helen's past and the nature of her work. We don't get to see how that unfolds, making it a tantalising tease for a possible third season.

But given that Wallace covers for Helen when questioned by MI5, it's possible that he could be talked into keeping his wife's enormous secret. That said, the nature of their relationship is sure to be changed forever.

Sam seizes the chance to take another break from Helen's orbit, assuring her that he can be called upon again in future. Although, with a bounty on his head, which Eleanor and Williams could yet accept, his time might be running out.

Black Doves seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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