Netflix’s delightfully violent Black Doves has become quite the rage already, all thanks to a pacey screenplay that holds you from start to finish, sassy dialogue, and fantastically choreographed action. Quite naturally, the series has a long kill list, and in this article we’re going to look into the ones who died and the cause of their deaths.
Spoilers Ahead
Ambassador Chen
Chinese Ambassador to Britain, Yun Chen’s death has to be the most unfortunate one. It happens a little before the show kicks off—when Trent Clark goes to visit the ambassador’s daughter, Kai-Ming Chen. The ambassador gets mad at Trent for supplying heroin to his daughter, which is only logical. Trent, however, is only doing it because he is in love with Kai-Ming and wants to impress her in any manner. When the ambassador furiously pushes Trent, he pushes the old man back. Little did Trent imagine the ambassador’s head would hit the corner of a table and the man would die. Unfortunately for him, that’s exactly what happens, and thanks to Trent being the son of crime family Clark, a series of bloody events follows, one after another.
Jason, Maggie, and Philips
The deaths of MI5 agent Jason, his partner Maggie (who worked at a jewelry shop as her cover), and journalist Phillip are also on Trent. They had to die because they were not only aware of the nefarious activities of the Clarks; they also knew about Police Commissioner Stephen Yarrick being in bed with the Clarks. It is not entirely clear if they had any idea about the British prime minister’s involvement in all this, but whatever knowledge they had was enough for Trent to go after them. He only did all this to prove himself as the worthy son of Alex Clark. Of course, Trent wouldn’t do that all by himself, he had to hire someone like Elmore Fitch to do his bidding.
Kent
This is another unfortunate death, so much so that we see even the killer—triggerman Sam, who’s one of the main leads of our show—regretting it at one point. Sam was only protecting Helen, though, which was his job. The death happens when Kent and Williams go to Jason’s flat and try to kill Helen, who’s also snooping around at the same time. Sam arrives and blasts Kent’s head off with a shotgun, while Williams gets away. Kent probably didn’t deserve to die, but then in this line of work, there’s no guarantee of life anyway.
Elmore Fitch
Just like Kent, Elmore Fitch dies because of his profession—being a hitman. He was only doing his job when he shot Jason, but for Helen it was personal. Of course, Elmore shouldn’t have gone to her house and threatened to kill her kids, but the intimidation was also part of the job. Quite naturally, Helen reacts the only possible way when that happens. Not expecting Helen to fight back is another mistake of Elmore’s, not to mention setting up a trap for Helen and Sam at his home. Elmore Fitch was a goner the moment Trent Clark hired him; that’s just how it is.
Commissioner Yarrick
We don’t know at what point in life Police Commissioner Stephen Yarrick, aka ‘SY,’ decided to get in bed with the Clarks. So it can’t be said with certainty if he had no other choice. Considering the man was never all that brave, my guess would be the Clarks threatened him with something, and he thought joining hands with the evil was going to save him. The way Yarrick describes the Clarks to Sam only proves how scared he is of them. Unfortunately, his doom comes at the hands of Clarks. Not that Yarrick betrayed them or anything (he didn’t even say their name to Sam while being interrogated), but the Clarks needed someone to die in order to prove their point, and who better than the cowardly police commissioner, who’s nothing but a pawn?
The Newman Brothers
This one, of course, is not particularly associated with the main plot. It also happened ten years in the past. When Lenny hired Sam to kill the Newman brothers, who were also among the stalwarts of the London underworld (but not as big as the Clarks), it seemed like an easy-peasy job for him. By then he had turned into a seasoned assassin who didn’t hesitate to kill. But Sam had a moral code, and the youngest Newman brother was a mere child, so he let the boy go. It was obviously the right decision from a moral standpoint but proved to be costly, as that little boy soon came back with the whole Newman gang and attacked Sam at his home. This effectively revealed Sam’s true identity to his partner, Michael, and ended their relationship, as Sam had to run away. Years later, Sam gets another crack at killing Hector, but this time also, he doesn’t kill him. That also proves to be the right choice, as in the end, Hector thanks him for killing his bully brothers and offers him a job.
Alex Clark and Trent Clark
We’ve already talked about how Trent Clark is the man responsible for the deaths of Chinese ambassador Chen, Jason, Maggie, and Phillip. But Trent is not inherently evil. He is just a lovestruck man who accidentally killed his crush’s father and is doing all the wrong things in the world to prove his mettle to his mother. It is Alex Clark who is doing all the damage, which includes threatening a democratic system—where even the prime minister and police commissioner are in cahoots with a criminal organization. That makes Alex the head of a serpent that needs to be cut off. While Helen gets it wrong and believes that Alex was the one who sent Elmore to kill Jason and then threaten her family, her trying to take a stand against the matriarch is not necessarily a wrong thing. Of course, when Trent reveals everything, even Alex gets shocked and pleads for his son’s life (which Helen considers for a while). But Sam promptly takes action upon realizing the necessity of killing Trent. Alex gets shot by Helen while trying to save her son. Considering the damage these two have done, they both had it coming.
