Reed (Sarah Lancashire) survives Black Doves season 2, but not without being captured, facing a near-fatal encounter with her estranged daughter, and ordering a final mission against the Kestrel organisation.
Reed's Capture and the Wildflower Mission
In the second season, Helen Webb (Keira Knightley) takes on her first mission as the Prime Minister's wife. At a glitzy event with her husband Wallace (Andrew Buchan), Helen slips away to carry out a clandestine mission under Reed's orders. This time, Helen is kept more in the dark than usual, with Reed only telling her and new agent Laila Joshi (Ambika Mod) to locate files under the name Wildflower.
Shortly after the mission, Reed appears nervous, as if she knows something will come back to haunt her. When a number of cars approach her, Reed shows no signs of shock or struggle. After she disappears without a trace, Helen becomes frantic and makes it her mission to track Reed down.
Reed's Past in Berlin Revealed
It is not long before Reed's fate is revealed. The seasoned agent has not been killed by her kidnappers; instead, she is being held in a secret location by Robert Conteh (Babou Ceesay), who has taken over as the organisation's leader. Conteh discovered she had been in Paris trying to find out more about Wildflower, and it is revealed Reed was the only agent left from a historic mission in Berlin who hadn't been killed.
Wildflower had been Reed's code name on the mission that went awry many years ago. Now the consequences of her past decisions are catching up with her. Worst of all, Helen's best friend Sam Young (Ben Whishaw), who is forced to work for the rogue organisation Kestrel, has been ordered to kill her as she is their biggest obstacle.
Episode four delves deeper into Reed's past. In Berlin, she had a daughter called Vita with a man she deliberately formed a romantic relationship with to gain inside knowledge – Franz. Reed clearly wanted out of the KGB-related mission, but she was also having an affair with another Black Dove agent, Peter, and wanted to stay with him. After sabotaging the Berlin mission, Reed realised she had messed up and confessed to Franz that she was an undercover agent. Knowing Franz was in danger as a target, she attempted to let him escape with their daughter, but he ended up being shot by Peter.
Rescue and a Daughter's Revenge
After Peter found out Reed had botched the entire mission, he became aggressive and tried to strangle her, so she had no choice but to shoot him to save herself. Her daughter Vita, who watched in complete horror, ran off and Reed had no idea of her whereabouts.
Back in the present day, Helen and Sam finally manage to work out where Reed is being kept and go on a mission to save her, along with agent duo Williams (Ella Lily Hyland) and Eleanor (Gabrielle Creevy). After some close calls, they manage to get Reed out alive with Laila's help. While Sam knows it is a huge risk going against Kestrel's orders, he decides not to kill Reed.
But Reed finds herself in further danger in the final episode when it is revealed who her missing daughter is. Vita is, in fact, Katia (Sylvia Hoeks), the wife of former KGB officer Alexi Chernov (Goran Kostić), and she is back to get revenge on her mother and the Black Doves for abandoning her as a child. Luckily, Reed escapes unscathed once more as Williams, Eleanor, and Laila storm the building and take out the enemies.
Escaping the gunfire, Reed catches up with her estranged daughter, who has been shot in the crossfire and is clearly dying. Vita asks Reed why she never bothered to look for her, to which Reed candidly replies she had hoped Vita had grown up to be a normal person living a peaceful life – a life she would never have with a secret agent as a mother. After this exchange, Vita appears to die from her injuries.
Reed is last seen discussing their next move, as she orders Helen to take down Kestrel leader Patrick (Sam Riley). Reed may be alive for now, but with the Black Doves more vulnerable than ever, the series leaves her survival uncertain.
