Helen's Real Identity & Backstory In Black Doves Explained

WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for Black Doves season 2.Keira Knightley's Helen Webb is the central character of Black Doves, but her real identity and backstory remain shrouded in mystery. Helen is far and away the most important member of the cast of Black Doves. Season 1's story revolved around her search for her lover's killer, and she was instrumental in season 2's mission of saving Mrs. Reed from Kestrel. Despite her importance and the fact that she's the most prominent member of the Black Doves, the show has revealed precious little about her history.

As an agent for a private espionage organization, a degree of secrecy surrounding Helen is to be expected. After all, she was siphoning state secrets away from the Prime Minister, and having her cover blown would have been detrimental to the Black Doves. The secrecy surrounding Helen goes further than the purview of a spy agency, however, as Helen isn't even her real name.

Black Doves has revealed a lot about Helen's past with the Black Doves. For instance, viewers have seen how Helen was recruited to the agency, how she first met Wallace and Sam Young, and even a killing she carried out for Reed. Her history before 2014, when she was first approached by Reed, however, is much harder to pin down. Luckily, the show has given us a few leads, and by the ending of Black Doves season 2, Helen's true identity had mostly been revealed.

Helen's Real Name Is Lily Morris, Though She Has Used Several Pseudonyms

In Black Doves season 1, episode 2, Helen Webb née Dawson identifies herself under a different name during her interview with the Black Doves: Daisy Bradshaw. The interviewer then reveals that Helen's mother had died and that Helen has a stepsister who is serving a life sentence in prison. The interviewer dives deeper into Helen's background and suspicious family dynamics after pointing out that she rejected an acceptance offer to Cambridge University and left the country for ten years.

After returning to London in 2014, Helen appears to have taken on a new identity as Daisy Bradshaw in order to distance herself from her complicated family background. It's clear that Helen/Daisy wishes to maintain a proper image and is completely thrown off when the interviewer brings up her family background. Helen/Daisy is stunned to discover that the interviewer knew about her acceptance and scholarship offer from Cambridge, potentially because she had applied under her actual name.

Black Doves season 2 revealed that Helen had yet another name in addition to Daisy Bradshaw. MI5 Agent Perryman explained that Helen's sister had contacted the British government, which helped them learn that Helen's legal name was actually Lily Morris. Based on that, it seems Helen was born Lily Morris, changed her name to Daisy Bradshaw following the murder of her stepfather in 2004, and ultimately changed it again to Helen Dawson when the Black Doves inserted her into Wallace's life. Then, she took Wallace's surname in the marriage and became Helen Webb.

What Happened To Helen's Parents & Stepsister In Black Doves

Netflix

Helen's family history is as confusing as her many names. In Black Doves season 1, Helen is confronted by the interviewer about a woman named Bonnie Weir, who turns out to be her stepsister. Bonnie has been in prison since 2004 for killing her biological father – the same man who is implied to have killed Helen's mother. Although it isn't determined how Helen's mom died, the series suggests that Bonnie's dad killed her.

Without overtly saying it, the interviewer implies that Helen may have also had something to do with the death of Bonnie's dad in response to her mother's death. Bonnie went to jail after Helen's stepfather, Bonnie's father, was killed, while Helen left the country for 10 years after his death. Bonnie never revealed Helen's involvement in the murder, though she did attempt to contact Helen and revealed her legal name to MI5 in Black Doves season 2.

Ultimately, Bonnie Weir ended up dying in prison about a year before the events of Black Doves season 2. As Agent Perryman revealed, Bonnie had been diagnosed with cancer and ultimately died of the disease. Bonnie's cancer diagnosis also spurred her to attempt to contact Helen, which ultimately led to MI5 learning about Helen's original identity as Lily Morris.

Black Doves season 2 also added even more uncertainty into Helen's past. Agent Perryman, while interrogating Helen, mentioned a completely different set of parents, Mary and Graham Dawson. According to official documents, Mary and Graham died in Kenya in 2004, though there was no record of them being buried. It seems, then, that the Black Doves fabricated Mary and Graham's death as part of Helen's cover story while she was being embedded in Wallace's life.

What Happened To Helen After Her Stepfather's Death

In 2004, Helen fled the country after denying Cambridge's acceptance and scholarship offer following the death of her stepfather. She would go on to spend the next 10 years working in bars around the world to get by and, apparently, to keep a low profile. Fortunately for her, nobody seemed to raise suspicions about Helen's mysterious disappearance from the United Kingdom after the death of her stepfather.

The majority of Helen's life between 2004 and 2014 remains shrouded in mystery. Her main objective was to travel the world and seemingly bury her dysfunctional family deep in the past. After a decade on the run, Helen likely concluded that the smoke had cleared enough for her to return to London. She had planned to get a job as a translator based on the various languages she had picked up while on the run in her twenties and probably expected to live a relatively low-key lifestyle. That is, until the interviewer introduced her to the covert world of the Black Doves.

How Helen Originally Joined The Black Doves & Why She Was Recruited

Stefania Rosini/Netflix

The interviewer seemed to suspect that Helen was involved in her stepfather's murder and saw a natural talent in Daisy/Helen to become a Black Dove. He was the first person to discover and introduce her to Mrs. Reed, one of the Black Doves' executives. The interviewer found Daisy/Helen to be highly intelligent, convincingly manipulative, alluring, crafty, and a lone-wolf survivalist type. He believed these characteristics would make her an excellent Black Dove, which turns out to be spot on.

When Daisy/Helen meets Mrs. Reed for the first time, Reed is taken with her ferocity and calculated mind. She can tell that Daisy/Helen has already scouted an exit plan, which is a natural-born skill of a Black Dove. Reed also appreciates that Daisy/Helen knows how to cover her tracks based on the situation with her stepfather and can tell that she also has an appetite for danger and risk-taking. Reed sees Daisy/Helen as a "coiled spring" while others simply see her as a beautiful woman, which makes her an invaluable weapon to the Black Doves.

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  Helen Webb

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  Ben Whishaw

  Sam Young

After discovering her lover's murder, a spy masquerading as a politician's wife joins forces with an old assassin associate to uncover the truth and seek revenge.