Even a Gay Assassin Can’t Escape the Damsel-in-Distress Trope on Black Doves

In many ways, Black Doves is a platonic love story between a spy, Helen (Keira Knightley), and an assassin, Sam (Ben Whishaw). But the Netflix series has plenty of room for sex and romance. You’d expect that, right? It wouldn’t be a good spy story without some kind of spice. But while Black Doves plays along with a lot of familiar spy romance tropes, it does one thing differently: it does them with men. Spoilers for Black Doves season 2 ahead. When you watch a lot of movies and television shows within the same genre, whether for work, continuing education, or just pure love of the game, you tend to pick up on some common tropes. Sometimes, like becoming aware of a friend’s bad habits for the first time, it’s annoyingly difficult to un-notice them.One of my least favorite tropes in the action genre, or set of tropes really, has to do with how the spy and/or assassin’s love interest invariably gets treated. These women, because they’re practically always women, are kept in the dark and therefore lack agency. The romances are inherently toxic because they lack trust! Then, the second the bad guys learn about them, these women get kidnapped or killed or otherwise put in danger to motivate and/or devastate the male hero. Boo, I say! Boring! Sexist, even! These women are not characters. They are plot devices.In Black Doves season 1, we learn that Sam was once in a relationship with a man named Michael (Omari Douglas) that he maintained by lying about what he did for a living. When Sam’s real job follows him home, so to speak, Michael is put in a traumatic and distressing situation. Someone is shooting at him, his boyfriend is a stone-cold killer... and his boyfriend lied to him. When Michael returns, briefly, in season 2, it’s the last thing that seems to have sucked the most.Then, in season 2, Sam tries something safer. He engages in a sexual situationship with a hotel concierge named Jerry (Samuel Barnett). On paper, it’s perfect for someone like him. Jerry is into him, but not too much. There’s no chance of them being seen in public together, because he works at the same place they hook up. It’s genuinely sweet to see Jerry try to get Sam to open up. But the second that Sam does, and invites him on a proper date, the bad guys swoop in and use Jerry as leverage. Not only does the poor concierge die for the plot, but Sam is forced to fridge his own love interest.Is this now homophobic, instead of sexist? I would tentatively say no, for a few reasons. I covered the “Bury Your Gays” moment circa 2016, and I don’t think this qualifies there either. You can’t really say that the show thinks gay men don’t have agency, and are only fit to be plot devices when Sam, a gay man, is co-lead. And if Sam was the only queer character in the series, his inability to find happiness might be a problem; but two other assassins, Williams (Ella Lily Hyland) and Eleanor (Gabrielle Creevy), are both women and gleefully infatuated with each other. The “murder lesbians,” as another character on the show decided to label them, are in the least toxic romantic relationship on Black Doves. So, that’s something!For what it’s worth, Helen’s husband in the series, Wallace (Andrew Buchan), is also kept in the dark for his own protection and then put in danger to motivate Helen at the end of season 2. Plus, her extramarital love interest in season 1, Jason (Andrew Koji), was quite literally killed for the plot. This really is a dangerous show for men. It’s about damn time? Forget I said that.It is darkly refreshing (now that we’re in Woke 3, I’ve decided we can call things refreshing again) to see these tropes done on Black Doves in a way that balances the scales. I found the dozens of articles explaining why women feel safe watching “M/M romance” like Heated Rivalry to be condescending at times, and therefore I’m hesitant to admit that it’s nice for me as a woman to watch a story with these tropes that so many men seem to enjoy. I still don’t see the appeal. Nobody should be a plot device, regardless of gender. But I’m slightly less bored, and against all odds, rooting for Sam to find some peace and a lasting romance of his own.