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Sam’s Four Targets Contract Explained: How Kestrel Forces Him Back Into the Game

For readers in the United States Updated November 07, 2026

SShivam Das Nov 07, 2026 8 min read

Author: Shivam Das · Independent coverage. Corrections / Contact

Spoiler warning: This explainer covers major plot points from all six episodes of Black Doves Season 2, including Sam’s contract, Jerry’s death and the finale involving Reed.

Sam Young’s four-target contract is the mechanism that pulls him into the central conspiracy of Black Doves Season 2. A mysterious man named Patrick offers Sam a way out of police custody and a lucrative assignment: kill four people for a powerful private organization, with no negotiation once the names are revealed. Sam initially treats the arrangement as a dangerous but straightforward job. He soon discovers that the targets are connected to a buried 1988 operation in East Berlin—and that the organization behind the contract is Kestrel, an enemy with a personal history with Black Doves handler Elizabeth Reed.

The crucial detail is that the four contracted targets are not the same as every person Patrick later forces Sam to kill. Jerry, Sam’s new romantic connection, is added as a separate act of coercion after Patrick reveals compromising footage of Helen. Keeping those two parts of the story distinct makes the season’s escalating trap much easier to follow.

Why Patrick offers Sam a four-person contract

At the start of the season, Sam is arrested after a job. Patrick appears as a lawyer-like intermediary and arranges his release in exchange for work. The offer is deliberately vague: four targets, a premium above Sam’s usual fee and serious consequences if he refuses after learning the assignments. The people behind the offer have enough reach to interfere with the police-station process, making it clear that Sam is not dealing with an ordinary client.

Patrick does not initially explain the history behind the names. That information is part of the trap. Sam accepts before he understands that the contract is designed to dismantle the remaining connections to an old operation—and that his closest friend, Helen Webb, is tied to the evidence Patrick can use against him.

Who are Sam’s four original targets?

1. Erik Klein — code name Zeus

Erik Klein is the first target Sam receives. He is heavily protected, and Sam brings in assassins Williams and Eleanor to help reach him. Helen tries to warn Sam that Erik is connected to the Black Doves, but the warning arrives too late. Sam kills him before he fully understands the significance of the assignment.

Erik’s death is the first sign that the contract is not a random list of names. His connection to the organization turns the job into a direct threat to the Black Doves and gives Helen a reason to investigate who is directing Sam.

2. Melanie Ambrose — code name Spitfire

The second target is Melanie Ambrose, a retired operative known as Spitfire. Sam tries to question her about the old Berlin story and the name Wildflower. Melanie offers fragments rather than a complete explanation, referring to an opportunity to become savage. When she reaches for a weapon, Sam shoots her.

Her brief exchange with Sam is important because it suggests the people on the list share a past that cannot be understood from their current identities alone. The code names and the recurring Berlin references point toward a buried operation, not four unrelated assassinations.

3. Alexi Chernov — code name Cowboy

Alexi Chernov, a Russian oligarch and former intelligence figure, is the third target. His name brings Sam’s assignment directly into Helen’s world: Helen and Wallace are due to meet the Chernovs at a formal dinner, while Sam and his team are preparing to carry out the hit.

The operation uses poison rather than a straightforward shooting. Eleanor works undercover at the event, and Alexi dies after the dinner. The assignment also pushes Helen and Sam into a more difficult position. They are investigating the same history from different sides, but Sam is still bound to Patrick’s instructions and Helen is trying to protect the people connected to Reed.

4. Elizabeth Reed — code name Wildflower

The fourth and final original target is Elizabeth Reed, the Black Doves handler known to Sam and Helen as Mrs. Reed. Her code name is Wildflower. By this point, the pattern becomes clear: the names lead back to the East Berlin operation in 1988, when Reed was undercover inside the organization that became Kestrel.

Reed’s past explains why Kestrel wants her. The operation involved a betrayal that left people dead, identities erased and Reed separated from her young daughter, Vita. The contract is therefore not simply about eliminating four witnesses. It is part of a long-delayed act of revenge against the person Kestrel believes betrayed its founders.

There is an important difference in the final assignment: Patrick ultimately needs Reed delivered alive. Sam’s task becomes capturing and handing her over, not simply killing her. He brings her to Patrick, settling the immediate debt and allowing Kestrel to get its hands on the person at the centre of the old grievance.

Why Jerry is not one of the original four targets

Jerry, the hotel concierge played by Samuel Barnett, is sometimes confused with the four-person contract because his death is one of the most painful consequences of Sam’s deal. But Jerry is an additional target Patrick imposes after Sam starts questioning the arrangement and Patrick shows him footage of Helen killing a man during an earlier operation.

Patrick threatens to release the recording unless Sam follows instructions. To prove that Sam is still under his control, Patrick orders him to kill Jerry. Sam obeys, devastating himself in the process. Jerry’s murder is not one of the four original names; it is a separate punishment and a way to make the blackmail personal.

This distinction also explains why Sam’s situation becomes so morally difficult. The original contract already forces him to kill people whose histories he does not know. The footage turns the arrangement into a threat against Helen, while Jerry’s death shows that Patrick can reach into Sam’s private life whenever he wants.

What the contract reveals about Kestrel

Kestrel is introduced through Patrick as a powerful private organization, but the season gradually reveals a much older conflict. Reed had infiltrated the group in East Berlin in 1988. Her actions during that mission destroyed the operation and separated her from Vita. In the present, Kestrel uses Sam’s skills to find and capture Reed, while exploiting Helen’s past to keep Sam compliant.

The contract is effective because it attacks the Black Doves from several directions at once. Erik’s death exposes the threat inside the agency’s network. Melanie and Alexi’s deaths help uncover the Berlin history. Reed’s capture gives Kestrel access to the person it blames. And the footage of Helen gives Patrick leverage over someone who might otherwise refuse to cooperate.

The finale adds another layer when Katia Chernov is revealed to be Vita, Reed’s estranged daughter and a central figure in Kestrel’s revenge. Patrick’s escape means the organization is not finished, even after the headquarters attack and the losses suffered by the Black Doves.

Did Sam complete the contract?

Sam completes the central demand by delivering Reed alive to Patrick. He does not simply walk away from the consequences: Jerry is dead, his relationship with Helen has been strained, and the Black Doves have been pushed into a crisis. Patrick agrees to remove the footage he used as leverage, but he remains dangerous and escapes in the finale.

Sam’s decision to leave for Italy after the events of the finale is an attempt to step outside the cycle. His promise that Helen can call if she needs him leaves their friendship open-ended, but it does not confirm that he will return in a future season.

The real meaning of the four-target deal

The four-target contract begins as a transaction: Sam gets out of custody and receives a well-paid assignment. It becomes a weapon against the Black Doves when the targets turn out to be connected to Reed’s Berlin past. Finally, it becomes personal blackmail when Patrick uses Helen’s recorded killing and Jerry’s relationship with Sam to keep him obedient.

That is why the contract matters beyond the action scenes. Sam is not simply completing four unrelated hits. He is being used to reopen a decades-old wound, expose the people connected to it and deliver Reed to the organization she once infiltrated. The jobs reveal the history of Kestrel while showing how easily Sam’s professional code can be turned against the people he cares about.

Frequently asked questions

Who are the four people in Sam’s Black Doves Season 2 contract?

The four original targets are Erik Klein (Zeus), Melanie Ambrose (Spitfire), Alexi Chernov (Cowboy) and Elizabeth Reed (Wildflower).

Is Jerry one of Sam’s four targets?

No. Patrick adds Jerry as a separate order after using compromising footage of Helen to blackmail Sam. Jerry is not one of the four original contract targets.

Why does Kestrel want Reed?

Reed’s 1988 East Berlin undercover mission helped destroy the group’s earlier operation and separated her from her daughter Vita. Kestrel wants her because of that history, and Patrick ultimately demands that Sam deliver her alive.

Does Sam kill Reed?

No. Sam delivers Reed to Patrick alive. The final assignment is to bring her in, not to kill her.

What do the code names Zeus, Spitfire, Cowboy and Wildflower mean?

They are the code names associated with the four people on Sam’s original list: Erik Klein, Melanie Ambrose, Alexi Chernov and Reed, respectively.

Sources

By Shivam Das

8 min read · 1658 words

Alexi Chernov Ben Whishaw Black Doves Black Doves Season 2 Elizabeth Reed Erik Klein Four Targets Kestrel Melanie Ambrose Patrick Sam Young Season 2 Explained Wildflower