Black Doves creator Joe Barton has revealed a crucial twist that was embedded into the final scenes of season one. The sequence in question features a woman, whom fans may have been unable to identify. The woman sits quietly in the home of spymaster Mrs. Reed (Sarah Lancashire), who enjoys a glass of champagne on Christmas. Barton divulges his intentions behind various character choices in a new GQ interview, and the show’s creator also reveals the mystery woman’s identity at long last.

“That’s Marie (Molly Chesworth), she’s Helen and Wallace’s nanny. She pops up throughout the series, so it’s possible to miss. I mean, she looks like she could be Reed’s daughter, they’ve got a similar haircut,” explained Barton, adding:

But no, she’s the nanny, so she’s been spying on them the whole time. Basically, everyone’s a spy.

Though Marie is afforded limited screen time, she shares an essential scene with Helen Webb (Keira Knightley in one of her best performances) toward the season finale, when Helen and Wallace Webb (Andrew Buchan) return home later than planned – an error that heightened Wallace’s suspicions of Helen. Marie’s participation in the Black Doves further explains how Mrs. Reed had access to the intimate details of Helen’s life, including her ill-fated affair with MI5 operative Jason (Andrew Koji).

Putting a Button on the Whirlwind First Season of ‘Black Doves’

The moment comes at the tail end of a season full of complex threads and incessant action for Helen, the wife of the UK’s Defense Secretary, and her new friend Sam (Ben Whishaw), a veteran spy from the Black Doves — a covert organization that sells secrets. When Helen’s lover is murdered, bringing her safety into question, she and Sam endeavor to untangle the government cover-up that risks instigating World War III.

Barton based Helen’s identity as a spy on his research into true espionage events, in which Metropolitan Police officers entered into relationships with targeted activists, out of which came “pretend marriages” and even children. “I was like, OK, that idea, that duplicitousness of having a pretend marriage lasting years and years and years, and then it disappeared,” said Barton. “That was really part of, I think, the inspiration for it as well.”

Black Doves was released just in time for the Christmas season, as Barton, like many filmmakers, simply finds Christmastime more cinematic. “I’ve just always been a big fan of Christmas films and TV show specials. There’s something really cinematic about that time of year to me. It just adds a little flavour to it,” Barton told GQ. The six-part spy thriller currently enjoys a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, staking its place as “some of the most captivating storytelling in episodic television this year,” as MovieWeb’s Greg Archer writes in his review. Black Doves is available to stream on Netflix through the link below: