If nothing else, The Diplomat knows how to do endings. Season 1 delivered a bang; Season 2 takes things a step further by upending the show’s entire status quo, creating a very different proposition for the already-confirmed third season. The two key plots of this sophomore outing coalesce in Episode 6, with the investigation into who orchestrated the sinking of the HMS Courageous and the subsequent car-bomb cover-up dovetailing with Kate Wyler’s Vice Presidential ambitions.
What, did you think they cast Allison Janney for a cameo?
The second season’s narrower focus makes the events of its finale a bit easier to unpack, but there’s still a fair amount of political nuance to consider, and it’s worth a bit of idle speculation about the future. So, let’s do that.
Vice President Grace Penn Orchestrated the HMS Courageous Attack
The sinking of the HMS Courageous occurred way back in the Season 1 premiere, but it takes until the penultimate episode of Season 2 to unveil who was really behind it – Vice President Grace Penn.
The justifications explained by Meg Roylin when she was claiming to have come up with the scheme are about the same. It’s all about stopping the Scottish independence movement, in which it has largely been successful. Of course, as we learned earlier, the warship wasn’t supposed to sink, let alone dragging 41 British sailors down with it. But the ends justify the means as far as the American government is concerned.
This obviously leaves Kate with a moral responsibility to take the job she doesn’t want. Penn can’t remain in office if these are the lengths she’s willing to go to, conspiring behind the backs of allied governments and handwaving away the deaths of allied servicemen. Kate’s permanent bedhead, which has been a funny quirk of her character throughout two seasons, gives way to a smart bob. If the gloves are coming off, so are the jeans.
(L to R) Keri Russell as Kate Wyler, Ato Essandoh as Stuart Hayford | Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024
Penn’s Motivation
Why is Scottish independence so relevant to American national interests? Well, Grace gets a world map out to better articulate this when she’s confronted, presumably for the audience’s benefit, but I’ll give you an even more condensed version.
Let’s say Russia wanted to attack the U.S. and sent a submarine down through the Arctic Ocean to then sneak up through the North Atlantic, heading for, let’s say the Eastern seaboard. Submarines are hard to detect. The last logical place that the U.S. can do so is via a Royal Navy nuclear submarine base in Scotland (which is a real base, though it’s called Creegan here, which isn’t its actual name.) Since the Scottish aren’t keen on nukes or the English, if they were to become independent from the United Kingdom they would shutter the base, leaving the U.S. vulnerable to Russian attacks.
From where Grace is sitting, she made a tough decision for the right reasons, and Kate isn’t sure she wouldn’t have made the same if she were in the hot seat. But Hal still thinks she should be in the hot seat. Whatever Grace’s good qualities might be, this was, on balance, the wrong decision. He’s confident Kate would have made a better one.
Eventually, Kate supports his idea to call Secretary of State Miguel Ganon and tell him what Grace did, allowing the decision about what to do next to be made by America’s justice system. But Hal’s gonna Hal.
Grace Penn Becomes U.S. President
It’s important to remember that Hal is a pragmatist. He’s a lot of other things too, but he generally believes in cutting through the fatty tissue to get to the real problem. Plus, Ganon doesn’t like him very much. For this reason, Hal decided to report what he knew directly to the President of the United States.
It’s a justifiable decision that grossly backfires. The President is so shocked he drops dead. Which is a pretty big problem, obviously. It means that Grace Penn is now the President. Hal and Kate know what she did, but are now presumably powerless to do anything about it.
This radically changes the dynamic of the upcoming third season. What is Kate going to do? Presumably, with Nicol Trowbridge exonerated and her quasi-relationship with Austin deemed a bit of a non-starter, she has no reason to remain in the U.K. She may very well be heading Stateside with Stuart in tow, and Eidra somewhere adjacent continuing to work for the CIA. The key players are all preserved, but the drama will shift to the corridors of U.S. power instead, with the literal President playing the role of the villain.
Sign me up.
