“The Diplomat,” a Netflix original show by Deborah Cahn, is making all the noise for the right reasons. The show takes us straight into politics, bureaucracy, diplomacy, and the world of intelligence agencies in no time. Jargon is being bandied about left, right, and center, the kind of thing you’d only hear around leaders, the people working around them, the administration, and the people behind the scenes who run the show. Katherine Wyler, aka Kate to many, has been appointed as the new Ambassador to the UK by her government, and there could be no better time for her to take over the post. A British aircraft carrier, HMS Courageous, has been bombed, and it can be easily concluded that it was a terrorist attack. The questions that need to be answered are: who attacked Britain, and why did they attack, knowing that attacking a powerful country like the UK would mean retaliation of the strongest kind?
Kate has joined the US Embassy in London around this crisis, and if she can sail through it, she could be looking for a bright future in the White House as the Vice President of the United States. Joined by a small group of people at her disposal, Kate, along with her newfound ally and friend, Foreign Secretary of the UK Austin Dennison, are looking for hard-core evidence that would help them find out who was the culprit.
The team does find the culprit, but they are also being relentlessly badgered by the UK PM to take military action against those who are responsible. In this case, it was Roman Lenkov, a Russian mercenary on the payroll of the Russian government, who carried out the attack. With Russia’s involvement made clear, Russian intelligence, via the Russian Ambassador to the UK, reaches out to Kate to let her know that they are ready to offer them Roman Lenkov, which proves that Russia did not carry out the heinous act. Kate, the CIA, her team, and Austin’s team are at it to arrest Roman Lenkov in France, but not before Kate is informed that Roman would be assassinated during the arrest, an order that bothered her and made her question her ally, Austin Dennison. Austin Dennison makes it clear that there was no clearance from his side to assassinate Lenkov. This is when the two of them join the dots to conclude that the person who hired Lenkov is the one who gains the most from killing him. By that thought, it means Trowbridge hired Lenkov to attack as a pretense to begin military actions, which in turn would increase his popularity amongst the masses. It is yet to be proven if Nicol was indeed behind the aircraft carrier attack because this is just an assumption, and they are yet to get hold of hard-core evidence that would prove their theory.
The second season of “The Diplomat” would have Kate and Austin digging into the dirt to find out if Trowbridge was indeed the man behind the attack. If their suspicions are confirmed, there will be repercussions for his actions, which would include war crimes. It will be difficult for them to get any link that would take them to Trowbridge because, as a shrewd leader, he would have made sure to clear his tracks before assigning Lenkov the task of bombing his men in the middle of the sea. There might be a Meg Roylin connection as well, who would have plenty of information about Trowbridge. There might be an indication that the PM and his former campaign manager might have had an affair, but that information would be secondary. Kate and Austin’s priority would be to find out about Trowbridge’s involvement.
MP Merritt Groove, who wanted to meet Hal unofficially, was ambushed by Stuart and Ronnie, but he got killed in the car bombing. Stuart and Hal were in proximity to the blast, and there was a high chance they would be gravely injured because of it. “The Diplomat” Season 2 will also have Stuart and Hal recovering from their injuries. There is a high possibility of them not dying because they are both the central characters of the show. The second season will also delve into the investigation into the blast. There is a high chance the PM would be connected to this bombing as well because the MP who wanted to speak to Hal probably had some information about Trowbridge that he wanted to share with someone closer to Kate. Hal is the closest he can get without being harassed by a convoy of security clearances. If Trowbridge turns out to have gotten rid of a man from his political party, he will be in deep trouble and might be seeing jail time soon.
For Kate, there is a possibility that her job at the White House might get confirmed, but in the second season, she would be more interested in going after the British PM. Knowing he might be treasonous and the reason why Hal and Stuart got severely injured in the blast, she would want answers. There is a high chance that she would become the Vice President of the United States at the end of “The Diplomat” Season 2 to get Kate out of the UK because she might constantly be searching for proof that would implicate PM Nicol Trowbridge. Most probably, Kate will never be able to get to the British PM, and she might have to pay the price for not stopping. The president who chose her to be his deputy might end up regretting it because Kate is driven to fet to the bottom of the matter to find out the truth. This nature of hers will mostly make Rayburn regret having her as his deputy.
Hal, though, will surely recover from his injuries and probably look for ways to make himself important and useful. He will look for posts that utilize his knowledge and experience. There is a possibility of him becoming Secretary of State, which will bother Kate a lot. Either their divorce would become inevitable, and Kate would mostly not take the Vice President job, or Hal would be offered the Secretary of State job, which most probably he would take.
“The Diplomat” Season two will have many possibilities, and the viewers are hoping for edition two of “The Diplomat” to be as seamless and engaging as this one. Deborah has interestingly carved out plenty of characters who deserve a good extension in the second season. Looking forward to it.
