The Diplomat Season-Finale Recap: Unprincipled Uncertainty
There are so many flavors of betrayal to sample in “Schrodinger’s Wife”. We’ve got Trowbridge’s grievances, whatever it is Todd imagines is going on between Grace and Hal, Hal’s supreme annoyance with Kate’s inability to just enjoy her new relationship, Stuart’s difficulty processing what Billie knew about Rayburn (and when she knew it), and Kate’s horror at Grace and Hal’s betrayal (once again!) of Trowbridge when she figures out that they’re the ones who made off with the incredibly dangerous Poseidon drone. Whew!
The only people having a relatively normal time of it at the U.K./U.S. summit being held at Chequers (the formal residence for the Prime Minister to use as a country retreat or for entertaining on a large scale) are Austin Dennison and his wife (!!), Thema Aseidu-Dennison (Tracy Ifeachor, late of The Pitt). Somehow, they’ve been married for a month, but Kate hadn’t heard a word about it until now? Their backstory is really lovely, too, a second chance at love after having been married to other people previously. Dennison is such a decent person and a true friend to Kate. That’s wonderful, but as a plot twist sicko, I can’t help feeling a little wistful about how much more bonkers this episode would be if the Wylers were fully broken up and Kate were with Dennison. I’m not saying that it’s suffering from any kind of bonkersness deficiency, but if we’re going to be hanging on a massive nuclear drone-shaped cliff for the next 12-15 months as we await season four, why not go fully maximalist?
This is the third consecutive season finale for The Diplomat where Hal Wyler is the sun around which wild things rotate. His actions have led, so far, to a deadly car bombing in central London, the death of a U.S. President, and now, the theft of the Poseidon. While Kate has been coming to grips with the notion that she is the common denominator in her troubled romantic relationships, now might be a good moment for Hal to reflect on what internationally significant dangers his usually well-intended schemes bring into the world. I’m chuckling at myself now; this is never going to happen!
Elsewhere in White House couples, Todd Penn sees marital betrayal where it doesn’t exist, while Kate fails to see political and personal betrayal where it does, only perceiving it after Todd confides in her about his insecurity regarding Grace and Hal’s apparently rock-solid working relationship. I love that this episode finally gives us the degree of Grace and Todd content I’ve been expecting; while I haven’t thought of CJ Cregg and Josh Lyman once this season, there’s still a bit of glow from The West Wing shining on Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford that is always going to be irresistible to me. I’d like to see more real conversations between them, like the one we get early in the episode — they’re funny, snuggly, sexy, pissy, all in the space of one scene.
Let’s pause here for a moment, because I have questions about this scene, specifically about the moment when Todd, trying to get Grace to put down the phone, nuzzles all over her torso, murmuring sweet nothings, comparing her to a fresh focaccia. A! Fresh! Focaccia! What? Now, far be it from me to kink-shame anyone, particularly about something so benign and kind of adorable, but I want to know some specifics. How many baked goods were considered prior to settling on focaccia? Were they all savory, or were some sweet options in the mix? Were all candidates for the oddest wholesome sex metaphor all in the yeasted dough category, or did chemical leaveners get some representation? How many takes did this scene require? Janney and Whitford are capital-p Professionals, but I imagine the focaccia line might have elicited some particularly loud and uncontrollable giggles, even from them. Also, this is the second scene of the season in which a male love interest professes an intense and specific oral fixation with his female partner. In the fourth episode, Dennison announced his desire to lick Kate until she screamed (and don’t think we aren’t still baffled by the failure of that plan to come to fruition), and now we have focaccia.
The Penns’ almost-sex scene segueing into the one big sex scene of the season, between the Trowbridges is quite something. It’s great to have Pandora Colin back as Lydia Trowbridge, and I hope we get more time with her next season. It’s fun to see married couples cast as married couples, and Colin makes the most of her minimal screen time, investing the word vigorous with degrees of boredom and impatience unmeasurable by any device in existence.
Following that betrayal of sorts, we have the relative palate cleansers of PM Trowbridge vs. President Penn. They go two rounds in formal negotiations, with a third in the form of an excruciatingly awkward fancy dinner for both delegations. What’s most interesting to me is how quickly and totally Trowbridge’s advantage over Grace has evaporated. Even before he stomps out of the room in round one, she manages to get him over a barrel largely by weaponizing his own beliefs about etiquette against him. It’s bad enough that he trumpeted Rayburn’s involvement in the HMS Courageous bomb attack at all, but to do so at her vacation home? That’s just not cricket, is it, Nicol? Tsk tsk, you naughty boy, we are very disappointed with you.
The second round is a bigger swing, a bolder gambit all the way around, really, and not just because it’s based on a high-stakes example of the adage about asking for forgiveness being better than waiting for permission. Grace makes a convincing show of being shocked by Trowbridge’s initial refusal to accept help in retrieving the Russian submarine and Poseidon drone, but I think she and Hal were always counting on Kate to intervene with a solution everyone can live with. Sealing the submarine and its dangerous weapon in concrete elegantly solves several problems at once: the danger of radiation leakage will be contained, and no one will have access to Poseidon. Well, they won’t have access to this particular Poseidon — who even knows what kind of stockpile the Russians have ready to deploy? — but they’re going to take the win now and worry about the rest later.
Well done, everyone! The dynamic duo of Kate and Hal have pulled off one more Hail Mary pass, and seemingly, a romantic reconciliation, too. I’m a little fuzzy on what leads her to beg him to take her back, and have concluded that there’s no singular thing that brings about this change of heart. Instead, I think the combination of her fight and post-fight conversations with Callum, Hal’s “why can’t you be happy?” outburst, Dennison’s incredibly generous perspective on the Wylers’ relationship and urging to be patient with herself and with Hal all combined to point Kate in this direction. Maybe the moment that sealed it was the concrete gambit — nothing is sexier to these two than a successful international relations moment — even Callum noticed Kate’s face as Hal winked at her across the table and she looked down, smiling and blushing. (Now that I think of it a bit more, it’s also possible that Hal describing Callum as having a full ah-matization-ready “resplendent, gallows-bound cock” may have helped, too. Having a partner who makes you laugh, especially when you’re mad at each other, is so important.)
For Kate to have her moment of joy blown to smithereens by her deduction that Hal and Grace must have cooked up a plan under the plan (a sub-plan?) to steal the Poseidon before the submarine could be sealed in concrete is a cruel, dizzying experience. If anything, Todd Penn is thinking too small in his jealousy over Hal and Grace’s working relationship. Why fret over a nonexistent betrayal of marriage vows when an international betrayal is right in front of his face?
For my money, though, the most profound betrayals are the ones Stuart is trying to process. The president he thought was so decent, so worthy of Stuart’s decision to sacrifice time with his dying father, is now known the world over as the architect of a plot that killed 41 British Navy personnel? His closest friend lying to his face for months about it, and possibly setting him up to face questioning under oath as a result? Who is telling him the truth? Is anyone telling him the truth? How can he continue to work for these people? He probably needs a lawyer, but as Eidra points out, doing so may ruin his career and livelihood! Everything is a mess! Everything except Eidra, who asks him not to leave and crawls into his arms. One item from my season three wishlist, delivered at last! I’ll take it.
Intrigue and Crumpets
• The grand country house standing in for Chequers in this episode looks more like Balmoral thanks to its dark gray stone facing. The real Chequers — which is a beautiful red brick pile — was donated to Great Britain in 1917 by Conservative MP Arthur Lee and his wife Ruth. You can hear Trowbridge explaining its history in the background conversation during this episode’s fancy dinner scene.
• Yes, I am still thinking about focaccia. It’s incredibly easy to make, and so delicious that everyone will think you labored over it for hours and hours. Claire Saffitz’s recipe is my standby.
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