The Diplomat – Season 1 Episode 4 Recap & Review

Episode 4

Episode 4 of The Diplomat revolves around a British couple, the Hursts. Gabby is a single mother living with her young son Eli in Barcelona. His father, Nathan, lives in England and meets Eli only according to the terms of his custody agreement with Gabby.

The opening scene sees Eli getting kidnapped by Nathan, but Gabby doesn’t know it at that point. Laura is conflicted about her relationship with Tom, who shows up at the Consulate unannounced. Alba likes him but Laura rushes with her to Gabby’s house.

That is where they learn Nathan took Eli as Laura asks Gabby to look for Eli’s passport, which is missing. Nathan is caught at the airport. Tom tells Laura over dinner about a prospective job opportunity in New York. Instead of getting excited, Laura gets defensive and feels overwhelmed with this information. Nathan’s version and justification of his actions contextualize the couple’s history differently. He comes across as a desperate father fearful of losing his emotional bond with his child.

Nathan’s fate hangs in the balance and completely depends if the judge will proceed with the charges. Castells gives Jay’s watch recovered from the bouncer Dante’s house. She takes it to Colin but he instantly recognizes that the watch is a fake. In episode 1, we saw Amy flipping the watch over, allowing us to see the personal engravings on the back.

They go to Castells and reveal these findings, where the inspector promises to take it seriously. Meanwhile, the judge decides against pressing charges.

As it turns out, he’s also going through a custody case. Nathan now has to go back to England, stand trial in a UK court, and sign an agreement with Gabby about renewed terms of custody. Laura reports to Sam, who passez on the information to Mariona. They meet and Mariona says they will have to do something about the bodyguard. Sam also mentions two Irish names – Kevan O’Grady and Jean Grandton. They are aliases used by the target these two have been tracking, Owen McKinley.

Alba tells the news of Nathan’s case to Gabby, who isn’t pleased one bit. She reveals that she loved Nathan before he turned on a path of self-destruction. One instance involved him spending 10k of Gabby’s money on gambling in one night. Gabby’s present partner, Felipe, bailed her out.

Mariona overhears Fabian mentioning Kevan’s name over the phone and talking to him about the weather in Barcelona. That must be something related to a code word between them!

The next morning, Castells informs Laura about Dante, who was beaten and found unconscious in his cell. It is clearly someone trying to cover their tracks and more concerningly, it means they have a leak in their midst. Laura meets Fabian at El Faro with Alba. He denies any prior knowledge of what happened to the bouncer but since he is the one who steered the investigation in the direction of Lola and her story, he comes under the scanner.

Sam informs Laura that Gabby has made it worse for Nathan back home. She has gone to the press and spilt all his secrets into the public. Now, it would be even more difficult for Nathan to see Eli again or have any chance to win the custody battle. Alba tells Gabby about the final developments in the case and she decides to bring Eli to the Consulate. She has decided that this is the last time Nathan will see Eli.

Nathan is heartbroken and anxious when he hears this, even more so when a friend of his tells Nathan about the negative press coverage back home.

Lola creates a scene at Mariona’s law firm and the receptionist calls the police. Lola asks for more money in exchange for what happened to Dante. This exposes Mariona, who is later arrested by the police. When it’s time for Nathan to go, Laura and others discover that he has gone missing with Eli.

As we soon find out, they’ve actually gone to the terrace. Nathan live streams his version of things to get even. Laura goes upstairs alone and tries to convince Nathan to come back down.

He is scared of what will happen to their relationship. When he hears sirens – Sam called the police despite Laura asking him not to – Nathan gets even more scared. Eli rushes to Laura and Nathan threatens to jump. He finally sees that if he jumps, Eli will be left without a father and he gives in. Nathan is arrested and Sam tells Laura that she cannot save everyone.

Things have really started to heat up and Fabian’s scheming will not be discreet for too long, it seems.

The Episode Review

Lola’s sensationally charged rant is bound to rattle things. Fabian and Mariona were getting away with a bit too much until now. But perhaps this episode’s events can spur Laura and Castells in the right direction. The lack of clarity on what is going on behind the scenes with Sam and Mariona has been annoying. Owen McKinley’s name has come up just once in the series and he is meant to be someone very important.

With just two more episodes to go, the whole secret mission thing seems like a distraction. It is truly wasteful of precious minutes. The Diplomat could have used it to contextualize Laura and Tom’s relationship but instead, we have an uninteresting and low-key repulsive love angle between Laura and Fabian.

Even though the former has been shown as a smart operator, her being played around this easily by Fabian is contradictory to say the least. Sophie Randle has been dealt a bad hand by the writers. They have destroyed Lara’s ethos that shined in the first three episodes. A gamut of missed opportunities are piling up for The Diplomat as of now.