The Diplomat – Season 2 Episode 2 “St Paul’s” Recap & Review

St Paul’s

Episode 2 of The Diplomat season 2 begins with Ronnie’s funeral. It’s a solemn affair, and Hal is at least on his feet and able to attend. As for Eidra, she meets with Roylin in confidence and decides that she should show her face, politically manoeuvring and even handing over a different coat too.

Roylin is not sure this is a good idea but right now, the ceremony is the safest place to be. Of course, people start to notice her there – including Trowbridge. He messes up his eulogy as a result and then hurriedly walks toward Roylin during one of the hymns.

Roylin switches coats, just as Hal drops his cane, and with the Prime Minister busy and his eye off the ball, Roylin changes her coat and manages to get away without anyone seeing. They scramble down to the garage, where Roylin lies down on the backseat, with a blanket over her, and Eidra drives away.

After the plan, Hal tells Kate that she can still leave and be with Austin Dennison if she wants. She shrugs it off for now, and when he leaves, Austin approaches. Apparently there is a secret plan to kill Lenkov, orchestrated by the British government, but Kate is adamant they need Lenkov alive to see if the British really have been pulling the strings here. Kate also does her best surprised Pikachu face, as she feigns shock at Roylin being spotted at the funeral. However, there’s clearly still something between the pair.

Stuart Hayford also returns to action after his stint in the hospital. Kate isn’t particularly happy to see him back so soon, but he believes he needs to be active rather than mulling over Ronnie’s death. However, seeing Ronnie’s empty desk could be a constant reminder for him and trigger panic attacks he’s been suffering with since the hospital. We’ll have to wait and see on that front.

So where is Roylin through all of this? Well, she’s inside the US Embassy and asks to see Austin Dennison. Kate makes the call and he agrees to see her, under the pretense of signing Ronnie’s condolence book.

Austin  is not happy about being duped when he shows, but in the room with Roylin, Eidra and Kate, Roylin reveals that Lenkov was hired by the British to launch the missile at the HMS Courageous warship we heard about earlier in the episode. One of the men seemingly in on this was Grove, who has extremist views about immigration and other political hot topics. He planned to meet with Hal and was silenced for it.

It seems someone close to the Prime Minister has been bugging the phones, and Roylin explains that she always uses a disposable phone when she talks to the Prime Minister. She can’t control the calls coming into her phone though and that, unfortunately, pins the details on Kate, given she phoned and revealed the Notting Hill meeting to her. Her call is the reason the bomb went off in the first place.

After the meting, Austin believes Roylin is protecting the Prime Minister and wants to turn her into the authorities. Kate warns against this though, given the police could be in on this. The only solution here is to keep her in the safe house for another day.

There’s still a lot of hostility between Trowbridge and Dennison though, but the former is a man possessed, determined to find Margaret Roylin. He speaks to Kate, and knows she called Roylin while she was in Paris. Kate claims she did so as she wanted to know how he would react if the French didn’t agree to the Lenkov arrest. Roylin told her Trowbridge would be happy that Austin Dennison failed. And that is, of course, not far from the truth.

After this meeting, Ronnie’s body is transported back to the US. This serves as background fodder for more political scheming and mistrust, this time coming from the Americans. Stuart and Hal don’t trust one another, and the former even goes off on one with Eidra, pointing out that Ronnie may still be alive if the previous ambassadors were still in place. He also lashes out at Kate too, especially when he learns about the call and places the blame squarely on her shoulders.

Kate brings this baggage back home when she speaks to Hal. She points out how worried she is about losing her humanity but Hal shrugs it off, believing she’ll grow into the role. Hal and Kate are very different and in the end, the pair wind up sleeping in separate rooms following several skirmishing disagreements.

As the episode closes out though, Hal realizes he can’t actually get into bed himself. He needs Kate’s help, and as she bows before him to hep with his shoes, it’s a very symbolic moment of how she’s still subservient to him… but for how long?


The Episode Review

The Diplomat returns with an episode that continues this trail of mistrust and drama, as Kate and Hal’s marriage is still on the rocks, there are further tensions with Austin and Roylin, while Stuart’s unhinged demeanour could well come back to cause havoc for all involved.

The bigger tensions between the US and UK are still very much a talking point and we still aren’t any closer to finding out who was responsible for the bombing. It’s clear that there’s a lot more to unpack in this one, and the show does a decent job of juggling its relationship issues alongside the bigger political scheming and suspenseful atmosphere.

Kate’s character is multifaceted and interesting, which is one of the reasons the first season worked as well as it did. There’s a lot riding on our characters and tensions are at fever pitch. We’ll have to wait and see how everything unfolds from here.

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