Summary of ‘The Diplomat’ Season 2 Episode 4: The Other Army

The Diplomat

The Second Army

Season 2

Section 4

Editor’s assessment

4 stars

****

Photo: Netflix

Is it possible that after the various physical and behavioral disasters of the last few episodes, things are getting back to normal for the US ambassador and her various allies? Kate and Hal seem to work quite well together; Stuart has found the means to sincerely retract his near-sabotage of Kate’s VP prospects; and Kate, Hal and Eidra develop a less-than-ideal but fairly sophisticated plan to reveal new details of Roylin’s plan to Dennison and Trowbridge while testing the latter’s responses for signs of guilt. and get Roylin off your hands. You know what? Let’s take a trip to the Highlands while we’re at it. Rugged scenery, scary narrow roads and a buffet of lovely Scottish burrs could be the icing on the cake for this episode!

Even for a show that’s basically about people talking in rooms, talking as they go from one room to another, and then talking to other people about what they said in previous conversations held in previous rooms, “The Other Army” notable for how much it draws attention to its conversations in space. They feel a bit less rushed and more process-oriented than they have recently, or maybe I’m just noticing more, especially since this is an episode where most of the conversations are about planning another, far more consequential conversation.

In Kate’s reconciliation conversation with Stuart, her office takes on the feeling of a sanctuary, which is just right for two people who recognize that each of them has not been their best selves and calmly think about their ability to work well together. Kate is particularly insightful about the challenges of having been in Stuart’s shoes before, the awkwardness of being in Hals and dealing with the reality that each role is terrible in its own way. I’m glad that Stuart is working his way back toward being in the inner circle, and that Kate is invested enough in their relationship to carve out this quiet moment for the two of them.

We see something similar at work after Kate’s conversation with the Scottish First Minister, Jemma Doud. She really admired Doud and is sad that it went sideways in the end, especially since it was an interesting, meaningful way to start their working relationship. what is she do in this job, Kate wonders aloud. It’s boring to meet someone with a political operative you think could be an ally and friend, only to reveal yourself to them as willing to be a bad guy’s lackey. Can they ever bend the bad guys to their will or are they “just friends with bad guys”? This isn’t as navel-gazing-y as it may seem; in fact, it’s a reasonable counterargument to Hal’s impassioned claim last season that in diplomacy you have to talk to everyone. I like that The Diplomat questions and pulls at the strings of its own claims and assumptions, and I will take as much of it as it chooses to include.

This episode also makes the most of the CIA safe house where Margaret Roylin still… lives? Being detained but not detained? The gray area Eidra navigates in thanks to taking custody of Roylin after her walk-in grows darker and larger with each passing hour, so perhaps using Roylin’s bedroom, the house’s living room, and its kitchen reflects the metastasis of the situation. Once Kate convinces Eidra to bring Hal into the mix as an intelligence-gathering firewall between them and Roylin, we’re well outside anything resembling security or a house, so naturally the conversation takes place outside on an airstrip.

When Hal is convinced by Roylin’s version of the story and by her belief that certain details can be set aside for the moment, Roylin shares more of the story with Kate and Eidra and explains how the job went so horribly wrong. It seems to boil down to bad timing and sloppiness on the part of Lenkov and naivety on the part of Roylin and Grove. She takes responsibility for hiring Lenkov, blames the bombing on Stendig and insists that Trowbridge had nothing to do with any of it. She again claims to be genuinely afraid for Austin’s safety and wants him read in so he stops rattling cages about the situation. It is clear that whatever details Roylin shared with Hal and isn’t it sharing with Kate and Eidra is pretty earth shattering.

Hal, Kate and Eidra decide their best opportunity to ensure that Dennison learns Roylin’s side of the story and to test their hypothesis that Trowbridge was involved will be at the retreat they are going to attend in Scotland. Sure, it will involve tapping Trowbridge’s phone to monitor his next move for signs of guilt or innocence, but what’s a little highly classified and risky espionage between friends?

The final scene’s long-awaited reveal and showdown between Roylin and Trowbridge works because it’s perfectly placed as the focal point of the entire season, and because of the narrative and character work in the episode’s earlier scenes between Trowbridge and Kate. It’s impossible to forget what a bosom Trowbridge can be, but his ebullience at the Fourth of July party softened him just the tiniest bit in my eyes. Back in Scotland, nestled in a library with his daily red minister shipping box and holding court with Kate and his chief of staff, Trowbridge’s verbal flourishes about things like woolen muffs and three definitions of “dunning” (“relentlessly irritating; chalk on the teeth; when some mechanical device ages and produces an almost inaudible whine”) are colorful and occasionally entertaining, but they also remind us that he’s an incredibly strong middle-aged man who’s happiest when he’s complaining and/or trying to bully others.

Who comforts the grieving parents of fallen sailors and then tells about themselves? Who triumphs over the biggest challenge of his political career and then can’t stop ranting about the cabinet member who just failed to impeach him? Oh. Now keep in mind the possibility that this is also the man who may have had a role in procuring the favors of the Lenkov group, followed by hearing him say things like: “Somebody needs to talk to the families – they can’t say ‘Thank you killed that man’ I’ve got the damn UN on me!If you need it, take a moment to use the free emesis pool that comes with this recap.

I like that the whole lead-up to the final scene provides another round of reminders that Kate isn’t just made to run around frantically dealing with crises and shaking about her relationship with Hal and Dennison. She is a shrewd, nimble operator when called upon to be one, reversing Trowbridge’s earlier assessment of her as usefully disarming. This man is such an easy target that all she had to do was call him smart and successful and his whole face lights up with “She likes me!!!” joy.

We see another version of a Pavlovian response to an authoritative woman when faced with Roylin’s quasi-maternal brevity. After he reads to her about how successful he’s managed to be in her absence, his brain catches up with his mouth, causing him to close it, and as Roylin had instructed seconds earlier, he sits down and takes a sip water and waiting to hear what she has to say. I would love to see a close read piece analyzing Roylin’s many deliveries of her various confessions; a big part of what makes Celia Imrie’s performance a joy to watch is how she calibrates where to emphasize and where to downplay certain elements, and the way the writers nail it every time. For Trowbridge, Roylin gives his rationale for arranging the attack in terms of the need for a strategy that would neutralize the threat of Scottish secession and “to make trouble and give you a reason to lead.” Who knows what Roylin expected her mentee’s response to be, but I imagine him going into a blind rage and leaping forward to try to strangle her to death while screaming, “You’re a monster,” was not on her bingo card for the evening. On the plus side, his horror is proof positive that Nicol Trowbridge is capable of proper human emotion. Trying to kill Roylin is unequivocally bad; It is well to give Dennison an impeccable reason to rush into the room and wrestle Trowbridge against the wall; Roylin taking a nasty, quite bloody crack to the back of the skull makes for one hell of a tantalizing cliffhanger.

• Stuart gets the funniest lines of the episode, a helpful reminder that for my money, The Diplomat works best when boosted by small daily moments of silliness. It wouldn’t have suited the last few episodes to have leaned into his line about looking down on Eidra “from a great height, which is my right as a gentleman scorned”, but here it’s a signal that Stuart doesn’t is self-deluded as he tells Billie, Kate and Eidra that he is in the right frame of mind to be back at work.

• The second funniest moment is between Hal and Dennison in their back and forth about Dennison joining the Wylers and the Prime Minister of Scotland. Hal puts an end to Dennison’s persistent denials by reminding him that he knows, and Dennison knows, and Hal knows that Dennison knows, that “the day I was blown up here in your infamous city, you planned to fuck my wife.” Dennison’s “See you in Scotland” is perfect, 18/10, no notes.

• Is there a certain amount of “What the hell is wrong with you?”-ness that everyone who works at the embassy needs to exhibit at one point or another? It seems so, and in this episode it’s Eidra’s turn to handle that very hot potato. Honey capture Stuart to get to the bottom of Billie’s concern for him after he tried to torpedo Kate’s chances as VP? What?! Eidra’s final apology is an unusually rickety and inelegant stop-and-start moment for her, but she seems sincere.