The Diplomat‘s fourth season asks a question bound to strike a chord: Who has the guts to tell a volatile U.S. president that their ego is about to trigger a global catastrophe? It’s something we in the real world wonder with each passing day of the second Trump administration; in the ongoing saga of political power couple Kate (Keri Russell) and Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell), it’s more the fallout of one specific event: President Grace Penn’s (Allison Janney) attempted assassination at Windsor Castle. Whipped into a maniacal frenzy, Grace dares Kate (her ambassador to the United Kingdom) and Hal (her vice president) to quell her desire to start a war with the U.K. Not so coincidentally, this retaliatory measure would keep the British from helping Russia to figure out that the U.S. has stolen a Soviet-era nuclear weapon.
Are Grace’s actions logical? God no, and everyone can see it, even if they can’t do anything about it at first. The Diplomat makes her whole “I’m going scorched earth because I’m the unstoppable leader of the free world” motivation land in ways that are convincing, oddly entertaining, and, near the end of a year when Donald Trump led the U.S. into a war of choice with Iran while rattling sabers at the country’s traditional allies, eerily resonant.
The show has not-so-slowly built up to Grace’s unraveling since her introduction in season two as an unreliable, ruthless politician in season two. Grace did plan the HMS Courageous bombing when she was VP, after all, and not even tenacious Chief of Staff Billie Appiah (Nana Mensah) wanted her in the Oval Office. Being shot amplifies Grace’s tendency to catastrophize, explaining her decision to engage in both blackmail and brinkmanship by placing warships in U.K. waters. She thinks she’s unstoppable. Perhaps only First Gentleman Todd Penn (Bradley Whitford) and the Wylers can defy her battle plans. But how can they when—in the midst of the world’s most uncomfortable dinner—the trio can’t even admit to Grace that she’s wrong about adding basil to a Negroni?
This tense scene in the aptly titled “Phony Negroni” is an exceptional snapshot of season four’s strengths. In this mode, The Diplomat is a drama that entwines the personal and the political with abandon. Grace tests the loyalty of her closest confidantes in a moment full of power plays and daft humor (Side note: Who else has repeatedly watched the clip of her chucking the basil on the floor after serving it to Kate, Hall, and Todd?). “Phony Negroni” shapes up as the show’s strongest outing yet because of how it sets the stage for greater geopolitical turmoil in the finale’s outrageous cliffhanger. With Kate and Hal openly pointing out the implications of Grace’s unfettered power, The Diplomat inherits the timely political thriller mantle from The West Wing—a show that Janney, Whitford, creator Debora Cahn, and director Alex Graves each worked on. At the same time, the heightened nature of how it all plays out produces sudsy spectacle set in the corridors of power, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the glory days of Scandal.
Up until now, The Diplomat has happily refrained from reflecting political reality because of its sole focus on Kate, Hal, and how everything about their jobs gets filtered through the prism of their (as the kids call it) failmarriage. Season four, however, amplifies the tension, stakes, and even the comedy by mirroring their dynamic with the Penns. In both cases, one spouse—Grace and Hal—holds a high-value political office and the other—Todd and Kate—feel like they’ve taken a backseat to their partner, although Kate has a knack for involving herself in places and situations she wouldn’t normally be allowed to be in. Grace, who likes to challenge everyone, successfully pushes Todd away as well. No wonder he volunteers to become a special envoy to the U.K. to get the hell away from his unpredictable wife, leading to a burgeoning friendship with Kate.
All of this leads to pretzel-shaped conundrums and miscommunications between the quartet in the season’s second half. Like Kate and Hal, Grace and Todd also can’t stay with or without each other, which explains the late-night phone calls, toxic fights, and mild gossip that both couples engage in throughout, no matter the geographical distance. But that’s also the juicy draw of The Diplomat, because those same clandestine calls lead to lies that end up affecting the rest of the world. These charged dynamics come to a head in “Phony Negroni,,” with Grace manipulating her dining companions into being honest about her destabilizing moves in the White House—like the fact that she wants to instigate an actual war as some form of revenge against the country where she was shot. Once Kate actually challenges her authority, though, Grace doesn’t waste time dismissing her and Hal, ratcheting the tension within the quartet.
The messy relationships fill a Scandal-shaped void, although The Diplomat isn’t nearly as wild as the ABC show in its prime. Nor is the show as whip-smart or hopeful as The West Wing. Still, season four inches closer to NBC’s acclaimed drama with its fast-paced dialogue, walk-and-talks, and delving into the mechanics of foreign policy and backchannel diplomacy. Such familiar qualities ease us (and the show) into Kate speaking up against the system and Grace’s tyrannical rule. Someone’s got to do it! And if that wasn’t always Cahn’s intention, then it’s a testament to The Diplomat’s high quality—the show’s trajectory has shifted and evolved season after season without fudging the plot.
In the finale, once Grace admits to the leaders of the other G7 nations that she has, in fact, trained her guns on the U.K., no one opposes her. Not until Kate steps up to the podium and publicly resigns in defiance. Billie, U.S. Secretary of State Miguel Gannon (Miguel Sandoval), and even Hal—who finally lets go of his own power for the greater good—quickly follow suit. Is it overt wish fulfillment, depicting the sort of courageous act that none of these characters’ real-world counterparts appear capable of? Possibly, unless Hal invokes the 25th Amendment to rejoin the administration. (Which, in our case, would be its own wish fulfilled—albeit the ironic type that leads to a new, three-word horror story: President J.D. Vance.) Still, the nail-biting execution of this moment will likely make you yearn for politicians who know not to let power go unchecked before it’s too damn late. Season four is certainly the most melodramatic season of The Diplomat to date, but it’s also satisfying because of how Cahn and the writers have developed these intricate character dynamics and situations over the years, allowing The Diplomat to evolve into its peak form.
Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic. To make sure you’re seeing more of her writing about the TV worth watching, add The A.V. Club as a preferred source on Google.
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