The diplomat

The ideas of March

Season 2

Episode 3

Editor's Rating

3 stars

***

Photo: Alex Bailey/Netflix

Stuart Haywood and Hal Wyler both physically and psychologically recover from their brush with death, and while it may seem like each of them goes about it very differently, both approaches are fundamentally about Kate.

Hal wants Kate to recognize that if she replaces the current vice president, she will have a significant second career ahead of her as a very senior elected official, and that she would rather not do that. Who knows? She may intend to take on this role as a noble stopgap, something she can say in good faith that she took on because the president asked her to, and that she plans to return to when this term is over , what she does best at the State Department. But if you're anyone other than Kate Wyler, and especially if you're her perhaps doting husband/predatory political animal Hal Wyler, think ahead. You cleverly use your role as ambassador spouse to provide her with helpful opportunities, and turn the upcoming Fourth of July party into a springboard for boosting her campaign coffers by befriending a zillionaire energy company owner for the entirety $300,000 to finance the party bill.

And really, is it too much to ask Kate to take the zillionaire (Brad, a Maine native whose Scrooge McDuck-sized contribution to the festivities will extend to providing lobster rolls for 2,000 or more guests) on a little trip ? to the Foreign Office? Since she's going there anyway, having been summoned by Dennison, who she's sure Prime Minister Trowbridge has appeared on national television to announce Lenkov's unfortunate and 100% accidental death during his attempted arrest by British special forces and French law enforcement, that will be the case he withdraw his recognition as US ambassador? A bridge too far for this busy morning? Hmm. Okay.

Hal's impulse to give his obligations double duty makes sense, of course; Kate pretty quickly went from rejecting the idea of ​​even considering the vice presidency to being okay with it. So there's every reason to believe that once she's entrenched in the role, she'll eventually agree to seek re-election. She needs a war chest to do that, and Hal wants to pave the way for a smooth transition to what likely comes next. This is practical foresight, not manipulative at all! He is sure that Kate will later see the wisdom of these steps and will undoubtedly thank him for them.

What Kate won't thank him for is acting like a big, grumpy baby when it comes to her relationship with Dennison. Raise your hand if you remember Hal actively encouraging Kate to keep flirting with Dennison last season! Now raise your hand if you noticed his jealous, stinky face when he saw a photo of them together on the embassy website, or his fake supportive questioning of Kate (at Grove's funeral at least) about whether she and Dennison were dating have slept or not yet. For the record: They didn't; She would like to, but doesn't. Probably. So it shouldn't matter at all that Kate Dennison – who didn't call Kate into his office to make any sort of excuse, because he successfully orchestrated Trowbridge's downfall and is not unlikely to succeed him as Prime Minister – “The best person I've ever known in politics.” Seeing a perfectly good guy not finish last in his field is an unexpected joy, isn't it, Hal? We might believe that, on the whole, all is well in this regard if Hals hadn't been able to stop making snarky comments about what a decent, upstanding guy Dennison is.

At first everyone is delighted at the news of Trowbridge's fall, and if the matter were a done deal it would be over until it was made public. But cracks and complications appear almost immediately; Stuart points out that just making Lenkov known won't be enough – he wants the entire scandal and Trowbridge's role in it to come to light as quickly as possible, and has doubts about Kate's assurances that everything will eventually come to light . After checking an RSVP list for the party, Hal notices that one of Dennison's co-conspirators has canceled his attendance. Furthermore, Kate's very nice, rather posh assistant, Pensy, asks her to express her gratitude to the Prime Minister for sending “that terrible man”; For her, Lenkov's death feels “like a small piece of justice,” both for Ronnie, the sailors who died on the Courageous, and for Hal and Stuart. That's about 180 degrees from the answer Kate expected to hear about the surgery. Has the mood changed irrevocably? Was there ever a mood among British citizens?

With these unexpected mixed messages showering her, Kate goes ahead as planned so that she can honor Dennison's request to use the Winfield greenhouse as a quiet place to show Trowbridge the door, but wants to be especially sure that the plan is kosher is. What does Billie think of this? Is her displeasure with the idea a clear no or just something she's not excited about?

This is where Stuart's whole situation goes off the rails. He's done his job very well so far – he's probably incapable of doing it any other way, and it's very reassuring to have an area of ​​predictable achievement in his life, with everything else both literal and figurative hurts. He and Kate obviously want to put their previous confrontation behind them and return to the imperfect but promising relationship they previously built, but the thoughts of the bombing and Ronnie and his own injuries are real because Kate didn't follow his advice Avoiding Margaret Roylin gets in the way.

All of this leads to Stuart acting strangely on the phone with Billie, who joins him when Marine One lands on the White House lawn and demands to know what's bothering him. A volatile combination of frustration, sadness, anger and conscience leads Stuart to blurt out that Billie and the President should replace Kate as the vice presidential candidate. His deep breath is followed by a litany of potentially disqualifying criticisms: Kate is “undisciplined and unfocused and can't take her eyes off the Secretary of State long enough to get through a day's work.” That's not even the real problem, because they're not actually involved , but “she's foaming at the mouth because she wants to replay The Ides of March at her picnic!” That's pretty damning, but if Trowbridge's downfall is a done deal and there's no real scandal to worry about, where does that lie then the problem? Billie sums up her confusion by asking the question we all want an answer to: “Stewie, what the hell are you doing?”

As usual, Stuart is right to be concerned, and if he had stopped at “undisciplined and unfocused” with some of the greed after the Ides of March in July, it would be hard to argue against his case. However, the slow burn thing between Kate and Dennison makes him sound like an unhinged gossip, and it's hard to tell whether his priority is righting the ship or enforcing punishment.

Speaking of compensation, Hal rightly pointed out that Dennison's co-conspirator quit the party, as that guy was apparently the canary in the coal mine. Support for Dennison's plan collapses before his eyes, so he immediately turns to noble self-immolation (metaphorically). He can live without ridding the country of Trowbridge as Prime Minister, but not if his many sins remain undetected – he will go to the press with his suspicions, put them in charge of the investigation, and drop the political career chips where they may. Kate seems to convince him not to jump the gun, which is impressive considering that the Lenkov assassination was progressing in the 24 hour period in which she convinced him to wait to launch his investigation.

Trowbridge, for his part, runs blithely through the party, clearly enjoying the spotlight and praise pouring in from all sides. Perhaps he was aware of how close he was to escaping office, but he acts as if the possibility had never occurred to him, patting Kate and Hal on the back and loudly inviting them to a summit with their First Minister in Scotland. Who knows what it's all about? No idea, because Trowbridge “fell asleep while she was describing it.” Hal would rather eat a bag of glass as an afternoon snack and wash it down with a refreshing dose of sulfuric acid, but thwarting Nicol, the folk hero, seems impossible at the moment.

The episode ends with both Hal and Stuart surviving the fireworks at the party. Stuart narrowly escapes the beautiful performance that sounds a lot like bombs exploding without a full flashback as he tries to convince a pretty party goer to take his car home after the valet loses her car keys, while Kate coaches Hal through some breathing exercises. reassure him that he is fine. Both are doing well at the moment.

• The situation with Margaret Roylin is floating around in the background. She wants to leave the safe house and not be locked up, but Eidra won't let her roam free either. What a funny moral and legal gray area that certainly won't catch anyone's eye!

• It's fun to think about the unusual jobs people can have. For example, it was an illustrator's responsibility to create the GIF of Trowbridge as St. George slaying the Lenkov Dragon. It was likely an iterative process, perhaps even requiring discussions at meetings! I hope Rory Kinnear has a framed statue of it, blown up very large, hanging in a gilded frame somewhere in his house.

• The apple variety conversation between Stuart and a Tory adviser named Julian (Rupert Vansittart), who subverts expectations by playing a perfectly nice guy rather than an insufferable upper-class blowjober like he did so well in films like… Four weddings and a funeraland the 1995 adaptation pride and Prejudice) is my favorite little moment of the episode. I know Bramleys are real, but Knobbly Russets cracks me up. I am convinced that this is just one of many apple variety names that Vansittart came up with for this scene to help Ato Essandoh break through.