This post contains major plot details from Season 2 ofNetflixsThe Diplomat.
Trowbridge didnt know, and neither did the President of the United States.
Talk about a plot twist!
Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell in Season 2 of ‘The Diplomat’Netflix
The shock is so great, it kills him, leaving Penn as the new Commander in Chief.
Lucky for audiences, the series has already beenrenewed for Season 3.
Creator Debora Cahn broke down the season with Deadline in the interview below.
DEADLINE: You picked up Season 2 right where things left off in Season 1.
Is that the plan going forward, for the rest of the series?
Theyre watching two, three episodes in a sitting, and we want to feel like it remains propulsive.
Its like one long story.
Theyre watching one long movie.
But once you get in the habit of doing that, then its just fun to write that way.
DEADLINE: This seasons story feels incredibly prescient, given it was written quite a while ago.
How does it feel now, to be releasing this less than one week before the presidential election?
But we dont want it to be actually the same minute-by-minute story.
We had already filmed it in our world.
It looks like were stealing from the headlines, but… CAHN:In some ways, it was really exciting.
But, yeah, its intimidating to be talking about something that is playing out.
We dont want to paint ourselves into a corner that makes us look obsolete and sad.
Does it even really matter if we fully agree with her?
How did you reflect on all of that as you wrote it?
And then we know that it, Oh, its the other enemy.
And then we learn that thats not really true either.
Then we learn that it was our friend, and then we learned that it was us.
The bad people in our country, or the bad people in another country.
Its not an accident that its Allison.
She is so lovable and admirable.
There was not a good option on the table.
The situation is bad, the decision maker is not.
DEADLINE: So, what does this mean for Kates VP ambitions?
Are they dead in the water?
CAHN:Welcome to Season 3.
How is that going to impact them?
CAHN:Were drawn to charismatic people.
Were drawn to thinking outside the box.
Were drawn to big, magic moments and grand gestures.
Then the question is, what are the consequences of those?
The consequences are often disastrous.
Sadly, in my research, it does not.
Thats something that shes trying to learn, and she rationally learns, but emotionally never does.
CAHN:These are Season 3 spoilers!
Can union endure under those circumstances?
DEADLINE: I also want to talk about Dennison.
How is he going to navigate these new developments?
The solutions that he finds to problems are pretty dramatic.
Hes willing to be loyal up until a point, and then when hes not loyal, hesreallynot loyal.
I think its difficult for him to work at all in half measures.
DEADLINE: Is there a path forward for his and Kates alliance?
At the end of the season, he really does not trust her anymore.
CAHN:The Kate-Dennison relationship plays a lot of roles narratively…these are two diplomats.
They come from different places.
They see the world very much in a similar way.
They have similar goals.
They like each other, they get along, they get stuff done.
It can really stop things from going off the rails.
So the hope is that the experiences that theyve had together dont destroy that.
Its a sort of a fragile and wonderful and powerful thing.
I think its something that people go through a lot who are in this kind of work.
So how do you come back from that?
How do you trust people after thats been done?
