Netflix The Diplomat season 1 recap guide: All episodes explained

The Diplomat episode 2 recap: “Don’t Call it a Kidnapping”

“Don’t Call it a Kidnapping” begins with everyone looking for Hal. It’s revealed pretty quickly that he was kidnapped, but don’t call it that.

Hal was “kidnapped” by the Iranians to tell him, through an unofficial channel, that Iran did not attack the ship, according to Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Shahin. The operatives were in London to kill a former US General and war criminal. They backed out of the assassination to make sure that the US/UK know they are not escalating the situation. Since Iran didn’t claim responsibility, they would view any provocation by US/UK as an unprovoked attack and respond accordingly.

Obviously, when Hal says this, no one was buying Iran’s story, so they are trying to make it clear that Iran didn’t attack the British ship. So, if it wasn’t Iran, who was it? The other kicker is that they can’t reveal Hal as the source of the intel yet. Kate jokingly asks Stuart to offer to resign for allowing the security breach that led to Hal getting kidnapped, but she would never accept it.

In the meantime, Prime Minster Trowbridge tells a widow that the UK will more or less bomb Iran, which is not good for anyone. Attacks on Muslims start happening in the UK.

Eidra tries to figure out how to use the intelligence Hal provided without naming her source for political reasons. Kate and Stuart go back and forth about what it means to have Hal involved in this, which seems very complicated.

To top it all off, the President decides to make a quick trip to London for lunch at Winfield with the Prime Minister, and when Kate finds out, she bails to make a few phone calls in the toilet of a grocery store. She calls someone who is trying to locate if Hal made any calls to Iran. It’s clear that Kate doesn’t exactly trust Hal after something terrible happened in Afghanistan.

Later, Kate calls Hal out. She figured out that Hal called Niccolo, a contact in Italy, who then got in touch with Shahin in Iran. Hal is pulling the strings on this whole situation, and he’s keeping Kate in the dark. Kate puts Hal in her place, and she tries to put the pieces back together, but Ganon blocks her and keeps the visit between the President and Prime Minister on the books.

Kate decides that she’s going to meet with the foreign secretary, while Stuart begs her to slow down, but she’s on a mission. She meets with Dennison and explains the whole situation. Iran didn’t do it. They called off an important hit as a show of good faith and tried to alert the UK and US that it wasn’t them. Then, they kidnapped Hal to cement it, but now, Kate is struggling to convince everyone Iran didn’t actually do it from her position of power, which is pretty low on the chain.

Before the President arrives, Kate tries to order Hal to leave, but he decides that it’s important for him to stay. Literally, as the helicopter is landing with the President, Hal reveals that she’s being considered for Vice President and that’s why they are here to see if she can really do the job.

What awful timing to drop such a bomb on Kate!

Written by Bryce Olin