Netflix The Diplomat season 1 recap guide: All episodes explained

The Diplomat episode 4 recap: “He Bought a Hat”

The fourth episode of The Diplomat begins in an interesting place. Eidra mentions that she can’t prove that Iran didn’t attack the boat, and they’re not getting much intel from their intelligence services. They decide to try to bring Iran to the table without giving up Shahin and his involvement by including a clue in an upcoming speech.

At an event, Trowbridge gives a fiery speech about the President withdrawing the offer to send boats into the gulf to help rescue. That’s the new fire Kate has to worry about and the latest development in this string of weird moves by Trowbridge.

Kate and Stuart go back and forth about Kate dropping out of Vice President consideration. Kate wants to tell everyone that she’s getting a divorce, while Stuart offers a solution: come up with an arrangement that works for her and Hal.

Kate learns that someone summoned the Iranian Ambassador, but it wasn’t Dennison, which means Iran is willing to play ball! They got the hint in the speech, and they are reaching out with information. They put together a plan with Dennison to sneak Kate into the room when he meets with the Iranian Ambassador. While they wait, Stuart reveals some more information about his past, and they discuss why Kate would make a great Vice President. Stuart also asks Eidra to stay in London and not go to Cairo. We’ll have to keep an eye on that part of the story!

Dennison and Kate meet secretly with the Iranian Ambassador, and he gives them a name: “Roman Lenkov, Russian Mercenaries,” and it’s immediately clear why Iran can’t reveal who did the attack. It would put them at odds with Russia and the Kremlin, who are one of Iran’s allies.

Then, the Iranian Ambassador collapses while drinking tea in Dennison’s office, and they call the medical team to save his life, while Kate tries to play it cool. He dies in the room, but she tells Dennison he needs to be pronounced dead at the hospital.

After it’s all over, Kate and Dennison are horrified and also aware of the comedy of what just happened: the Russians, yes, the Russians, are behind the attack. Now, they have to figure out what to do. They can’t tell anyone what the Iranian Ambassador said before he died. They have to leak it through other channels and need intelligence to find out and take it up the chain of command.

The episode ends with Mr. and Mrs. Wyler, who are still married and planning on getting divorced, getting busy.

What’s so good about this episode is it launches the story in so many different directions. There’s so much on the table now:

• Kate is trying to navigate this crisis and figure out how to get the UK to stop instigating Iran.
• She’s trying to decide if she wants to be Vice President
• Kate and Hal are at odds most of the time, but the episode ends with them together, so who knows where we’re going from here?
• Kate also has chemistry with Dennison. It’s very obvious that there’s something to their relationship.
• Eidra and Stuart are also still working things out and deciding what their future looks like

We’re halfway through The Diplomat, and it’s getting really good.

Written by Bryce Olin