Netflix The Diplomat season 1 recap guide: All episodes explained

The Diplomat episode 5 recap: The Dogcatcher

“The Dogcatcher” in the title of The Diplomat episode 5 refers to Kate. After she prevented an all-out war from happening in the Gulf, the staff started calling her the dogcatcher because she “leashed the dogs of war.” It’s ironic, then, how this episode ends, but more on that later.

This episode opens with a domestic scene between Eidra and Stuart. With a potential war between the US and Russia on the horizon, Stuart ponders aloud if they might consider getting a dog. A lot of people have babies during wartime since it’s life-affirming. Their conversation is interrupted by a phone call. The tox screen on the Iranian ambassador still isn’t back yet, meaning they don’t know how he died.

Because of this, Kate, Stuart, Hal, and the other members of their staff are held up on their way to Dennison’s country estate for an important briefing. Security sweeps are conducted to ensure Dennison isn’t planning to poison Kate, too, since he’s technically a suspect in Novichok’s death.

While stalled, Kate and Stuart go over their agenda for the meeting: Hug. Pivot. Bear. The “hug” is their discussion regarding a statement made to publicly demonstrate to Russia that the UK and the US are still a united front.

Then they need to “pivot” by finding the right way to exonerate Iran and shift to Russia, without an apology because Iran is on the US terrorism list, and an apology wouldn’t exactly look good, even if they were falsely accused of this particular act. Finally, the “bear,” is all about handling Russia—fitting since the bear is a widespread symbol for the country.

Moments after the meeting begins, things immediately start going off the rails. First, Kate makes a blunder by discussing how Novichok got his tea poisoned, a fact she shouldn’t know since she wasn’t supposed to have been in the room when he died. Then Dennison makes an offhand remark about moving point one to point three, a.k.a. pushing the “hug” discussion to the end of the meeting, which is alarming, especially as his decision comes after he gets off a call with the prime minister.

Dennison fakes a coughing fit so he and Kate can have an aside. He tells her about her tea mistake, and Kate says it’s fine. Maybe no one noticed, and if they did, they can say Dennison told her. As for moving the “hug,” Dennison drops a bombshell. Trowbridge wants to break up the US/UK alliance. He believes that it’s dangerous to be America’s enemy but to be its friend is fatal. Obviously, yeah, that’s a big deal, and Kate says it certainly warrants a longer conversation.

Speaking of Prime Minister Trowbridge, he just so happens to be in the neighborhood and decides to drop by the meeting where he can input his two cents. It quickly becomes apparent that Trowbridge will not be satisfied with anything but an aggressive attack against Russia. He wants to bomb something. Even the threat of nuclear retaliation doesn’t deter him.

While the meeting is ongoing, Hal galavants around the estate with Dennison’s sister, Cecilia. Hal is trying to play the part of arm candy, of a doting wife who doesn’t interfere. It’s his latest scheme to try and make Kate reassess their marriage, he’s showing her that he’s capable of laying low and not doing things behind her back.

He and Cecilia get high and go skinny-dipping, but Hal can’t get erect for any woman that’s not his wife. He freely admits that to her later. Hal also recommends that Kate consider sleeping with Dennison since she’ll need someone to occupy her time when he’s gone.

All of the plans Kate and Dennison try to cook up fail. So Kate comes up with something new on her own. She gets a list of Russian targets that the military would be comfortable bombing and hands it over to Trowbridge. It’s likely she has an ulterior motive, but it’s still quite a shock to see Kate offering such a bold move to the prime minister after they’ve spent the entire episode arguing against that very thing. What happened to leashing the dogs of war!?

Also, in this episode, Dennison and Kate are briefed by Eidra to make sure their story regarding Novichok matches. It immediately becomes clear that Kate shouldn’t speak to the police since she keeps adding details she shouldn’t know. It ends up not mattering anyway because the tox screen comes back clean. Novichok wasn’t poisoned. He died from a heart attack.

Written by Maddy Lennon