Netflix The Diplomat season 1 recap guide: All episodes explained

The Diplomat episode 6 recap: Some Lusty Tornado

When we left off, Kate appeared to give Trowbridge the all-clear on bombing something in Russia. Dennison is moving ahead full-steam, looking to call in the defense secretary and more. Kate tells him to chill because they’re not actually going to bomb anything. She just gave that to Trowbridge so he would stop wanting it so badly. Dennison argues that, no, she just made it okay for him to bomb something with American approval.

Kate feels guilty for going behind Dennison’s back, but Hal points out she just played a move that’s part of a larger plan; it’s not the final destination. Then he notices she’s been drinking non-stop on an empty stomach and escorts her to the kitchen, which they ransack for snacks and more wine.

Trowbridge interrupts their midnight feast and decides to join in. It gives Kate a chance to talk to him without everyone else around. Playing chicken with a country that would be happy to use a nuclear warhead at a moment’s notice is never a smart move until you’ve exhausted all other options. Why doesn’t Trowbridge take their money instead? The UK has access to billions of Russia’s dirty money. Trowbridge could choke off their finances and make a big impact.

Now that she’s sold Trowbridge on a bloodless option, she and Hal enlist the assistance of the entire staff to help them work through a 200-point plan that night. Kate visits Dennison in his room to apologize for going behind his back earlier.

At one point, she tells him she needs him and that they make a great team, which Dennison misinterprets to mean she’s admitting romantic feelings for him. Dennison feels the same way, but Kate is mortified because that’s not what she was referring to. They leave things on an awkward note, but Dennison gets the message regarding their new plan.

Desperate for more intel on Russia’s attack, Stuart pays Eidra a visit in the middle of the night. Unaware Stuart was planning to visit her, Eidra pulls a gun on who she believes is an intruder. Thankfully, she realizes it’s Stuart before firing. Once the gun is safely put away, Stuart asks Eidra what more she knows about the Russian intel.

Eidra says they’re still trying to figure out who issued the order, but there’s been Russian submarine movement on the British coast, which may mean Russia knows that they know it was them. She’s invested in finding a diplomatic solution and promises Stuart he’ll know as soon as she does (well, he’s like eighth in line to find out, but still).

The following day, Kate gives Dennison the notes so he can pitch their plan to Trowbridge while she plans to do the same to Ganon. Dennison argues Kate should do it, but she says, “British plan, British pitch.” They argue about this until Kate takes a tumble down the stairs and hurts her wrist. Seeing her injured softens Dennison, and he reluctantly agrees to do it, though he questions if Kate intentionally hurled herself down the steps to get out of giving an oral presentation. It’s something his sister would do. Kate pauses to say, “I am not your sister. At this point, that ought to be clear.” Spicy.

The problem is, Trowbridge seems to have changed his mind since their nighttime kitchen conversation. He no longer wants diplomacy and is back wanting to bomb stuff. Hal and Cecilia inform Kate that Trowbridge is still conferring with his former advisor, Margaret “Maggie” Roylin. He likely spoke with her after their conversation and is now parroting her advice. It’s fitting since Maggie actually lives right around the corner from Dennison’s estate. How convenient.

Kate is peeved Dennison didn’t tell her about this, but he pleads with her not to talk to Maggie and let him handle Trowbridge. Well, that doesn’t sit well with Kate, so she gets Cecilia to take her to Maggie’s home. There, Kate convinces Maggie to help her so they can hash this out and call it a day. Maggie says Trowbridge isn’t going to do something that causes him to “lose the kingdom,” so to speak. He needs an act of unity to get him through the Scottish referendum and believes instigating war with Russia is what will do that. Obviously, Kate asks Maggie to help her come up with something more diplomatic.

With Maggie’s assistance, they come up with a new plan. They’ll target the Lenkov Group, which is technically not Russia, or so the Kremlin keeps insisting. In reality, they are the Kremlin’s private army pretending to be mercenaries—although they do sometimes act as mercenaries, and they’re in Libya trying to restart a war the UN settled, and Libya has been asking for help.

If the UK intervenes, then it looks like they’re just there to defend Libya, and it wouldn’t be considered an illegal war crime like if they attacked the Lenkov Group unwarranted. It’s a good plan, one that should satisfy Trowbridge’s bloodlust while simultaneously making everyone look good in the process, and, most importantly, it will allow them to avoid starting a war.

It sounds like the perfect way to keep everyone happy, until they hit a snag: Ganon. He shoots down the plan immediately.

Earlier, while Kate was visiting Maggie, she instructed Hal to pick up Ganon from the airport. He found it suspicious that Ganon said he had just flown “nine hours” when the flight from DC is really only about seven. Hal asks Stuart to get his CIA girlfriend to look into Ganon’s secret side trip, and they find out he made a pitstop in South Carolina to pick up an honorary doctorate.

Kate and Hal realize Ganon is hoping to run for president, and it’ll be hard to beat the sitting president if he brokers a Persian-Gulf-Russia-Libya hat trick. Kate uses that information to take down Ganon by reporting his deceit to the president. It makes her an enemy, but Hal reminds her that it’s not her job to worry about things like that anymore. She has Stuart to smooth things over now.

Not only did Kate make things uncomfortable with Ganon, but she also rubs Dennison the wrong way when he realizes she went behind his back (again) to talk to Maggie. In the process of apologizing for that mistake, Kate also admits she has romantic feelings for him, too, but they can’t focus on that right now because they’ve got bigger fish to fry.

There’s a funny moment toward the end of The Diplomat episode 6 where Stuart asks Hal how he knew about him and Eidra. It turns out Hal didn’t know until Stuart left a long pause after Hal mentioned his “CIA girlfriend.” Either way, Hal’s comment nudged Stuart and Eidra into making their relationship public.

And speaking of long, dangling, eloquent pauses, the next time Stuart and Hal ask Kate what she thinks about becoming vice president, she pauses. It seems like pulling off the Trowbridge/Libya/Ganon plan has given her the kind of rush she can become used to if she became VP. Stuart points out she could accomplish more in one afternoon than most people do in their lifetime. Either way, for once, Kate doesn’t immediately shoot down the idea, which is a start!

The episode ends with Kate celebrating her latest win flanked by the two main men in her life, Hal and Dennison. Stuart and Cecilia watch from the sidelines, and Cecilia makes a snarky remark about Kate having them both, alerting Stuart to the fact something is brewing between Kate and Dennison and could potentially become a problem down the line.

Written by Maddy Lennon