The Diplomat season 4 ending explained and what it means for season 5

The Diplomat season 4 ends with the most shocking sequence of events in the show's history.

In The Diplomat season 4 finale, "Warships," the tenuous situation between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia takes a turn for the worse. After Kate (Keri Russell) refused to repeat President Penn's threats to new Prime Minister Bethan Vaughn (Jodie Whittaker), President Penn (Allison Janney) taps her husband, Todd (Bradley Whitford), to send a message to the UK. The president has sent three destroyers into the North Sea to block the Russians from recovering the dead from the submarine that sunk off the coast of the UK in the third season.

Well, Todd steps in it, and he makes a veiled threat that sounds like the end of NATO at a meeting of the G7 in Italy. Vaughn sends a strong message to the US and sends British ships to escort the Russians to the submarine. Remember, this is all because Penn and Hal (Rufus Sewell) decided to steal the nuclear warhead from the Russian sub in the first place.

Kate tries her best to object to the plan, claiming it could easily start World War III and end NATO in the process. Stuart (Eto Assandoh) writes a dissent cable objecting to the plan, and Penn has him recalled back to Washington D.C. for insubordination, basically. It's illegal, but Penn is not playing by the rules anymore.

After Kate's desperate attempts to play ball and get Penn and the United States to do the right thing, Penn doubles down and gives a speech at the G7 meeting to assert her dominance over the rest of the US allies. She basically threatens all the other countries in attendance. That doesn't sit well with Kate, and she knows it's her time to go.

Kate, Billie, Ganon, and Hal resign from their positions

During the opening remarks at the G7, Kate walks down, turns in her badge, and resigns her position in front of the US's biggest allies. It's an incredible show of dissent from Kate, and she isn't the only one who leaves.

After Kate walks out, Billie (Nana Mensah), the White House Chief of Staff, follows Kate, and she resigns. Then, Miguel Ganon (Miguel Sandoval), the US Secretary of State, resigns and walks out as well.

It looks like it's just those three who resign, which is basically the entirety of the US delegation at the G7. Then, the door opens again, and Hal, the vice president of the United States, walks out, too.

The group of four walks to the press, who are gathered outside the G7. Kate checks with Hal that he's ready to do this, and then, she introduces Hal to the press for some immediate remarks that he's about to give. That's when the season ends, and it's a bombshell!

What's next in The Diplomat season 5?

For those paying attention, this group has been gathering the courage and strength to bail on President Penn and her incredibly stupid foreign policy choices for basically two seasons now. When they finally exhausted all the options they could, they chose to leave the administration and reveal to the world what has been going on.

Again, this shouldn't be a surprise. Billie has been looking for an exit plan for two seasons. Ganon was completely cut out of basically every decision for a season and a half. While she made mistakes, Kate was always trying to find the best diplomatic option. Hal, who enjoyed his seat at the table, finally came to his senses at the end that this foreign policy and corruption were not the best way forward.

Now, it has huge implications for The Diplomat season 5. Netflix has not renewed the series for a fifth season yet, but there's no way this show is getting canceled. It's easily one of Netflix's best shows. It's been nominated and won Primetime Emmys! And it's only getting better and better.

From here, the United States sits on the brink of political turmoil. The vice president and top members of the administration are going public with their concerns about the president's fitness for office.

Will Hal be the president in The Diplomat season 5?

It feels like we've been building to Hal becoming the President of the United States for a few seasons now. With what he knows about President Penn and how this has all played out, I expect this to be quite messy, but it's going to be really interesting to see where creator Debora Cahn takes this story.

With Hal going public, there will certainly be an inquiry into what happened. Congress will be involved, and it will come down to choosing to impeach President Penn. If that doesn't happen, the full hammer of the executive branch will likely come down on Billie, Kate, Hal, and Ganon for the stunt they just pulled.

Personally, I don't see this show heading that way, though.

I have a feeling we're going to see impeachment proceedings playing out in the new season, but where that actually leads, we'll just have to wait and see. I could see a major time jump happening, skipping the long legislative process to come, and jumping in with Hal as the President of the United States, but we'll just have to wait and see how it plays out.

We'll share more updates about The Diplomat season 5 as we find out! First, let's celebrate the incredible fourth season of the best political drama on TV right now.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow