The Diplomat Recap: We All Live in a Russian Submarine

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The situation is full of stark choices. President Penn must apologize to Prime Minister Trowbridge or face international condemnation. Kate will either stay in London and weather the protests at Winfield House, or she’ll be declared unwelcome and forced to leave the country with a prepared bag. Meanwhile, Britain is discussing the recovery of a Russian submarine with China, potentially to provoke the US, or simply without considering American awareness. Kate and Callum’s relationship is either progressing or ending. Stuart needs legal counsel, or he’ll avoid trouble altogether. Finally, the concept of American exceptionalism is either detrimental or essential for maintaining global democratic ideals.

The White House is in an uproar as Billie tries to unite the staff, cabinet, and Hal around a consistent message crafted with Grace. The President wants everyone to express shock, sympathy, and separation from Rayburn, though not necessarily in that order. True to form, Hal proposes a different approach: silence. He believes that immediately offering a defense or apology would undermine their strategy of blaming Rayburn for the attack on the HMS *Courageous*, a move they still want to leverage to control how the story is told.

But is that really possible? Gannon notes that protests are already happening at 16 U.S. embassies around the world. Plus, Turkey, Hungary, and Germany are considering stopping their purchases of weapons made in the U.S., and some people are suggesting the U.S. should offer financial compensation to the British government. Kate is willing to give it a shot, so Billie asks her to start by meeting with Trowbridge and seeing if they can find some common ground, as Grace is prepared to excuse his past actions. Perhaps they could hold another joint press conference to clarify the situation, subtly mentioning Roylin to help everyone save face and move forward?

Absolutely not. Stuart and Neil are being completely ignored by everyone at Number 10 and throughout the government. And Kate can’t easily get help from the Foreign Ministry like usual. Winfield House is completely surrounded by angry, but non-violent, protestors, forcing her to sneak onto the property in the back of a van. Even if she were just the ambassador, she might have some flexibility, but Agent Bonaventura – whose name is Ulysses, by the way – is firm that, as the Second Lady, she needs to stay put.

Not only is Kate in serious trouble, but she also has to tell Stuart that President Rayburn was connected to the bombing. Seeing Stuart’s heartbroken reaction is a shock to her, and it makes her realize they’d all become too focused on the consequences for themselves, forgetting how deeply this news would affect the people they care about. They’d discussed the fallout in abstract terms, losing sight of the real emotional impact.

The most compelling part of Stuart’s storyline in this episode is his honest conversations with Billie and Eidra, where he expresses his disappointment and anger, and Eidra reveals her own internal conflict about working for the CIA – an organization she describes as controlling. Eidra’s realistic perspective – that the CIA and the U.S. government are flawed and require compromise, and that sometimes that’s acceptable, and sometimes it isn’t – really resonated with me. It’s powerful that Eidra, someone who constantly has to make stark choices in her job, is the one to articulate this nuanced view.

Stuart’s upsetting conversation with Billie, where she ultimately advised him to hire a lawyer to protect himself from potential legal trouble due to his unintentional involvement in Rayburn’s schemes related to the attack, felt like the end of their friendship. More importantly, Stuart’s concerns about what he’d be asked in an official investigation – specifically, questions about why Rayburn wanted Grace removed and whether he was asked to find a new Vice President – suggest that the story exposing Rayburn’s wrongdoing is starting to come apart.

As Stuart and Billie navigate a difficult conversation, Kate unexpectedly has lunch with Callum. They were brought together because Winfield House was put on lockdown, and Callum managed to enter with some help from Agent Bonaventura. After briefly discussing how to convince Trowbridge to allow U.S. assistance in recovering the Russian submarine, they find themselves trapped by growing crowds of protestors, making it impossible to leave the area.

Everything is going wonderfully for the couple, marked by several firsts – like their first real conversation (Callum insists chats about work or intimacy don’t qualify!) and their first time being intimate. There are new experiences around every corner! However, the day also brings their first major disagreement, a less pleasant but potentially important step in their relationship.

The situation unexpectedly escalates into a serious conflict. Callum reveals a crucial piece of information he’d been keeping secret: the Russian submarine isn’t just nuclear-powered, it carries a nuclear torpedo called the Poseidon. While U.S. intelligence believes the Poseidon isn’t operational for several years, evidence suggests otherwise. Kate, Hal, and Billie realize it’s vital to prevent the Chinese from accessing this submarine. They decide Hal and Billie should persuade Grace to apologize to Trowbridge for the Rayburn situation, hoping he’ll then allow the U.S. to help recover the submarine.

That’s the last point Kate and Callum agree on. She assumes the U.S. Department of Defense would naturally be involved given the threat of a loose nuclear weapon, but he believes any U.S. involvement would make the situation far more dangerous. They quickly begin arguing about American exceptionalism. Callum challenges why it always seems like the solution requires sacrifices from his country, while the U.S. receives the gratitude. He points out that British soldiers fought and died in Afghanistan based on American orders, yet the U.S. failed to protect the Afghan people they’d promised to help. He questions why the U.S. still sees itself as the global leader in democracy and freedom, especially since his source, and not any American intelligence agency, was the one who provided information about the Poseidon.

Kate is becoming increasingly agitated, and then suddenly realizes she’s simply replaced one manipulative person with another. Like Hal before him, Callum withheld crucial international intelligence and acted on his own, leading to a dangerous situation: the Chinese government might gain control of Poseidon. Aidan Turner portrays a character who is utterly horrified and devastated. Even when Kate tries to apologize for her outburst – a pattern she usually reserves for arguments with Hal – he’s unable to forgive her, given the gravity of Callum’s actions. The performance evokes the intensity seen in Keri Russell’s portrayal of righteous fury in *The Americans*.

After both Kate and Callum find out Grace contacted Trowbridge with a reasonable offer for a summit – not a full reconciliation, but a definite improvement over a complete break – Callum seems much calmer and open to trying again with Kate. She’s also done some thinking and now believes the issue isn’t just that Callum and Hal have similar personalities, but that she hasn’t been treating people well. Will fans now create countless video edits of moments from *The Diplomat* set to Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero”? Never mind, that’s probably happening already – there’s already a season one edit on YouTube, and more are likely popping up on TikTok as we speak.

Intrigue and Crumpets

This week, we’re diving into some fun questions sparked by the show. Specifically, we’re curious about Agent Bonaventura – where did that amazing name come from? Were his parents literature professors, maybe with a love for classic stories like the Odyssey? Or perhaps they were Joyce scholars? It’s a fantastic name, and we’d love to hear the whole story behind it!

Callum called Kate to discuss how to approach Trowbridge about the Russian submarine, and she instructed him to go to a dumpster at the Hanover Gate playground and wait for Agent Bonaventura to pick him up. I find this oddly specific instruction amusing. It makes me wonder how often Kate has had to direct people to meet at that dumpster to secretly enter Winfield House, and why a dumpster is involved at all. Interestingly, the Royal Parks website for the playground only mentions restrooms and a baby changing station – there’s no mention of a dumpster, which makes me question how Kate knows it’s a reliable meeting spot.

Callum and Kate like to snack on tasty cherry tomatoes after being intimate, which is sweet, but Kate surprisingly told everyone in New Jersey that American tomatoes are bland. As a proud New Jersey native and someone who defends good produce, I’m challenging Kate Wyler to a tomato taste test at a local farm next summer to prove her wrong.

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2025-10-18 03:55