The Diplomat<\/a><\/p>\nThe Dead<\/p>\n
\n Season 4<\/p>\n
Episode 6\n <\/p>\n
\n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n
5 stars<\/p>\n
*****\n <\/p>\n
\n Kate\u2019s circle has never been smaller, but at least she still has Stuart and Eidra to rely on.
\n Photo: Netflix\n <\/p>\n
The what-could-have-been vibe of \u201cThe Dead\u201d is agonizing. If Todd were not so loyal to and trusting of his wife, who is unfortunately also POTUS, he might have been a valued member of the advisory board Kate assembles with Stuart and Eidra. The outcome of Kate\u2019s conversation with Vaughn might have been the same, but perhaps if she could have trusted Todd to attend without trumpeting Grace\u2019s warships ultimatum (even one flimsily disguised as an offer of help), he\u2019d have offered an insight that was sufficiently reassuring to get her to accept Kate\u2019s offer of a joint mission to retrieve the bodies of the Russian submariners.<\/p>\n
Instead, Kate gets her hopes up for nothing, and the shiny new upgraded security clearance she acquires for Todd may wind up coming back to bite her. Boo! I think another part of what leads Todd to back delivering Grace\u2019s entire message to Vaughn \u2014 \u201ctell the Russians to stay out of her yard, or I\u2019ll send warships to do it for her\u201d \u2014 over Kate\u2019s preferred plan of only delivering the first half is that he hasn\u2019t seen Grace at her reactive, high-handed worst in one of the high-security Zooms yet. He\u2019s seen enough to make him concerned; he tells Kate what anyone with eyes has already seen many times, that Grace has been different since the shooting and that \u201cthere\u2019s a lot less nuance in her perspective and in the way that she talks about things.\u201d This seems to me, a person whose vast medical expertise comes from her decades-long enrollment in such rigorous programs as the full-season runs of ER and Call The Midwife, like a problem that is preventing her from carrying out her duties as the Commander-in-Chief and Chief Executive of the nation. My second bold take of the day is that it\u2019s essential for anyone in those roles to be in command of the facts and capable of working with others to arrive at good solutions to the problems they face. Grace seems to hope for escalation at every turn and is recklessly determined to bring it about. Meanwhile, Hal too often dumps gas on the fire when he ought to be pumping the brakes.<\/p>\n
Todd also mentioned feeling shut out from Grace\u2019s thoughts and decision-making process; of course he\u2019s been unsettled and worried as well as resentful. This puts him in good, if uncomfortable, company with Billie, who tells Hal about how the week previous, she was in the middle of a negotiation of the Labor HHS budget, when she received a push notification about the President having approved the $200 billion budget without her. Intentional humiliation? Forgetfulness? Is one any better than the other?<\/p>\n
Kate manages to convince Todd to raise the issue of the warships ultimatum with Grace before they meet with Prime Minister Vaughn, and for one tantalizing moment it seems as though reasonableness may prevail. Admittedly, Kate\u2019s (and my) hopes were a little too high to start with. Todd isn\u2019t a seasoned diplomat or political operative, and on top of that, Grace confides that part of why she wants him in London is to show the world that she\u2019s not afraid for him to be in the place where she was nearly murdered. She is afraid, though, and that shared confidence with Todd is a significant one. He can\u2019t bring himself to not do what the President has asked, because she is also his wife.<\/p>\n
Once Kate\u2019s Todd hopes are dashed, and she can tell that Stuart told Eidra about her blackmailing Trowbridge, it becomes easier for her to take the big step of reading them both into all of the gory details going back to the attack on HMS Courageous. The levels of shock Stuart experiences\u2026whatever the State Department is paying him, they should triple it immediately. If Kate\u2019s not going to have regular friends, these two, who work alongside and care about her, will make a solidly trustworthy advisory board. Good for her for finally saying out loud that she may be in over her head and incapable of seeing clearly enough to know that she\u2019s working for \u201ca culture of consistent lawlessness\u201d. And good for Stuart and Eidra for confirming her new perception of the situation and facilitating a new plan to circumvent Todd\u2019s participation in her conversation with Vaughn. I love when a plan comes together!<\/p>\n
I also love this scene between Kate and Vaughn at the latter\u2019s family home in her constituency. We only see it at nighttime in this episode, but it\u2019s a very impressive old pile, the kind of place you stick with even though it\u2019s impossible to heat or cool consistently and nothing really works anymore. Having opened her home in the middle of the night, Vaughn once again strikes Kate (and me) as the very picture of decency and good faith. The character is written to be very likable and worthy of respect, and Jodie Whittaker brings a really effective extra oomph of warmth and humor to her performance that makes her consistent refusals to accept Kate\u2019s proposals even more striking.<\/p>\n
Grace Penn wants Vaughn to revoke her permission to the Russians as a secret-keeping courtesy to the U.S.? It would have been a courtesy for Grace to mention to Trowbridge that she\u2019d ordered the U.S. Navy to remove the Poseidon, but she didn\u2019t. Vaughn hasn\u2019t given up the Americans, though; she has not told the Russians about the Poseidon, largely because it would seem unbelievable that \u201cour closest allies would do that to us without our consent.\u201d She\u2019s so calm, and not in Trowbridge\u2019s usual way of seeming as though he was holding himself back from flying into a rage through force of will. She\u2019s just a very grounded person who is communicating thoughtful decisions.<\/p>\n
Kate\u2019s new idea, for a joint mission between the U.S. and Royal Navies to carefully retrieve the bodies of the dead from the submarine and tell the Russians it\u2019s all been entombed in concrete, also fails. Not on its merits, which Vaughn agrees are quite good, but because of the number and scale of betrayals of trust the U.S. has inflicted on the U.K. From her perspective, \u201cThe fundamental character of your country has sufficiently changed that we have no idea what you will do next.\u201d She\u2019ll take her chances with the predictable Russians instead, thank you very much. And that\u2019s the end of that. As planned, Kate doesn\u2019t issue the warships ultimatum, and once back at Winfield House, tells Todd he\u2019s welcome to sit in on her conversation with Grace.<\/p>\n
Todd is not thrilled that Kate went to speak with Vaughn without him, but there\u2019s no time for him to get into that just yet. Instead, it\u2019s time for Kate to lie her face off by confirming that she issued Grace\u2019s ultimatum, and that Vaughn agreed to call the Kremlin to revoke her permission for Russian ships to enter British waters.<\/p>\n
\u2022 That final moment with the secure link video call is the first moment that Gannon learns of Todd\u2019s new role as Special Envoy with higher security clearance. The chain of communication in the Penn administration really is something else.<\/p>\n
\u2022 One tiny glimmer of a good thing for Stuart as he learns one appalling fact after another: he can recover his good opinion of the late President Rayburn, who was not involved in the bombing of HMS Courageous, after all.<\/p>\n
\u2022 What a sweet relief to see Stuart and Eidra resolve their conflict about the status and future of their relationship. I particularly liked the proposal to discuss from Eidra \u2013 all those post-its in the breeze of her desk fan and the legal pad sun held aloft reminded me of Max Cohen\u2019s thousand yellow daisies-based proposal to Lorelai in Gilmore Girls. The song playing on her desk speaker in this scene is Prince\u2019s classic slow jam \u201cAdore\u201d. Solid pick.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Eidra taking the measure of the young Vaughn who asks for a jammy dodger before delivering a cool \u201cno\u201d. One of my favorite little moments of the season so far.<\/p>\n
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