![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/98b04ac321d419ef3275c82b74fd3d7596-diplomat-s3e3.rsquare.w400.jpg\")
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The Diplomat<\/a><\/p>\n The Riderless Horse<\/p>\n \n Season 3<\/p>\n Episode 3\n <\/p>\n \n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n 4 stars<\/p>\n ****\n <\/p>\n \n Will someone please release Kate from this marriage? I\u2019m a broken record, I know, but please, let the Wylers divorce. This public-marriage, private-divorce plan they\u2019ve cooked up isn\u2019t going to work. By their own admission, they\u2019re too likely to backslide into a sexual relationship, which, regardless of whatever emotional guardrails they may think they\u2019re putting into place, is going to muddy the waters every time. They\u2019re also spending way too much of their mental bandwidth negotiating what\u2019s okay and what isn\u2019t between them, and on remembering who to tell and who to keep it from. Also, divorce just isn\u2019t shameful, not even for people serving in some of the highest offices in the land (see: the twice-divorced man currently serving his second term as POTUS), and for all their flaws, Hal and Kate Wyler are entirely capable of implementing a conscious uncoupling type of divorce. They could even spin it as something they\u2019re doing for the good of the nation, which would have the added benefit of being true!<\/p>\n Being divorced would mean an end to stumbling their way through agonizing meetings like the ones they have with Billie regarding their \u201cWe\u2019re married to government service and each other!\u201d talking points and how frequently Kate will be visiting D.C. It would also forestall well-intended but deeply intrusive conversations about the children they don\u2019t have, like the one Kate found herself having to be very gracious about with a chatty senator keen to put her in touch with his husband, who is their family expert on the best schools in London. At a certain point, they\u2019re going to have to decide that there\u2019s a better way to conduct their private and public lives than to continue opting into these kinds of interactions.<\/p>\n When the Wylers are getting along and in each other\u2019s corner, they\u2019re a pretty remarkable power couple. We get a good look at that aspect of their relationship in \u201cThe Riderless Horse\u201d, with Hal agreeing to heed (some of) Kate\u2019s advice, and Kate herself going to bat for him one-on-one with Grace following Bill Rayburn\u2019s funeral. For his part, Hal tees up two prime examples of the arguments for and against him as a potential veep: his public incineration of his clearest rival for the post, Pennsylvania governor Seiler, and getting within shouting distance of whipping enough votes to pass the Law of the Sea Treaty. (In our timeline, the U.S. observes but is not yet a signatory<\/a> to that convention.)<\/p>\n The first is a demonstration of Hal\u2019s intense competitiveness, and more significantly, of his staunch loyalty to Grace. He\u2019s still not wild about her being president, but regardless of who holds that office, Hal wants her vice-president to be someone better than a swing-state governor who is so keen to get the job that he volunteers a home-state sacrifice that proves he\u2019s not ready for prime time. The way Hal unleashes an impromptu volley of death blows regarding Seiler\u2019s suggestion that a factory producing imperfect fighter jets that are nonetheless the envy of China\u2019s Air Force and a prized purchase by Turkey\u2019s demonstrates a purposeful recklessness that Grace will have to either get onboard with or leave by the side of the road.<\/p>\n In their heart-to-heart about Hal\u2019s pluses and minuses, Kate doesn\u2019t obscure any facts about Hal or even tiptoe around his most infuriating qualities. He\u2019s an acquired taste, and often maddening thanks to his habits of talking to everyone (even sexist, alt-right political enemies of the administration he\u2019s hoping to join), setting his own meetings, and improvising. None of that is going to change, and Kate knows from abundant experience that it will push everyone he works with to the brink of wanting to be rid of him, but then he pulls a historymaking rabbit out of a hat that can make all of his mess worthwhile.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a tradeoff, and there\u2019s something very Fantastic Mr. Fox about Hal\u2019s big swings and breezy self-assurance that everything will work out. Grace is probably going to have to warn him, multiple times, that if what she thinks is happening <\/a>is <\/a>happening, it better not be<\/a>, but if she can stomach that, the two of them could do great work together. Has he really whipped enough votes to pass the Law of the Sea Treaty? That\u2019s hot! Politically speaking. It\u2019s also smart for Grace to consider having a fearless bulldog like Hal in her corner. If he charges into the fray, willing to be bold and loud on her behalf, it will spare her untold grief about being shrill.<\/p>\n As divorcees who work closely together, Kate and Hal should be able to lean into a more evenly matched variation on their longstanding, successful dynamic of her being a trusted, effective second in command. The dark side of that dynamic is also very much in evidence in this episode. Kate gets so wrapped up in advocating for Hal with Grace that she forgets to attend a meeting with the CIA director to advocate for Eidra, exacerbating an already delicate and fraught situation that Kate had promised to resolve. Back at Embassy London, Howard reads aloud the incensed and baffled texts from his friend at Langley who works for the director, who now thinks Kate has inflicted some \u201cgirlboss-on-girlboss violence.\u201d Yikes. Eidra deserves so much better than this mess.<\/p>\n She\u2019s unlikely to get anything better anytime soon, though, thanks to her MI6 counterpart, Tom, still being quite salty about not having been informed that Roylin was in CIA custody until after she died. He hasn\u2019t said anything about what he could have done or said about it earlier, and he knows that his boss of all bosses was a very likely suspect in the Courageous bombing plot, so I\u2019m not sure what he might have been able to accomplish on Eidra\u2019s behalf, but the problem remains. Roylin\u2019s autopsy has come back totally normal, making it easy to sell the press and public on the story that she died by suicide at home. Ultimately, there\u2019s no change in this situation. Tom is looking for a way to save Eidra without putting himself in Trowbridge\u2019s crosshairs, but his options and motivation are limited.<\/p>\n Back in Virginia, in the midst of Kate making her case for Hal as vice-president, we get a glimpse of Billie making peace with the idea, too. Given all she had seen unfold between the Wylers, not to mention that she was working hard behind the scenes to oust Grace as vice-president and had wanted Kate for that role from the beginning, she\u2019d been just fine with Governor Seinar as an alternative to Hal. I\u2019m actually a little confused about why Billie seems to be sticking around as Grace\u2019s chief of staff. Wouldn\u2019t Grace want to bring Nora along with her, and wouldn\u2019t Billie not want to work for Grace at all? She should be enjoying the experience of being headhunted by every major corporation and nonprofit in the country, right?<\/p>\n Now that Grace is getting back on board with picking Hal as her veep, Hal and Billie are gingerly finding their way toward something like a professional d\u00e9tente. She\u2019s willing to listen when he says that Grace needs to develop and pursue her own agenda, not run out the clock on Rayburn\u2019s, and he appreciates her confiding in him about Rayburn\u2019s little not-so-secret cupboard of treats that he wasn\u2019t supposed to eat. She blames the cornucopia of sweet and salty snacks for his poor health, and though I\u2019m not convinced of that, it\u2019s touching to see Billie and Hal toast the late president\u2019s memory with some potato chips.<\/p>\n
\n Photo: Netflix\n <\/p>\n