The Diplomat season 3 finale spoilers follow.
No one ever said being the US ambassador to the UK would be easy. You only need to look at Kate Wyler’s journey across the first two seasons of The Diplomat to see that. But now that Hal Wyler is America’s Vice President, Kate’s pulling double duty in another role as America’s Second Lady too.
She’s also pulling Aidan Turner’s Callum Ellis in the latter half of season three, all while playing the good wife to Hal in the public eye. As if that wasn’t complicated enough, tensions have escalated dramatically between the UK and US after President Grace Penn’s dodgy antics from last season (sort of) came to light.
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As a result, UK Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge isn’t in the mood to play nice with America. Never mind the sunken sub off the coast of Britain that contains a near-mythical nuclear weapon known as Poseidon.
Still, none of that is quite as explosive as what happens between Kate and Hal at the very end of this season. If you thought it couldn’t get worse than the threat of nuclear armageddon, think again, because this twist rocks the very foundation of The Diplomat itself.
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The Diplomat season 3’s ending explained
Season three’s finale starts with Kate and Hal on bad terms (although this is nothing compared to what’s coming).
Hal is trying to be okay with Kate banging Callum, because they are technically separated these days. Things are tough for President Penn too because she and her husband Todd are about to get it on when security burst in, alarmed by the sounds she’s making.
Todd points out that Grace doesn’t laugh as much as she used to now that she’s President. Except, around Hal… Yep, the First Man is jealous of his wife’s Vice President, which sows the seeds for the end of this episode, but not in the way you think.
Kate and Callum are forced to stand in the same room with their clothes on for a change. “Not touching you right now is a form of torture,” says Callum.
A big meeting then kicks off between the US and UK. Penn offers the nation’s help to retrieve Poseidon and the sub, but Trowbridge flat out refuses her olive branch and walks out.
Trowbridge thinks she’s lying because he just recently found out that America lied about the aircraft carrier incident from last season. “Our word isn’t worth s**t,” says Kate.
Meanwhile, UK Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison introduces his new wife, Thema Asiedu-Dennison, who he’s married just a few months after they started. The Diplomat loves to spice up all the political warfare with a little jab to the heart every once in a while. Kate tries to be okay with it, as she should given she’s married to Hal and banging Callum.
All the major UK and US players subsequently share what might be the most awkward dinner since Jamie Lee Curtis’ Donna Berzatto crashed her car into her own house during Thanksgiving in The Bear.
The alliance between these two countries is on increasingly shaky ground, so Callum offers to talk with Trowbridge, risking his life and the safety of his Russian sources in the process.
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After more deliberation, a plan is suggested where America goes down to the sub to take pictures that prove Poseidon is on board. They’ll do so without asking for Britain’s permission, revealing what they’ve done afterwards. Because that always works out well.
Cutting away to the US Embassy’s Stuart Heyford, he and Eidra Park share a heart-to-heart where she convinces him to stay after he lost faith in the job. And then they get frisky, because it’s season three of The Diplomat.
Back to action of a different kind, Kate reveals to Callum that her photo plan means he won’t have to give himself up, but only if Trowbridge sees sense.
Penn reveals the submarine photos to Trowbridge, telling him “You’re holding all the evidence you need to denounce me in the UN.” She’s willing to risk this as a show of contrition, but Trowbridge declines still, pointing out that trust between their two nations has been broken entirely.
Penn is outraged: “At some point you accept the generosity of the United States or you suffer the consequences of going without it and best of luck to you.”
To which Trowbridge replies: “Did you think admitting to more American deception would somehow make you look more trustworthy? How do I know you wouldn’t take it for yourselves?”
Kate steps in then with a new plan, one which might actually pay off.
“You’re right,” she tells Trowbridge. “We can’t be trusted. No one can hold a power like that. No one should hold a power like that… Bury it. Let it rot under the sea.”
Trowbridge agrees, which is a huge win for the US (not to mention the world at large). And then Hal gets a big win too shortly after when Kate breaks down, apologising to him over and over.
“You have to forgive me,” implores Kate. “You have to take me back. I am so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“I’m still here,” replies Hal. “We’re still here.”
After everything they’ve been through, all the physical and emotional back and forth, Kate and Hal have finally reunited in a genuine way. It’s sudden, but it also makes sense. With all the recent upheaval in their lives, Kate has finally realised just how much Hal means to each other. No one gets her like he does.
What a beautiful way to end the third season, right?
Except, wait. This wouldn’t be The Diplomat if it didn’t end the season with a ginormous bombshell.
Following this reconciliation, Callum lets Kate know that the Russians have found the submarine, but the Poseidon isn’t inside. He worries he might be wrong, that the “sensors are f**ked” but something fishy’s going on, and not just because we’re talking underwater shenanigans.
How The Diplomat season 3 twist sets up season 4
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The season ends with photos being taken of all the important people as Kate waits to board the plane and fly back to America with Hal.
She and Grace’s husband watch as Hal and Grace pose together, whispering between each photo.
“Doesn’t it bother you, Kate?” asks Todd. “Their extremely productive working relationship?”
Over the last few episodes, we’ve seen Todd’s concerns fuelled over and over, yet just like Kate, we’ve thought nothing of it, laughing it off like she does.
“I asked her about it,” adds Todd. “She assured me it wasn’t intimacy, just quiet plotting of world domination…”
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And then it suddenly dawns on Kate. Not that Hal is having an affair with Grace. That would be absurd. But no, something even worse occurs to Kate then.
“Did the Russians take [Poseidon] or did you?” she asks Hal.
Hal tries to brush her off, saying, “Let’s talk on the plane.” But Kate’s having none of it.
“You used me to sell a lie to the Prime Minister… When the Brits find out, they will consider this an act of war.”
“Kate, you will tell no one,” warns Hal, and then he walks back to Grace who asks him if everything’s okay.
“Not entirely,” says Hal. “She knows.” She being his wife, Kate.
And then the season ends as a photographer shouts “Wonderful” at the two most powerful people in the world, two people who just stole a nuclear weapon of enormous strength out from under the UK’s nose.
On the face of it, this isn’t quite as surprising as the end of last season. The President of the United States did die, after all. And it’s not like Hal has always been the most trustworthy of guys.
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But what is so shocking about this is that Hal’s always been trustworthy when it comes to Kate. Sure, he’ll massage the truth or even go behind her back a bit, but when the chips were down, he would always step up as her number one supporter.
To betray Kate like this, manipulating her through lies to do something so catastrophic, would have been unthinkable before. And to do so now in a role that she was originally geared up to take, no less…
Kate and Hal have gone through more than their share of ups and downs in the past, but to do this to her now, just as they had finally reconciled for real, is a game-changer like no other.
Kate’s trust in Hal has been the bedrock of The Diplomat. Now that’s ruined forever, it sets up an incredibly exciting and very messy fourth season, which could very well turn out to be the show’s last. Because how are the Wyler’s supposed to come back from this? And how is the world supposed to come back from this, while we’re at it?
There’s no shouting as such, not like at the end of previous seasons, but this is easily the most explosive cliffhanger yet – one that rips at the nucleus of Kate’s relationship to Hal.
The Diplomat season 3 is now available to stream on Netflix.
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After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.Â
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.Â
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.Â