The Diplomat Season 3 Episode 1 Recap: Is Meg Royllin Dead?

Debora Cahn’s high-tension political thriller, The Diplomat ended the second season on a cliffhanger with President Rayburn dropping dead in a call with the infamous “ambassador’s wife,” Hal Wyler. The Wyler couple, Kate and Hal, are privy to a secret that could have toppled the power, and it did, but in the most unexpected, deadly (pun intended) way. With the President’s chair of the United States vacant and Hal Wyler present at the wrong place at the wrong time, the stakes have risen insurmountably. While the wait for Season Three almost edged us to the kind of anxiety that any of the characters may be having, the first episode, “Emperor Dead,” proves to be another high-adrenaline ride in this familiar joyride. Let’s take a look at what unfolds in this episode.

Spoilers Ahead

What Happens in the Episode?

Under the CIA Chief of Station, agent Eidra Park’s vigilance, a SCIF had taken place. SCIF, which is an acronym for Sensitive Compartmented Informational Facility, is an enclosed space in a US building to send classified information. The breach consists of Hal Wyler calling up President Rayburn instead of calling the Foreign Secretary, US Gannon. President Rayburn dropped dead with a cardiac arrest after hearing about Grace Penn’s involvement in the strike on the HMS Courageous. Grace Penn is no longer ranking up to be a nuclear tsar or sticking to her role of being vice president; in effect, the president’s death qualifies her to become the next president of the United States. As Kate gets off the phone with Hal, another SCIF is initiated. Grace is taken into an SCIF tent and is briefed about the death. She makes a call for Billie Appiah to make the public announcement, while a protocol is initiated for her to be sworn in as the next president. In a phenomenal show of strength, she is flown to the embassy to be sworn in in a convoy of three helicopters.Hal Wyler is again playing his own chess; he was in the middle of briefing half of the White House when Kate pulled him off. There is a subtle tension between Eidra and Kate. Eidra is right in assuming that Kate is withholding information from her when she asks her about why Hal was on the call with the president and later about a sensitive asylum. Kate has taken sweeping authority and is no longer playing buddy-buddy with Eidra, now she is dispensing orders to the CoS and CIA. Things between Hal and Kate look spiky at the moment, but don’t we all know that it is actually the driving force of their bad romance? Kate likes it when Hal plays the bad cop; it makes her look exceptionally good! 

That being said, Kate has propped her hair up in this episode completely. She is looking and doing the part of the vice president and focuses on making the life of Madame President inadvertently easier without sticking a resume to her forehead, as she states. From fixing her dress for the inauguration to handling Prime Minister Trowbridge and Foreign Secretary Dennison, Kate has stepped up to her potential new role. The idea of doing the ceremony at the Embassy on American soil rather than at Winfield is also her idea. From the sloppy, chaotic Kate who “needed a haircut” in the first season, Kate now knows how to build a national image brick by brick by dictating how to present the President in front of the American Seal and make it look big. Hal Wyler is dedicated in his duty of being the “wife” and mitigates the asylum process of Meg Royllin. Sounds good so far? Forget everything that you just read, because by the end of the episode, two major truths that have been established are going to turn on their feet! While you may be already hurling your guesses at which two, I will lay it down for you below. 

Is Kate Going to Be the Next Vice-President?

As I had mentioned earlier, Kate has pulled in all her loose strands and risen to the occasion. This is probably the first time we see her so confident, navigating the situation with abrupt, decisive moves and swiftly inserting her own stake (of being the VP, which she now wants!) while in the process. She did not wait to be asked by Grace to step in; as her duty as an ambassador, Kate walked into the tent and started giving directives as to where the ceremony should take place and what the image should look like in an unapologetic voice. Grace does not even have the room to question her authority, and I am explaining why.Beyond the decorations and dresses, Kate also abruptly reveals that it was Hal who was on a call with President Rayburn when he died. It blows up the fire in Grace’s head, she interrogates both Hal and Kate, and Hal does a power move again. He simply states that it was his constitutional duty to tell the president that he had a rogue duty, and he did. When asked who else he is going to tell next, Hal says he will tell no one because the president needed to know (Rayburn), and now the president (Grace) knows. What a wordsmith! I call this Hal Wyler’s power move because he knows that he has leverage over the situation. Stepping back and sounding guilty would have denounced him and Kate of the single most powerful leverage that he holds over Madame President. There is a saying of keeping your friends close but enemies closer, and Hal is trying to insert this logic into Grace’s head: choose my wife to be the VP, and she and I shall be sworn to protect your secret.

While Kate has always been a cleaner slate than the diplomatically rogue Hal, in this episode she redefines her game. Perhaps she always had it under her sleeves. After all, everyone at the house agreed that it takes a while to see her appeal! Kate, who was condemning the HMS attack so righteously during the second season, casually starts telling Grace that what she did looks wrong in hindsight, but she realizes that it needed to be done. This might also be a result of the map lecture of nuclear powers that Grace had given her prior. Kate mentions that President Trowbridge had his own secrets to keep, and it is for national security that the steps had to be taken anyway. She is worming her way up to power, and she is doing it in brisk, persistent moves down the tunnel. We see her dynamic as she helps Grace style a Nike gym top into a blouse for the swearing-in with the confidence of a seasoned stylist. This is a huge pivot from who Kate was, or I’d much rather say who people thought she was. Looked at as someone sloppy with their image, in this episode no one knew it better than Kate to construct the image of Madame President with the blouse, the Bible, and the seal! Although, Prime Minister Trowbridge plays a very clever move of securing his presence by offering to bring a Guttenberg Bible as a gift for the President to be sworn in. 

Hal is actively advocating for the wife and also being bratty. He is the one walking into the President’s office to pull the blinds and also standing in while she hugs her “first lady” of a husband, pitching in at the right moment that his wife should be the Vice President. One would think this is the end of Hal’s campaign, but by the end of the episode the question subverts into “For whom?” At the end of the episode, Grace calls in the Wyler couple and, with the declaration that it is a painful moment, asks Hal to be her vice president, putting both of them in shock. I see her rationale. Hal is the one who is malfunctioning with her secret. Kate will remain quiet anyway, and Hal will again “work on her” (in his own words) if she does not. Kate does not pose a potential threat, but Hal does. There is only one way to make this man shut up: by giving him power and stakes. It is like making the brattiest child in the class the monitor. The episode drops shut at this cliffhanger, and while by Hal’s face I understand that he probably deep down thinks he had played a good game for himself, or for the both of us, I really don’t know at this point; Kate looks devastated. After days of denial, she had finally stepped up to the role. She said that she wanted to be the vice president to the president for the first time, and now what was once served on a platter to her is being taken away by none other than her husband. This must all look very conspiratorial to her, and justifiably so. 

What Happens to Meg Royllin?

Another contender to the big secret. Meg Royllin is still under Eidra Park’s vigilance in a safe house, but Kate steps in. Prime Minister Trowbridge has suddenly gone poetic and judicious and wants to take Meg Royllin off US hands since he thinks they have a lot going on right now and he wants to support them. Have you seen what an overgrown child this man is, and a round of rebuke from a woman in authority seems to be enough to straighten him up? Well, he straightened up too late. He cannot have Meg Royllin now for two reasons: Meg is privy to Madame President’s secret and can again topple the power, and also because Trowbridge holds Meg responsible for the HMS deed with half information and might just end up killing her. Kate actively lobbies for Meg Royllin to be taken into an asylum, and Grace understands. Hal Wyler goes to offer asylum to Meg along with Eidra Park (the power game looks so lopsided, I swear!). It is apparently because he is good with Meg. Meg understands and accepts the asylum. It’s not like she has many choices, and is shifted to a safehouse. One would think this is the end of the Meg Royllin arc, and it is, but in the most unfortunate way. Meg asks for a cup of tea to be made at the perfect temperature and starts popping one sleeping pill after the other. She would rather choose death than to put up with Grace Penn as president and the imminent dangers that can befall her now that Grace is the most powerful lady in the world. While Hal Wyler as VP is the first cliffhanger the episode throws at us, Meg Royllin’s attempt to suicide is the second. Episode one of The Diplomat already feels like the season finale with incredulous political (and also personal now between the Wylers!) happenings. It drops the curtains while our adrenaline peaks, and I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds in the second episode. 

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