How did season 1 of “The Diplomat” end? All the Thrill Twists to Remember Before Season 2 (Including Who Survived the Car Bomb)

Season 1 of ‘The Diplomat’ ended with an explosive cliffhanger that no one saw coming

Warning: Spoilers for Season 1 of The diplomat forward!

There is no shortage of shocking developments and explosive cliffhangers in Netflix’s season 1 finale The diplomat.

The Emmy-nominated political drama series stars Keri Russell And Rufus Sewel as Kate and Hal Wyler married American diplomats with extensive foreign experience. The season opens with Kate learning that she has been transferred from Afghanistan to Britain after a British aircraft carrier, HMS Courageous, was bombed, killing 25 members of the Royal Navy.

Throughout the season, Kate tries to prevent a world war from breaking out, while the British try to find out who is responsible for the attack. The final episode of season 1 follows Kate and British Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison (David Gyasi) as they attempt to facilitate the arrest of the bomber, Roman Lenkov, while he is on vacation in France. But when Kate receives approval from the French to allow Lenkov to be taken into British custody, she discovers something that changes everything.

This extreme cliffhanger at the end of season 1 was a deliberate move by the show’s creator, Debora Cahn.

“I wanted people to want more,” says Cahn, who also worked on it Homeland And The West Wingtold Tudum. “I wanted to bring together all the different dynamics of the political relationships and the personal relationships into one event that splits all at the same time.”

All six episodes of The diplomat season 2 was released on Netflix on October 31. Before you dive into the new episodes, here’s a look back at everything that happened The diplomat season 1 finale.

How did The diplomat season 1 ending?

The season finale of The diplomat, Titled ‘The James Bond Clause’, it begins the morning after the plan to attack Lenkov’s forces in Libya is called off. Kate goes to a meeting in Dennison’s office, where she learns that Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge (played by James Bond actor Rory Kinnear) has changed his mind and wants to arrest Lenkov while he is on vacation in France.

Although Trowbridge called Kate a “disgrace” the day before when she initially suggested this course of action, he now fully agrees with the idea.

To move forward with Lenkov’s capture, Kate and Dennison must travel to Paris to ask the French Minister of the Interior, Brielle Fournier (played by Micky Sébastian), for permission for British Special Forces to carry out the arrest. Due to last-minute travel plans, Kate asks Hal to intervene on her behalf and give a speech at Chatham House, an international affairs policy institute in London.

Hal’s speech is well received and he calls Kate in Paris to tell her – and that he has been approached by a Tory MP, Merritt Grove (played by Simon Chandler), for an urgent meeting. When Kate finds out that Hal has accepted the invitation to dinner with Grove that evening, she is infuriated by the realization that her soon-to-be ex-husband may be seeking the position of Secretary of State. She demands that Hal not meet Grove, and arranges for Stuart Hayford (Ato Essandoh) – her head of mission at the embassy – and assistant Ronnie Buckhurst (Jess Chanliau) to attend the meeting. But Hal insists on coming for a five-minute ‘handover’.

Back in Paris, after a failed attempt to get Fournier’s permission, Kate goes to an event at the Louvre, where she gets Fournier to agree to British special ops arresting Lenkov. But Fournier also tells Kate that she is surprised that the US wants to get involved and “lobbied strongly for an extrajudicial killing” – leaving Kate shocked. The plan was to capture Lenkov alive, but Fournier says her intelligence showed the British were planning to kill him.

Kate runs out of the Louvre and confronts Dennison about the murder plan. He insists he had no idea, but also finds it hard to believe: if Lenkov is killed, the British won’t be able to find out who hired him in the first place. Furthermore, Dennison would have had to approve the murder request under the Intelligence Services Act – and he did not.

This is the moment where it all clicks for Kate. “A dead Lenkov is only good for the people who hired him,” she says, realizing that it must have been Trowbridge who hired Lenkov to blow up his own country’s aircraft carrier.

But this is not the only explosive development: in London, Grove is angry when Buckhurst comes to meet him and not Hal. He storms to his car, where both Hayford and Hal rush to approach him. Grove wants to enter his car, but when he opens the door it explodes, causing the entire block to go up in flames. In the final scene, Kate’s security guard informs her about the explosion in London, leaving her in tears.

Fans weren’t the only ones shocked by the dramatic ending; Russell himself didn’t see it coming.

“I was completely surprised,” said the actress Term of the end. ‘But Debora is such a veteran. She’s been doing this forever. She is such a professional. She knows what she’s doing. I assume she had that plan for a while, but I was completely surprised.”

Does Hal survive at the end of The diplomat season 1?

One of the biggest cliffhangers out The diplomat season 1 finale is who – if anyone – survived the fiery explosion. But the season 2 trailer for The diplomat confirms at least one survivor: Hal. The teaser clip begins with the former ambassador, alive and well, escorting Kate to a black-tie affair.

Official Netflix Photos from season 2 of The diplomat also reveal another survivor: Kate’s deputy chief of mission Hayford. At the end of season 1, Sewell (who plays Hal) hoped everyone would make it out alive.

“I hope we all survive,” he told Tudum. “What can I say? I mean, I loved the dramatic twist. And I just have to hope a) that there will be a second season, and b) that everyone is doing well. But the drama has to be real.”

Why was Grove murdered? The diplomat season 1?

While Hal and Hayford survived the car explosion, it is safe to assume that Grove – who was closest to the blast – was killed. But why was he taken out?

Grove’s urgency to contact someone from the White House insinuates that he knew about Trowbridge and the assassination plan against Lenkov, and tried to inform the US before it went down.

The explosion may have been intended to silence him and his acquaintance – but who officially arranged Grove’s death remains unknown ahead of season 2.

Where do Kate and Hal stand at the end of season 1?

During season 1 of The diplomatKate isn’t just working to smooth international relations; her own marriage is also in a precarious position. The couple had plans to divorce, but with Kate being eyed for the vice presidency, she and Hal have to stay together for optics’ sake.

In the season finale, Hal appears to become jealous when he learns that Kate will be traveling to Paris with Dennison (with whom she has had a flirtatious relationship since arriving in London). Kate offers Hal to come along and it seems like she even agrees to reconciliation – but that all changes when she thinks Hal is keeping an eye on the minister’s position.

“I feel like the stand-up thing is to give a relationship every possible chance, right?” says Kate as she vents to Dennison in Paris. “I mean, it’s the whole damn definition of my life’s work. There’s nothing you can’t talk out. But at some point I’m an idiot for not learning a lesson that’s been taught to me a thousand times.

Kate seems determined that she and Hal are over, but developments at the end of the season 1 finale change everything. As the couple heads into season 2, Kate will have to lean on Hal — “her one true ally,” according to Netflix — as she discovers who she can trust.

When The diplomat season 2 premiere?

Just 10 days later The diplomat season 1 premiered on Netflix and skyrocketed to the No. 1 spot on the Netflix Top 10 list, season 2 has been ordered. The decision to renew the political drama, that was one of PEOPLE’s top 10 TV shows of 2023was a no-brainer, according to Jinny Howe, Vice President of Drama Series at Netflix.

“Fans all over the world are loving every minute of it That of the diplomat gripping and propulsive drama, and embracing Keri Russell’s powerful performance as Kate Wyler,” Howe told Tudum. “After that breathtaking cliffhanger, we can’t wait to see what the amazing visionary team … has in store for season 2.”

The diplomat Season 2 began filming in London in June 2023, but was postponed due to writer and actor strikes. Production later resumed in December 2023.

All episodes of The diplomat season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.