The Diplomat Soars This Season...But Steps On a Gender Landmine and Goes Nuclear in the Finale...

October 2026

 

It’s 11:00...I need to go to bed...

But I can’t ...

 

And no... it’s not because I’m waiting for the election results...

Because the next day there will be a different winner...

 

Or more likely next week...

Since I live in California...

 

No...it’s because...

 

I can’t wait to see what happens next on The Diplomat...

 

Which is definitely not having a fourth-season slump...

And is actually better than ever...

Like a fine wine that has aged its way into perfection...

 

This season moves fast...

Events are even more unpredictable...

Each episode ends in a cliffhanger you didn’t see coming...

So you find yourself going...

 

Holy sh..t...

Did that really just happen?

 

Which means you can’t wait to see what comes next...

 

Kate still hasn’t combed her hair...

But I’ll forgive her for that...

 

Because the acting continues to be superb....

The pacing excellent...

And this season the scenery is lush...

Because they get out of dreary London...

 

And whoever had the idea to have ...

Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor...

Playing during that pivotal scene in which the events of the season finale...

Begin to take shape...

Was a genius...

 

Talk about using music to set a mood...

For a very dramatic denouement...

 

Now this season of The Diplomat continues its exploration of dual-career marriages...

And what to do with a First Spouse...

 

And Hal is still tap dancing his way into power...

And being thwarted by his wife...

Who still can’t decide how she feels about him...

 

But this time...

The Diplomat also explores...

In a not-so-subtle ... and heavily gendered... way...

How women in power...

React when their authority is questioned...

 

And this becomes President Penn’s hamartia ...

 

As she feels the need to appear strong...

To counteract gender stereotypes about women...

So she leans into the performance of power...

In order to prove she is as tough as a man would be in that job...

 

But she lets the desire to give the appearance of strength...

Take priority over decisions about how best to use her power...

So she becomes reactive...when she should be strategic...

Overreacting...when she should be circumspect...

And rigid when she should read the room...

 

So I think some memo went out to all the showrunners this year...

 

Because the same gendered Achilles’ heel...

Became a plot line this season...

About the only woman coach on Ted Lasso’s staff ...

Whose reactivity and rigidity were also portrayed as interfering with her ability to lead...

 

So ...

Hollywood... are you trying to send a message that women are too emotional....

To lead effectively?

 

Ok....

 

Now The Diplomat has always had many layers...

That lent an interesting complexity to its basic premise...

Which is how the State Department functions overseas...

And navigates its way through geopolitical crises...

 

And while this season is a tour de force...

Of how a series can keep you on the edge of your seat...

FOR EVERY SINGLE EPISODE...

 

The finale has a fatal flaw....

 

Because the showrunners...

Along with the actors on their press tour...

Decided this was the season to make a political statement...

 

Which this series...

To its credit...

Had largely avoided....

 

Now that doesn’t mean The Diplomat hadn’t touched on current events...

But always with a soft focus ...

That was careful not to make too direct a comparison to actual political figures....

 

So the previous season dealt with a Praetorian Guard of aides who surround ...

And isolate a President...

While they actually run the government ...

Which was sort of a Biden-coded storyline...

 

But the President was not some cognitively challenged geezer...

Who had to be kept in the basement...

 

And a family member of President Penn...

Ends up leading the critical negotiations with a foreign leader...

Even though he isn’t an official member of the State Department...

 

Oh my... who could that possibly be?

 

But in The Diplomat this isn’t a son-in-law...

 

And, of course, he screws it up...

Because only career diplomats should be given that responsibility...

 

And the British PM...

Is a dangerous narcissist...

Who goes off half-cocked all the time...

 

But in The Diplomat he doesn’t have a full head of blond hair that looks like a bird’s nest...

Nor a facility with Latin...

And he doesn’t just want to party and have fun...

Rather than concern himself with governing...

 

But this season, President Penn...

 

Is portrayed as someone with PTSD...

Who becomes increasingly unpredictable...

And dangerous to the country...

As well as the world...

 

Shedding allies...

Threatening to leave NATO...

And pursuing...

Quelle horreur...

An America First foreign policy...

That tells the rest of the world...

Shove it...

 

Now who is this supposed to remind you of?

 

But her increasingly chaotic behavior...

Leads to a season finale...

That is so dramatic...

 

And seemingly final...

 

That it looks like there can be no going back...

To the basic premise of this series...

 

So this looks like something a showrunner would do ...

When they wanted to have a West Wing moment...

 

Where they tell the world...

Or, more importantly, the people in our State Department, CIA ...

And maybe the military...

 

What they believe anyone with a moral compass... and love of country...

 

Should be doing right now...

 

Which has made this finale look less like a series cliffhanger...

And more like a plea...

To people in government...

 

To do something....

Now...

​

So once again we get some Hollywood wish casting...

 

But while...

What happens in this finale...

Looks irrevocable...

 

Maybe not...

 

Because real life might be providing a plot line ...

That The Diplomat’s showrunners...

Can use to extricate the show’s characters...

From the box the finale put them in...

 

You see...

There are rumors...

 

That former members of the disbanded USAID...

Have created something called the United Democracy Alliance...

 

Which may be working with...

 

The National Security Leaders of America...

Which is made up of 1600 ex-national security officials, former diplomats, and military alumni...

Who have pledged to focus on defending democratic institutions...

And opposing authoritarianism...

 

And rumor also has it...

 

That they are all working with aligned NGOs...

And discussing a coordinated response ...

That would be quite dramatic...

 

And, more importantly, unparalleled...

At least outside of Eastern Europe...

 

In the name of “defending democracy”...

Of course...

To a constitutional crisis....

 

That takes place when  “red lines” have been crossed by the President...

 

So I guess the impeachment process...

And the 25th Amendment...

 

Aren’t sufficient...

 

And these former government officials...

Think they should be...

Who decides...

 

What those “red lines” are...

And when they have been crossed...

And then they should act in what they believe are the best interests of the nation...

 

Which seems a storyline tailor-made for a series...

That often had its characters going rogue...

 

So... even if none of these rumors are true...

 

One can see the playbook for a fifth season of The Diplomat...

Being written as we speak...

 

Perhaps in real time...

 

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