[Editor’s note: The following post includes spoilers for Season 2 of “The Diplomat.”]
It only took three minutes for “The Diplomat” to completely upend Hal and Kate Wyler in its Season 2 finale. That’s the exact amount of time between the moment Ambassador to the U.K. Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) tells Vice President Grace Penn (Allison Janney) she won’t reveal her role in the lethal bombing to Hal (Rufus Sewell) telling Kate that Grace is now the President of the United States.
And cut to credits. Three minutes, and Hal and Kate are completely undone; for the first time, they’re in the passenger seat. And by ending on a close-up of Janney, the balance of power has officially shifted. In the wake of the riveting 180 seconds, IndieWire spoke to editor Gary Levy about assembling the game-changing finale moments.
“They shot a lot and there were a lot of fantastic shots that we ended up not even using because we kept tightening it up to get to the heart of every beat and keep it like kinetic and not let the audience be ahead of it too much,” he told IndieWire. “So it was a little painful to edit because there was so much gold that we had to get rid of just to keep it brisk.”
The tension begins with a seemingly innocuous scene of Hal walking through a warren of cubicles at the CIA headquarters, on his way for an official U.S. government call to explain the VP’s role in the bombing. But there’s a frisson of unease because “The Diplomat” is changing its playbook on us.
“As Hal is [walking], we are playing some music and the music is saying something’s up,” Levy said. “We’re leading a little bit with music, which we don’t usually do. But in this case, we wanted to let the audience know that there’s a little mischief at play. And then we decided to leave the whole conversation between Allison and Keri dry.”
The shift from an office with rising music to a bucolic scene with only ambient noise (and a decidedly unbucolic conversation) is subtly unsettling. At the 44:47 mark, Vice President Grace Penn demands to know if Kate will tell anyone about the bombing the VP secretly orchestrated. Kate hedges by saying, “I’m not telling anyone,” as the scene cuts to Hal telling the President directly.
Cut back to Grace and Kate, as Grace calls out the ambassador for gaslighting and Kate pushes back more aggressively than before, patriotism and ambition blurring until even she seems unsure of which is dominant. “It was a really delicate sequence to work on,” Levy said. “And Keri’s performance — [Kate] just can’t help herself in this argument. In the end, we’re choosing how mad Kate is. You had a lot of choices of how angry she is versus how much is just her strength. So there were a lot of delicate choices in there.”
Back to Hal, racing out of the conference room and banging on a window, demanding someone get his wife on the phone. “For a long time, we had score that started as Hal bolts out, and it was very action-y, Levy said. “But the way we ended up, other than the music in the beginning and at the end, the middle is very dry. And I think that keeps you intrigued.”
Another tense moment between Grace and Kate about whether or not Kate is qualified to be VP is interrupted by Hal’s call and the return of the score. As Hal struggles to explain, the music swells and we cut to an overhead shot of 22 Secret Service agents racing out of the ambassador’s residence.
“We played a lot with when you see everyone come running out,” Levy said. “If I recall, in the script, [Hal] said, ‘The president’s dead,’ and then you see all hell break loose. And it seemed a little odd, like it was too perfectly timed. So what we did was have everyone come running out and then cut to Kate noticing. So you don’t know why they’re running out, and then he says, ‘The president’s dead.’”
As Kate reacts, we cut to another overhead shot of Secret Service agents racing to the Vice President, standing in eye-catching burgundy. As one yells, “Ma’am!” Grace turns. “Grace Penn is president,” we see Hal frantically tell Kate. As her face crumbles at the news, the scene cuts to Grace, as the camera slowly zooms in. And scene.
There were plenty of options to choose from for that final shot; Janney delivered a range of expressions as Grace turns to face the camera. “There weren’t huge differences in her performance,” Levy said. “But a subtle difference makes a huge difference between just being surprised or being surprised with a sense of bracing for it. You see a little fight in her as she turns, I think.”
But to end the show on someone other than Kate Wyler? That might be the most shocking reveal of all. “That was a big choice,” Levy said. “It made utmost sense to me to end on Kate’s reaction. And towards the end, we flipped it. The last time [we see] Kate is what was originally the last shot of the season. We just moved it up one shot. That was very late. We really worked on the end moment a lot, up until the very, very end. And that was one of the final decisions and it was [showrunner] Debora Cahn’s decision. Moments that, she intentionally pulls back. When you have a moment that seem a bit forced or manipulated, she always wants to tuck it in. [Ending on Grace] just feels a little more natural, a little less manipulated. It’s more grounded.”
“The Diplomat” is now streaming on Netflix.
