The Diplomat Season 2: The Story Behind That ‘Devastating’ Twist
Warning: The following story contains spoilers from Season 2, Episode 1 of The Diplomat — proceed at your own peril.
The repercussions from the car bomb that closed out The Diplomat‘s first season proved deadly for a beloved member of the Netflix drama’s cast.
Although Rufus Sewell’s Hal and Ato Essandoh’s Stuart survived the blast, as telegraphed over the summer by Netflix, Jess Chanliau’s Ronnie was not so lucky. The US embassy aide played by Jess Chanliau succumbed to their injuries in the opening minutes of Season 2, which dropped Thursday on the streamer. Simon Chandler’s British MP Merritt Grove also perished in explosion, but it was the death of the young, idealistic Ronnie that left Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) and Co. in emotional ruins.
According to series creator Debora Cahn, the tragedy was an unfortunate but necessary piece of the complicated puzzle that is Kate and Hal’s marriage.
“This was the plan from the get-go,” the EP explains to TVLine of Chanliau’s departure as Ronnie. “I was really committed to writing a show about a marriage that was on the rocks, and not because of infidelity. The infidelity story has been extremely well told before. I really wanted there to be a chasm in the [Kate-Hal] relationship that came from a moral, ethical schism between the two of them, in terms of how they made decisions in the workplace.”
And as Cahn notes, death is “something that people in this line of work go through,” adding, “Colleagues don’t make it. It’s dangerous work. And I wanted the backstory of Kate and Hal to be about a decision that Hal had made [in the past] that [sent him] into a risky situation where he didn’t get hurt, but young people who worked for him did. That was the initial schism in the relationship. And then we would see that play out again with Kate in the Hal position [when Ronnie died], and look at how that crashed with their marriage and her view of him and her view of herself. That was what [Ronnie’s death] was for.”
Of course, that did not make saying goodbye to the character or their portrayer any easier for Cahn. “Ronnie and Jess together were so optimistic and idealistic that It felt like killing an angel,” she laments, before noting that Chanliau took the news of their exit surprisingly well. “Jess was kind of excited because… everybody likes the idea of being this thing that tears everyone’s heart out — and that’s what it felt like [for me]. My chest just collapses every time I see the scene in [the Season 2 premiere] where the paramedic says to Ronnie, ‘Does it hurt to talk?’ And Ronnie says, ‘Yeah.’ It’s just devastating.
“The work that Jess did was amazing,” Cahn marvels. “It was so intense and moving.”
I absolutely LOVED season 1. It was such a fresh take on the genre and there were so many hilarious scenes, witty dialogues. The chemistry between Kate and Dennison was off the charts.
We got basically none of that in S2. I get that things got more intense and darker but we barely saw the humour of S1. And can’t say I enjoyed where the story went either.
And absolutely disappointing character arc choices, too… Like, Stuart…
But mostly Dennison…
Not gonna lie, I was hoping for more scenes with Kate and Austin, they had the best banter in S1 and given their chemistry I was hoping that was going somewhere too.
The cast was still perfect, did an amazing job (Rory Kinnear, wow).
But altogether, not a great season – don’t mind that it’s only 6 episodes… I sort of enjoyed 2×01 and 2×02 but then things went downhill from there.
It’s still very far but I hope S3 will work out better.
I agree on S2 not being as good as S1. There was just something delicious in the dialogue and the acting for everyone. I was not as much of a fan of Kate and Dennison but more Kate and Hal. Although extremely complicated relationship, they know each other well and in way balance each other. S2 felt different. The smoothness and mannerisms were not quite there. Don’t get me wrong, the actors did a great job, it just felt rushed. The snappy dialogue had moments for sure and I did not hate it but….. It will be interesting to see where they take the show with the S2 ending.
Rushed is a great word for it. While I adore David as Dennison, I do enjoy the Kate/Hal relationship as well, but to be honest if they keep doing this for too long (as Kate says in S1, after so many things, she’s a moron), I think it damages Kate’s character… Like, we get it, it’s a messy complicated marriage intertwined with crazy politics but I feel like if Kate sticks with it, I’m gonna like her less and less. Ok, yeah, I’m an idealist so people like Hal annoy me and I’m rooting for Austin :))) And yeah, I wonder where the ending takes us for s3, I hope they stay in London…
It felt so different that I genuinely started to look at differences in writing staff. Are we to believe that an educated woman was somehow flummoxed by “correlation is not causation?” Even if she had somehow never encountered the concept at even an undergrad level, the meaning is clear from the words.
And season 2 felt sprinkled with moments like that one.
I love the season…..sadly short
Just binged season 2. And it´s an actor actor´s delight.