October Surprise: 'The Diplomat' Kills One Politician, Introduces Another in Season 4

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for Season 4 of The Diplomat, now streaming on Netflix. Since The Diplomat premiered in April 2023, three UK prime ministers and five foreign secretaries have come and gone. Yet in Netflix's drama series led by Keri Russell, only one of each has existed. Until now. […]

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for The Diplomat Season 4, now streaming on Netflix.

Since The Diplomat premiered in April 2023, there have been three British Prime Ministers and five Foreign Secretaries.

However, in the world of Netflix's Keri Russell-led drama series, there has only been one of each. Until now that is.

The Deborah Kahn-created show began its fourth season today (October 15), bringing with it exciting new arrangements at 10 Downing Street and 1 Carlton Gardens. RELATED STORIES Executives Lisa Lang McMullen, James Oh, Andrew McQueen and Carolina Garcia among Netflix TV execs affected by layoffs Netflix film executive Shroom Kim as part of layoffs

Austin Dennison, played by David Gyasi, dies tragically in the first few episodes of Season 4. This personality was killed in a helicopter crash in Amritsar, India, which also involved the Prime Minister of India.

British Prime Minister Nicole Trowbridge, played by Rory Kinnear, reveals the news to US Vice President Hal Wyler, played by Rufus Sewell, during a rather tense meeting in London.

Margaret Roylein's ghost asks Trowbridge as she investigates Dennison's death, "Did you send Austin somewhere horrible and then pray he wouldn't come back?"

Russell, who plays U.S. ambassador to Britain Kate Wyler, told Deadline that the film's story is "powerful" and "devastating." Her character has romantic tension with Dennison, and despite plotting, the couple only flirts and never commits. "When you're in the service, but you're traveling, things are really heightened...so the bonds that you have when you're away from home, away from the distractions of everyday life, the people you meet, are incredibly deep and passionate, and I think that character is really central to Kate," she told Deadline. So losing him is very important, but I also think about these realistic worlds.

Kahn's creator added that her death was "a terrible thing". We got to the point where the foreign secretary and the prime minister, in our show, had been on the job for so long that the real Britain had five changes of government... and we had the same people all the way through, and it felt wrong to start our characters with the second challenge that you build relationships the moment you set foot in a country. It happens when you start over, you always start over.

Earlier in the season, Wyler Russell revealed to the new British Foreign Secretary that Trowbridge had tried to kill Roylin after it was revealed that he was involved in the attack on HMS Courageous that killed 41 sailors.

This seems to have directly or indirectly led to Trowbridge's resignation as Prime Minister. "I spoke with His Majesty the King an hour ago, he accepted my resignation as Prime Minister of Stozier," he says in episode four.

After a rather long political battle, Betan Wan defeats an anti-Semitic and xenophobic candidate and becomes only the second Prime Minister during the run of The Diplomat.

Kahn also managed to keep the cast under wraps: Jodie Whittaker, best known as the 13th Doctor in Doctor Who and as the star of Broadchurch, plays PM Vaughan.

"He looks like a real firecracker," says one character.

Russell called Whittaker "excellent". “When that character was written, I was so curious who they were going to cast because they were all over the shop. Deborah told me, which I really appreciated, she said, "I wanted someone to be Kate's equal" so that there was no one above her in those scenes. We already have this with Allison Janney's Grace Penn, but she wanted this character from Me and My Age who is in a real position of power and does that well and can introduce herself in a way that Kate still can't muster. Judy did a great job, she's amazing.

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