The Diplomat Recap: Little Birds All The Way Down
In “Birdwatchers”, we have another episode where not that much actually happens, but what does happen is deeply consequential. We’ve got a time jump, a relationship reveal (and its cascade of consequences), and most of all, a very lucky intelligence break.
Since the last is the most significant, let’s start there, with the thrilling, terrible moment of dread and relief. The Big International Whisper Down The Lane In Exchange For Asylum program is enough to make Eidra almost wish she had been fired after Roylin’s death. She’s seen and heard plenty in her time, but the sheer volume of belief-begging and often valueless intel she and her team are fielding has her asking to make an appointment with Hal to see if she’s been in the dog house long enough to be brought back inside so she can do the work she’s actually there to do. Among the absurd examples of what garbage she’s hearing is that Americans were involved in the attack on the HMS Courageous.
Well, a Sword of Damocles situation was kind of inevitable, wasn’t it? If Lenkov knew that both the U.K. and U.S. were involved in commissioning the attack, chances were good he wouldn’t keep that information entirely to himself. Once Kate and Hal know that there are rumblings out there from at least one legit source — and Andreev, who we may or may not ever meet, easily passes the CIA’s sniff test — they also know the clock is ticking. If Andreev doesn’t get satisfaction at Embassy London, he’ll surely shop this information elsewhere, and the U.S. government will lose any shred of control over the situation.
Shreds of control is not just a great name for a nascent metal band, it’s also what Kate and Hal are trying to cling to in their working and familial relationships. Results, as expected and usual, are mixed! Thanks to a four-month time jump between the last episode and this one, it’s not surprising to see Kate flirting with the charming and quick-witted ornithologist Callum Ellis (Aidan Turner, whose face appears in the dictionary next to “irresistibly cheeky”). Or rather, it’s not surprising to see her flirting, but seeing her do so at an official event at Winfield House, with someone who is not British Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison, definitely is.
In a brief interlude of close-to-normalcy between Hal and Kate, he voices his surprise that Dennison isn’t the guy. She’s as surprised as he is, describing the situation as having been “a swing and a miss”, following that “wait, what?!” moment with the even more eyebrow-raising news that he’s seeing someone else now. Said someone else is great, which Hal knows is code for “kinda boring”, and I’m very hung up on the notion that the all-too-brief kissing and groping moment in Dennison’s home office is the unsuccessful launch of their romance in its entirety.
With regard to Callum, however, Hal reserves the right to be both surprised and shocked, shocked to find that his public wife/private ex-wife has done exactly what they discussed several episodes ago! Of course that’s Hal’s response; he arrives at Winfield, parting the crowd with the casual entitlement of someone whose exquisite timing was furnished by a CIA drone-guided motorcade. His face falls when he sees Kate looking so at ease, laughing, and putting a warm hand on Callum’s back. Hers falls even harder when she sees Hal. Oh, dear. This public marriage/private divorce thing is way trickier than either of them anticipated, and they’re not really up to its challenges.
To be fair, both of them are being unrealistic and a bit cruel, and each of them has reasonable points. Hal chose to accept Grace’s offer to be her VP, and he agreed to their arrangement. He’s also right that Kate needs to report her relationship with Callum to the CIA. I’m thinking about this as primarily an HR issue, but would Hal be quite so exercised about it if Callum weren’t also a freelance international intelligence guy working with Kate on their sunken Russian nuclear submarine location and possible rescue project?
Their argument quickly goes too far, sending Kate — still in her lovely dress from the cocktail party — racing downstairs in her stocking feet to the library, where she collapses into a heap of wracking sobs behind her desk. Is it “breathtakingly reckless” for her to be conducting an affair with Callum, given the sensitive nature of their actual work? I think so! Is it okay for Hal to taunt Callum and berate Kate to such a degree that she runs away to cry her heart out over it? I’m going to take a bold stance and say no.
How functional is their public/private arrangement if it yields behavior this sulky, petty, and mean? Are Hal and Kate planning to assess and adjust their expectations and ground rules at the six-month or one-year mark? Would any of this actually be remedied by their eventual divorce? I’d really like for this ambiguity in their relationship to be resolved, or for us to get over the hump of the worst of it sooner than later. These two can absolutely have an interesting, complicated relationship without putting us through a relitigation scene about it in nearly every episode.
Of course, “Birdwatchers” includes a few tantalizing glimpses of what their working relationship could eventually look like. Their rapport and mutual understanding of and respect for each other’s work still shines through in a few spots — they even manage to deliver their talking points in a magazine interview warmly enough that they land more like bits. Kate’s career means she’s married to the government, he says. She parries with a bit of self-mockery about liking a job with a reliable pension. They’re able to balance out the political and personal because it makes both of them better in both areas of their lives, they agree.
Whether or not they could keep that up for another 25 minutes will have to be a mystery forever, because they get a call from Eidra confirming the legitimacy of her source about the Courageous attack, and off they hustle to Amagansett to confer with Grace and Billie. Also, Todd will be there! Eidra has now been read into two situations — Hal and Kate’s public marriage/private divorce and Grace’s involvement in the attack — and now she can see how the vibes surrounding the former are affecting their responses to the latter. Considering Hal’s glum refusal to bring Kate into their conversation about the on Air Force Two as they race back across the Atlantic, I think Stuart and Nora should also be read into the relationship stuff, and that Eidra should be in a group text with both of them. Triangulate your data points and develop winning (and maybe sanity-preserving?) joint strategies!
• Remember what a kerfuffle was brewing over the U.S. relationship with Denmark due to Kate needing Hal to come out against limits on oil drilling licenses in the North Sea? It seems like that’s been smoothed over quite successfully, as the Danish ambassador is plainly thrilled to have been invited to the ornithology conservation event at Winfield. I continue to hope that Kate will welcome Birgitte Nyborg for a visit one day soon.
• When Kate calls Stuart to give him hell about his secret masterminding of Hal’s surprise visit — which was for their anniversary, oof — he says that the whole thing needed 260 people’s participation. Perhaps Hal could spare Kate his indignation over the cost of Kate’s overseas Secret Service protection?
• Callum’s project is an important one, and it’s good that he’s meeting with success. Convincing a bunch of North Sea-bordering nations to share their sensor data is no mean feat, and now that things are bound to heat up one way or another with regard to the Courageous attack, I’m curious to see how the two situations may intertwine (there’s no if here).