Review: “The Diplomat” Season 1 Episode 4 “He bought a Hat”

Netflix’s original series The Diplomat ,season one episode four entitled “He bought a Hat,” starts with Keri Russell’s Kate Wyler as she waits for the aftermath of the President returning to the United States. From the look on her face, the viewer can see that she is extremely stressed about the ordeal. In her mind, she knows that she did everything right when it comes to dealing with the crisis. Despite of her own realization, she decides to refuse the job as the next Vice President. This is due to her seeing that Rufus Sewell’s Hal Wyler is just going to be the one in charge of everything. Deep down she believes that the reason the President agreed to leaving is because of Hal’s support. Without him he probably would never have listened to her advice. She knows that she has worked too hard in her job to be put into the shadow of her husband.  

Additionally, the viewer sees Kate cook up a plan to make sure the Prime Minster of Britain can not cause any more hatred toward Iran. The interesting part about this is how she plans to join in on a meeting between Iran’s ambassador and Britian’s foreign secretary. What is interesting about this is how in the car, she talks about the Vice President job with one of her staff members. The viewer can see that she really wants to take the job. However, she refuses to be a poster woman for everyone while her husband is the one who is really getting the attention. Not to mention that she will have to keep up the sham of a marriage she no longer wants. Deep down she wants to believe that it would just be about her and not Hal. Unfortunately, she is proven right as she finds out that the one who recommended her does not know about her divorce. And wants her with Hal when she should she take the job.

 

Towards the end of the episode, Kate unfortunately gets involved in a serious manner regarding the Iranian ambassador. This is a result of him dying on the floor after he revealed it was the Russian Government that launched the attack on the British Navy Ship. This could possibly lead to an even greater conspiracy as perhaps there are other people and/or governments involved in the attack. However, things might get complicated as Kate may be implicated if anyone was to find out she was there when she was not supposed to be. Everything is made clearer that the information shared could lead to death when the ambassador revealed the information, he immediately burned it to keep it secret. The interesting part about this is how the paramedics told Kate the ambassador is dead however, they must keep up appearances as if he were alive, otherwise there will be an incident and war could break out altogether.

 

At the end of the episode, the viewer sees Kate as she returns back to the compound. At first there is a sense of shock as all of the events transpired quickly and that leaves the viewer little time to react. The surprising part about this is how Kate decides to spend the night with her husband as a result of this. This gives an implication that for all of her complaints and statements of how she hates to clean up the mess, somewhere deep down she enjoys it. That is why no matter how much she wants to divorce her husband, she cannot as that would mean things would be calmer. This is demonstrated by how when she got the president to agree to her advice, even though she had help, she felt a sense of satisfaction. Also, when she got the information from the Iranian ambassador, the viewer can see she smiled as she got what she wanted.  

Rating: 9.5/10 

Adrian Sepulveda: I am an aspiring writer who loves to write dark fantasy stories. Also, I focus on establishing a connection with my audience. I am a graduate from Full Sail University with a Bachelor’s Degree in creative writing for entertainment.
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