The Diplomat Season 4 Ending Explained: Why Does Kate Resign?

Netflix’s ‘The Diplomat’ returns for a fourth season, bringing back Kate Wyler, who discovers a whole new mess that she needs to clean up. At the end of the previous season, she discovered that her husband, Hal Wyler, and the President, Grace Penn, had secretly stolen Poseidon from the Russian submarine that sank off the coast of the UK. To their allies, they presented a plan to bury the submarine and the devastating weapon in concrete so that no one gets their hands on it. But with Hal and Grace’s sneaky plan, things are once again turbulent, and this time, the stakes are much higher as they could very well stand to lose their oldest ally. SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Diplomat Season 4 Recap

While Kate processes the revelation of Poseidon’s theft, the streets of London are filled with protesters blocking the roads to the airport. This forces the entourage to be rerouted to Windsor Castle, with no royals present to attend them at such short notice. Kate and Hal use this time to share their grievances and decide what to do next. She thinks they should tell Callum Ellis everything, who already seems to have sniffed out something untoward. However, Hal and especially Grace are hell-bent against it. When the time comes, Kate is forced to comply and lies to Callum, with whom she has now broken up, as she is ready to patch things up with Hal, no matter what it takes.

Their visit to Windsor ends on a shocking note when Grace is shot, and the powers temporarily pass to Hal. Eventually, the President recovers, but everyone, especially Todd, notes that she is not the same. It takes every ounce of Hal’s charm and manipulation to keep himself on her good side, but the goodwill Kate has with her quickly runs out. Things escalate when Hal chooses an exceptionally poor moment to reveal the truth about Poseidon to the UK PM. Meanwhile, foreign secretary Austin Dennison dies, leaving a gaping hole in the system that had been working so well for Kate. His passing sets off a domino effect, where the chips fall in such drastic directions that, in the end, she has no option but to resort to a highly unconventional choice.

What Does Stuart Do on the Dissent Channel?

While serving in the Penn administration, Kate repeatedly encounters situations where she disagrees with the President’s calls. What makes it worse is that this is not the first time Grace has done something so bad that it has made Kate’s head spin and made her wonder how to get her out of the office. First, Grace helped orchestrate the attack, which led to the deaths of several British soldiers. She explained it away with the geopolitical discourse that could have pushed them out of the game. Kate conceded that it made sense, and later, she even helped the then-VP by pinning the blame for the crime on the late President Rayburn. Then came the issue of Poseidon’s theft, and once again, Kate didn’t like the way it was handled.

Eventually, she was brought around to believe that what Grace and Hal did was actually in the interest of their nation. So, once again, she falls in line, tries to shift the blame, and puts a lid on the situation. Then, Hal’s impulsive action sets off a series of events in which Kate blackmails Nicol Trowbridge, pushing him over the edge and leading to his resignation. This leads to the arrival of a new PM, Bethan Vaughn, who is updated on the Poseidon ordeal and doesn’t like what happened. When the Russians ask to claim their dead, she permits them to do so. This time, Grace tells Kate to threaten the PM, which she doesn’t want to do. Then Frances overhears her confession about blackmailing Trowbridge, which brings Stuart into the picture, who shares this information with Eidra.

The couple confronts Kate, and when she lays all the cards on the table, they confirm that this whole thing is getting out of hand. Clearly, Grace is not very good at making decisions that won’t end up with people dying or being threatened with being killed because she didn’t listen to her ambassador. While Kate tries to fix the situation, Grace refuses to budge, and this makes Stuart angry. After much thought, he decides to go through the official diplomatic dissent channel. There is nothing wrong or sneaky about it because this is the way for him and every other diplomat to share their disagreements with the government’s policies. He is protected by law from having his identity revealed and, more importantly, from being punished for sharing his opinions.

Why is Stuart Fired?

It is well within Stuart’s rights to express dissent, and while Billie and Eidra make fun of him because they think it’s inconsequential, Kate encourages him to do it. She thinks it will create a written record that people have expressed their reservations about Grace’s policies. However, he makes the mistake of letting others know, and when the Secretary of State, Miguel Ganon, reads it, he takes it to Grace, hoping it will make her change her mind. Instead, she fixates on the one who made the complaint, and when she learns it was Stuart, she immediately pulls him back from London. He is not even given the chance to go back to his flat or office. His belongings will be collected by Eidra and sent to him, while his orders are to fly straight to DC.

Since he isn’t fired but has been pulled back, he is still bound by the NDA that prevents him from discussing any state matters with the public. Still, he plans to sue Grace for punishing him for exercising his rights, only for Kate to remind him he can’t. He worries where he will be sent next, but it turns out that the new location isn’t the issue. The fact that he will be stuck in limbo, sent nowhere and trapped in DC, is what the future seems to hold for him now. The statement is clear to everyone: anyone who doesn’t agree with the President will be fired from their posts, and they can forget about building their careers further. That is a dangerous message to send to her employees, but Kate learns from this and makes a preemptive move of her own.

Why Does Grace Reveal Her Plan at G7?

After Grace Penn gets shot, the people close to her notice that she has gotten a bit more difficult to communicate and reason with. Later, Todd describes her change in the context of her decision to send warships to the coast of the UK as somewhat of a grudge she is holding for being shot at on their soil. She doesn’t agree with this assessment. She later explains, including to Kate and Hal, that what they are doing is reactionary to the Russians sending their submarine and world-ending weapon into the waters belonging to their allies. This itself could be seen as an aggressive move, and she doesn’t see why PM Vaughn cannot go back on her word and tell the Russians they cannot come in to retrieve their dead.

This is why she asks Kate to threaten Vaughn with America sending their warships if she doesn’t tell the Russians to stay away. These conversations happen behind closed doors mainly because Grace doesn’t want it to come out that they have stolen Poseidon, an act that goes against the pact she made with her allies. Kate tries to steer the situation in a different direction, but eventually the threat reaches Vaughn, and she does not take it lightly. At the time, everyone is in Italy for the G7 summit. It becomes clear that Vaughn will out Grace for her bullying and put the matter on the floor. This means she will also expose the Penn administration for deceiving them.

That will not sit right with the other members of the group, especially when they discover that Todd has all but confirmed that the Americans will shoot at British nationals if they come in between the firefight with Russia. The threat of shooting at their own ally is not something the others can ignore. This would directly contradict the directives laid out for NATO members, and it quickly becomes clear to Todd that his ill-chosen words could dissolve the alliance. Since the matter is put before the G7, it is also likely that America will be pushed out, which could cause further trouble for them. But there is no way to stop Vaughn so that the matter will be discussed anyway. So, Grace decides to take the lead on the narrative.

Before Vaughn can say anything, POTUS takes to the stage and reveals the truth about them taking Poseidon and sending warships to the British coast. However, instead of issuing further threats, she calmly explains that everything was done to save British citizens and NATO’s territories, even if she had to break a few promises. Above all, she calls out Vaughn for letting the Russians into her territory in the first place. She paints the new PM as naive and sketches out how a Russian presence in the North Sea wouldn’t benefit any of them. She puts the group on the spot by briefly discussing what would happen if America were pushed out of the G7, how quickly the remaining group would collapse, and how they need America to remain part of it while also getting to do what they want.

Why Does Kate Resign?

Despite everything, Grace seems to get her way when it appears the other G7 members are not immediately going to hold her accountable for her actions. Kate realizes that this kowtowing will further enable Grace and her increasingly unhinged actions. Earlier, she worried that Grace and Hal’s combination didn’t have any brakes to bring their unseemly plans to a halt. But even then, Hal had some influence on the President. He could get her to see sense, at least from his lens, and for a bit, that was enough. But now, she has become so consumed by her own ideas that she doesn’t care for anyone else’s. Even her own husband tries to make her see how much she has changed, wondering if it was the Presidency that made her so or the shooting.

With the G7 forced to accept Grace’s decision without consequences, Kate refuses to sit idly by. She could see reason in stealing Poseidon and sending warships, but when Grace turns the barrel towards her own people, Kate knows that things have gone too far. By firing Stuart, Grace showed that she would do anything to suppress dissent. It was her prerogative to make the decisions she did, and it was well within Stuart’s constitutional rights to express his disagreements through an official dissent channel, whose whole purpose was to ensure he wouldn’t be crucified for it. But when Grace recalls him to DC, while threatening Kate’s position as the ambassador, the latter knows there is no stopping her now. So, she takes a page out of Grace’s book and makes a show of resigning from her post.

What Do the Walkout and the Press Conference Mean?

Kate’s formal resignation means she is free to speak to reporters. But things get even better when Billie, Ganon, and even Hal resign. To her surprise, they walk out of the door one by one, and the final scene has Hal walking up to the reporters and addressing them. It is not revealed what he said, but his choice of words will have serious repercussions. With an ambassador, the Secretary of State, and the Chief of Staff resigning in front of the G7, the message has gone out that Grace is not as big a bully as it seemed. Her own administration doesn’t agree with her policies, and that doesn’t inspire faith in her allies either. It will make her seem weak, and if Hal exposes her actions to the press, she has a long and trying legal battle to look forward to.

However, Hal is known to have been fickle and power-hungry. Over the course of the season, it becomes clear how much he enjoys being the Vice President. Kate was so sure he wouldn’t give up his position that she didn’t tell him about her own intention to resign. That he walks out with her, Billie, and Ganon either shows that he, too, wants something done about Grace’s spiral into ever-worse decisions. Or, since we don’t actually see him resign like the others, there is a chance he’ll try to salvage the situation again without giving up the Vice Presidency, which could mean more trouble for Kate. What he decides remains to be seen and will decide what shape the next season takes.