The Diplomat is back on Netflix, and Season 4 opens the door on Downing Street. The Debora Cahn created drama began streaming its fourth season on October 15, and the first episodes carry two big changes for Kate Wyler’s world.
David Gyasi’s Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison is killed off early in the season, dying in a helicopter crash in Amritsar that also involves the Indian Prime Minister. Keri Russell told Deadline the loss is “powerful” and “devastating” for Kate, since Dennison was the character she flirted with but never acted on. Creator Cahn said the shake-up was overdue: the show had kept one Prime Minister and one Foreign Secretary in place while real UK politics cycled through five governments.
The vacancy at the top brings in a new face. Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear) resigns after Kate exposes his plot against Margaret Roylin, and after a hard political fight Bethan Vaughan takes over. That role is played by Jodie Whittaker, kept secret until release, and Russell says Cahn wanted a peer for Kate rather than another figure above her, someone in real position of power doing it well. Season 4 lands all eight episodes at once on Netflix.