The Diplomat (2023) s01e06 Episode Script

1
In an unexpected change,
our agenda now reads:
One, Russia. Two, Russia. Three Julian?
Russia?
Russia.
Welcome to our modest monstrosity.
[Austin]
The indispensable Cecilia Dennison.
[Hal]
Turns out she's the sister, not the wife.
His wife died a couple of years ago.
You should tap that.
Do you understand
what we're talking about?
Accusing Russia
of attacking a British warship.
Tomorrow,
with the U.S. secretary of state.
Trowbridge wants to reenact
the Siege of Leningrad.
Sounds bad.
What the fuck is this?
You're the wife?
You're so goddamn docile
I'd be psychotic to let you go?
Yeah.
A month into the Ukraine war,
we'd already crawled
all the way up the diplomatic ladder.
There are no moves left.
It sounds like you wanna bomb something.
I have a list of Russian targets.
Why don't you pick one,
and we'll blow something up?
[Kemper-Waithe]
I would have preferred a warning.
Before she suggested we lob explosives?
[Stuart] I think we all would.
[Austin] Tell him the prime minister
will need
the royal prerogative for military force.
Tell who?
Tell him that buys us a day more
if he pushes for parliamentary approval.
Good evening.
Office of the foreign secretary
for the defense secretary.
The defense secretary?
- I'm afraid it is urgent.
- You're bringing him here?
You've got us targeting Russian assets
for air strikes,
a move they've plainly stated
may result in a nuclear reply.
- It's odd he's not here already.
- We do not need your defense secretary.
We're not bombing anything.
I gave him what he wanted
so he could stop wanting it so badly.
No, you've made it acceptable
for him to want it.
And to say America approves.
I need my defense secretary here
because, thanks to you,
I no longer hold sway
over the prime minister.
I'm sorry, that happened
long before I opened my mouth.
He's a big boy.
He dropped the ball. You picked it up.
I made him look like an idiot.
It was a dick move.
Was it the wrong dick move?
- [sighs] I lack experience.
- No, you don't.
I lack experience in this role,
and I panicked and did what you would do
because it's the first thing
that popped in my head.
You called DoD, you got a target list.
It's not a panic move.
It was a premeditated dick move.
[Hal] It was effective.
Making your ally look like a fuckwad
in front of his boss
is not the only way out.
Is it the first thing you tried?
It was like the 80th.
What if it doesn't work?
I told him to bomb Russia.
You have a plan.
This was a move.
It's not the final destination.
I'm gonna puke.
Do we have more of this?
Did you eat anything?
No.
Come on.
Up.
[groans]
- Come on.
- I just need, like, a yogurt.
[Hal]
I'm not getting you a fucking yogurt.
- Okay.
- Fuck, look at that tart.
Is it cheese?
No, no. Get one that's already started.
- This one's started.
- Unbelievable.
Mm!
- Oh, my God.
- Right?
Fuck. I'll grab some cheese.
[Kate exclaims]
Get some of that spinach stuff too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you get it?
You know the wine cellars in this house
are older than your nation?
I didn't.
Bottled history. Some is rancid,
of course, hence the reinforcements.
Sir, we'll get out of your way.
I can't drink all three alone.
I'd look like a fucking alcoholic.
Make yourself useful
and bring the stemware.
Would you like us
to find someone from your staff?
My staff? Every one of them,
the constitution of a Brontë sister.
It's their sworn duty to advise me,
but the only one with the mettle
to discuss military options
is an American female.
I think
they're just trying to protect you.
The Kremlin won't recognize anything
but brute force, we all know that.
The only question is what form it'll take.
Your staff won't give you military options
because they can't trust you
not to use them.
They don't trust me?
Thick with irony.
You don't trust them?
It takes a team of mad geniuses
to hoist one man
to the top of the greasy pole.
And once you're in office, it's best to
sack them before they burn the place down.
Then you're stuck in a sea of angry geese
who spent all of recent memory
trying to destroy you.
Austin Dennison has so thoroughly
colonized the moral high ground,
I couldn't set foot there if I wanted to.
Do you want to?
No, Mrs. Wyler. No, I'm a bad man.
I chose this path
because I adore raw power
and I crave dank lodgings
in Central London.
One year passed
between the German invasion of Poland
and the start of the London Blitz.
My country does not see
the destruction of Ukraine
as a heartrending regional conflict.
It will come here.
We need not imagine it. We remember it.
- Come on then. Back at me.
- You're a debater.
- You can play both sides.
- That's cruel.
It's fun to watch.
"A dustup with Russia
is a puerile fantasy.
Stop acting like a child, Nicol,
they'll stop treating you like one."
I don't think it's childish.
It's pragmatic. Look at every real option.
If you have a good one on the table,
you won't choose the bad one.
I'm not afraid
to admit the bad one exists.
She's got a good idea.
She's going to turn it all around.
She is.
Don't play chicken with a country
that's ready to lob a tactical nuke.
Try everything,
everything before that.
Well, I'm on the edge of my seat.
Your city
is a 24-hour laundromat for dirty rubles.
You have all their money. Take it.
I should try Bruce.
He's probably still at the office.
Yeah, it's still early there.
- Andy.
- Yeah.
- Craig.
- Yup.
I'm not calling Dean.
I'll never get off the phone.
You call him.
And wake up Stuart.
We're gonna need more hands.
What are you doing?
Wives don't make calls, wives make drinks.
You've had enough of those,
so I made you water.
I was not that wife.
Not ever. I was your partner.
You can pinch hit for one night.
I don't want one night.
I wanna be your partner.
For life.
You can't.
If you give me a shot, I will.
Constitutionally, Hal, you can't.
You'll want to and you will fail.
Fuck you. I gave you 15 years of my life.
Give me a chance.
- So you can go to the White House?
- Katherine.
So you're back-seat driving
the vice president?
So I'm married to you.
[knocking on door]
- You got a minute?
- Should I put on pants?
I have a list of things
Kate would like you to take a look at.
Cool. What's going on?
Trowbridge is giving her a chance
to come up with something bloodless,
- and it's gonna take some doing.
- Okay.
She's got a 200-point plan
she needs to execute by morning.
So all hands on deck.
Oh. I thought she was ready
to call in the Air Force.
That was a tactic, this is the strategy.
It's a tactic she should run by her staff
and her opposite number.
- That cowboy thing isn't gonna fly here.
- I think it just did.
You know what?
I'd say talk to Kate about what it's like
to be DCM to an unpredictable ambassador,
but she's busy.
She's so busy, in fact,
she'd really appreciate it
if you'd jump off your high horse
and make a couple of calls.
I'm gonna say yes on the pants.
[knocking on door]
I need to apologize.
Perhaps in the morning.
No, I need to Can I come in? Sorry.
Um
So listen. I threw you under the bus,
but I think it worked.
- I'm relieved.
- You gotta fucking get over it.
We're a great team.
You may not see that right now, but I do.
We are great together.
Shit.
I had a lot of wine,
and it was, um old.
- Are you?
- I'm trying to say something, so let me.
I don't know how you're gonna take it
and I don't wanna make you uncomfortable.
- You don't have to
- What I'm trying to say is, I need you.
I know. I feel it too. I can't think
when you're in the same room.
I can barely breathe. But I don't think
this is something that we can act on.
Oh, no. Sorry, not that.
- I'm so sorry.
- No.
- I'm so sorry. I'm an idiot. I'm
- No, I'm an idiot.
- No, you're definitely not an idiot.
- You should go.
Please.
I was trying to say that
I was in the kitchen with Trowbridge,
and now I need you
to call the Australian foreign minister.
I don't metabolize red wine really well.
You were picnicking in the moonlight
with the prime minister?
- It wasn't planned.
- Did you knock on his door too?
Of course I didn't. Jesus.
Get yourself together. We have work to do.
Shit.
Yeah, I know it's late,
and she feels terrible about it,
but do you think that you could?
Yeah, they're in there.
Yeah. Sorry.
Do you think you could wake him up anyway?
- I've got it here. Go ahead.
- [knocking on door]
- Hi.
- Sorry.
The ambassador wanted help
with a very complicated plan.
Yeah. Come in.
- I've got Anu setting up
- No, we're all in here.
- Yeah. Can you?
- I gotta head back into town.
[Hal] This late? What's up?
I can't get a straight answer
on the intelligence.
- Ronnie, please call me if anything
- Yeah.
Sir.
[Kate] I'm still here.
It can't really wait.
- Knock, knock.
- Yes, the work's happening here.
- Can I be of assistance?
- [Kate] Who else do we have?
- Yup.
- [Kate] Okay, I see.
[door opens]
[door closes]
[gun cocks]
[door opens]
[footsteps]
I thought we said no surprises.
What the fuck?
- I feel like I was clear about it.
- I was trying not to wake you.
- That's a gun.
- Yeah.
With a silencer.
It's what I had.
- Are you hungry?
- I'm not hungry.
I just stared down the business end
of a Glock, my adrenaline's hiked.
It's not a Glock.
- How much do I give a shit?
- I'm gonna make you an omelet.
I don't want an omelet.
I can put mushrooms on it.
I got those little ones you like.
I don't want an omelet.
I wanna know if the Kremlin ordered
the strike on the aircraft carrier
or if it came from farther down the chain.
You and me both.
When I find out,
you will be the first to know.
You will be the eighth to know.
We are trying to stop the PM
from launching an air strike,
and we have a tiny window
to sell him a diplomatic package,
so sooner would be better than later.
Oh, now that I know it's important,
I'll look harder.
Up until now, I was looking medium.
Okay.
There's been Russian dark target movement
off the British coast.
Submarines.
Russian submarines?
Which means they may know
we know it was them.
I'm invested in the success
of your diplomatic solution.
Let's talk about it.
- Let's put it on the table and see
- [door opens]
- I'd like them to go now.
- [car horn honking]
I fly to Novosibirsk,
I find a bricklayer,
I ask him, "You wanna marry an American?"
The bricklayer says,
"No, I like only Chechen milkmaids."
No, Don, you're the bricklayer.
Yeah. No, I think this works out for you.
That's fine. Call them now, I'll wait.
We did it.
- Confirmed?
- Yeah, we got it.
That's incredible.
[Kate] Right?
- Oh, my God.
- We did it.
I can't believe it either.
The notes. For when you pitch it.
I'm not pitching this.
I can't even read it.
It can't be me.
Why not?
British plan, British pitch.
Then the defense secretary will pitch it.
He won't be here
until the secretary of state is.
I can't sell it to Ganon
unless Trowbridge is already on board.
You didn't wanna tell me that last night?
No.
Stop.
Come on. I mean it.
- You do.
- No, come on.
- I am underwhelmed by your team spirit.
- Shit! Fuck!
- Oh. Uh, are you all right?
- Shit.
- What?
- Ow.
What hurts?
- That!
- Okay.
All right, we'll stay here.
Let me Let me see.
- Ah?
- Ow.
Hmm. Is it, um
- right there?
- Yeah.
What do you think I did?
I think you hurt it.
You have no idea.
- You have no idea what I did.
- I don't. I don't.
But look how it calmed you.
We'll get a professional.
Get me some ice,
and pitch the fucking package.
I am wounded!
And I don't like speaking
in front of a lot of people.
Did you hurl yourself down a staircase
in order to get out
of a three-minute oral presentation?
No.
Well, it's just something
my sister would do.
I am not your sister.
At this point,
that much ought to be clear.
[Austin] From 10,000 feet,
the notion is to place
sufficient financial pressure
on key personnel
to generate fissures within the Kremlin.
Is that salt or pepper?
Salt.
Splendid.
Uh, by freezing the assets of a handful of
Russian individuals in the City of London
and Crown Dependencies.
I get the idea. I don't love it.
I think, in this case,
God is in the details.
We need to bomb something
that smells like herring.
I'm thinking Russian troops
in the Aleppo-Raqqa-Hamo triangle.
No, we figured it out. It's exactly
what you agreed to last night.
Oh, darling,
any argument that includes the sentence,
"It's what you agreed to last night"
The Russian people
can't afford toothpaste,
yet none of our sanctions
touch the Kremlin's money,
which, ironically, is all in London.
We found a path.
Is there no way to quiet you?
When's Ganon arrive?
Half-three.
I'm staying.
Get on to this triangle business.
I want you saying something coherent
when he arrives.
Could be a break.
- I don't have time for that.
- I'd like to do some imaging.
Are you familiar
with the Aleppo-Raqqa-Hama triangle?
- Pardon?
- It's a geographic location.
- I'll take your word for it.
- Could you point it out on a map?
- I'm afraid not.
- It's in Syria.
Maybe get us a splint?
- I'll see what I've got in the car.
- Thank you.
People do not know
about the Aleppo-Raqqa-Hama triangle.
Trowbridge isn't people.
He's the prime minister
of a well-regarded nation-state.
He called it "Hamo." Not Hama.
- You called me Jake once.
- "Hamo."
Are you upset he got it wrong
or that he wants to bomb it?
It's like he was parroting someone.
He must have talked to someone last night.
Maybe the defense secretary?
Is he a Russia hawk? Where are you going?
- Wanna check out the garden?
- No.
I want you to.
Hal, for fuck's sake, if this is you
back to being the trailing spouse
with some well-meaning bid
to get me some air
You know when I swore to you
that all I did was just be a good wife
- and I never heard anything of substance?
- Yeah.
I lied.
Tell Kate why he's here.
The prime minister.
Tell her about Maggie.
Ugh. Margaret Roylin.
I tried to introduce you at the memorial.
She's Trowbridge's former advisor.
Nicol can't resist her cardigans
and compression socks.
- You know about her name?
- She told me to call her Meg.
She does that.
Tried to convince everyone she wasn't
a new Maggie, running things at Number 10,
it's what they all said.
Made Nicol livid.
She had to be sacked.
She thinks he still talks to her.
She's got a charming place
just down the way.
- From here?
- [Cecilia] Mm-hm.
Making this place, and you,
a perfect beard for a meeting with Roylin.
I have to tell Dennison.
My brother's well aware.
What? Then why hasn't he said anything?
It must be so hard
to be so spirited and yet so ill-informed.
You know every multilateral treaty
by clause,
and yet you don't know
what the Daily Mail said about my brother.
What did the Daily Mail say?
Nonsense, really, but Roylin
and her friends at the Mail are the reason
why Nicol Trowbridge is prime minister
and not Austin Dennison.
He seems to think
if he simply ignores her, she'll vanish.
Russia is in Syria fighting ISIS,
to attack Russia in Syria
is to provoke Russia while aiding ISIS.
[Hoope] In case that's of any concern.
I mean, it is, but
I think it is.
Why am I hearing from your sister
and not you
that Margaret Roylin has a fucking
"charming place just down the way"?
A direct hit on Russian soldiers
in the Aleppo-Raqqa-Hama triangle?
He's talking to Roylin.
I've limited her sway.
You haven't. We need to talk to her.
- Absolutely not.
- She is the person we're negotiating with.
- Talking to her gives her credibility.
- I'll do it.
No, you won't.
I will handle Trowbridge
without Margaret Roylin.
And ideally, if you would be so kind,
without you.
We had a good working relationship,
and now you're embarrassed
about what happened last night,
so you're trying to blow it up.
- I don't
- You're not crazy.
My marriage is ending,
and it hasn't escaped me
that you are an incredibly
attractive, intelligent, compassionate
man.
It's something
I spend a lot of time thinking about.
But at the moment,
we have bigger fish to fry.
Don't speak to Margaret Roylin.
Do it.
You sure?
Well, you can't keep it, of course.
The papers would flay you.
[Trowbridge] Some lunk in the village
took a snap with his phone.
I don't think he knew it was me.
Might I take it for a quick spin
before she goes bye-bye?
Lend my baby to a profligate drunk?
You crashed the weekend.
Go on.
Be a darling, let me crash your car.
[commentator on radio]
remains there on 72,
- from 42 deliveries.
- [phone ringing]
He's been the one constant
at the top of the order
Wilson speaking.
Are you skulking around the back gate
listening to the cricket?
- Yes, ma'am.
- I'm coming through, open up.
Understood, ma'am.
Thank you, Wilson!
[commentator]
The umpire is reviewing the play
[radio chatter continues]
[cell phone buzzing]
Hi.
[Ronnie]
We're trying to find the ambassador.
- You lost her?
- Not lost. But Byron can't find her,
- and neither can we.
- Okay.
[cows mooing]
[cell phone ringing]
Yup.
Why does Ronnie think you're AWOL?
I'm out for a drive.
- You should be on the way to the airport.
- Fuck.
Yeah, Ganon lands in 20 minutes.
Send Hal.
Hal is not the ambassador.
He is an ambassador, and he'll swoop in.
He's good at all that.
[Stuart] Ma'am, where exactly are you?
Ma'am, you should be up
Relationships like that are rare.
You and Hal.
Yeah.
Not like that in my family.
Not even your brothers?
That's a disaster
for its own special reasons.
What did the Daily Mail say
about your brother?
Ancient history now.
I'm meeting Maggie. Shouldn't I know?
By the end of the campaign,
I was rather low. I'd lost a baby.
My partner had me in a setup
akin to house arrest.
He blamed me.
That's awful.
I told Austin I'd jump off the roof
if I didn't get any oxy.
- Ah.
- So he got it for me.
Illegal prescription, abuse of office.
And the Daily Mail found out.
Roylin found out.
She fed it to the tabloids as a story
about my brother having a pill problem.
He can't forgive her.
It's unforgivable.
I admire her efficacy.
I'm so sorry.
Be a darling, don't mention it to Roylin.
Of course.
Wouldn't want her to think I care.
Good to see you too, Mr. Secretary.
[Ganon] You know what I told the president
when he asked me
about sending your wife
to a Tiffany post like London?
As I understand it, he didn't ask.
I said you're not gonna get her,
you're gonna get Hal.
I've always just been
the lunk standing behind her,
holding her back.
We should be so lucky.
Actually, you are.
- Trowbridge can't get enough of her.
- What?
He showed up yesterday.
Doesn't wanna leave.
So now I have another Wyler fucking
my relationship with the White House.
She'll smooth it out.
Talked him back from the brink yesterday,
just needs to iron out a couple of things.
You've been in
the wilds of Arabia for too long,
so let me spell it out.
The ambassador in London has one job:
Greet me at the fucking airport.
You never sent Val to do anything for you?
It's something worth thinking about.
- [shouts]
- You okay?
Look at this.
- Looks bad.
- Yeah, heat rash.
Val thinks it's all the flying.
- Does it itch?
- What do you think?
I didn't fly nine hours
to play lawn croquet with Nicol Trickle
while Kate Wyler does the real work.
It's closer to seven. Isn't it?
What?
Hours. From D.C.
Just saying.
[Tom] One in from the corner.
On the right.
[Eidra] Why not the corner?
"Congratulations, Tom,
that's double the size
of your last office."
It looks great. I just thought
you were talking about the corner.
Give me those back.
What you got?
Nothing.
What have you got?
[Eidra] For chrissake.
I'm sorry I slagged on your office.
I'm not withholding intelligence
because you failed to register
the significance of my new quarters,
I'm in receive mode.
Why?
Because having collated
all of the information we gathered
from all of our sources
in Russian military intelligence,
it's quite clear
that this was an FSB plan.
My contacts said the FSB didn't do it.
They said it was GRU.
- They're wrong.
- And this is a contact you trust?
No, I went
to my chronically unreliable contact.
Shit.
All right.
Possible explanations.
They're lying.
One, they're lying.
Two, the Kremlin did this
without consulting a single piece
of Russian intelligence apparatus.
Three, it's not Russia.
Three, it's not Russia. My money's on two.
Yeah.
That sounds right.
I'll talk to a couple
of the chattier oligarchs,
see if anyone's heard about this
from the inner circle.
Anything new on the submarines?
They're hovering over the fiber-optic
cables running out of Cornwall.
Eavesdropping?
That or planning to strike back
in case we make a move.
It's a nice office.
You're a terrible person.
Hello. I'm having a battle royale
with a hedgehog.
Oh, you out spreading poison?
Oh, come on. I couldn't resist.
Come in. I'll make us some tea.
I'm not going
into your musty Hobbit house.
I'll go and inspect the garden.
Find some new shoots.
Grind them beneath my feet.
[kettle whistling]
Nicol says you're very bright.
What do you think the tabloids would do
if they knew an unemployed pollster
with no military experience
was choosing targets for the RAF?
Milk?
Black.
Milk-in-first suggests
you're of the dusty masses.
Would have thought
that might appeal to you.
Under no circumstances
will President Rayburn support an attack
on Russian forces
in the Aleppo-Raqqa-Hama triangle.
No?
If the PM proposes that,
Ganon will have to leave.
Why are you letting Nicol stay?
Makes your president look like an old nag,
left to warm his joints by the fire
while real men hash it out.
Why are you letting him stay?
Please.
Reports of my Svengali powers
are much exaggerated.
You don't want to open
a Middle Eastern front with Russia.
I don't.
Then why are you pushing it?
I thought you'd be different
than your husband.
Yeah. I thought so too.
Bluster and fuss.
Pull-asides at the urinal, and,
"Let's end this now, just you and me."
Would that be so bad?
To end it right now, just you and me?
Hmm.
Come here.
You know what this is?
Scotland.
Hooray!
They taught you something on the airplane.
Let's test your recent British history.
"Take back control." "Leave means leave."
My personal favorite, "No, thanks."
Brexit slogans.
Yes. But they're being repurposed
for the independence movement.
"No, thanks" is trending on
the surprisingly active Twitter community
of East Kilbride, Strathaven,
and Lesmahagow.
Their representative in parliament
just dropped dead.
His wife will likely win his seat.
He was a royalist, but she says
"No, thanks."
Her vote will force the prime minister to
call for a second referendum in Scotland.
There's a very real chance
that Scotland will declare independence.
Northern Ireland will follow.
The Welsh do everything slowly,
but eventually they'll get the idea.
The first line
of Nicol Trowbridge's obituary
will declare him "the prime minister
that lost the United Kingdom."
He won't accept a response to Russia
that doesn't help him keep the kingdom.
You think war with Russia
will give him that?
No, of course not.
He needs one shining moment of unity
to get him past
the referendum in Scotland.
And your words
seemed to have a clarifying effect.
How did you put it?
"Let's bomb something."
The ambassador has a question.
The ambassador would be wise
to make an appearance.
- The secretary of state looks homicidal.
- [Trowbridge] You can't find it anywhere.
- [man] Can we look over this way, sir?
- [Hal] If we needed something pyrotechnic,
small
British Special Forces.
If we hit Russia, Russia hits back.
But the Lenkov Group isn't Russia. Right?
That's what the Kremlin keeps saying.
They are the Kremlin's private army
pretending to be mercenaries.
But sometimes,
because it's a really good way
to make money,
they do work as mercenaries.
Butchering civilians
for dictators on four continents.
She wants us to hit the Lenkov Group?
As a thought exercise.
It's illegal.
Self-defense is the only legal foundation
for a British attack.
What if we could defend
against an imminent
Lenkov Group attack somewhere.
Defend.
Lenkov troops are
raping their way through Libya.
Trying to reopen a war
that the U.N. settled.
And Libya has requested our help
more than once.
Why don't we help them?
A hit on Lenkov troops in Libya,
it's not revenge, it's
aiding Libyan self-defense.
Legal.
Lethal.
Scratches the itch for Trowbridge.
It might.
- [Stuart] Does he like it?
- Is he into it?
I don't know, I can't tell his happy face
from his sad face.
We can't put it on the table
with all of them there, so
you bring it to Ganon
and I'll bring it to Trowbridge.
You're right.
It's good. You found something
that's quite workable.
We all did.
Well, the concept was yours.
It was Margaret Roylin's.
That's where you were?
- I know
- I'm quite sure you don't.
Do you or do you not
want the PM to buy this?
The minute you leave the room,
he calls Roylin and she says, "Brilliant."
And we're done.
Ganon's through there.
Take a second.
Why is my office
getting calls about Libya?
The ambassador had some questions.
You said the ambassador
wasn't painting targets,
she was doing some sort of mind-fuck,
designed to make Trowbridge
buy a diplomatic plan.
It's a good plan.
It's so good he wants to attack
Russian fighters in Libya?
Since when did you become
the brave defender of Russian mercenaries?
We can't find the ball.
Russia.
We can't pinpoint who gave the order.
It wasn't military intelligence.
It wasn't the FSB.
Sources who should know where it came from
didn't even know it was happening.
That's very bad.
I get it.
So how about we call the ambassador
and tell her to slow her roll.
You want me to pull the rug out
from under her,
because you can't pinpoint
which of the dozen guys
in the Kremlin's inner circle
pressed "go"?
If you wanna be
reductionist about it, yeah.
She's in a room with the PM
and the secretaries,
and she has a plan.
Part of the reason it's working is because
they're all in there staring at each other
and Ganon really wants to leave.
So if we stop her because
the intelligence isn't all there yet,
we're gonna lose our shot.
"Isn't all there"?
If the intelligence changes,
we'll change the plan.
- Like we did in Iraq?
- Come on.
We leveled the country
before we changed that plan.
We are gonna push the Lenkov Group
out of Libya.
It's good news.
So?
He bought it.
- I can't believe it. It actually worked.
- It didn't.
Ganon said no.
[Austin] But it's a rock-solid plan.
A flat no.
Won't even run it up the flagpole.
[Austin] That makes no sense. None.
[cell phone buzzing]
I'm in the car.
Can you find out
where Ganon flew in from this morning?
D.C.
No, it wasn't D.C.
But State's not gonna tell you that.
How would you suggest I find out
if the secretary made a secret side trip
on his way over here?
I don't know, ask your CIA girlfriend.
[call drops]
If I met him at the airport
like a good girl,
- would he have given it a chance?
- No.
Did you say something to him?
- About what?
- Anything.
He was in a pissed off mood
from the get-go.
He's got a rash.
Did you comment on it?
Uh, yeah, I saw the bumps on his back,
and I said, "Mr. Secretary,
what the oozing fuck is that?"
I went at him too hard.
Jesus Christ. Come on.
He was ready to hate me.
He hates you,
and he thinks I'm your meat puppet.
Kate, he made a pitstop in South Carolina
on the way here
to receive an honorary doctorate.
In South Carolina?
So maybe he didn't like the plan because
he doesn't want Rayburn to succeed.
Ganon wants to be president.
He's a great candidate.
He's experienced.
But you don't win
against a sitting president
who just brokered
a Persian-Gulf-Russia-Libya hat trick.
Wow.
Is that it?
- What?
- "Wow"?
I'm speechless. I thought you liked
when that happened.
Do you, or do you not
want to be considered
- for vice president of the United States?
- Fuck's sake.
- Look, you haven't said yes yet, right?
- I haven't.
And you haven't said no
definitively to Billie.
- Have you?
- No.
That means Billie wants to make you happy.
And the president wants to make you happy.
That means right now is the one time
when you get to break shit.
What is it that you think I should break?
The secretary of state.
God.
Do you see
that every time
you're backed into a corner,
or I am backed into a corner,
your best idea is to cut the legs off
one of your colleagues?
You've left a bloody swath
across all of Washington.
Why does Ganon have to like you?
Because people do things
for people they like.
We exist in a marketplace of favors.
That has lubricated your journey
through the world.
So Stuart will lubricate.
That's not your job anymore. It's his.
I didn't do any of that
because you did it for me.
I was doing something else, right?
If everybody hates you, it all stops.
- Does it?
- Yeah.
Well, you hate me.
I'm still sitting on your bed.
[line ringing]
How's it going?
Not great.
The secretary of state
wants to kill the plan.
I'm sorry.
No, you're not.
I'm not?
No. You didn't like the plan
in the first place.
I don't like sending a plan up the chain
before we have intelligence to support it.
- It's actually a great plan.
- Mm-hm.
The husband knows about us.
Wyler's husband?
He called you my girlfriend.
Does the wife know?
I don't know.
But our hands
are kind of being forced here.
- And I'm okay with it.
- What are you saying?
Maybe we go public.
Because you wanna go public,
or because somebody figured it out?
How's about both?
That's some really moving assent.
Dating a station chief's a hotshot move.
It makes you look good.
- I'm okay with that.
- Makes me look like a fucking girlfriend.
You're the one who wanted
to go to Cairo together. Openly.
When you show up and
a relationship's in place, it's old news.
Here, it'll make me look like
I haven't been doing my job,
because I've been swooning over you.
- You have.
- I'm not
You know what, whatever. I gotta go.
[cell phone buzzing]
Hi.
Should we try that again?
Yeah.
Do you want
to be in a public relationship with me?
Yes.
Yeah, me too.
I did something.
- Again?
- Thanks.
[Austin] Will it work?
I don't think so.
If it worked,
Ganon would've gotten a phone call,
and he'd be really pissed off.
[sighs] I think it's gonna get me fired.
Unfortunate.
Life will be simpler here without me.
It will.
Okay. How did you know?
- About Ganon?
- About me and the station chief.
I didn't.
Wait, you said
I said.
I didn't know.
Then you left this long, dangling pause.
That's when I knew.
Ah.
I thought it might be fitting
if you said a few words to open.
I shouldn't be making a toast.
I'm the stray dog who turned up
on the back steps and wouldn't leave.
Don't you got any remarks, welcoming us to
your humble monument to colonial plunder?
I think I'll wait
until you're all thoroughly lacquered.
Smart man.
There's an Arab proverb
that goes something like,
"It's good to know the truth and speak it.
It's better to know the truth
and speak of palm trees."
All of which is to say,
love what you did with the plants.
[all laughing]
[whispering]
Excuse me.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the Libya plan is in motion.
Please cancel your dinner plans.
The document you got five minutes ago
is out of date,
someone got a little too eager
with the send button.
A new one is on its way.
I would love a map of Libya
from this millennium,
I believe I'm looking at one
from the last millennium.
[Ganon] Of all the reasonable options,
that is what
the president of the United States
has decided we should be doing.
Marching into Libya
as if we didn't learn our lesson in Iraq.
And in Afghanistan.
And, now that I think about it,
in Libya
I feel like we should rescue him.
- Stuart?
- Yeah.
over, and expecting different results
- [Hal] That's the job.
You did it for years.
Not your job anymore.
Yeah.
This job is better.
- Is it?
- On a day like today, yeah.
- It's like a fucking drug, isn't it?
- Settle down.
I was a little shitty.
About the idea of you playing number two,
without eating up
all the oxygen in the room.
You weren't shitty. You were dubious.
With reason.
But I did it.
Didn't I?
[Stuart] Oh, boy, that was an earful.
Is he gonna be okay?
Fuck him.
You brought the Western alliance
back from the brink of war with Russia.
- Whoa, grandiose.
- Accurate.
Accurate.
You know who has days like this
all the time?
Stop.
- The vice president.
- Okay.
Plenty of vice presidents do nothing ever.
[Stuart] Plenty do a lot.
You can do more in an afternoon
than most people accomplish in a lifetime.
Just think about that.
I think she's thinking about it.
Really?
Ma'am, do you wanna be vice president?
[Hal] You hear that?
That was a long pause.
It was a long pause.
A long, dangling, eloquent pause.
[Kate] All right, go have another drink.
[Kate chuckles]
- Careful.
- Or what?
They're not divorced yet.
[Cecilia] I wasn't aware
they were getting a divorce. Are they?
Confidentially, yeah.
I should congratulate her.
- They're eager to read your report.
- I could brief.
I'm not qualified to write the report.
- But perhaps you could
- No.
- But if you
- No.
- Okay.
- [Cecilia] Sorry. Excuse me, darling.
Are you quite all right?
I'm dating someone at work.
Oh, how lovely.
And we're going public,
and you're the first person I've told.
Oh.
Oh, I'm honored.
Who is it?
I can't tell you.
- Why not?
- Can't tell you that, either.
Oh. Is it CIA?
- What?
- I know. It can't be easy, dating CIA.
I It's
The messaging could use some work,
but congratulations all the same.
It's a gift, isn't it?
Passion for work, passion for each other,
all whirled up like some lusty tornado.
Some people never have anything like it.
Give him a turn.
Yes, okay.
- It's better than one, isn't it?
- What?
Two.
[inaudible dialogue]
[theme music playing]