WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for season 2 of The Diplomat.
The true connection between Prime Minister Trowbridge, Roman Lenkov and Margaret Roylin is revealed in The Diplomat season 2. Keri Russell leads the cast of The Diplomat Season 2 along with Rufus Sewell as her husband Hal, David Gyasi as Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison, Ali Ahn as CIA agent Eidra Park and Rory Kinnear as Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge. The Diplomat The second season begins after the events of The Diplomat season 1 finale, revealing that Hal and Ato Essandoh's Stuart survived the explosion that killed Member of Parliament Merritt Grove.
The Diplomat was created by Debora Chan (The West Wing, Grey's Anatomy, Homeland). Lead actress Keri Russell received an Emmy nomination for her role as US Ambassador Kate Wyler in The Diplomat season 1. The series introduces a handful of new characters while narrowing its focus on those responsible for the car explosion that killed Merritt Grove and the missile attack on HMS Courageous, two of the biggest obstacles in The Diplomat season 1. How The Diplomat season two ends, Kate and Hal are closer to the truth about Roman Lenkov and the government officials behind the false flag operation.
Grace Penn hired Margaret Roylin to coordinate HMS Courageous Attack
Penn invented the false flag operation in the first place
Vice President of the United States Grace Penn is the most notable addition to the cast of The Diplomat Season 2 and has a huge impact on the narrative of Season 1. The most shocking twist in The Diplomat Season 2 is it US Vice President Grace Penn was behind the attack on HMS Courageous. Hal initially learns this information from Margaret Roylin, who is also involved in the elaborate false flag operation. Although Penn doesn't appear until the final two episodes of The Diplomat In Season 2, she quickly becomes the most significant character in the entire series for orchestrating the attack on the HMS Courageous.
Vice President Penn orchestrated the attack to ensure that the Creagan nuclear base in Scotland could not close due to the threat of Scottish independence. The Creagan nuclear base is the last geographic point the United States could use to detect a nuclear threat from a Russian submarine in the Arctic region. Without the Creagon nuclear base, the United States would become much more vulnerable to a nuclear threat via Russian submarines. As a result, Vice President Penn organized an event that would unify Scotland and England to eliminate the threat of Scotland becoming an independent nation and closing the base.
Margaret Roylin used Merritt Grove to hire Roman Lenkov to attack the British ship
Roylin hoped to increase Trowbridge's political favor through the false flag operation
The Diplomat Season 2 reveals that Roylin was the one who recruited British Member of Parliament Merritt Grove to hire Russian mercenary Roman Lenkov to attack the HMS Courageous. His mission was to unify Scotland and England and gain the political favor of Prime Minister Trowbridge. The attack was intended to inflict minor damage and was not expected to result in British casualties. Due to supply problems, the Lenkov Group had to use more powerful explosives in the form of an underwater missile, which ended up unintentionally killing dozens of Royal Navy soldiers.
As Roylin noted in The Diplomat Season 1 and Penn described it to Kate in The Diplomat In season 2, the attack on HMS Courageous aimed to unify the United Kingdom and prevent Scotland from passing a referendum to seek independence. Roylin and Penn had different reasons for orchestrating the false flag operation, but both were of the utmost importance to their respective nations and governments. For Roylin, unifying Scotland with England against a common enemy like Russia or Iran would repair the prime minister's reputation. For Penn, thwarting Scottish independence was a vital step towards ensure protection against Russian nuclear submarines attacking the east coast of the United States.
Roylin asked Stendig to silence Grove; Stendig set up the car bomb that killed Grove
Stendig killed Grove for trying to talk to Hal about the false flag operation
Member of Parliament Merritt Grove was one of the co-conspirators who hired Roman Lenkov to attack the HMS Courageous. Grove and Stendig were involved in this with Margaret Roylin, who was working with US Vice President Grace Penn for the greater good of Western nations. Grove would leak this information to Hal, who would have told Kate and it would have ended up in the hands of President Rayburn at the White House, which is exactly what ended up happening at the end of The Diplomat season 2.
A far-right Member of Parliament named Lenny Stendig was the one who set up the Merritt Grove car bomb. Roylin enlisted Stendig to eliminate Grove in order to permanently silence him about the attack on HMS Courageous. Stendig only intended to eliminate his fellow deputy Grove, and not Ronnie or any other member of the American diplomatic team, but ended up killing Ronnie and injuring Stuart and Hal. Roylin and Stendig feared that Grove would tell Hal and the Americans everything about Roman Lenkov's plot.which would have exposed the fact that both Margaret Roylin and Vice President Penn were pulling strings behind the backs of Prime Minister Trowbridge and President Rayburn.
Nicol Trowbridge was innocent but used the British SAS to kill Roman Lenkov
Trowbridge made Lenkov the face of the HMS Courageous attack and the Merritt Grove murder
The real mastermind of Lenkov's plot was Grace Penn, who will be sworn in as US president in The Diplomat Season 3 after the death of President Rayburn. However, Prime Minister Trowbridge was the prime suspect behind Lenkov and the attack on HMS Courageous for most of the year. The Diplomat season 2. Kate and Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison suspected that Trowbridge secretly hired Lenkov for his own political gain. In reality, Roylin enlisted Grove to hire Lenkov at Grace Penn's request. Roylin saw the benefits to Prime Minister Trowbirdge's political reputation, while Penn was concerned with ensuring the longevity of the nuclear base at Creagan in Scotland.
Roman Lenkov was murdered by British special forces at the beginning of The Diplomat season 2, episode 3. Prime Minister Trowbridge announced Lenkov's assassination three weeks after the attack on HMS Courageous, allowing him to appear as a heroic figure for his country and the United Kingdom in general. Trowbridge grouped the attack on HMS Courageous and the car bomb that killed Merritt Grove as two terrorist acts orchestrated by Roman Lenkov. The announcement of Lenkov's death gave a sense of finality to the two apparent terrorist attacks on Britain in the space of three weeks.
What Happened to Everyone in Diplomat Season 2
Penn is now the President of the USA after Rayburn's sudden death
Although Kate discovers the vice president's plan at the end of The Diplomat In Season 2, she and Hal can't keep quiet knowing that Penn bypassed the president to authorize the attack on the HMS Courageous. Hal says he will speak to Secretary of State Miguel Ganon, with whom he has a difficult relationship and holds the Cabinet position that Hal secretly wants. Instead, Hal speaks directly to President Rayburn over a secure line at the London Embassy, telling him the truth about the vice president, Margaret Roylin, and Roman Lenkov. This so upsets President Rayburn, who was known to have heart problems, that it kills him..
In short, Merritt Grove and Roman Lenkov are dead at the end of The Diplomat season 2. Grove was murdered by fellow Member of Parliament Lenny Stendig on the orders of Margaret Roylin to protect her and Grace Penn's involvement in the HMS Courageous attacks. Lenkov was assassinated by British special operations troops three weeks after the attack on HMS Courageous by order of Prime Minister Trowbridge. Despite Foreign Secretary Dennison's attempts to force Trowbridge from office, Trowbridge remains Prime Minister. Stendig is free and has not yet been seen in the series. Roylin is still being held safe by the CIA until they figure out what to do with her. Penn is now president after Rayburn's sudden death, opening the door for Kate to become vice president in The Diplomat season 3.