The Diplomat (2023) s03e07 Episode Script

1
You can tell him what
you're really doing.
Moscow has lost contact
with a submarine asset.
I have asked the North Sea nations
to pool their marine sensor data
in the hopes of finding the sub.
I am so sorry.
In a day, he's gonna go to Washington,
and I'm gonna take all your clothes off.
The United States was responsible
for the British carrier attack.
I suggested
that a situation needed handling.
I'm the name.
- She's confessing to Nicol Trowbridge?
- [Hal] No.
The president can't tell Nicol Trowbridge
that it was her.
She can say it was Rayburn.
He's dead. Blame him.
Margaret Roylin orchestrated the attack,
but we believe she did so
in the wake of a conversation
with an American official.
We believe that official
was President Rayburn.
[Hal] Language for the press conference.
"This travesty was hatched
by my former adviser, Margaret Roylin."
This was hatched by Margaret Roylin,
former adviser to the government.
This deadly attack was orchestrated
by Margaret Roylin.
- Better.
- This is the most recent draft.
He'll be the one to say Roylin's name.
We'd like to share some information
that recently came to our attention.
This deadly attack was orchestrated
at the behest
of former United States President
William Rayburn.
[overlapping questioning]
[somber string music playing]
[overlapping chatter]
[man 1] Germany's talking about
a weapons resolution.
[man 2] They're all calling Rayburn
a war criminal.
[music fades]
[Billie] The president's
a few minutes behind me.
White House response should convey
her shock, empathy, and distance.
Not in that order.
[dismissive chuckle]
"We share the world's dismay"?
Rayburn stopped just short of treason.
The president needs to apologize.
No.
No?
She can't apologize.
We punched a friend in the face.
You're suggesting what?
Nothing.
She named Rayburn
so we could control the narrative.
We still can.
She learned her predecessor did it.
She informed her counterpart
and stood beside him
while he broke the news.
That story holds. If we don't use it,
she gave up Rayburn's name for nothing.
She did.
Your kid falls down. He doesn't cry.
He doesn't know he's hurt.
He looks at you.
If you don't blink,
he gets up. He's fine.
Nicol Trowbridge
and the little island that couldn't
are on the ground, staring at us.
[breathes deeply]
[Hal] Don't tell him he's hurt.
Don't tell him it's our fault.
Don't blink.
The child didn't trip.
We pushed him out of a moving car.
Protesters are gathering at 16 embassies.
NATO members are considering a boycott
on American weapons.
- Who? Turkey and Hungary?
- And Germany.
If we don't pledge
some kind of restitution.
The president needs
to call the PM and apologize.
We had an agreement to contain
a piece of critical intelligence.
He broke that.
And she's crawling on her knees
proposing reparations?
[indistinct whispering]
The president wants me to brief her.
One-on-one.
Thank you, everybody.
[somber string music resumes]
[crowd] US go home!
[overlapping shouts]
[officer] We need everyone to step back!
Step back, please. Keep the runway open.
[Bonaventura] Ma'am, down.
[phone ringing]
This is the ambassador.
Communicate a message
from the White House to Number 10.
Okay.
The president is prepared
to treat yesterday's events
as a reaction to the prime minister's
emotional overwhelm.
Her priority
is setting the record straight.
Roylin and the British role.
The president is magnanimously willing
to reveal that information
in a joint address
that allows Trowbridge to save face.
Okay, I'll have Stuart request it
as a high-priority démarche.
Make it clear that if Trowbridge doesn't
accept our offer to do it together,
we will tell the world alone.
And our version is that
his adviser blew up his soldiers,
and he covered for her.
Uh
How explicitly am I threatening him?
Meet in person. Sell it as a favor.
Go from there.
[tense music playing]
They're nice people
carrying homemade signs.
One lady had a portable kettle.
She was making everybody tea.
Stuart, I need a meeting
with Number 10, now-ish.
There was an attempted assault on
the deputy chief of mission this morning.
What the fuck is he talking about?
Someone threw a water balloon
at my car when I drove in.
- Filled with red paint.
- It wasn't a big deal.
Symbolizing your blood.
- The sailors' blood, I think.
- Is that better?
- Emotions are running high.
- Have nonessentials work from home.
Issue a warden notice for Americans.
Dry, noninflammatory.
- We should invite the protesters.
- [Kate] Absolutely.
They can present their grievances.
I will formally accept them in the lobby.
- Give them a win.
- We'd like you to work here.
My entire job today is showing up
in that building.
I am America in this country.
America cannot be hiding.
America can't. The second lady can.
The marriage press
raised your public profile,
which was good, but now
You're exposed.
Met police would need at least an hour
to clear the protesters.
- Clear them? Like bodily?
- [Kate] No, absolutely not.
We are in a PR battle for our lives.
We're not bringing in British cops
to tear veterans and widows
off the embassy gates.
You can make it safe
without bringing in the police.
You got me in here five minutes ago.
Crouched on the floor
of a borrowed minivan.
We could get you in the embassy that way,
but once you announce you're there,
we can't get you out again without
- Clearing the protesters with police.
- Then you couldn't meet with Trowbridge.
Go without me. Use the rear gate.
You don't have to crouch.
- If there's red paint on your car
- I'll borrow something.
- Want me to start with the meeting?
- Yeah, set it someplace neutral.
Obviously, no one should see us.
Coordinate with that one.
It'll have to be someplace I can go.
I'll call as soon as we have a time.
- Who else is here?
- [Stuart] At Winfield?
Usual postings around the perimeter.
I'm rear exit with April.
Dawson and Jack are in front.
Mrs. Munning, inside.
The rest of the staff will stay at home
until the protests clear.
- Frances doesn't have to stay.
- She wants to.
I have a dozen men with really big guns
trawling the property.
What's gonna happen to me?
To the house.
She doesn't love the idea
of you here unsupervised.
Can I get you for a second?
Go ahead.
I have no business
asking what happened in Amagansett.
I know that.
I just want to understand
what the fuck happened last night.
He said it was President Rayburn.
Roylin planned the carrier.
She hired Lenkov.
Her people almost killed the man
who is currently vice president.
That's what Trowbridge
was supposed to say.
He went off script.
So he said President Rayburn did it?
Ma'am,
the world thinks Rayburn was involved.
Yeah.
- Is the White House gonna refute that?
- No.
Stuart,
Rayburn was involved.
[footsteps retreat]
[door opens]
[door closes]
- [phone vibrates]
- [sighs]
- [Kate] Hey.
- There are news cameras at your house.
- I know. Are you watching?
- I'm not. I'm at the park.
[Kate] Are you all right?
Yeah, but I need to speak to you.
Nicol can't know we're talking.
- Can you come to me?
- I really can't.
Is it important?
It's not unimportant.
Go to the dumpster
at the Hanover Gate playground.
Someone will bring you in the back.
Sorry, Ulysses, um,
there's someone named Callum Ellis.
He was the, um
The, uh
keynote speaker
from the North Sea Data Forum.
Yes, thank you.
Uh, he has an urgent message.
We need to get him on the grounds.
- Is that possible?
- It is.
Things are delicate right now.
- No one should know he was here.
- Leave it with me.
Are you gonna put him
on the floor of that car?
- 'Cause it reeks of Goldfish crackers.
- No.
He's at the Hanover Gate playground.
There's a packed suitcase for you
in the luggage closet,
should this evolve
into a persona non grata situation.
- They're not going to expel me.
- It's there if they do.
PNGing an American ambassador is
like firing a warning shot with an Uzi.
It means you're fundamentally
reassessing the relationship.
Yes.
[somber string music playing]
[music fades]
[tea pours]
[breathes deeply]
Lemon?
No, thank you.
[door closes]
We found the sub.
That's great.
- No?
- Twelve miles off our coast. No survivors.
- Jesus Christ.
- Yeah.
- That's close.
- We don't have the technology to get it.
- We do, though, right?
- Yeah.
Okay.
I'll get a cable to DC.
They know. They're willing to help.
- Nicol won't allow it.
- Why?
Doesn't want Americans near the thing.
You need to meet with him.
I am sure anything you want me
to say to him, he'd rather hear from you.
He told the country you bombed our ship.
If I tell him to accept your help,
it's humiliating.
But if you ask, you're at his mercy.
- Like he's doing me a favor.
- Yeah.
I'm already meeting him. I'll tack it on.
Just tack it on?
I once convinced him
he's the smartest man I'd ever met.
Next time, give me a real challenge.
I should go.
Yeah.
[inhales deeply]
- I have to, uh
- I also
Stuart
I've Mm-hmm.
Okay.
[door opens]
[footsteps retreat]
- [Callum] Is there another exit?
- There is not.
- What is it?
- The back gate has been compromised.
Someone noticed the guards
during shift change.
A group has gathered.
About 20 people and the press.
- Mr. Bonaventura.
- Excuse me.
If Nicol sees me on television walking
out of the American ambassador's house
- He'll have you shot.
- No.
They're gonna have to clear an exit
with cops
as soon as we find out
where I'm meeting Trowbridge.
- Apologies for the inconvenience.
- No, please.
Let us offer you a meal.
Just give me a moment.
- Frances, you don't have a kitchen staff.
- Lunch for two is something I can manage.
Would you mind terribly?
- Seven
- We only boarded during the week.
years old.
- That is child abuse.
- Family tradition.
Then your family
has a tradition of child abuse.
What?
- Nothing.
- [chuckles] What?
This is the longest conversation
we've ever had.
No, it isn't.
It is.
We have spent many hours together.
Sometimes talking.
Work is not talking.
So nothing said
during sex or work is talking?
Is it?
This is our first conversation.
- [knocking on door]
- And now it ends.
I am so sorry, Ambassador and Mr. Ellis.
Please excuse me.
Mr. Opal phoned.
The heating system in the Orchid House
has malfunctioned,
and the Secret Service will not allow
the gardening staff onto the grounds.
- This is gonna be over in a couple hours.
- Mr. Opal cares for 11 endangered species.
The Department for the Environment
and the Smithsonian Institution
would like it if we'd protect them.
Now, if he cannot get through the gate,
I am needed in his stead.
Oh.
Of course.
[exhales] I will send in
a member of your detail
to look after you while I'm gone.
They can stay where they are.
We'll be fine.
- Are you sure?
- Yeah.
- Ma'am
- I won't go downstairs.
Thank you.
What's downstairs?
The industrial kitchen.
Where, for insurance purposes,
I am not allowed.
I inadvertently broke a few things.
- Ah.
- [door closes in distance]
I have never been in
this house by myself.
- Really?
- Not for a minute.
We could play tennis
in the blue room right now.
- Do you play tennis?
- No.
Frances?
Frances!
We've never had sex
in a physical space this large.
We have not.
[Kate moans softly]
Have we ever had sex horizontal?
We haven't.
Socks.
That's your priority
as I'm taking off my trousers?
It really is. Socks ruin it.
[inhales deeply] Sir
[Callum breathes heavily]
Hey, is this okay on your back?
[Kate yelps in shock]
[Callum] Can you focus?
Yes, I can.
- [woman] We want to confirm
- [man] We need to speak with the director.
[woman] right now,
but if I keep putting them on hold
- [man 2] We have protesters outside.
- [Neil] I left a message.
Kim told me to call you
if we didn't hear back.
Yeah, several hours ago.
Can I speak to Clark?
All right. Okay.
- Thank you.
- Nothing?
[sighs] We can't get past reception
anywhere in Whitehall.
Try number threes. Number threes pick up.
We need to talk about protection.
- You worried about Winfield?
- [Eidra] You.
You were the victim
of attempted assault this morning.
We should talk to the RSO.
You might need a temporary detail.
Okay, funny. We're done.
We're not.
It was paint in a water balloon.
Paint representing blood.
We're in a crisis.
You're getting targeted.
By Nickelodeon.
Thank you for your concern.
Is there anything you actually need?
No.
[sighs]
Look, I'm getting nowhere
with the protesters.
They don't want to send in reps.
They don't want to give demands.
- Trying to de-escalate.
- They don't want to de-escalate.
- No.
- They just want to be angry.
They want to scream.
[Kate] Try this.
They're incredible.
[Callum] Mm.
Nice.
My country? Tomatoes taste like nothing.
This is a fucking miracle.
Mm. It is a miracle.
Will you please pass me the grapes?
Beside your knee. Right there.
- Where'd the condom go?
- I took care of it.
How?
I handled it. Do you need to know?
I've never needed
to know anything this badly.
I had a a freezer bag in my thing.
In my pocket.
You carry a baggie for used condoms?
For almonds. I ate them in the park.
- Why'd you keep the baggie?
- It's a plastic freezer bag.
- You're supposed to reuse them.
- And now you have.
Mm-hmm.
You are a gentleman.
- What?
- It was dumb of you to come here.
- No, it wasn't.
- You needed help. I'm a good option.
You're a great fucking option.
You come here, you see the cameras,
the smart thing to do is retreat.
- Get somebody else to talk to Trowbridge.
- I needed it to be you.
- You can convince him to do this.
- Mm.
You know him.
You've dealt with him before.
- I'm also the second lady.
- Yeah, I mean, news to me.
It's part of the strategy.
I get it. I'm a big girl.
The strategy
is
Nicol loves you.
He loves proximity to power.
No. No, no, no. I've seen his face.
When you leave a room, um
I know what it feels like
when Kate Wyler leaves a room.
And you've no idea
when you're gonna see her again.
The man has a crush.
[phone vibrates]
We set?
- I can't get you the meeting.
- What?
I can't get you the meeting
with Trowbridge.
Who did you talk to at Number 10?
I didn't. They're not speaking to us.
Diplomatic channels have gone silent.
- You tried Dennison?
- I did.
- You said it was for me?
- Yes.
Well, somebody's got a kid
who plays soccer
with the transpo secretary's
daughter, something.
Everyone is smiling and dialing,
but his people are upset.
- I get that. I still need you to
- Ma'am.
No one in London is answering.
Trowbridge bet everything he had
last night.
He doesn't know how this is gonna play.
Maybe he's hiding.
Maybe.
You need to let them know
this is a peace offering.
Ma'am, I am sorry.
I don't know how to get
that information communicated.
Have Eidra do it.
Intel channels do not go dark.
Tell the White House
the meeting is stalled,
but we're gonna make it happen.
[call disconnects]
Is it set?
Almost. Diplomatic channels are down.
Chief of station's gonna get into it.
You're calling in the CIA?
Nobody else can get a call answered.
You understand the position
I put myself in here, right?
Of course I do.
If Nicol finds out
that I came to you first
He won't. The CIA can keep a secret.
They're good at it.
Are they, though?
I'm gonna take care of it.
[Eidra] Give me like 20, 30 minutes.
I can't promise the meeting,
but I'll make sure
the message gets to him.
- [Stuart] You can reach him?
- Through my people, yeah.
[Stuart sighs]
We've been trying all day.
Can't believe anyone's taking your calls.
Intel channels don't go down.
You have anyone you hate so much
you don't speak anymore?
I guess.
If you saw Al Qaeda behind them,
would you say something?
You'll know when I know.
- Are we gonna come through this okay?
- Who's we?
The country.
The world forgives us when they need us,
and that doesn't take long.
[Stuart] I don't know.
Rayburn ran as the guy
who could show the world
America wasn't broken.
I believed him. I worked for him.
I didn't sleep for two
years for that guy.
I didn't go home when my dad got sick.
Turns out I care more
about Rayburn's agenda than Rayburn did.
How are you not furious?
Stuart I am a young,
tiny Asian American woman
at the top of one of the most
baldly paternalistic arms
of the US government.
I am furious all the time.
If I could go after terrorists
and human traffickers
with an organization
that didn't have an 80-year legacy
of racism and human rights violations,
I would.
We should get this
for the recruitment video.
There is not another
better CIA or America.
The ones we have are fucked-up.
We make compromises.
Some days, we feel okay about that.
Some days, we have gin.
[line rings]
[Dennison] You've reached my mobile.
Please leave a message.
[answering machine beeps]
It's me,
Ambassador Wyler of the United States.
So I know it's a little complicated
right now.
Things got heated. The press
conference was a surprise to me.
Not entirely sure
it was a surprise to you,
which was also a surprise to me,
but whatever.
I thought we were on the same page.
Obviously, we were not, if you signed off
on Trowbridge firebombing
the Atlantic Charter
on live television.
This would be a really good time
for the two of us to have a conversation.
Call me.
- You want Kate to make this statement?
- Yeah.
This is an apology.
If you see the word "sorry,"
you're reading an earlier draft.
It makes the president look
like she's hiding something.
Am I about to hear another rousing
argument for doing nothing at all?
- Yeah.
- Well, we tried that.
Germany doesn't like it.
Neither do the markets.
- According to this, it's just a dip.
- It's been 16 hours.
We have to say something.
This is painful, and it's sad.
We We feel the sad.
Grace needs to hear every argument
for every option.
- Even the ones you don't like.
- Not the ones that I know will fail.
- It hasn't failed.
- A mob has your wife trapped in her house.
Is it going well?
- I'm gonna talk to Grace.
- Hal, you won't.
[Callum] I will speak with you soon.
- News?
- Not yet.
White House just wants backup
in case we can't get the meeting.
- Backup?
- I'd make a statement to the public.
- To defuse things.
- The British public?
To the world. DC is flipping out.
After the German foreign minister's
statement and the market plunge,
which I see we are calling a dip.
[chuckles]
It Uh
- Nicol will find this wildly insulting.
- Why?
Nothing in this statement
is going to make him take the meeting.
Grace needs to end this now.
It's not hard.
Just call him, head of government
to head of government, and apologize.
- That makes her look weak.
- That will make him feel respected.
Sadly, we can't direct foreign policy
based on what makes
the British prime minister feel good.
There is a time bomb in the ocean.
Do you direct foreign policy around that?
[inhales sharply]
I need to look at this
because Billie told me to.
You don't need to worry about it
because Eidra is getting that meeting.
[phone vibrates]
Hi.
- You don't have to make the statement.
- What?
The apology that's not really
an apology to Britain,
that's really to NATO.
You can say no.
Not as ambassador, as second lady.
Play the card.
I'm not using you as a note
to get out of gym.
You march out there
and make yourself the face of this,
your career's over.
It signals respect.
I don't want to bully him.
Nicol Trowbridge loves a bully.
It'll work.
It's what I did to
Dennison at Amagansett.
He was out of line.
He wanted a blank check.
He wanted us to take them seriously
and treat them like a real player,
and I shut him down.
- You had to. You were doing your job.
- I didn't have to. It was convenient.
And if I hadn't, he might still
be taking my fucking calls.
Where are you getting this crap?
British sources close to Trowbridge
think he'll respond
to a gesture of respect.
I thought no one in London
was talking to us.
Callum thinks our best bet
is to have Grace call and apologize.
- Are you with him right now?
- Well, he's not in the room listening.
- A plus for national security.
- He came to talk about the sub.
He got stuck here because of
the protesters. We are working.
- Fine.
- Can you not?
Kate, I made no comment.
I'm just asking you
to protect the president.
Say no.
I'm gonna do what they tell me.
It's a White House call.
Where the fuck do you think I am?
- [line beeps]
- Eidra's on the other line. I gotta go.
Hey, what'd you find out?
Trowbridge won't meet with us.
And he's definitely not hiding
from anyone else.
- He's keeping a schedule?
- He added two last-minute bilats.
AI regulation with Brussels,
robotics with Beijing.
The robotics guy is Zhou Weidong.
I know that name.
Me too, I think.
- Why do we know a Chinese robotics guy?
- He's something else. I've met him.
- PLA Navy.
- Right. Munich Security Conference.
- Trowbridge isn't
- No.
He's not going to China
for help with a Russian submarine.
No.
- It's a scare tactic.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
- For show.
- But he's not showing you.
It's not a "fuck you"
if we don't know about it.
It's an
an agenda.
He's not reaching out to China.
He wouldn't.
He's reaching out to China.
The president of the United States
doesn't grovel.
It's not groveling.
It's a private apology.
One to one, world leader to world leader.
Do you know where the prime minister is?
- I don't.
- Speaking at the IISS.
On Britain's declaration of independence
from the United States.
- He's upset.
- He's quoting Kissinger.
"Alliances are not suicide pacts."
You want her to prostrate herself
to this man to do him a favor?
- Not publicly.
- You think he'll keep that private?
Seed the ground
if she can't make direct contact.
Send gifts with no notes.
Mollify him before he talks to China.
It's a bluff.
If he wanted to make us jealous,
he'd want us to know.
If they kill this relationship,
we lose an ally.
They lose a lifeline.
Trowbridge is erratic,
but he's a survivor. He will not do it.
He stabbed his most powerful friend
in the face last night. He might.
We are talking about an
increasingly small dot on a global map.
They threaten to hurl themselves
into the belly of a rising autocracy,
and you think we
should bribe them not to?
What did she say?
I laid it out.
I told her the president
needs to call Trowbridge,
with her tail between her legs,
and apologize to him
so he can let us do him a favor.
- [sighs] It's a hard sell.
- You have to convince her.
She doesn't believe the threat is real.
If Billie won't hear it from you
will Hal?
You want me to call my husband?
- The vice president.
- The vice president doesn't want to talk.
He's mad my boyfriend came over.
- How does he know that?
- I told him.
Right.
[exhales]
- I need you to call him.
- That's a bad idea.
The geopolitical landscape
of the next half century cannot shift
because your husband is jealous.
I'm not avoiding him.
I know how he operates.
So you're not going to try?
I got this in front
of the chief of staff.
The information is in her ear.
I've done everything I can.
Except call Hal.
Someone says that to me
pretty much every day now.
Of all the people in the world
I expected to hear it from,
you were dead last.
[sighs]
What do you know about the superoruzhie?
Russia's doomsday weapons?
- They're propaganda.
- Right.
The Sarmat ICBM can supposedly
approach the US via the South Pole.
The Burevestnik cruise missile
has a limited range.
The Poseidon torpedo can
plunge the British Isles into the sea.
- Nuclear boogeymen.
- We have no idea how much is true.
Because Russia doesn't just lie
to its enemies.
They lie to themselves. Like Poseidon.
Your navy estimates
deployable versions are years away.
They're wrong. It's deployable.
In the sense that it's been deployed.
The president needs
to call Nicol and apologize
so he will listen when she explains
that we cannot allow China
to reach the sub.
It's carrying the Poseidon.
[somber string music playing]
I need the vice president
on a secure line immediately.
- Motherfuckers.
- Jesus.
- What's the source?
- Human.
Callum Ellis's guy.
Military intel from highly placed assets
in the Kremlin
put this technology at five years out.
Any of them know they lost a submarine
in the North Atlantic recently?
- [sighs] Motherfuckers!
- How long has he known this?
- Callum or the source?
- [Hal] Callum.
Why us? If it's real,
why wouldn't he take it to his own PM?
Trowbridge is willing to invite China
into his territorial waters
to play with a Russian sub.
Would you call him?
It's a salted bomb designed
to maximize radioactive fallout.
The president has to call him.
Apologize, grovel, whatever it takes.
I know what I said. We have to eat it.
China can't get near that thing.
You disagree?
The president's gonna have
to go through this with the SECDEF.
[Hal] Yeah, I'll talk to him.
I'm gonna brief her.
You'll hear when it's a go. Couple hours.
- Hal.
- Yeah.
Thank you.
For getting Billie.
They're gonna get the president on board.
Principal-to-principal apology call.
Thank you. Look, I know that was
Thank you.
They'll run it by state, DOD
Couple hours.
- DOD?
- Stray nukes, we loop them in.
Department of Defense
doesn't scream apology.
They're not the message.
They're a contingency plan.
You walk into peace talks with a gun
in your pocket, it's not a backup.
It's a slow ambush with better manners.
You think this is an ambush?
You called me.
I asked for a chat
to plan a rescue mission.
The Pentagon is drawing up battle plans
for a war with Great Britain.
You have a super nuke on your beach.
We're trying to help.
Rayburn thought he was helping
when he subverted a free election
to keep a parking space
in the North Atlantic.
To protect you and Europe
from Russia's nuclear arsenal.
How come the only way to save us is
for members of my country to die
and members of your country to say,
"You're welcome"?
Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, God knows.
The carrier is not Afghanistan.
Americans blowing shit up
and calling it democracy
sounds like Afghanistan.
We don't invade authoritarian countries
to make them democratic.
We invade violent countries
to make them peaceful.
And we failed.
I know who we failed
and how we failed them.
I don't need you to school me.
I was there.
So was I.
I was a 19-year-old
fuckface with an SA80.
I didn't know that.
I killed people
because your country asked me to,
and then you walked away.
We were there 20 years. What were
we supposed to do? Stay forever?
- No.
- Airlift out an entire population? What?
- No.
- Don't admire the problem. Solve it.
- What were we supposed to do?
- You asked people for help.
Then you promised you'd get them out.
You were supposed to get them out.
Things went wrong.
Thank you for shining a light on that.
It wasn't a mistake.
It was policy. It's what you do.
You're a military-industrial complex
papered over by a constitution.
How come when shit hits the fan,
we're still who people call?
You're not.
The source called me.
When did he tell you?
- About the sub?
- About Poseidon.
Couple of months ago.
And you never thought
anyone else needed to know?
- Like you?
- Not me.
Like ten levels above me.
Or the Royal Navy.
The Navy feeds to Nicol.
You don't want his hands in this.
Just yours.
If you announce a nuclear weapon
is missing, people find it.
Russia already knows it's missing,
so they find it, they try to move it.
The whole thing could blow.
It was a calculated risk.
Calculated by you.
I was the one
in a position to make the call.
So, yes, I made it.
Hmm.
Oh my God.
What?
I can't believe I did this again.
You did what again?
[exhales shakily] Again.
[Callum] What?
Fucked a guy who thinks
he's so singularly valuable
he's the one exception
to rules-based order.
Oh, so I'm Hal?
He gets a hot tip, he makes a big plan,
then he tries to weaponize me
when it all starts to fall apart,
and can't believe I have the gall
to question his judgment.
I'm not Hal Wyler.
You tripped over a problem
and decided to handle it unilaterally,
and now China might get Poseidon.
If they don't,
it will be because you came to me
and I called the people you trash
and look down on
and begged them
to help me clean up your shit.
[phone vibrates]
[Billie] What's up?
I've got the latest draft
of the Kate statement.
We're not doing that.
I'm working on something else.
Okay.
Why'd you pick up?
I don't know.
I saw it was you, so I answered.
Now I'm hanging up.
Okay. Bye.
[phone clatters]
[line rings]
[phone vibrates]
[inhales deeply]
Do I need a lawyer?
No.
You don't need a lawyer.
There's gonna be an inquiry.
- There's gonna be subpoenas.
- [Billie] You didn't know anything.
Seven living people knew
that Grace Penn was getting tossed.
- I'm one of them.
- It's not gonna come up.
If it does,
they'll ask why Rayburn wanted her out.
They're gonna wanna know
if the chief of staff told me
to groom a replacement for a VP.
It's not gonna happen.
You told me that a story was gonna break
about her husband and an NIH grant,
but it's not.
It was never gonna break,
because it didn't happen.
Was she gonna blow the whistle?
She just knew too much?
Stuart, you need to take a step back.
If I go under oath,
are you asking me to perjure myself?
You should get a lawyer.
[footsteps approaching]
I shouldn't have said that
the way I said that.
[exhales]
I have been fighting
with the same person for 15 years.
That is not the way
you fight with a new
person.
I get that.
And I'm sorry.
If we were married for 15 years
that would not be okay.
The president's with DOD now.
We should have her decision
in a few minutes.
If we're gonna keep working together,
you and I need to be clear on something.
I can't believe I have to say
this isn't the time for a heart-to-heart.
Billie.
My issue with the statement was
not about Kate.
When you have a spouse
in this line of work,
there's an impulse to protect them.
Yeah, you need to stop saying that.
It's not a concern for me.
I don't have a spouse.
Kate is my second lady.
She's not my wife.
[sighs] Eh
Um
May May I clean this?
Thanks.
[Frances sighs]
I am not going to be PNG'd,
which I think is the correct decision.
And
the United States
is not going to apologize,
which is a strategic decision.
I am
I am very sorry for the carrier.
You had nothing to do with what happened.
No, but you deserve an apology,
and there isn't one coming
from anyone else.
[exhales]
[footsteps retreat]
Are they gone?
Either that or they're just tired
and protesting silently.
Your president called Nicol
and proposed a bilateral summit.
In the UK, to discuss moving forward
on an even keel.
Mm-hmm.
It's a profound conciliatory gesture.
Reads as an apology.
- Mm-hmm.
- He's accepted.
Should be here in ten hours.
- You know this.
- Billie called.
But you said you wanted some space,
so I thought I'd give you some.
Are you done with me?
I don't know.
I'm concerned
I made the same choice I made before.
- I'm not him.
- I know.
I'm afraid I'm gonna be like I was
when I was with him.
I assumed that I
treated him the way I did
when we were married
because he was Hal.
Because he deserved it.
But it is possible
that it was because of me.
That I am
not capable
of treating people
the way they should be treated.
I brought some baggage into this.
I fucked up.
But I would like another chance.
I may need three or four chances.
But if you are up for it
I would like to try.
[inhales deeply]
[somber string music playing]
[music fades out]