The Diplomat creator discusses who has the Poseidon Weapon at the end of Season 3, and the finale betrayals

The Diplomat is a political thriller created by Debora Cahn and released on Netflix in 2023. It is a sharp, morally twisting tale of the stressful world of global diplomacy and the personal price of power.

Keri Russell is one of the protagonists in the series, portraying Kate Wyler, an adept American ambassador trying to juggle crises, alliances, betrayal, and a simultaneous tumultuous marriage with Hal Wyler.

In the Season 3 ending of The Diplomat, creator Debora Cahn admits that the United States surreptitiously acquires the Poseidon weapon, misleading both allies and foes. The revelation unveils President Grace Penn and Hal Wyler's covert relationship, breaking Kate Wyler's trust and changing the show's moral core of devotion, power, and deception.

More about The Diplomat Creator and Poseidon Weapon

The Diplomat, with Keri Russell as the U.S. Ambassador Kate Wyler, has been a series that has always struck the right balance between international strategy and personal crisis. Season 3 raises the stakes of that very balance and pushes it to the limit. The release of a Russian submarine loaded with a nuclear-tipped Poseidon missile into British territories is like a straw touching the water in Washington and London, planned to increase the radioactive fallout.

In an eye-opening Tudum interview, Debora Cahn termed the third season "the split," not only of Kate and her husband Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell), but also of friends who used to be united by mutual trust, also straining the UK-US dynamic. With the unfolding of the season, President Grace Penn (Allison Janey) and Hal deal in a back room as Kate urges them to make diplomacy. Her idea: to bury concrete atop the sub, so that it can never be used by any nation.

Cahn noted,

“We talk about Season 3 as ‘the split.’ It’s the time when Kate and Hal’s relationship really falls apart. It’s the time when the US-UK relationship really falls apart.”

However, the conclusion turns the tables. Cahn corroborated that the U.S has already obtained the Poseidon weapon, and thus misled both friends and enemies. The radiation near the sub is reduced - evidence of the weapon being taken off.

Cahn further elaborated on the aftereffects and betrayal of Hal and Grace, concocting a different plan, in int interview

“That would make a lot of people really angry: both Russia, who made the weapon, and the UK. Hal and Grace are playing with matches in somebody else’s house. The repercussions are not going to only land on America — they’re going to land on another country. It’s really going to make a lot of people unhappy.”

When Kate finds out that Hal and Grace had been scheming the theft, the fact breaks her. The twist re-establishes the moral compass of The Diplomat: it is not about which side to choose but how to survive in a world in which every side could be just a lie.

Cast of The Diplomat Season 3

Season 3 of The Diplomat is a spectacular ensemble that raises the storytelling through their performances in the show. Keri Russell reappears as the ambitious but ambivalent Kate Wyler, who has to find her way between the incomparable realms of loyalty and truth. Rufus Sewell plays Hal Wyler, a morally ambiguous character, cleverly disguised as a charming man but in reality a ruthless ambitionist.

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Allison Janney also joined them as President Grace Penn, whose keenness and calculation transform the political power system, and Bradley Whitford as her husband, Todd Penn. The diplomatic core that comes back consists of Nana Mensah (Billie Appiah), Ato Essandoh (Stuart Hayford), Rory Kinnear (Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge), Ali Ahn (Eidra Park), and David Gyasi (Austin Dennison).

The cast makes the conditions of the tense global drama of the show groundbreaking, heart-warming, and thrilling, ensuring that The Diplomat remains one of the cleverest political thrillers on Netflix.

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