This article contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of “The Diplomat” on Netflix.
In “The Diplomat,” Keri Russell plays a career diplomat covertly being primed to assume the role of vice president — without having to win over an electorate. In real life, one week before election day, Russell has just returned to her home in Brooklyn after casting her vote for Vice President Kamala Harris to be elected the next U.S. president.
“It feels emotional,” she says over a video call, her “I Voted” sticker visible on the upper right side of her cream-colored sweatshirt. “It’s so cool to be standing with everyone in your community, all different ages and all different backgrounds. And to get the chance to possibly elect the first female Black president is f— awesome.”
Time will tell if that comes to fruition. But on “The Diplomat,” a female vice president has indeed become president.
The first season introduced Russell’s Kate Wyler as a seasoned foreign service officer who has her sights set on taking a post in Afghanistan but is reluctantly enlisted by the White House to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom in order to quietly prep her to become vice president.
The new season, now streaming, has Kate facing the woman she’s been tapped to push out, Vice President Grace Penn, played by Allison Janney. Just as Kate had warmed to the idea of assuming the position — after learning of the VP’s questionable deal makings on foreign affairs — the plan becomes moot in the closing minutes of the season when the president dies. To make things more complicated, the president died while being briefed on the VP’s practices by Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell), Kate’s husband and a respected veteran diplomat.
Russell spoke with The Times about what the finale sets up for Season 3, currently in production, the silly handoff Janney gave Russell before a scene and what it was like to work on the upcoming season in the run-up to the election. Continue reading Keri Russell has been thinking about the vice president — in ‘The Diplomat’ and real life
