The Diplomat season 2 episode 5 recap: ‘Our Lady of Immaculate Deception’

The Diplomat season 2 episode, “Our Lady of Immaculate Deception,” begins immediately where the fourth episode ended. 

In Scotland, Margaret Roylin (Celia Imrie) revealed to Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear) that it was actually her who hired Roman Lenkov to create a conflict and stop the Scottish secession movement, but the false flag operation went wrong. 

Instead of hearing her out and listening to her reasoning, Trowbridge lost his mind and strangled Roylin. She falls to the ground and hits her head as the CIA agents who planned the operation rush in to pull Trowbridge off of her. 

No, Trowbridge doesn’t kill Margaret Roylin 

Thankfully, for the sake of the story, Trowbridge doesn’t kill Roylin. She’s injured badly, but she’s not dead. Not yet, anyway. She’s being treated for her wounds when the episode begins. 

Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) leaves the room and goes back to the party. She informs Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell) that the operation went poorly, but they realize that Trowbridge was actually telling the truth. He didn’t know about the operation with Roylin. It was all Roylin’s plan, which means that Trowbridge is innocent. 

But, it appears that Roylin’s plan worked, and the CIA washes their hands of Roylin. 

Roylin doesn’t want to go to the hospital to get her injuries treated, but Eidra Park (Ali Ahn) informs her that because she attacked her own country, the United States will not be protecting her anymore. Trowbridge tells Eidra that he won’t arrest Roylin or let this get out until he knows who he can trust within the government. 

Trowbridge meets with Kate after the party. He is writing down his version of events for the “eventual inquiry.” Kate explains what Roylin told her and why she invited Austin Dennison (David Gyasi). During their conversation, Trowbridge realizes that they were using Roylin to figure out if he was involved in the bombing of the ship. He storms out of the room and gets in the car with Dennison, heading back to London. 

Dennison gives Kate the cold shoulder. He isn’t happy that she kept all this from him. 

Allison Janney as Vice President Grace Penn finally shows up in The Diplomat season 2 

She is beauty. She is Grace (Penn, Vice President of the United States.)

Finally, after waiting for more than four episodes, Vice President Grace Penn (Allison Janney) appears in The Diplomat season 2 episode 5. 

Stuart wakes up Kate and Hal to inform them that Eidra sent in her report on the incident last night, and the Vice President was sent to London to support the Brits. Kate and Hal and staff are picked up via helicopter as they head back to London. 

Grace Penn is not happy to see Kate, who is on the short list of Grace’s job. 

Grace and Kate meet, and it’s not great. Grace knows a lot more than Kate than leads on, and she asks to meet with Trowbridge, who shows up at their estate very unhappy. 

Meanwhile, Stuart Heyford (Eto Assandoh) is just trying to figure out what’s going on, and he’s quite rude to Eidra about it. 

Grace Penn gets Trowbridge to keep Roylin’s role in the bombing quiet

During the first meeting with Trowbridge, Grace tries to convince Trowbridge to keep Roylin’s role in the bombing quiet, along with the roles of the other MPs. Russia has been publicly accused of something those in the British government were responsible for, and that’s not a good look. 

It works for now, but Dennison is very pissed at Kate. They almost publicly accused the Prime Minister of treason and murder without the proper evidence, so it’s understandable why he’s not super happy with how Kate is doing business. But, at the end of the day, they got to the bottom of the mystery. 

Now, it’s in the hands of Trowbridge to figure out what to do. 

Grace confronts Kate about wanting to be Vice President 

We’ve been waiting for this moment, too. Grace addresses the elephant in the room about Kate’s interest in the Vice President position, but she’s not super kind about it. She offers advice, but it comes off a little harshly when talking about Kate’s appearance and demeanor. 

At dinner, Hal and Kate talk about why Grace is leaving the presidency because of the story about her husband. It was killed for now, but it could break at any moment, so that’s why Grace has to quit. She understands that she has to quit, but does she really? We’ll see. 

Kate tells Grace that she shouldn’t quit, actually. Hal points out that the White House is not fighting for Grace. They know that Grace isn’t right for the position, and Hal is rather rude when talking about Grace’s accomplishments. 

Later, Kate and Grace meet at the fire and have a glass of scotch. Grace apologizes for her behavior earlier, and she says that she’s jealous of Kate and how she is perceived. 

Hal reveals that bombing the HMS Courageous was actually Grace Penn’s idea 

After talking with Grace, Kate tries to call the White House to drop out of the Vice President search and endorse Grace. She wants the Vice President to keep her job and not resign. 

Hal jumps out of bed, steals the phone from her, and then drops the biggest bomb of the season so far. 

Margaret Roylin might have been the person who hired the Lenkov Group to bomb the aircraft carrier, but Hal says that Roylin told him that Grace was the one who came up with the idea to make it happen. 

He doesn’t want to do it, but he knows that Kate is going to make a mistake. 

There’s only one more episode of The Diplomat season 2 left, and after that major revelation, I have no idea how this season is going to end.