The Diplomat ended in quite a cliffhanger, and the Netflix show’s second season picks back up in the immediate aftermath of the car explosion we saw in the Season 1 finale, very quickly establishing which characters involved survived and who didn’t. But though the show answers some questions, those answers very soon give way to other questions as the political drama tees up the already-announced Season 3. One of those questions is what happened to Ronnie and who survived the explosion.
In The Diplomat Kerri Russell plays Kate Wyler, the American ambassador to the UK. Her husband, Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell) is also a career ambassador and Kate’s most ambitious supporter. Their marriage, however, is on the rocks, and during the show’s first season, they seem closer to divorce than reconciliation.
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The underlying plot of the show involves the UK Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission, Stuart Hayford (Ato Essandoh), who is secretly working with the White House Chief of Staff Billie Appiah (Nana Mensah) to prepare Kate to become Vice President. The current Vice President’s husband is involved in a scandal, which means a new one will soon be needed. Ronnie Buckhurst (Jess Chanliau) is Stewart’s aide and is often at his side throughout Season 1.
What happened to Ronnie in The Diplomat? Who are they on the show and what is the importance of the explosion to the plot of Season 2?
What happened to Ronnie in The Diplomat?
Ronnie Buckhurst is a foreign service officer who works under Stuart Hayford and by extension, Kate Wyler. The Diplomat Season 1 reveals that Stuart has known and worked with Ronnie for a while, which explains why he places such trust in them and why Ronnie is present on the site of the devastating explosion at the end of Season 1.
In the Season 1 finale, we see Hal set up a meeting with Merrit Grove (Simon Chandler), a member of Parliament. Fortunately for Hal, he is late to the meeting. Stuart, who is sent by Kate to intercept Hal, arrives with Ronnie. Grove is upset that Kate won’t be meeting with him, so he goes to leave and as Ronnie follows Grover to his car, there’s an explosion that takes Grove out and injures Ronnie, Hal, and Stuart. The first season of the show ends without any clue of who has survived.
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In Season 2 of the Netflix political drama, however, we get confirmation that Merrit Grove is dead. We do see Ronnie, however, being rushed to the hospital on a stretcher. So, for a moment, there’s hope. That hope is quickly dashed as we find very quickly that surgeons were unable to save Ronnie’s life and they have passed away. Hal and Stuart both survive, and the same cat-and-mouse game that led to Ronnie’s death continues.
The Diplomat Season 2 ends with another big twist. Despite the Season 1 finale seemingly suggesting British Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear) was behind the attack on the HMS Courageous, which Kate had been investigating throughout Season 1, The Diplomat Season 2 reveals the plan traces back to Vice President Grace Penn (Allison Janney). Hal tries to warn President Rayburn about it, but he gets so upset he has a heart attack and dies. That means VP Penn is now the President, and things just got even more interesting going into Season 3.
