WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for The Diplomat season 2.

The true connection between Prime Minister Trowbridge, Roman Lenkov, and Margaret Roylin is revealed in The Diplomat season 2. Keri Russell leads the cast of The Diplomat season 2 along with Rufus Sewell as her husband Hal, David Gyasi as Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison, Ali Ahn as CIA operative Eidra Park, and Rory Kinnear as Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge. The Diplomat season 2 picks up after the events of The Diplomat season 1’s ending, revealing that Hal and Ato Essandoh’s Stuart survived the explosion that killed Member of Parliament Merritt Grove.

The Diplomat was created by Debora Chan (The West Wing, Grey’s Anatomy, Homeland). Lead actress Keri Russell received an Emmy nomination for her role as U.S. Ambassador Kate Wyler in The Diplomat season 1. The series introduces a handful of new characters while narrowing its focus on those responsible for the car explosion that killed Merritt Grove and the missile attack on the HMS Courageous, two of the biggest curveballs of The Diplomat season 1. As The Diplomat season 2 plays out, both Kate and Hal edge closer to the truth about Roman Lenkov and the government officials behind the false flag operation.

All 6 episodes of
The Diplomat
season 2 are now available exclusively on Netflix.

Grace Penn Hired Margaret Roylin To Coordinate The HMS Courageous Attack

Penn came up with the false flag operation in the first place

United States Vice President Grace Penn is the most notable addition to the cast of The Diplomat season 2 and has a major impact on the narrative from season 1. The most shocking twist in The Diplomat season 2 is that U.S. Vice President Grace Penn was behind the attack on the HMS Courageous. Hal initially discovers this intel from Margaret Roylin, who is in on the elaborate false flag operation as well. Although Penn does not appear until the final two episodes of The Diplomat season 2, she rapidly becomes the most significant character of the entire series for orchestrating the attack on the HMS Courageous.

Vice President Penn orchestrated the attack to make sure that the Creagan nuclear base in Scotland couldn’t shut down due to the threat of Scottish independence. The Creagan nuclear base is the final geographical point that the United States could use to detect an incoming nuclear threat from a Russian submarine in the Arctic region. Without the Creagon nuclear base, the United States would become much more vulnerable to a nuclear threat via submarine from Russia. As a result, Vice President Penn staged an event that would unify Scotland and England to eliminate the threat of Scotland becoming an independent nation and shutting the base down.

Margaret Roylin Used Merritt Grove To Hire Roman Lenkov To Attack The British Ship

Roylin hoped to boost Trowbridge’s political favor through the false flag op

The Diplomat season 2 reveals that Roylin was the one who enlisted British Member of Parliament Merritt Grove to hire Russian mercenary Roman Lenkov to attack the HMS Courageous. Her mission was to unify Scotland and England and gain political favor for Prime Minister Trowbridge. The attack was intended to inflict minor damage and was not supposed to result in British casualties. Due to supply issues, the Lenkov Group had to use more powerful explosives in the form of a submarine missile, which ended up unintentionally killing dozens of Royal Navy soldiers.

As Roylin noted in The Diplomat season 1 and Penn described to Kate in The Diplomat season 2, the attack on the HMS Courageous was all about unifying the UK and preventing Scotland from passing a referendum to call for independence. Roylin and Penn had separate reasons for orchestrating the false flag operation but both were of the utmost importance to their respective nations and governments. For Roylin, Scotland unifying with England against a common enemy such as Russia or Iran would repair the Prime Minister’s reputation. For Penn, thwarting Scotland’s independence was a vital step to ensure protection from Russian nuclear submarines attacking the East Coast of the United States.

Roylin Asked Stendig To Silence Grove; Stendig Set The Car Bomb That Killed Grove

Stendig killed Grove for attempting to speak to Hal about the false flag op

Member of Parliament Merritt Grove was one of the co-conspirators who hired Roman Lenkov to attack the HMS Courageous. Grove and Stendig were both in on it with Margaret Roylin, who was working with U.S. Vice President Grace Penn for the greater good of the Western nations. Grove was going to leak this information to Hal, who would have told Kate and would have ended up in the hands of President Rayburn at The White House, which is exactly what ended up happening at the end of The Diplomat season 2.

A far-right Member of Parliament named Lenny Stendig was the one who set up the bomb in Merritt Grove’s car. Roylin had enlisted Stendig to take out Grove in order to silence him about the attack on the HMS Courageous permanently. Stendig had intended only to take out his fellow MP Grove, and not Ronnie or any other American diplomatic staff member, but ended up killing Ronnie and injuring Stuart and Hal. Roylin and Stendig feared that Grove would tell Hal and the Americans everything about their Roman Lenkov plot, which would have exposed the fact that both Margaret Roylin and Vice President Penn were pulling strings behind Prime Minister Trowbridge and President Rayburn’s backs.

Nicol Trowbridge Was Innocent, But He Used British SAS To Kill Roman Lenkov

Trowbridge made Lenkov the face of the HMS Courageous attack & Merritt Grove’s assassination

The true mastermind of the Lenkov plot was Grace Penn, who will be sworn in as U.S. President in The Diplomat season 3 following President Rayburn’s death. However, Prime Minister Trowbridge was the primary suspect behind Lenkov and the attack on the HMS Courageous throughout most of The Diplomat season 2. Kate and Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison suspected that Trowbridge secretly hired Lenkov for his own political gain. In reality, Roylin enlisted Grove to hire Lenkov at the request of Grace Penn. Roylin saw the benefit to Prime Minister Trowbirdge’s political reputation, while Penn was concerned about securing the longevity of the nuclear base at Creagan, Scotland.

Roman Lenkov was assassinated by British special forces at the beginning of The Diplomat season 2, episode 3. Prime Minister Trowbridge announced Lenkov’s assassination three weeks after the attack on the HMS Courageous, which allowed him to appear as a heroic figure to his country and to the United Kingdom at large. Trowbridge grouped the attack on the HMS Courageous and the car bomb that killed Merritt Grove as two terrorist acts orchestrated by Roman Lenkov. Announcing Lenkov’s death provided a sense of finality to the two apparent terrorist attacks on Great Britain within the span of three weeks.

What Happened To Everyone In The Diplomat Season 2

Penn is now the U.S. President after Rayburn’s sudden death

Although Kate discovers the Vice President’s plan by the end of The Diplomat season 2, she and Hal are unable to keep quiet knowing that Penn went around the President to authorize the attack on the HMS Courageous. Hal says he will speak to Secretary of State Miguel Ganon, who he has a rocky relationship with and holds the Cabinet position that Hal secretly wants. Instead, Hal speaks directly to President Rayburn over a secure line at the Embassy of London, telling him the truth about the Vice President, Margaret Roylin, and Roman Lenkov. This upsets President Rayburn, who was known to have heart issues, so much that it kills him.

In short, Merritt Grove and Roman Lenkov are dead by the end of The Diplomat season 2. Grove was murdered by fellow Member of Parliament Lenny Stendig on Margaret Roylin’s orders to protect her and Grace Penn’s involvement in the HMS Courageous attacks. Lenkov was assassinated by British special ops troops three weeks after the attack on the HMS Courageous by Prime Minister Trowbridge’s orders. Despite Foreign Secretary Dennison’s attempts to force Trowbridge out of office, Trowbridge remains Prime Minister. Stendig is free and has yet to be seen in the series. Roylin is still being kept safe by the CIA until they ascertain what to do with her. Penn is now the President following Rayburn’s sudden death, opening the door for Kate to become VP in The Diplomat season 3.