The Diplomat's Rufus Sewell discusses the shocking ending to season two

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains major spoilers for the Season 2 finale of The Diplomat.

“The Diplomat” stars Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell already knew how season two would end when they arrived at the table read of the sixth and final episode.

“The rest of the cast didn’t know,” Sewell tells me over Zoom from his home in the Los Angeles area. “The scripts given to them were redacted. The end of Episode 6 was redacted and it wasn’t until they read through that they got the actual scripts.”

In the final minutes of the episode, Hal (Sewell) desperately tries to reach Kate on the phone after he is seen talking to President Rayburn (Michael McKean). Kate is on the lawn telling Vice President Grace Penn (Allison Janney) that she wants her job when Deputy Chief of Mission Stuart Hayford (Ato Essandoh) hands her the phone. Hal tells Kate that he had just told the President that Grace was the one who ordered the deadly false flag bombing of the British naval ship. The president was so upset, he tells Kate, that “he died.”

“It was so exciting waiting to see everyone’s reaction at the table read,” Sewell says. “As you turned these pages, you could feel as if a series of explosions were taking place. It made its way across the room, and Ato, his reaction is always the most impressive and gratifying because it's quite big. It was wonderful to get a taste of how it will be received by audiences.”

First, let's talk about Season 1. In its first two weeks, the series was the most-watched series on Netflix, top 10 in 87 countries, and 174 million hours were watched in its first four weeks. Did you feel pressured for the second season to do as well or even better?

I'm not worried about that. My attitude is that I would always rather be involved in something I love that is overlooked than something that embarrasses me and that everyone enjoys. It's not something I was particularly worried about when I found out about it [show creator Debora Cahn] and the team.

What do you think is Hal's motivation? Is it really about Kate or ultimately just about himself?

He and Kate truly believe in doing the greatest good possible to a group of people they will never meet. It's what drives them. But he also wants Kate to become vice president. To me it is very, very important that all the Machiavellian schemes and all the tricks and all the secrets and maneuvers that we associate with the bad guys are carried out in the power of the good guys. Kate believes she's not qualified to be vice president, but he believes she is. He believes that she has something great within her and that she needs to be helped to get out of her own way. Hal has the tricks because he knows his customer.

As I watched the final moments of the finale, with Hal desperately trying to get in touch with Kate, I thought something was going to happen to Kate. I certainly didn't believe the president was dead.

They're not entirely wrong, because he knows that Kate is about to start the worst possible fight with the future most powerful person in the world. She needs to find out as quickly as possible before talking to her: “You need to know this!” You need to know this now!” – so that’s part of the urgency.

The shot of the Secret Service agents running towards them was so impressive.

It's so emotional. That makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Everyone was very aware that there were two fewer episodes this season and that people might not be very happy about that. But the effect definitely made up for it.

I know you can't tell me anything about next season, but I have to ask: Is Kate out? Will Kate become Grace's vice president? Will Hal be her vice president? So many questions.

We're already good at it. We've done the London part. We were in London for two months, July and August, and now we're in New York. Season 3 is already amazing and I'm very, very excited.

“The Diplomat” is available on Netflix.