As the fourth episode of The Diplomat begins, Eli’s mother takes him to the park and explains she needs to talk to another woman for work. Gabby (Melissa James) introduces herself to the woman and says her babysitter canceled. While she remains busy, Eli’s father comes over and lures the boy away with a balloon. Gabby panics when she finds out that her son is missing. At the British Consulate, Laura Simmonds (Sophie Rundle) gets a call from Fabian (Philipp Boos) who offers to make her breakfast next time. Carl (Dylan Brady) alerts her that her boyfriend barged in.

Tom (Ladi Emeruwa) thinks it is about time he had a tour of the office. He is quickly introduced to Alba Ortiz (Serena Manteghi) before Laura gets a call about the missing British child. As Alba and Laura leave to visit the mother, Alba tells her Tom is hot. Laura learns that the boy’s name is Eli Hurst and he went missing from a park around there. When they go inside, Inspector Castells (Isak Ferriz) is already talking to Gabby. He puts out an alert with the boy’s photo so police can begin looking for him. Gabby blames herself for her son’s disappearance. Gabby’s boyfriend arrives and begins comforting her.

Laura and Alba are told that his dad barely sees him, but he was there about a month ago. Laura explains that child abductions are rarely random. Gabby struggles to find her son’s passport. At the airport, Eli’s father gets him through the checkpoint. Fabian tells Mariona (Laia Costa) that it looks like their plan worked now that the bouncer has been charged with Jay’s murder. They talk about Amy Callaghan who Mariona doesn’t think is coming back. Fabian is convinced that Inspector Castells will be looking for her. Laura and Castells want to get the airport checked. Eli and his father wait for their airplane.

Eli asks his dad about his mother and says he wants to go home. They try to sneak through the airport so they can board their plane. They end up getting stopped and the dad is arrested. Laura has dinner with Tom and says she’ll meet the father tomorrow. Tom reveals he really came to visit because he was headhunted. A position has opened in New York and he’ll be flying out tomorrow for a face-to-face meeting. Tom wants them to move there together and settle down. Laura doesn’t want to go over there and just sit around. Tom believes there could be positions for her there as well.

Laura admits it is good news, but she needs to think about it. Alba and Laura go to the police station since Castells should’ve finished the police interview. The father tells them that he just wanted his son back. He wanted it to work out when they came there, but it was always Gabby’s dream and not his. It all fell apart when they got there. He couldn’t find work and ended up getting an offer back home. He thought Gabby would follow until she met a guy and decided to stay put with Eli. He has only seen his son twice in the last year and it is always on Gabby’s terms.

When he spoke to a lawyer, she didn’t think he had a chance of getting Eli home so he felt he was out of options. A judge will decide whether he will face charges. Laura says she’ll speak to Inspector Castells to see if it’ll help. She tells Castells that he deserves some say in Eli’s future. Laura suggests getting a custody order in place. He asks about contacting a lawyer, but Alba doesn’t know why they’re helping Nathan (Joe Manjon). Laura explains that it won’t help anyone for Nathan to get caught up in a criminal case here. Castells gives her Jay’s watch so she can give it back to Colin. Once Laura meets Colin (Danny Sapani), he admits he doesn’t know what he is doing back there.

He looks at the watch and notices that it doesn’t have an engraving on the back. As a result, he knows it isn’t Jay’s watch. They take that information to Inspector Castells. Laura wonders if the watch was planted in the bouncer’s room. Castells says he’ll speak to the bouncer and he agrees to let Laura come with him. Moments later, Castells tells Laura that the judge has agreed to let Nathan go without being charged. Laura needs to take him back to the consulate and get him on the first flight back to London. Nathan is reminded that he got lucky and he will be arrested at any sign of trouble. Castells will call Laura when he arranged the visit with the bouncer.

Nathan is told to wait at the consulate until his flight. Laura tells Sam Henderson (Steven Cree) about his case. She also informs him that Castells is going to reopen the Sutherland case because of the watch. Sam tells her to be careful because he doesn’t like the sound of this. Laura asks Alba to explain everything to Gabby. Sam calls Mariona to tell her that they have a problem. When they meet, Mariona admits Fabian will blame her for this. Sam gives her the aliases used by their targets. Mariona says it’d help if he could break the chain between Castells and Laura. Alba keeps Eli busy until Gabby returns.

Alba tells her that the decision to charge a suspect is up to a judge. The judge in question didn’t want to interfere with a UK legal proceeding. Gabby can’t understand how Nathan was allowed to go. She isn’t happy to learn that they’ve been helping Nathan get a lawyer. Alba reassures her that Nathan won’t get anywhere near Eli. Gabby reveals Nathan gambled some of their money away. She loved Nathan so much and really tried, but she’d have to start over if it wasn’t for her new boyfriend. Mariona tells Fabian about the watch. She reminds him that he told her what to do and she did exactly that.

Fabian says the bouncer will have his options explained to him in detail. Fabian gets a call from one of the aliases mentioned by Sam. Later, Laura gets a call from Fabian. The next day, Castells visits to tell her that the bouncer was found unconscious in his cell. They question whether they have a leak somewhere. When Colin calls, Castells asks Laura to give him a couple of hours to talk to his superiors. He suspects someone is covering up something much bigger. Laura meets Alba and tells her what has happened to the bouncer. She is worried that Fabian might have something to do with it so she wants to speak to him before saying anything to Castells.

Laura tells Fabian about the attack and the watch being planted. Fabian claims this is the first time he has heard of it and he told her about Lola (Mireia Vilapluig) in good faith. When they leave, Alba begins suspecting that Laura and Fabian have seen each other naked. Laura asks Colin to take a seat and she’ll be with him shortly. He is introduced to Sam. Colin gets upset before admitting that Laura has been very helpful. In private, Sam tells Laura that Gabby has given an interview to the papers. They agree to get Nathan back to London before he hears what Gabby has done. When Sam learns about the bouncer, he wonders if there is a leak at the top. He suggests keeping an eye on Castells because there are whispers he could be on his way soon.

Alba makes sure Nathan’s taxi and flight are booked. She calls Gabby to tell her what is going on. Gabby takes Eli (Oliver Sanchez Murphy) to the consulate because she thinks Nathan should get a proper goodbye. Gabby tells Nathan that she doesn’t want Eli’s last memory of him being his arrest in an airport. She leaves them together. Lola goes to Mariona’s office. She begins screaming and saying she wants more money. Mariona tries to calm her only to learn that her receptionist has called the police. Nathan gets a call from a friend who tells him what Gabby told the media. When his cab arrives, they learn that he and Eli have gone missing. Nathan takes Eli to the roof and live streams what he calls the truth.

When Laura approaches him, he records her and says she is the woman who listened to him. Once police arrive, Eli runs to Laura and Nathan threatens to jump. Laura tells him that moving to another country wasn’t his dream and that is okay. He eventually climbs down and gets arrested. Laura tells Sam that they didn’t need to call the police, but Sam claims he could’ve done anything up there. Nathan says goodbye to Eli before being taken away in a police car. Laura gets a text from Tom saying everything went well in New York. Mariona calls Sam to say the girlfriend of the bouncer has spoken to the police. She also tells him about Fabian speaking to one of the men with the aliases.

Colin watches Fabian outside El Faro. Castells contacts Laura to tell her about Lola accusing Mariona of hurting her boyfriend.

 

The Diplomat Review

The fourth episode of The Diplomat had a pretty standard side story with a few unfeasible moments although it wasn’t bad overall. Sam and Mariona are working on something that hasn’t been explained enough just yet. Laura isn’t eager to travel to New York to be with Tom, but she doesn’t fully trust Fabian either. Colin knows that the bouncer wasn’t responsible for his son’s death since the watch didn’t belong to Jay.

The series has a formulaic approach that is so common in other similar shows since it only touches on the main story briefly in each episode. It has been a bit difficult to sincerely care about the main characters or even the investigation into Jay’s death. There just isn’t enough substance or reason to get emotionally invested so far.

The Diplomat is an easy watch so it doesn’t require a lot of effort from viewers. Those willing to overlook a few issues here and there may enjoy the series. At the very least, most of the performances are good and the scenery is a good touch. The episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of The Diplomat can be found on Reel Mockery here.

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