David Gyasi Breaks Down the Explosive Ending of The Diplomat Season 1

Spoilers ahead for season one of The Diplomat. If you haven't seen the final episode, turn back now!

In the final moments of The Diplomat, a car bomb explodes in London just as U.S. Ambassador to the UK Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) and British Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison (David Gyasi), who are in Paris, realize that Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear) possibly orchestrated a terror attack on his own country.

As the two share a moment of horrific realization at Trowbridge's actions, police cars and security forces pull up. The dialogue fades out, as both Kate and Dennison learn something has happened. The final shot is of Kate, tears in her eyes, looking at Dennison as they begin to process what comes next. It's a dramatic cliffhanger, and one that makes viewers clamor for a season two of The Diplomat.

David Gyasi as Austin Dennison in The Diplomat, now streaming on Netflix.

For actor David Gyasi, who has starred in Cloud Atlas, Interstellar, and Carnival Row, the final scene cements why he took on the role of Dennison in the first place. "It's that intriguing and that good a script," he tells Town & Country over Zoom. "You are just hungry for the next script. We all got [the episode 8 script] on the same day and I was filming. We were all reading it and I was like 10 pages behind. I just saw Ato [Essandoh] reading it and he goes, 'No fucking way!' And I'm like, 'No, no, no, I'm not there yet!'"

Over Zoom, Gyasi chatted with T&C all about the "overwhelming" reaction to the Netflix show, reveals what was said in that final scene, and shares why he wishes a politician like Dennison existed in real life.

What has the reaction to The Diplomat been like for you, now that it's out in the world?

It's been a little overwhelming, if I'm completely honest. I read the script and was really excited about what I was reading, and then I was a bit nervous getting onto set. Then I got on set and was really excited about the people that I was working with, and I saw the finished [show] and I was excited about what I saw. The audience reaction has matched all of those things.

The last couple of things that I was on that had this kind of reaction, I didn't have social media. I live out in the country on purpose. I didn't really feel all of this.

It's been wonderful because I'm glad that people are seeing what I saw in the writing and in the people that I was working with, but I'm finding I have to take moments to just step away from it just to keep balance. Whenever you do art, sometimes people react to it with this swell of enthusiasm and sometimes people don't, or you misalign. But I don't think that should be a gauge as to one's relationship with the work that they've done, especially if they're committed to it and passionate about it. It's something I'm processing.

Dennison, Gyasi thinks, is a politician who is "incredibly passionate about his constituents and the people that he represents."

Walk me through that final scene of The Diplomat: What do you think is going through Dennison's mind?

For me, the type of character Dennison is, and the type of politician he is—he's what we're looking for in our politicians. He's someone with integrity and he's someone who, I think, has a good grasp of what diplomacy is. We've gotten to a place where it's like, 'I need to be so passionate about my opinion and I need to evangelize my opinion to everyone else and they need to come on board.' Dennison understands that there's differing things that we have to work with, even though these opinions can be polar opposite to where he is.

In that last scene, I think he thinks Trowbridge is potentially dangerous, but has a handle on the level of danger that he might possess. Has he underestimated the level of Trowbridge's ignorance and naivety? Certainly in that last scene, when the events unfold, I think he feels like he's disastrously underestimated the level of danger, the level of corruption, and insidious evil and power hungry [man] that he's been working with.

That's where he's landed and he's so shocked. He's put it on himself to be one of these politicians that if our party is driving off a cliff, I will stay to the end to try and course correct. In that moment, he feels like he has failed. So all of that's happening, as well as the personal relationships. What does this mean for his new friend? And, is she a friend, is she more than a friend? I don't know! Somebody tell me, honestly!

Will they or won’t they? The tension between Gyasi’s Austin Dennison and Keri Russell’s Kate Wyler simmers throughout season one.

In that last scene, did the writers tell you and Keri what the cops would be saying to Dennison and Kate?

They've taken the dialogue out, and it plays quite beautifully. That's how detailed Debora [Cahn, the creator] is. We had just reached that conclusion about Trowbridge, but obviously, we don't know about the explosion. And that's what like, what are these blue lights about? Then we're supposed to be separated, so I don't know if they show that bit, but my security guards come in and they say, "We need to get you out of here," and Dennison's like, "What?" There's just a daze. [They tell him,] "We need to get you out of here, sir, there's a security breach."And then someone comes in and tells Kate what has happened, and then I come to Kate and she explains to me, and then you get those looks at the end, like, "Are we in World War Three?"

If The Diplomat does return for a second season, what do you hope for Dennison's storyline?

Episode 8, "The James Bond Clause," is pivotal for Dennison and Kate’s relationship.

I'd love to explore what that relationship is with Kate. I mean, maybe they'd just gotten to a place when she makes that choice for that beautiful red dress. It's the first time that they touch—they touch hands. Politically how he now navigates this, knowing what he knows, I'd love if we got to explore that. It would be interesting to just dig into what the ramifications of being associated with a party that has this happening and exploring how his internal politics rubs up against the macro of his party.

Did playing the Foreign Secretary make you reflect on modern-day politics at all?

That's one of the things that really pulled me to this part. I quite liked the fact that he looks like I do. He moves in a world where—that world now, if you were to take a snapshot of it, you would say, "Well, that looks quite diverse." But then if you were to look at the socioeconomic background of the people in that picture, I wonder how diverse or how inclusive that would be.

Dennison didn't go to the classic schools or universities that the people that are afforded [his] position in Parliament have usually gone to. His back story is: Immigrant parents that worked incredibly hard to send him to a good school, which he had to get a scholarship to go there. He feels the work that his immigrant parents have put in to help him, and to help him further himself—and to effectively further the country.

I liked the fact that he might be involved in a party that might say, "Here's an idea: We're gonna have one group of refugees come in and we're gonna open up our homes to them. That's what we're gonna do. But these other refugees, we're gonna send them to Rwanda." And him having to kind of go, "Well, hold on a minute, the refugees you're sending look like me. The ones you're keeping [don't]. Could we interrogate that?"

I like that he's in that space and having to deal with that. If you're involved in art that does that, then hopefully the people watching it are then left with questions and deeper discussions around that. These are discussions we need to have.

Gyasi, the son of Ghanian immigrants, made his professional acting debut in 2003, and landed his first lead role in 2005.

I would love it if we had representatives within the government that didn't only look diverse, but felt inclusive. How much better would that be, if we had a whole team of people that were able to say, in the true spirit of democracy, "Here's how things look from my perspective, and here's how things look from yours, let's find the solution where I win a little bit but may lose a little bit, and you win a little bit but may lose a little bit?" and so on. That would be amazing.

All episodes of the Diplomat are now streaming on Netflix.

Photographs by Joseph Sinclair. Styling by Holly White. Grooming by Sam Lascelle. Barber: Trevor Stephenson.

Emily Burack

Senior News Editor

Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.