The Diplomat season 2 episode 3 ending explained: Is [spoiler] out of a job?

Spoilers ahead of The Diplomat season 2 episode 3

With a title like "The Ides of March," it was apparent that The Diplomat season 2 episode 3 would be all about political betrayal. The inciting event? The assassination of Roman Lenkov, and his wife, at the command of Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge.

We've known since last season that he planned to have the Russian mercenary killed in order to cover up that he, and his co-conspirators, hired Lenkov to fire a missile at a British war ship with the goal of uniting the United Kingdom and stopping the growing Scottish secession movement. Well, in this episode he gets his way and it's all thanks to Margaret Roylin.

She'd convinced Ambassador Kate Wyler and Eidra Park, the chief of the CIA's London station, to get Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison to delay his internal investigation into Trowbridge and the death of Merritt Grove by one day. This was just enough time for the PM to get his operation off the ground without suspicion. He feigned to the press and the British public that Lenkov was killed accidentally in a firefight but everyone knew the truth.

Trowbridge's actions regarding Lenkov were enough to throw his position as Prime Minister into jeopardy but did he actually lose his job? Here's what happened in "The Ides of March."

Was Trowbridge forced to resign in The Diplomat season 2 episode 3?

When Dennison summoned Kate, she thought she was going to be reprimanded for her inadvertent part in allowing Trowbridge's plan to move forward. However, he'd called her because Parliament had decided their response to Lenkov's assassination would be to sign letters of no confidence. 54 such declarations would trigger a vote and if the PM didn't step down, they'd force him out.

Kate couldn't help her excitement over the possibility that Dennison could become the Prime Minister in Trowbridge's stead. She believes he's the only truly decent man she's known in politics, a point that her husband Hal wouldn't let go the whole episode. However, even though Dennison warned against it, she and the Foreign Secretary did put the horse before the buggy.

What they hadn't counted on was the British people seeing their PM as a hero for what he did. Pensy asked Kate to thank him on her behalf. She felt he'd avenged everyone who'd been caught in the wake of the mercenary's attacks. Pensy wasn't alone as there was a cartoon of Trowbridge in armor and slaying Lenkov the dragon circulating online with the hashtag 'don't cancel courage.'

If that wasn't enough, Hal informed Kate that Steven Kline, the Chief Whip of the Conservative Party, had rescinded his RSVP to their Fourth of July Party. The bash, which cost $300,000 and was paid for by megadonor Brad Chapman, was to be the site where Dennison and his co-conspirators informed Trowbridge that he was done as PM but the "Et tu, Brute?" never came.

With the public on his side, and the First Minister of Scotland inviting him to the region, the PM wasn't going to be going anywhere. Those who would have acted against him chose not to jettison their careers, all except Dennison who wanted the truth out there even if it meant the end of his career. Kate urged him not to do it but "The Ides of March" ended before we knew for sure whether Dennison was going to stick to his plan. Episode 4 will likely have that answer.

Stay tuned to Americans Undercover for The Diplomat coverage. All six episodes of season 2 are available to stream on Netflix. Follow us on X for more content!