Get the latest gossip
The Diplomat Recap: See You in Scotland
We finally get the long-awaited reveal and showdown between Roylin and Trowbridge.
Back in Scotland, ensconced in a library with his daily red ministerial despatch box and holding court with Kate and his chief of staff, Trowbridge’s verbal flourishes about things like woolly muffs and three definitions of “dunning” (“relentlessly irritating; chalk on the teeth; when some mechanical device ages and produces a near-inaudible whine”) are colorful and occasionally entertaining, but they also remind us that he’s an incredibly powerful middle-aged man who is happiest when he’s complaining and/or trying to bully others. After he unloads on her about how successful he’s managed to be in her absence, his brain catches up with his mouth, leading him to shut it, and as Roylin had directed seconds earlier, he sits down and takes a sip of water, waiting to hear what she has to say. I’d love to see a close-read piece analyzing Roylin’s many deliveries of her various confessions; a big part of what makes Celia Imrie’s performance such a pleasure to watch is how she calibrates where to emphasize and where to downplay certain elements and the way the writers frame it each time.
Or read this on VULTURE