A Bloody Platter of Oysters Shaped The Diplomat's Next Season — Here's How
A scene in which the US President unknowingly bleeds onto a platter of oysters and then serves them has become the creative anchor for The Diplomat's fourth season, which returns to Netflix on October 15.
The moment appears in "Amagansett," the sixth episode of the political thriller's third season. Creator and showrunner Debora Cahn told Deadline that the scene became "a real spine" for the upcoming fourth year, which explores how two couples face the same impossible circumstances in very different ways (Deadline).
The two couples at the table are a study in power and marriage. President Grace Penn, played by Allison Janney, sits with her husband Todd Penn, played by Bradley Whitford. Across from them are Vice President Hal Wyler, played by Rufus Sewell, and Hal's wife Kate Wyler, played by Keri Russell — the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Their conversation revolves around a single, devastating question: whether Grace should tell the British Prime Minister that she was responsible for a major attack on one of Britain's aircraft carriers (Deadline).
The scene's logistics were as carefully built as its dialogue. The production used 425 local fresh oysters and 72 imported ones. Bradley Whitford said he eats the oysters even when the camera is off him, staying in the moment between takes (Deadline).
Then there is the pretzel bag. At one point, Janney's President Penn squishes an empty pretzel bag and shoves it behind a sofa pillow. Janney said the gesture came from something her own mother used to do. Whitford called it "Hall of Fame of prop work." For Sewell, the show lives in the contrast between Grace being the most powerful person in the United States and being a person caught hiding a snack wrapper (Deadline).
The Hollywood Reporter had earlier reported that Cahn unlocked the character of Grace by writing the oyster scene specifically — a president bleeding on food she then serves to guests (The Hollywood Reporter). The creative team decided Grace was behind the warship attack in the writers' room, and part of the thinking, according to Netflix's own companion coverage, was simply how to make the situation worse (Netflix Tudum).
The Diplomat has earned seven Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series, with individual nods for Russell, Janney, Whitford and Sewell (Deadline). Netflix released a Season 4 teaser trailer on August 17 (Netflix Tudum).
For fans of the show, the promise is that a single dinner-party scene — oysters, blood, a pretzel bag and all — gave Cahn the blueprint for where the story goes next.
