Margaret Roylin is at the heart of the revelations in The Diplomat season 2 and some people might be wanting to know more about Celia Imrie's character.
There are some characters in The Diplomat, like Ambassador Kate Wyler, her husband Hal and UK Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge whose roles have remained consistently important throughout The Diplomat. However, for others, including Margaret Roylin (played by the brilliant Celia Imrie) who have become even more central to events as the episodes have gone on. There are so many secrets and different motivations unravelled in the Netflix thriller and Margaret’s are some of the biggest in the second season leading into The Diplomat season 2 ending.
As we return to the show a year after season 1, some people might be wondering who Margaret Roylin is in The Diplomat and what happened to her and we have all the details.
*Warning: Spoilers for The Diplomat season 1 and 2 ahead*
Who is Margaret Roylin in The Diplomat and what did she do?
In The Diplomat Margaret Roylin is the fictional Conservative Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge’s former campaign manager and advisor, but her lack of faith in his abilities lead her to a horrific act of betrayal. For most of The Diplomat season 1 the new US Ambassador to the UK, Kate Wyler, was attempting to get to the bottom of who was behind the attack on HMS Courageous.
In The Diplomat ending she and UK Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison came to the conclusion it was Trowbridge whilst in France and at the same time a bomb went off when MP Merritt Grove opened his car in London.
This led to the death of not only Grove, but of Ronnie in The Diplomat and the explosion also injured the US Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission in London, Stuart Heyford, and Kate’s husband Hal who were both arriving to meet Grove at the time. Prior to this Kate had called Margaret Roylin and in season 2 Stuart expressed his belief that this phone call and her admitting Grove was anxious is what made the MP a target.
She hadn’t personally been behind this bombing, but it had been carried out to stop Merritt from revealing who was involved in the attack of HMS Courageous - which included Margaret. She hadn’t intended for anyone to be killed, but had deliberately hired Russian mercenary Lenkov and his team to carry out the attack for a very specific political reason.
Initially Kate remained convinced that Margaret was working with Trowbridge and so arranged for the two to have a conversation which would hopefully draw him out - or confirm he truly wasn’t aware of what Margaret Roylin had done. This discussion was watched via cameras by Kate, CIA Station Chief Eidra Park and Dennison.
"This will be difficult. The explosion on our aircraft carrier was a false flag attack. Scotland was going. They had no faith in you. If I’d told you, you’d have grown belligerent and driven them away. So, I hired a team to make a fuss and give you a reason to lead," Margaret said calmly. "To unite the country. And you did. I was supposed to be a skirmish, not a bloodbath. But it went awry."
The Prime Minister’s response was pure shock and disbelief, prompting Margaret Roylin to clarify, "I hired the Lenkov group to place an explosive device on our ship. It did not go to plan. The cost was devastating. But the Kingdom will remain intact. And that was the most important thing."
Trowbridge’s response was quite simply rage and he called her a monster before throttling her and banging her head into the floor as Kate, Eidra and Dennison raced into the room to stop him.
Her own Prime Minister turning on her was a huge moment for Margaret Roylin in The Diplomat and she was left badly bleeding after his attack, but still alive. Speaking to Hal afterwards Kate cited how far Trowbridge had almost gone as evidence he genuinely hadn’t been involved, saying, "He came this close to manslaughter, you don’t fake a reaction like that."
What happened to Margaret Roylin in The Diplomat season 2?
Initially viewers might have thought that the discovery of her involvement in the attack on HMS Courageous would have been the end of Margaret Roylin’s story in The Diplomat, but this wasn’t the case. It emerged that she hadn’t been the one who’d come up with the idea; US Vice President Grace Penn had. She'd had a slightly different reason but had also not intended anyone to be killed.
Penn told Kate towards the end of The Diplomat season 2 that her motive was wanting to prevent Scottish independence too. In her case it was because she suspected Scotland would shut down a key submarine base where the US docked their nuclear submarines if this happened.
Penn’s involvement complicated things even further as she had flown over to the UK and encouraged Trowbridge to bury what he’d discovered. The PM was already refusing for Britain to take back Margaret Roylin from the CIA and didn’t want to deal with the situation with her until he knew who in his own government hadn’t been a conspirator and could be trusted. Although he hadn’t technically reached a final decision he hadn’t resigned or admitted anything by the end of The Diplomat season 2 and Dennison told Eidra that he believed Trowbridge would bury it.
When asked by Eidra what should be done with Margaret Roylin, he replied, "Send her home and if she’s afraid, tell her to lock her door."
Margaret Roylin had named plenty of names and it seems likely that her life was at risk because of it. At the end of The Diplomat season 2 the stakes couldn’t be higher as Kate had set out her ambition to replace Penn as Vice President and asked Hal to tell the US Secretary of State, Miguel Ganon, about Penn being behind the HMS Courageous attack. Instead, Hal went to US President Rayburn and the shock of the revelation led to Rayburn dying.
This meant that we closed season 2 with Grace Penn officially President and this will no doubt mean she’s even more eager and motivated to keep her involvement secret. With this in mind, who knows what fate awaits Margaret Roylin in The Diplomat season 3 and if she will continue to be part of the show going forwards.
The Diplomat season 1 and 2 are available to watch now on Netflix.
