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Welcome to the wild and wonderful era of Emmy Awards: Phase 1, a time before nomination voting when the arbitrary rules governing what is timely are set aside, and we can discuss projects that were released weeks or months earlier and deserve to be top of mind again. The Diplomat Season 2 premiered on Netflix October 31, 2024.

When epic season finales come up, Netflix’s political drama The Diplomat has to be near the top of the list two seasons running now.

Season 1 ended with an explosion. Season 2 also ended with an explosion, but not a literal one. Instead, Kate (Keri Russell) discovers that Grace Penn (Allison Janney), the woman she just swore to replace as Vice President, is now the president after a poorly timed heart attack took out the commander in chief.

The moment is everything fans of the show have come to love: unexpected, politically fraught, and deliciously dramatic. But editor Gary Levy had a different response.

 ”When I read this script, my reaction was, ‘We’ve gone too far. Really? We’re killing the president?’” Levy says with a laugh. “I actually did a cut where we didn’t reveal that the president died, where it just ended with everyone rushing out, and you don’t know why. I thought that was a brilliant idea, and I’m really grateful that no one listened to me because apparently I was wrong.”

Instead, the cliffhanger marks The Diplomat as exactly the kind of smart and soapy show that seems to have disappeared. (Emphasis on smart, and soapy is a compliment.)

“We were really trying to work against the melodrama of it and make it very grounded,” Levy says. “We also cut a lot of lines from the conversation on the lawn [between Kate and Grace] to keep it more concise and to the point. They really tore into each other more.  It was more of a big fight. We condensed it to keep it politically grounded and less twontwo women losing it with each other, which I think was smart.”

That requires a certain eye. ”It was really about modulating where the intensity ratcheted up, and where we let it play as if we weren’t crashing towards an ending,” Levy says.  “ You, as an editor, have the ability to shape an arc. You don’t have to have two characters just yelling at each other for an entire scene. They give you a lot of latitude with the dailies to do that. So you look through performances, and it’s a gift to be able to build something.”

Levy might have been surprised to kill off a United States president in the Season 2 finale, but he was also surprised that showrunner Debora Cahn wanted to end the season on someone other than the titular character.  ”That’s another one that took me totally by surprise,” he says of Cahn telling him that the final shot of the season should be of Janney’s face, as Secret Service agents run towards her. “I looked at her like, ‘Really? You sure?’ That doesn’t seem like a very intuitive decision to make, but it’s really interesting. Having gotten away from it, it works really well because it feels more grounded, not to do the classic, ‘Oh, what’s Kate’s reaction?’  And ending it on Grace keeps it more in Kate’s point of view.”

Gary Levy, ACE, is an ACE Eddie Award winner for his work on Nurse Jackie. His credits include The Good Fight, The Sinner, and another Keri Russell series: Running Wilde. (As always, this short list of credits is indicative of nothing but my idiosyncratic taste.)