Three seasons rooting for Kate Wyler, and The Diplomat season 4 has fans calling her unbearable
For three seasons Hal Wyler was the reason to forgive Kate everything. One episode into season 4, fans have swapped sides.
Netflix released all eight episodes of The Diplomat season 4 on 15 October 2026. The synopsis promises a stolen Russian super-weapon and a country sliding towards war. Within hours, the episode 1 discussion thread on r/TheDiplomat had picked its target, and it wasn't the conspiracy. It was Kate Wyler.
"I genuinely think Kate is jealous & bad that she was not weighed in & feels unimportant now… 1st she wanted out of the marriage & now she wants in it like Why ruin every good thing?"
— a viewer 40 minutes into episode 1, r/TheDiplomat
The top reply didn't defend her. It agreed, and went further: Kate has "always been like this since Season 1" and "she definitely has a superiority complex, she thinks she's smarter than Hal, Grace and Billie".
In the "it's finally out" thread, the mood was the same: Kate is "lowkey unbearable", and "It's a love-hate relationship with her."
How Hal stopped being the problem
For three seasons the deal with Kate was simple. She was prickly, scruffy and convinced she was the cleverest person in any room, usually because she was. We forgave her, because next to her stood Hal: the ex-ambassador who couldn't stop freelancing on her job and, by season 3, wanted the lead role in their marriage.
Season 3 ended with the vice-presidency going to Hal, a private divorce, Kate's fling with spy Callum Ellis (Aidan Turner), a tearful reconciliation and then the knife: Kate looks at her husband and asks about the missing Russian nuclear weapon, "Did you take it?" He had, with President Grace Penn.
Read more: Netflix's Victorious spinoff wasn't made for the fans who waited 13 years for it
Here is where season 4 leaves the couple:
- Hal is vice-president, inside the room where decisions get made.
- Kate is still ambassador in London, mopping up an operation nobody told her about.
- Her new ally is Todd Penn, the first gentleman; the synopsis calls them "at best an uneasy pair".
Read the comments against that list. Hal and Grace are running the world; Kate is the one sulking about it. In season 1 she spent whole episodes being right while everyone else, Hal included, got in her way.
The show is doing it on purpose
To be fair to the fans who still back her, one viewer pointed out that Hal has made big decisions without consulting Kate "their entire relationship", and the moment she does the same, he can't handle it. That comment sat on two upvotes. The "unbearable" ones did better.
For three seasons Kate was the one we forgave. Season 4 has fans forgiving Hal instead.
None of this looks accidental. Creator Debora Cahn told THR after season 3 that the divorce storyline was about Kate learning that "you can leave a relationship, but you will have to still bring yourself with you". Season 4 then gives Kate a mirror: a woman of her own generation running things well. Keri Russell told Deadline that Cahn wanted that character to be a peer, someone who can "present herself in a way that Kate can't quite muster yet". Who she is counts as a spoiler; Deadline has the details.
It's a cheeky gamble for a show whose biggest asset is Russell. She won the SAG-AFTRA Actor Award for season 3 earlier this year and was Emmy-nominated again in 2026; Allison Janney took home the Emmy for playing Grace. Netflix hasn't announced a season 5.
If the people who love The Diplomat start rooting for Hal, the show has a problem. Rufus Sewell is brilliant, but nobody started watching for the vice-president.
Read more: The Big Bang Theory stars were praised for a pay cut that Chuck Lorre remembers differently