If you've been hooked on hit Netflix series The Diplomat, you might be wondering about the character of Grove, and his significance to the storyline.
The Diplomat season 2 landed on Netflix to the same explosive fanfare as its first season. Debora Cahn's excellent political thriller saw lead actress Keri Russell receive an Emmy nomination for her season 1 performance, and the equally impressive second outing is sure to more accolade nominations. Picking up where it left off after that cliff hanger ending, season 2 launches straight back into the mayhem, and every episode had viewers on the edge of their seats.
But with a lot of fast-paced, action packed shows, it's easy to miss details and lose track of exactly what is happening. This has been the case with some elements of the series, with viewers left asking about the character of Ronnie in The Diplomat, and the character's significance in season 2. There's also lingering questions about Merritt Grove and his arc in the show - we explain who he is, and what you need to know about his part in the epic drama.
Who is Grove in The Diplomat?
Merritt Grove (Simon Chandler) didn't have a huge part in The Diplomat season 1, and was only seen for the first time in the series finale. He was a British Tory MP, and Kate finds he has a bit of a murky background. After Hal had taken on a speech at Chatham house that should've been delivered by Kate, Hal met with Grove, despite being told to stay away from him by Kate.
Grove was keen for he and Hal to meet again the same evening, but Hal declined the offer, instead suggesting a meeting between Grove and White House Chief of Staff Billie Appiah. Grove agreed to a meeting, but thought Hal would definitely be in attendance. When Kate found out her husband had set up this meeting, she furiously urged Hal to shut it down.
Stuart and Ronnie also arrived at the restaurant where Grove was later waiting for the meeting. Against Kate's wishes, Hal decided to crash the meeting anyway, calling Stuart to ask him to set up some time alone with Grove for him when he got there. In the meantime, Grove became annoyed at the amount of people who eventually turned up at the meeting when really, he just wanted to speak to Hal. He made his annoyance known by storming out of the building.
Hal arrived just as Grove reached his car - opening the door triggered an explosion, and Grove was caught in the blast losing his life. When season 1 aired, it was thought Grove found out something important about Trowbridge that he wanted to pass on to somebody trustworthy, which is why he only wanted to speak with Hal. It looked likely Trowbridge found out Grove was trying to pass on information about him to Hal, and had his car blown up as a result.
It later came to light that Margaret Roylin was responsible for all the season 1 chaos. She'd had Grove hire Roman Lenkov to attack the HMS Courageous. When it came out that Grove was planning to leak information to Hal about the false flag operation, Roylin enlisted Lenny Stendig to set up the bomb in Grove's car. Grove died to prevent the Americans finding out the truth about the HMS Courageous attack.
His character does not feature in season 2 of the show, but he still mentioned as Kate investigates his death. His political views and problems with the ruling party, initially do point towards Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge as the main suspect in his death. This ultimately resulted in viewers wanting to find out more about him and whether his role was bigger than it appeared.
However, his short lived appearance was used by the British government in season 2 to paint Iran as the enemy, accusing them of killing Grove as an actor of terror to spread fear among the British population. But Grove was simply trying to impart important information to Hal, and there was nothing more to the character than that.
