Netflix was trying to sell The Diplomat, about, but this time I was smart: I looked for gay characters, and found Dylan Brady, who tells Pink News that the show "talks about his queerness in relation to his job, in quite a nuanced way.” Plus it's set in Barcelona, one of my favorite cities in Europe!
Scene 1: Richard and Amanda, romantic partners, have just visited the Sagrada Familia, the iconic Barcelona cathedral. He hates it. They have also lost their "Hola Barcelona" card, so they have to buy regular metro tickets. Cut to Security seeing Richard getting into an altercation with security guards. They attack; Richard falls. I'm guessing that these are not main characters, but this week's case.
Scene 2: Laura gets a phone call from her friend, who is hung over in a cafe. She reveals the Sagrada Familia incident. One of the cops has broken ribs and a perforated eardrum, and the Brit is in the ICU after a heart attack.
Another call from downstairs, from Fabian (Philipp Boos). As she buzzes him in, a mysterious figure watches from behind a tree.
Scene 3: Fabian criticizes her Serrat CD: "It's for old hippies." An important composer of Spanish and Catalan music. He didn't know that the bouncer being set up to take the fall, and he wasn't there when Cabell arranged the girl to be a scapegoat at the party on the yacht. These episodes are not self-contained. In other news, "I really want to fuck you again."
She says no. "I have a boyfriend." Tom (Ladi Emeruwa)
"But I'm better in bed, right?" He walks her out; they smooch, in view of the mysterious figure. Uh-oh, the British counsul is going to be blackmailed.
After the smooching, he calls someone, says that he found the "skinny bitch," and this time there will be no screw-ups. Uh-oh, he's an enemy.
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Scene 4: At the hospital, the Wife explains to Laura and her assistant Carl (Dylan Brady) that the ticket machine wasn't working, so her husband gave it a thump, and the cop came over and started yelling and hitting. "But you hit the cop hard. He has a major ear injury. They're considering criminal charges," "Um...well, I'm sorry about that, but he was acting like a mad dog."
It's apparent that these people are highly religious, and bigoted against various groups.
Meanwhile, in Ibiza, a woman is fiddling with a watch.
Scene 5: Carl is upset: the wife called him "young man" in a dismissive tone that he feels is racist and homophobic. Laura did some research and discovered that they are Baptist. Her parents are progressive Baptists, but these two...not so progressive.
Back in the office, Laura gets a phone call from the Ibiza woman, but she hangs up.
Cut to La Rambla, where a guy who looks identical to Fabian, but is probably Steven Cree (Sam Henderson) wants to know if the wedding to Mariana is still on. They discuss the season-long plot.
Neither Wikipedia nor the IMDB have any details about what's going on here, so I'll skip the discussions of the bouncer and the wedding, and stick to the metro-confrontation plot.
More metro after the break
Inspector Casells (Isak Ferriz) is upset because his spy caught Laura smooching with Fabian. Then on to the Sagrada Familia case. The wife is claiming that the cop assaulted her husband, but he's an excellent officer with a good record, and he volunteers for charity. "He should not become the victim of hate speech." Wait -- what minority group does he belong to?
Scene 7: Back in the office, Laura tells her assistants that two witness heard the Husband say "Get back to India, you stupid Gurkha." Nepalese soldiers who served in the British army, and have had trouble getting the right to settle in the UK. Officer Pereira is not a Gurkha, but he is of South Asian ancestry.
Carl thinks this is not surprising, since the Husband is from Leighton Buzzard -- a town in Bedfordshire, about 47 miles from London, which in the UK is a long way -- so he might have a big collection of Toby Jugs -- a jug in the image of a seated man in a tricorner hat -- and knock one out to pictures of Nigel Farange. A member of Parliament who authored Brexit, and has been accused of being racist and homophobic.
Scene 8: Laura and her friend discuss how the boss got "really defensive about the cop -- they look out for their own, don't they?" And some soap-opera plot about Laura's husband transferring to New York, so should she go with him, or stay in Barcelona?
They interview the British schoolgirls who heard the racist comment. It was hard to make out, because the Husband was speaking Spanish, and the cop Catalan, but he said something about General Franco being dead. Francisco Franco, the dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975, responsible for the suppression of Catalan culture. "Pretty cringe to say that to a Catalan, especially in Spanish."
When I was in Barcelona, many people were so invested in Catalan independence that they pretended not to speak "the colonial language."
Then he yelled "Go back to India, you stupid Gurkha," in English.
Wait -- they took a video of the whole thing. It's on their phone! Laura speaks Catalan, so she can understand what the cop said.
Scene 9: Back at the office, Carl has news: the judge will be charging the Wife with assault, so her passport has been confiscated.
"That's bollocks!" Laura exclaims. "Wouldn't you defend your husband from an attack?"
"Totally implausible scenario," Carl says, "If the Wife and the Scriptures get their way." She has not said one homophobic thing. I don't say this very often, but you're over-reacting, buddy.
"We don't have to approve of them," Laura says. "And for the record, my parents' Baptist church offers blessings for same-sex couples. But not marriage, huh?
Scene 10: Laura reviews the video that the schoolgirls took. The Husband is yelling "Get your hands off me," and the cop, "No em toques els pebrots," "Don't touch my peppers!" Vulgar slang for testicles. They struggle.
Husband definitely says "Go back to India," but the cop calls the Husband a "fat English pig" and says "avui no" over and over: Not today, don't wind me up today. And starts hitting him over and over with his baton.
Laura wants to know if Carl is ok with interviewing the Wife. He's fine with it.
Scene 11: In the hospital, the Husband and Wife are discussing other times where they brutalized people on their trips: "We made that woman cry, and she got off at the next stop instead of continuing the cruise, har har."
After listening for a moment, she yells: "That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."
At the consulate, they tell the Wife that the "racist abuse" is not part of the charge, just property damage and assaulting a police officer. "But my husband would never say that. He's an educated man."
Wait -- she just remembered that her husband teaches A-level French, and there's a phrase in a Flaubert novel, "Get back in your jar, you stupid gherkin." He says that to his students all the time. He called the guy a gherkin, har har. Wait -- wouldn't he know the phrase in French, "Retourne dans ton bocal, stupide cornichon"?
When Laura leaves them alone, the Wife tells Carl, "I know what you think of me."
"Because you make it so obvious what you think of me?" he counters.
"I am not a bigot or a phobe. I believe in God's grace on all sinners."
"I am not a sinner."
"I know we're out of touch, but I believe we have a moral duty to understand the younger generation." Lady, there were gay people in your day. And in the days of Aristotle.
Scene 12: Laura presents the "gherkin" explanation to the Boss, who doesn't believe it.
It also happened to be the anniversary of the death of the Cop's son, so he was in a fragile state. Laura's assistant talked to some of his colleagues, who stated that he'd been talking obsessively about his feelings of rage.
"They were both at fault, but the Cop definitely used exceesive force."
Scene 13: Back in the office, Carl sides with the gherkin explanation, because "it's totally weird, so it has to be true."
He gets a call from the Wife and groans "Don't overcompensate. We ain't never gonna be mates." But she wants him because her husband just died.
Scene 14: At the hospital chapel, Carl tells the Wife that the Consulate will help with whatever she needs. She apologizes for giving him the impression that..."It's just all so confusing." They pray together. Then there's some more stuff about the primary plot.
Beefcake: None in this episode. I had to fill out the review with nude photos of Barcelona men from my collection.
Other Sights: Lots of Barcelona exteriors, like Sagrada Familia.
Heterosexism: Laura is very busy, with a boyfriend or two and a husband
Gay Guy: He's swishy and into dishing, but otherwise you wouldn't know that he's gay. No life outside the office. The other assistant discusses her personal life -- Bobby Lockwood, top photo, plays a guy she has sex with and deals with sexual harassment from the big boss, but Carl does nothing.
A bigoted review complained about "diversity in your face," with 4/10 of the main characters gay, but I didn't see any in this episode.
Homophobia: No one says anything homophobic. The Wife is Baptist, but doesn't quote the Book of Leviticus. Very low-key, closeted homophobia.
My Grade: C
See also: Pain and Glory: Aging director remembers his first crush and his first boyfriend.
Alberto Ferreira: Not the gay guy in "The Other Side," but at least he has a big one.
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