Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1536017
By Tony Maglio H o w m u c h c a n a n e d i t o r r e a l - ly change a scene? A whole lot, Gary Levy says, while speaking to his crucial work on that wild clianger at the end of "The Diplomat" Season 2. If you somehow didn't already appreciate the pacing of the crucial scene, well, hop on a Zoom with Levy and then rewatch the big reveal unfold. I did, and it was even better the second time around with inside info on Levy's first-class editing. DIPLOMATIC TIES HOW 'THE DIPLOMAT' EDITOR GARY LEVY MANAGED THAT SEASON 2 FINALE CLIFFHANGER If Levy doesn't answer your Zoom call, just take his boss's word for it. "The end of the episode all rests on intercutting between a Hal (Rufus Sewell) scene and a Kate (Keri Russell) scene," se- ries creator, writer, and executive producer Debora Cahn told CineMontage, "and Gary did amazing work building these two rela- tively quiet scenes in two different places into the climax of the season." In the scene, the U.S. Ambassador to the UK, Kate Wyler (Russell) feuds with VP Grace Penn (Allison Janney), whom Wyler has been tapped to replace mid-term. There's just one problem with the plan: unbeknownst to Wyler, Hal Wyler (Sewell), Kate's husband and a former U.S. ambas- sador to Lebanon, just effectively killed the ailing POTUS (Michael McKean) with a bombshell reveal. A quick check of the U.S. Constitution tells us that Penn just got pro- moted to president — the literal opposite of stepping down. "The Diplomat" is not Levy's first rodeo. 34 C I N E M O N T A G E F E A T U R E THE AMBASSADORS: A scene from "The Diplomat." P H OT O : N E T F L I X