The Diplomat's Allison Janney Explains What's Wrong With President Penn In Season 4

After surviving an assassin's bullet outside of Windsor Castle, Allison Janney's President Grace Penn finds herself reeling in "The Diplomat" Season 4. Grace grows increasingly irritable in the wake of her near-death experience, causing a rift in her marriage and eliciting doubts from her allies. 

The commander in chief's erratic behavior turns dangerous when she opposes the British government allowing Russia to retrieve its dead from a grounded submarine whose nuclear weapon the United States secretly stole. At the G7 summit in "The Diplomat" Season 4 finale, Grace brazenly admits to the theft and threatens other nations with military force, compelling Kate (Keri Russell), Hal (Rufus Sewell), and others to resign from her administration.

In a conversation with Netflix's Tudum, Janney detailed how the assassination attempt on Grace influences her decisions throughout "The Diplomat" Season 4. "When she gets shot, she has been made vulnerable in a way that I don't think she's ever been before, and it changes her in huge ways that I don't think she's even aware of," the Emmy winner said. "She doesn't like to be seen as weak, and she doesn't like that the other members of Congress are saying, 'Maybe you should just take a few days off or whatever.' And Grace is like, 'No, I will not be stopped by this. I'm not going to be afraid. I'm going to do my job, and I'm going to double down on whatever I think is right to do.'"

Netflix renewed "The Diplomat" for Season 5, meaning viewers will get to see what's in store for Grace Penn and the political drama's other main characters. The road ahead for Grace appears daunting, as it's hard to imagine how her presidency survives the fallout of the G7 summit. Regardless of whether Grace falls or redeems herself when the show returns, watching Kate, Hal, Billie Appiah (Nana Mensah), and Miguel Ganon (Miguel Sandoval) walk out of the G7 summit one by one has clearly left her feeling isolated.

In a separate interview with Tudum, Allison Janney described Grace's thought process as she witnessed her colleagues' stunning response to her hard-line foreign policy. "At that moment, I felt like I was by myself," she said. "It was very emotional. It was hard to watch them do that, knowing they were doing the right thing, but Grace is so infuriated and just tries to brush it aside: 'This means nothing. Keep going. These are just sick people.' She's going to spin it that way. I can't wait to see what Hal says to the press. I thought, 'Is he going to be on my side? What is he going to say?' That's a hell of a cliffhanger, right?"

With Grace increasingly defiant by the end of "The Diplomat" Season 4, audiences could be in for an even more dramatic turn of events when Season 5 premieres.