'The Diplomat' star Rufus Sewell discusses the end of season two and *that* infamous phone call

Rufus Sewell found out about the end of The Diplomat season 2 before almost anyone else.

“I found the end of the first season a big shock. I really didn’t expect that,” he tells TODAY.com. “No one could have predicted the end of this season.”

He and co-star Keri Russell, who play a married ambassador couple forever embroiled in their own risky games, were the only cast members to receive final scripts early. Other cast members' finale scripts had portions edited until final read-through.

“It was on the day of the lecture that people came to this site. As they turned the page, you could see reactions shooting across the reading tables like a series of explosions. And people said 'No!' “It was a very good and exciting indication of what the public reaction will be,” he says.

While the second season of The Diplomat premiered on October 31, Sewell says he's “stuck” on the third season, which is currently filming.

“It’s dangerous,” he says. “There are things I can’t say that are old news to us that no one knows yet.”

He admits that he “kind of likes” the feeling of having secrets. “Luckily I’m so forgetful that I can’t remember most of them,” he jokes.

In this respect he is very different from his character in “The Diplomat,” he says. Hal Wyler is the husband of the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Kate Wyler (Keri Russell), and an ambassador herself. He is a freewheeling genius of rogue-meets-foreign policy.

“You need murderers on the side of good. He’s one of those people,” Sewell says. “He says, ‘Okay, this has to happen. I have to go in here. I have to do something drastic.' Unfortunately, the consequences of this are unforeseeable.”

What happens at the end of the second season of “The Diplomat” – and what does his character have to do with it? Read below to find out.

What happens at the end of The Diplomat season 2?

The final moments of The Diplomat's second season end with a shocking revelation: The President of the United States has died, apparently from shock following a phone call with Hal.

As the season progresses, the Wylers uncover the conspiracy behind the British warship attack in Season 1.

It turns out that Grace Penn (Allison Janney), the Vice President of the United States, orchestrated it with the help of British Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge's former adviser Margaret “Meg” Roylin (Celia Imrie).

Grace hired a mercenary to attack a British ship to give the United Kingdom a reason to unite. She did this so that Scotland would not vote for independence and the US could retain control of a military base in Scotland. No one should have been hurt, but there was a glitch they couldn't foresee that resulted in people being where the rocket hit, Trowbridge explained.

Kate and Hal argue back and forth about what to do with the information. They decide to tell Miguel Ganon (Miguel Sandoval), the US Secretary of State. But then, in classic Hal fashion, Hal goes rogue and calls the president instead.

The show skips the phone call between Hal and the President and instead goes to what he says to Kate on the phone.

Remember, at this moment, Kate has just come off a tense conversation with the Vice President in which she confirmed that she's coming here for her job.

“Kate,” Hal says desperately. “I haven’t spoken to Ganon. I spoke to the president.”

As he breathes, he says, “Kate, he was really excited.”

“What does that mean?” Kate asks.

The next thing you know, a group of Secret Service agents are running towards Grace and Kate.

“He died, Katie. The president is dead. Grace Penn is president,” he says.

The final shot shows Grace looking at the Secret Service agents.

Of the twist, Sewell says, “I love the fact that it’s happening. I know it seems a bit dark, but it’s just dramatic.”

What does Hal say to the President on the phone?

Sewell says more about the exact conversation will be revealed next season.

“I have to explain to people what happened. Why did you talk to him? What were you talking about? I can’t say much about it, you know,” he says.

Sewell understands Hal's decision to go rogue and call the president instead of the secretary of state; it was his original plan.

“The only way to fully control the outcome was to tell the president directly. They could use it to their advantage over anyone else and cleverly act against them,” he says.

His intentions were right, says Sewell – this was going to be another Hal Wyler special.

“The fact is that for what he is famous and infamous for, he does deeds that no one else would have the courage or intellect to do,” he says.

Hal, he says, was always aware of the risks and moved forward anyway.

“Sometimes there are losses. What we do is for the world and benefits an enormous number of people. But sometimes when something goes wrong, it can produce bad results. This is one of those things. He was right when he did it, right? Who would have known this could have happened?”

What happens to Kate's run for vice president – and is The Diplomat going to Washington?

Kate has been considering the vice president position all season. After a financial scandal involving her husband, Grace's time as vice president was in jeopardy, leaving Kate free to intervene – if she dared.

Given her exciting past with Grace Penn, Kate may not be Grace's first choice for the role. (Under the 25th Amendment, the new president can appoint a vice president of his choice.)

Still, Sewell says the show's story is “easily divided in half” so that the cast will spend time in London and New York, taking place “between locations.”

However, given the new appointment, he is making no promises about where the story or Kate's career will go. Surely the Wylers will be on Grace's radar – they know her biggest secret.

“There’s always going to be a little bit of Washington involved – I don’t know where it’s going to end completely,” he says.

Grace Penn is now president – which Sewell took as good news for him personally, even if it brings complications for his character.

“It's so fantastic because you think, 'Oh, great, we're going to work with Alison again,” he says.

“I love anything that brings new difficulties, and not just dramatic difficulties, but things that change the balance, the reckoning, and the relationship in a way that you have to navigate. As for me and Keri, I think we want the opposite of what you want in life. They want things to go wrong.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com