HOUSE OF CARDS S5 E5 CHAPTER 57 - Plot summary and comments

PLOT SUMMARY: Nine weeks later, and President Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) breaks the fourth wall to tell us that two states refused to certify and so there has been no result. The Supreme Court is down a member and in deadlock and government is crippled. As in the last season of Veep, the vote therefore transfers to the House per the twelfth amendment by simple majority.  Meanwhile protestors barrack the White House.  

Inside the White House Frank meets the strange man called Eric who is an actor, personal trainer and military history recruiter. He is clearly a mentally unstable and obsessed with Frank.  Vice Presidential candidate and First Lady Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) meets with Underwoods campaign manager Leann Harvey (Neve Campbell).  Leann tells Claire that Frank's approval rating is just 19pc whereas Claire's is 30pc; that there's resistance to a simultaneous vote for President and Vice President and that Claire should consider what happens in the event of a split ticket. This view is  later echoed by Republican supporters and Claire seems open to a split ticket. Even the current Vice President tries to flatter Claire into breaking away from Frank. 

Meanwhile, Leann has tracked IT specialist Aidan McAllan to Jakarta. He then phones her and asks her to join him. He also threatens to leak information on the Underwoods unless she calls off the FBI search. She confides in Chief of Staff Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly) but he appears reluctant to act. 

Republican candidate Governor Will Conway (Joel Kinnaman) is playing a military first person shooter and is clearly emotionally disturbed by it.

A woman comes forward to journalist Tom Hammerschmidt (Boris McGiver) with a story about Chief of Staff Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly) but he doubts her. Later, Doug hooks up with the woman who left him earlier for not being present.   Doug then tells Frank that he's having trouble threatening people into giving him the requisite 26 votes. Frank lashes out at a clearly shocked Doug but then apologises.

COMMENTS: "Meet your new daddy". Well this was a dull episode - again - which can be compressed into two things - Claire is now the popular force, and Aidan is a problem.  It feels to me like their is no menace in this season. The murders in prior seasons are distant lurking threats but one doesn't feel as if Frank could literally kill someone now.  Even Tom Hammerschmidt seems bored by those early plot lines.  There are no worthy antagonists - Conway is a psychological wreck - and no fascinating psychological dramas. Even Doug Stamper's sexual liaisons seem tame compared to previous seasons. Five episodes in, one wonders if this really is the impact of Beau Willamon leaving?  

HOUSE OF CARDS S5 E1 CHAPTER 53 - Plot summary and comments

PLOT SUMMARY:  Series 5 opens with President Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) fighting an election against Will Conroy (Joel Kinnaman). He's also fighting to avoid congressional inquiries and to battle the accusations regarding the Zoe Barnes murder in an article written by Tom Hammerschmidt (Boris McGiver).  He has however successfully suppressed the publication of Thomas Yates (Paul Sparks) tell all book by having Claire sleep with him.  

At the end of last season a terrorist called Josh Masterson (Jefferson White) beheaded a man called Miller before going on the run. At the start of this season, Miller's daughter publicly blames the President for his death at the funeral. She also hopes Frank dies and this wife, Vice Presidential candidate and current First Lady Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) will become President instead.  In response to the terrorist attack, Frank declared war on terrorism, whips up a climate of hate, fear and eavesdropping on family and colleagues, and has severely restricted immigration.  Secretary of State Catherine Durant (Jayne Atkinson) speaks to the chaos this is causing. 

Conroy decides not to oppose the declaration of war but wants to focus on the article's accusations against Frank.  However he is aghast when his wife Hannah (Dominique McElligot) expresses public sympathy with the terrorist and asks for understanding. In response, Claire Underwood speaks to the terrorist's mother, tries to make her take the blame and to show her the video of the beheading. In response Mrs Mastersen publicly asks her son to turn himself in.

Meanwhile Claire's campaign manager Leann Harvey (Neve Campbell) needs Aidan McAllan (Damian Young) to break into the NSA and erase the traces of his previous work designed to track which words and ideas voters responded to by illegally tracking their social media and phone conversations. 

In the final scene, Frank breaks the fourth wall and reveals that he had Joshua Masterson in custody the entire time. 

COMMENTS:  This is the first season of HOC without the original creator, Beau Willamon, as show runner. It's too early to tell how his replacements, playwrights Melissa James Gibson and Frank Pugliese will change the tone but so far it's very similar. The only difference I detected was perhaps even darker cinematography for Frank and Claire from DP David M Dunlap - perhaps reflecting their descent into chaos and fear to distract from their political troubles.  Of course, this series will suffer from real life overtaking fiction.  I found the scene between Cathy and Frank rather too on the nose in criticising Trump's immigration policy. However, it's hard to know how far the show can avoid the overlaps given it's set up of terrorism as a major theme last season.