HOUSE OF CARDS S5 E7 CHAPTER 59 - Plot summary and comments

PLOT SUMMARY: In private, Acting President Claire Underwood and former  President Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) argue about the best strategy to defeat Conway. In front of the Joint Chiefs, they once again argue about taking out a suspected terrorist. 

Republican presidential candidate Will Conway (Joel Kinnaman) looks fragile. His campaign manager Mark Usher (Campbell Scott) is protecting him from appearances.  Conway's wife suspects that Usher really favours the VP candidate Brockaw.

Leann Harvey (Neve Campbell) speaks with Secretary of State Catherine Durant  about Aidan McAllan (Damian Young) and Cathy suspects that Aidan has dirt on the Underwoods. Cathy then introduces Leann to Jane Davies (Patricia Clarkson) the deputy secretary for commerce. Almost immediately, the President and Acting President, Cathy and Jane are put under lockdown because of a missing truck carrying nuclear waste i.e. a dirty bomb.  As a result, the two state election is postponed without the press being informed why.  Jane offers to ask her contacts about the bomb.  Claire is suspicious as to her level of security clearance. Jane then makes a phone call in private in Arabic and appears to offer Claire the terrorist.   Frank gets out of the bunker and confronts one of the Generals who chose to stay above ground. He accuses her of being involved in a coup and faking the terror threat.  Immediately, Claire gets a call saying the truck has been found and it was simply an accident.  Later, Frank is given photographs of speechwriter Tom Yates (Paul Sparks) having sex with the White House tour guide in the press room.

Meanwhile Tom Hammerschmidt's sidekick starts interviewing the woman Chief of Staff Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly) is sleeping with, while Tom (Boris McGiver) follows up other leads. Doug realises the investigation has resumed. 

Finally the Underwoods meet with Mark Usher.  Realising his part in the attempted coup given his ties to Vice Presidential candidate Brockaw, they play him a recording of Brockaw apparently saying he would not obey an order from President Underwood to put soldiers on the ground.

COMMENTS: Well it appears that Patricia Clarkson is the hinge upon which this series turns.  At last, a potentially interesting, powerful and slippery antagonist for the Underwoods.  Also we get a great Underwood victory in the final scene.  Bravo!

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 EP 3 CHAPTER 55 - Plot summary and comments

PLOT SUMMARY: It's the day before the Presidential election.  We open on a campaign ad for Republican Presidential candidate Governor Will Conway (Joel Kinnaman). It outlines the heroic act of valour that won him military honours.  Will then accuses President Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) of failing to keep the country safe in a live stream.  A public questioner asks why the terrorist Josh Masterson wanted to talk to Will and why he only managed to negotiate the release of Mrs Miller and the daughter rather than the husband who was then beheaded.  A survivor of the attack calls in but can't get Conway to admit that he lied about the event in Afghanistan. We realise that the Underwoods campaign manager Leann Harvey (Neve Campbell) is behind it, but with little apparent success. Conway also brings a new manager on board - Mark Usher (Campbell Scott.)

First lady and Vice Presidential candidate Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) addresses a campaign rally. She then joins Frank for another one. He's losing his voice but refuses her help in a patronising manner. Back on Air Force One, Claire receives information from the Secret Service that the sleeping Frank asked for on a suspicious looking man in the crowd.   Once landed, Secretary of State Cathy Durant (Jayne Atkinson) gives Frank four options of people to arrest that could be the ICO terrorist.  He is reluctant to arrest the wrong person on election day. Doug then brings him information on Conway's "heroic" act.  Much later, Claire wakes up to see Frank awake and fully dressed.  He phones Conway to say he shouldn't feel ashamed about whatever happened in Afghanistan. 

Meanwhile Chief of Staff Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly) chides the ex-Vice President and now Governor in a swing state for failing to implement voter centres.  Stamper accuses him of making excuses and lying and he agrees to comply.  Later Doug has a casual hook up but she leaves because he's not present in the room.

The morning of the elections, campaign manager Leann Harvey (Neve Campbell) gets the early numbers and they're not good for the Underwoods. Nonetheless they are defiant.

COMMENTS: Given that this was the pre-election episode I found it frustrating and dull. The Underwoods didn't really have anything on Conway who is bland as a antagonist.  They are basically united.  The pullback to Claire's lover in her bed is no longer shocking as we are used to their open marriage.  The testimony of the press secretary came to nothing. And there are no consequences to the IT attack yet.  A complete non episode with the exception of a rather nice and creepy tracking shot round the corner of Doug's bedroom. The theme of frustration continues - both in terms of Doug's hookup's sexual frustration and Claire's political frustration at not being Veep yet, and one suspects, not being President yet. 

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.

HOUSE OF CARDS - S4E13 - Chapter Fifty Three

Thoughts:  Notably this is the only chapter of this season written by series creator Beau Willimon. So I guess this sets us up for the House of Cards tumbling in season 5? Is that the last season?  Altogether it feels like this season didn't really have a coherent story arc to itself. It started off as Frank vs Claire. It then became Frank and Claire vs Conway and Tom Hammerschmidt.  I felt we suffered from not having enough of the top drawer writers and directors from the first two seasons involved. You could absolutely tell Beau Willimon's hands weren't on the typewriter. We learn that it's three weeks to the election and the Underwoods are going to "make time" to fight.  The final exchange is chilling and the delicious irony of Frank echoing Obama is the kind of high level dark wit we'd come to expect from this series but all too rarely got this season.

"I'm done trying to win over people's hearts," says Claire.

"Let's attack their hearts," replies Frank.

"We can work with fear."

"Yes we can." 

Similarly, the final line of the season is operating on a level of darkness and Machiavellian genius that we should've been operating on for the entire season.

"That's right. We don't submit to terror. We make the terror."

Running time: 55 minutes. Written by Beau Willimon. Directed by Jakon Verbruggen.

Detailed and spoiler filled plot summary:

HOUSE OF CARDS - S4E12 - Chapter Fifty One

Thoughts:  Perhaps my favourite moment of this entire series is when Hannah Conway asks Claire Underwood if she regrets not having children, and Claire asks if she regrets having them in return.  It's amazing how many mothers feel it's fine to ask that question because it's assumed to be the default setting. I must remember to use that rebuttal in future!  Other than that, I'm suspending judgment on this episode until I've seen the next one because it's evidently meant to be viewed as a tense two-parter.

Running time: 46 minutes.  Written by Laura Eason & Bill Kennedy. Directed by Jakob Verbruggen.

Detailed and spoiler filled plot summary:

HOUSE OF CARDS - S4E11 - Chapter Fifty

Thoughts: Badass Freddy Hays - what a hero - the only man willing to tell the President he's a motherfucker but also to beat up the journalist who would bring him down! But beyond that we get to what is so strangely open and confident in the marriage of Claire and Frank with his offer to keep Tom on. They are a strong enough partnership that it can admit of a menage a trois. But isn't this fascinating ground that we already covered in seasons 1 and 2?  It feels like this series has taken Claire's storyline - that was all about her personal empowerment in season 3 and the first few episode of season 4 - and put her back exactly where she was. She works with and for Frank and he just throws her a live-in plaything to tend to her needs. Is this really the definition of a strong woman in the new millennium?  Even Doug Stamper's growing obsession with Laura Moretti feels rather stale.  With only two episodes left, one wonders where the surprise will be? Is it that Claire will break her partnership if Frank is impeached? All feels rather lacklustre. 

Running time: 51 minutes.Written by Tian Jun Gu. Directed by Kari Skogland.

Detailed and spoiler-filled plot summary:

HOUSE OF CARDS - S4E10 - Chapter Forty Nine

Thoughts: Hugely disappointed with this episode and the direction the writers chose to take the relationship between Claire and her mother. Just as the wall graffiti moment between Meechum and Frank felt forced, this scene felt utterly unearned and out of keeping with the tone of the rest of the show. Cue the swell of violins. Just cheap writing.

Running time: 56 minutes. Written by Melissa James Gibson & Kenneth Lin.  Directed by Robin Wright.

Detailed and spoiler-filled plot summary:

HOUSE OF CARDS - S4E9 - Chapter Forty Eight

Thoughts: Ok so this episode improves with a predictable but still fun plot twist keeping the machinations going. But more importantly we see an interesting psycho-emotional dynamic playing out between Claire Underwood and Tom Yates - and it's the emotional side that was so good in season 3. I'm back on board after a very weak episode 8. 

Running time: 45 minutes. Written by Frank Pugliese.  Directed by Robin Wright.

Detailed and spoiler-filled plot summary:

HOUSE OF CARDS - S4E8 - Chapter Forty-Six

Thoughts: This is the first episode I've been genuinely bored of. Where's the scabrous dark Francis Underwood of season 3, swearing in a Church, and the nuanced and even darker emotional breakdown between husband and wife. Instead we now have the scooby gang solving the crisis of the week as if they're in an episode of Scandal.  Literally the only interesting thing that happened - narratively or stylistically - was when the actor playing Aidan Macallan did the most gonzo TV dance scene since Ricky Gervais in The Office!

Running time: 42 minutes.  Written by John Makiewisz. Directed by Alex Graves.

Detailed and spoiler-filled plot summary:

HOUSE OF CARDS - S4E7 - Chapter Forty Six

Thoughts: I am really upset that so much hard emotional and difficult and brilliant narrative work in season 3 that focussed on the breakdown of the Underwood marriage seems to have been undone by a deus ex machina plot-line so that we are now basically back to contra mundum Underwoods. This is far more dull and basically series 1 stuff.  I am also incredulous that Democratic nominee Heather Dunbar would judge that she couldn't come back from the mistakes made in the previous week and it feels rather quick and shoddy and done to allow room for us to focus on President Frank Underwood's GOP opponent, Governor Conroy. Clumsy and dull.

Running time: 51 minutes. Written by Bill Kennedy. Directed by Tom Shankland.

HOUSE OF CARDS - S4E6 - Chapter Forty Five

Thoughts: A strange episode and I'm not sure I like where the show is heading with Claire's story arc. Where are the feisty woman she was surrounding herself with? Where's Elizabeth and Leann? Has all of the angst of the previous five episodes been for nothing? Has the major plot-line with Frank reset everything?  I also feel the dream sequences are poorly done and very simplistic and heavy-handed in what they tell us about Frank's psyche. Compare them with the masterful, surreal and darkly comic dreams that Tony Soprano had when in a coma. Disappointing all round.

Running time: 47 minutes.  Written by Laura Easland. Directed by Tom Shankland.

Detailed and spoiler filled plot summary:

HOUSE OF CARDS - S4E5 - Chapter Forty Four

Thoughts: A solid if unspectacular episode. I like the idea that we're bringing back some of the journalists that initially covered Frank's malfeasance, such as Kate Baldwin, and that his good luck of evading justice will perhaps finally come to an end and Lucas Goodwin's sacrifice will actually mean something. I also  really like the increasing glimpses we're getting of Doug Stamper's true psychotic nature.  That said, I still don't find the Jackie Sharp/Remy storyline particularly interesting and I wonder how realistic it is that the Acting President could sit there IM chatting with someone during a secret diplomatic phonecall.

Running time: 47 minutes. Written by Melissa James Gibson. Directed by Tom Shankland.

Detailed and spoiler-filled plot summary:

HOUSE OF CARDS - S4E4 - Chapter Forty Three

Thoughts: A short episode but an explosive one that was literally exhausting to watch. I loved the desperation on Lucas' face and the deadening inevitability of the actions taken.  In a sense, it's perhaps surprising that the writers didn't use this plot point before but it's really fantastic to see it thrown in at such a delicate juncture. Because by the end of the episode, Claire basically has what she wants - no? There's also some brilliant comic deadpan dialogue between Claire and Luann: "What's that?" "My mother killing a lizard." And then the final coup de grace: "Watch your step. There's blood on the floor." All in all, I couldn't be happier with the way in which this season is unfolding. My only nitpick is the cloying obviousness of the cutesy moment between Frank and Meechum.

Running time: 41 minutes. Written by John Mankiewicz. Directed by Robin Wright.

Detailed and spoiler-filled plot summary:

HOUSE OF CARDS - S4E2 - Chapter Forty One

Thoughts:  An odd episode with a lot going on and maybe that's understandable for the second episode in the series.  It just didn't feel like it coalesced to me and the short running time suggests that perhaps it suffered from mis-editing? At any rate the big story here is how far Frank will go to stop Claire's candidacy and the final political coup de grace was joyous to watch. Elsewhere I find it hard to care about Remy Danton's retirement and who's stalking him.  But I do like the nuance of Claire's relationship with her mother and the idea that in order to get our from under Frank she will have to become more dependent on her mother.  Burstyn's brilliantly hysterical "I am THE MOTHER!" outburst takes this to the verge of melodrama but let's see how it's handled from now on....

Running time: 40 minutes.  Written by Melissa James Gibbons. Directed by Tucker Gates.

Detailed and clearly spoiler filled plot summary:

HOUSE OF CARDS - S4E1 - Chapter Forty

Thoughts:  The new season of House of Cards starts off just a few weeks behind where we are right now in the US political season - the primaries in Iowa are over with Frank scraping a win - and New Hampshire is happening through this episode.  But for all that, this season feels a bit like a relic given its position that establishment parties cut deals and run races.   We find Frank behind Dunbar in the polls but forced to head to Texas to stalk his wife.  At the end of last season, Claire left Frank but they clearly aren't divorced. Oh no - for this political couple that would waste far too much political capital. Instead she is trying to kick off her White House run by standing for Congress in Texas, replacing an established black female candidate. And so the remainder of the episode sees the Underwoods come to some kind of Cold War agreement not to destroy each other's political ambitions.  

I love the amount of strong female characters that have been introduced in this episode. From Neve Campbell's campaign manager Leann Harvey, to Cicely Tyson's strong Congresswoman Doris Jones, to Claire's formidable mother Elizabeth (Ellen Burstyn).  I really hope we get to explore the issue of race in politics but also the interaction of establishment vs non-establishment candidates too.   Finally, I like the idea that the series started with the Lucas Goodwin story-line, which in a sense is just a variation on the Zoe Barnes storyline.  It's good that this basic Achilles heel to Frank's presidency continues to bubble under the surface, waiting to bring him down.

Running time: 48 minutes. Written by Beau Willimon.  Directed by Tucker Gates

Detailed plot summary: