By the final scene, she’s wearing all black.įrank has a vivid, gruesome fever dream of beating Claire - the sound in this sequence is so brutal, it’s actually easier to get through it if you cover your ears instead of covering your eyes - and he’s woken, gently, by his one-time threesome buddy Meechum. As the episode progresses and Claire reveals her dark ambitions to more and more people, her wardrobe follows suit. The fact that Claire is, as potential campaign manager Leann (Neve Campbell) puts it, “lily white,” is among the biggest obstacles between her and the congressional seat she desires. Both Claire and her mother are wearing all white for the first half of the episode. All the furniture in Elizabeth’s house is covered with white sheets, as if the whole place is closed for business and its only residents are ghosts. With Claire, we get some of that classic House of Cards imagery, the symbolism that’s about as subtle as Ben Affleck’s back tattoo.
Frank is surrounded by cheering crowds and chaos. Vibe-wise, it seems like Burstyn is going for “marginally less creepy than what she was up to in Flowers in the Attic.” Which is a great choice.Įverything in Claire’s world is almost eerily quiet.
Once it became clear that we would, in fact, meet Claire’s mom, I wrote in my notes: WILL WE MEET THE COLD-BLOODED GENIUSES WHO SIRED THIS CHEEKBONE UNICORN? The casting gods bless us with Ellen Burstyn as Elizabeth, who is distant, formal, and still disdainful of Frank after all these years. Also, she’s crashing at her childhood estate where her mother still lives. Meanwhile, Claire is in Dallas, allegedly “laying groundwork for the primary,” but really gearing up for a run of her own. When he gets to that line in public, he skips right over it like it never belonged there in the first place. We watch him stumble behind the scenes, mispronouncing words and boldly scribbling out a scripted reference to his wife, though clearly rattled by it, as he workshops something better to say. These scenes cut back and forth between Frank’s private and public selves. How does the roomie feel about this X-rated storytime? “Damn, you’re good with words.”Īs for the characters you probably care more about, Frank is exactly where we left him: He is running for reelection and Claire isn’t taking his calls.įrank actually points when he speaks, failing to employ the standard politician “ thist.” If I were to make a list of reasons why Frank is unlikeable, this wouldn’t necessarily rank high - he’s murdered a lot of people and at least one dog - but it’s an odd fumble for someone who is supposed to be so calculating and hyperaware of the optics of everything he does. This, one assumes, is the reason why the episode opens with Lucas narrating some pornography for his bunkmate, who is jerking off beneath him. And how does it distinguish itself from all the gritty prison dramas that came before it? By being EVEN GRITTIER. This miniature gritty prison drama is living inside House of Cards like a Russian nesting doll. He’s serving a ten-year sentence for cyberterrorism, an interesting life choice he made under the guidance of one Gavin Orsay (who skipped town/America), owner of the beloved Cashew (who is in a better place and, miraculously, is still alive). Lucas, whom you may remember as the editor-turned-sometimes-boyfriend of Zoe Barnes (also R.I.P.), is in prison. So begins “Chapter 40,” the first episode of the fourth season.
Where, oh where, shall we find the soul wounded enough to fill this vital set piece? He is in Frank’s inner circle once again - I’d say he’s out of the darkness, but everything on this show is lit so gloomily there’s barely any light to be found, even when the spotlight of Frank’s affection shines on you - and this leaves a Sadness Cave vacancy. Doug Stamper has been liberated from his Sadness Cave, where he spent the first half of last season recovering from injuries sustained after Rachel (R.I.P.) tried to beat him to death with a rock. In House of Cards, Sadness Caves are never created nor destroyed they only change form and occupant.
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