Photo courtesy of theatlantic.com
House of Cards’ third season opens with a shot of a flashing yellow light hung high above a small town street. Yellow means slow down.
It’s a message that could easily be directed at Frank Underwood, now president of the United States. Underwood has gotten to this point in his life — driving in a presidential motorcade down a road in his small hometown underneath a flashing yellow light — by going very fast. His path to the presidency has been an efficient one littered with the discarded aspirations (and, in some cases, corpses) of countless others.
It’s also a message that could be directed at me, lowly recapper of this wildly popular show. Last year, I watched the entire second season in one weekend and tried to fit all of my emotions into one article to run that Monday. It was an experience that was both thrilling (there’s nothing better than wondering what will happen next and then just finding out) and arduous (13 hours is a lot of hours, especially when they are filled with complex political storylines.)
This year, I needed to slow down. So I will watch each episode (at a fairly quick pace, but nothing resembling last year) and recap them here, running them for the next couple of weeks. These post-episode writing breaks will hopefully allow each episode to marinate in my mind for a while, preventing the intrigue, excitement and drama of what is sure to be an exhilarating season from becoming the blur that it did last February.
The one moment that does not get caught up in the blur of last season came in its very first episode. It was the moment everyone started talking immediately after they saw it, the big scene that announced that House of Cards was back. Yes, it was when Frank killed Zoe.
This season, the show once again embraces a bit of shock value at its commencement. That small town road leads Frank to a cemetery where he is to pay respects to his late father. His motorcade gives him some privacy, allowing the most powerful man in the world to walk alone up a hill and out of sight en route to the headstone.
It is here that Frank first turns to the camera, breaking the fourth wall as he so often does. Last season, it wasn’t until the final scene of the first episode that he did this, a decision that had chilling effects (“Did you think I had forgotten you?” he asked). This time, he brings us into his dark mind right away, saying that he’s only at the grave because he has to seem human and “you have to be a little human when you’re the president.” He explains that his father died a poor man with no respect and says that this is not the way he intends to go out.
“When they bury me, it won’t be in my backyard and when they pay respects, they’ll have to wait in line,” he says.
Then, Frank Underwood unzips his pants and pisses on the grave of his dead father.
Welcome to House of Cards season three.
The grave-pissing sets the tone for a dark episode — one that places us in the Underwood presidency a few months into a rocky start. But this is not where we spend the majority of episode one. Instead, the story follows former chief of staff Doug Stamper, who is somehow alive. At the end of season two, many assumed he had died in the woods after being hit in the head with a brick by former prostitute-turned-all-out-political-mess Rachel. Stamper is severely injured, but through many cringe-inducing scenes of physical therapy, he gets back to a point of somewhat stable health.
The decision to bring Stamper back may upset some viewers who see a back-from-the-brink-of-death storylines as a trope only employed by much lesser shows. But the reality is, season two turned House of Cards from a maybe somehow — in some world — plausible drama, to a fantasy landscape of treasonous betrayal and enthralling but unbelievable storylines. It is now in a place where questioning reason or convention will only distract you from the real value on screen. So Stamper coming back is great in that it will surely provide us with some juicy side-plots. I say side-plots because although I enjoyed the good amount of screen time he got here (more than half of the episode), Frank needs to remain the focus going forward. There are not many characters on television right now that are as fun to watch as he is, and hopefully the show realizes this.
But right now, things are not going Frank’s way. Despite being in office for only a couple of months, his approval rating is extremely low. His early failures are highlighted by an appearance on The Colbert Report when Colbert absolutely skewers him. Frank tries to respond to these criticisms, ones that are certainly held by most of America if Colbert is to be believed, by talking up his new jobs program: America Works. Underwood says that the program is much more than just a large-scale attempt to save face by re-election time in 2016; it is a landmark piece of work that has the “scope and size of the New Deal” and aims at full employment in two years. It’s clear that Frank’s efforts to get this program off the ground by any means necessary will be a key issue going forward.
Claire, everyone’s favorite modern version of Lady Macbeth, already has her own goals set, too. She wants a UN nomination from her husband, one that he promised her before he took office. But Frank is hesitant to comply, citing the fact that, if the choice gets vetoed by Congress, it could be a disaster. But this is Claire Underwood we’re talking about — the woman has ice in her veins. She won’t take no for an answer. So in the middle of the night, she wakes her husband and says that she wants the nomination this week. End of story. She has political aspirations of her own apparently and this is the first step.
Frank wants to show her the pressures of political office, so when he gets a call from his defense team that same night about an emergency situation, he takes her with him. In the situation room, Frank must make a call on whether to order an airstrike on a location that may house a terrorist but may also house children. In the end, he approves the strike as Claire watches on. As they leave, she says that the pressure and guilt he showed her doesn’t dissuade anything. Like her husband, Claire doesn’t seem to care about the blood she needs to get on her hands in order to get what she wants.
Sidenotes:
– It’s interesting to see the dynamic between Stamper and Frank after all that recovery time. It’s clear that Stamper is no longer in the minuscule circle of Frank’s trust as he used to be, which makes him just another pawn. The balancing act Stamper must pull between his own vices (including a possible addiction to prescription pain meds on the horizon) and the road back to the president’s good graces could become a big storyline.
– Remy Danton replaces Stamper as Frank’s chief of staff, but it’s too early to tell how much Frank trusts such a shifty character.
– The storyline of the first lady with her own political future in mind is very Hillary-esque.
– In a completely different vein, this show cannot put Claire bedside at a hospital without creating a breeding ground for weird, sexual jokes. So just stop doing it.
– Episode one was a nice balance of big picture presidency stuff and slow-burning character development, one that bodes well for the rest of what should be an exciting season. Be sure to follow along with the recaps to join me for the ride.
