House of Cards
Frank Underwood is so screwed.
Everyone told him not to take money from FEMA to fund America Works, his gargantuan jobs program/only hope at re-election. They said, what if a storm comes, a real emergency? Nothing can stop a natural disaster — not even you, Frank. People will die. But Frank didn’t listen. He stuck his hand into the cookie jar as many times as he could, with hopes that it would let him hold onto the one thing that was keeping him going. But now Frank’s hope must be destroyed by faith — Hurricane Faith.
It bares down on the eastern seaboard as one big cluster of karma for Frank. FEMA needs that money back. They need it to save lives. Frank’s all about good business, and dead bodies are the worst business. Any hope he has of getting re-elected will get destroyed the moment the east coast does without FEMA’s money to protect it. So the question is this: does Frank sign a new bill proposed by Congress that would allow $10 billion to be put toward the storm efforts but restrict him from ever taking money from FEMA for AmWorks again? Or does he cling to his stubbornness in hopes that the storm will miss and AmWorks can stay on track?
“Chapter 34” is a succinct episode, the shortest of season three at only 43 minutes. But in that short time, it accomplishes one simple goal: Give Frank, and in turn the viewers, one hell of a dilemma. AmWorks had been working so far, putting people in D.C. (like Freddy) back to work. Frank meets up with his favorite rib-cooker at the White House as he ponders whether to sign the bill or not. He offers him a job at the White House, as the end of AmWorks would mean Freddy being released from his new job. Frank reluctantly signs the bill, knowing that no matter what, his old friend is taken care of, and realizing that not even he is stronger than a hurricane.
But, in a predictable turn of events that was still somehow wildly entertaining, the hurricane misses. It’s always fun to see angry Frank, especially when the subject of his ire is something incomprehensibly selfish. The hurricane missing the east coast means that thousands will live who may not have if it had hit, but it also means that America Works died for nothing. All the secretive hope of re-election Frank had pinned to that act is also gone. Once again, President Underwood is in a corner. What else is new?
But where would this show be if Frank Underwood wasn’t such a relentless son-of-a-gun? Instead of folding amid such a big political mess, he pushes all his chips to the center. He is officially going to run for re-election. He will use Congress pulling the plug on America Works as his catalyst and he will enter the ring with Heather Dunbar.
“A vote for Frank Underwood is a vote for America Works,” he says.
This means a lot of things for the Underwood administration. All that talk of the work taking precedence over re-election must go. Reckless Frank who gets things done must go. He’s back to being a ladder-climber but this ladder’s different. It’s built in part by a popular election. Frank Underwood is now a man at the mercy of the people for the first time in a long time.
Sidenotes:
– This episode also held a huge development for Stamper. All those questions of where his allegiance really lies, to either Dunbar or Frank, can be settled. This is a man who will forever be committed to Frank Underwood. It’ll be interesting to see how far he can get into Dunbar’s inner circle before she figures that out.
– The whole voice-over juxtaposition of the awful article written by Kate Baldwin (no facts, all glorious speculation) and the prologue of the AmWorks book being read by Yates (in his awful monotone voice) was supposed to be a nice touch to this episode, but really fell flat.
– And to make matters worse with those two, they hooked up. 1. Worst couple ever. 2. Please make them go away.
– This episode will surely serve as an axel for the season, letting Frank get back to his original goal of re-election instead of worrying about dumb stuff like policy and the fate of his nation.
