The third season of House of Cards premieres on Netflix on February 27th, meaning you can watch the first two seasons — each of the 26 episodes — watching one episode per day just in time for the Season Three to drop on the streaming service. Join in with Joel Kim Booster, who will be watching each episode for the first time and recapping them every day.
I screamed.
Perhaps it's my own constant nagging fear of being thrown in front of an oncoming subway train or the claustrophobic framing of the scene itself, but as I watched Frank Underwood commit his second murder of the series (third if you count dogs), flinging Kate Mara's Zoe Barnes in front of an oncoming metro train, I screamed. Out loud. In a crowded room full of concerned people in a shared workspace.
Finally, after writing thousands upon thousands of words wondering if this show would ever lean into the crazy that has always been tiptoeing around the peripheral, it goes full on balls deep. And it feels good, doesn't it?
For the first forty minutes or so of its second season, House of Cards seems to be telling a pretty business-as-usual story. For all of Frank's talk of wanting to start with a clean slate, the show seemed stuck on the same level it left us on last season. Frank is still on the precipice of becoming Vice President, Claire is still embroiled in a lawsuit with Gillian Cole, and the Scoobies (Zoe, Janine, and Lucas) all spend most of their time rehashing the events of the first season. It appeared to me that the show was going to take its time as it did in Season One to turn any of these plots into something watchable. That is until it didn't.
The show takes a subtle, but sharp, left turn midway through the episode when Claire has a face-to-face with Gillian Cole at CWI. Where we last left Claire, it looked like we would be subjected to an agonizing "me want baby" plot and a six-month-long court battle with milquetoast Cole. Instead, Claire makes short work of her pregnant rival by sicking her married baby daddy's spouse on her and stripping her of the health benefits she so desperately needs. After watching a season of Claire flitting about, intimidating Zoe and toying with Adam, I thought this bit of aggressiveness was a big step for the show — and for Claire. But then suddenly, the show shift gears and Claire hands over CWI to Cole and abruptly ends her quest for a child. Just like that, it wipes away two troubling plot threads while simultaneously building on some of that ruthlessness we caught a glimpse of last season.
In a way, this leaves Claire as quite a literal blank slate for the rest of the season, and for the first time since I began trudging through this show I am genuinely interested to see what they'll do with her next. No Adam, no babies, no boring water charities to hold her back.
Maybe the show planned all along on killing Zoe Barnes (more on that in a moment), but Claire's storyline seems like a direct reaction on Beau Willimon's part to address some of the criticism about that character after the first season. A friend recently commented to me that Claire was like a lioness stalking her prey, always ready to pounce. At the time (about midway through Season One), this description seemed like a wild exaggeration at best. It makes sense now, though, as the first real evidence of that Claire Underwood pops up in this episode. As disorientating as this shift was, I hope we get to see more baby-shriveling Claire in the future.
After my frustration with the first season, I took the liberty of perusing the Netflix reviews to find out what people found so engaging about this show. The very first five star review hilariously describes this show as "the most provocative Current, and Real Series with the type of Scandals that happen in Washington I've watched." This person is clearly an idiot, but I have to wonder after which episode they wrote this review? If they still believe that after watching this episode, well… I hope they aren't voting.
Because throwing Zoe in front of that train, planned far in advance or not, is a garbage move. It was thrilling and scary and maybe a little funny (I guess you had to embarrass yourself in a room full of strangers to find it funny), but it was still a garbage move. Sure it was ballsy to off one of their major actors at the top of the sophomore season, but abruptly killing off a vaguely sketched character doesn't have a lot of emotional impact on me as a viewer. Did any of you mourn Zoe Barnes after the initial shock wore off? They could have killed Janine or Lucas, and honestly I probably still would have screamed and only respected them slightly less.
When shows like Game of Thrones kills off a beloved character (say, a sex-crazed bisexual!), we cry because they were a character that we connect with, and care about. Here it looks like they're tossing out a failed rough draft.
That's a relatively minor criticism though, because shit if it wasn't good television despite it all. I have to hand it to Beau Willimon because one of two things occurred here, and he deserves credit either way. Either he used the 26-episode order as a way of tricking everyone into thinking this show was a boringly uneven piece of trash with its first season only to surprise and delight us with an exhilarating piece of trash in its second, or he read the same reviews I did of his first season (after I completed my own viewing, natch) and took some of those criticisms to heart. Either option is impressive in their own ways.
Who knows! Claire's pivot makes me feel like it's the latter, but Frank's first direct address at the episode's end felt so catty and meta, it least indicates that none of these changes were things Willimon just stumbled on.
Speaking of: add that conceit to the list of things I wish they would have thrown in front of that damn train. Did any of you miss your alone time with Frank? At some point last season they became intrusive at best and patronizing at worst.
Get rid of it, along with Stamper and Rachel!
I won't waste space talking about those two, because I'm unsure if that final scene, where Stamper ruthlessly brings Rachel Indian food (a pretty aggressive food to bring someone whose taste you're unfamiliar with) at her new apartment, is the show's way of sweeping that side plot under the rug.
Another open end seems to be the case against Frank Underwood. With Zoe dead and Janine hiding out in Ithaca with her mom, will Lucas continue the investigation? His relationship with Zoe was so hastily drawn, it's not a particularly exciting prospect. Perhaps if he somehow manages to involve 50 Shades (who's working in the White House now?), it would add a necessary layer of depth to that story. Either way, I feel it necessary to mention, Sebastian Arcelus is not the new Corey Stoll.
Hopefully they're gone for good, because there's room to be made for new character Jackie Sharp. A third term congresswoman Frank taps to take his spot as whip, she is seemingly being presented as an interesting contrast to Frank. A war veteran, Jackie is willing to go as far as necessary to get the job done. But unlike Frank, she's affected by the lives she's been forced to take. With a record clean of leverage for Frank to use in the future, I'm excited to see if the show will position her as an ally or adversary for the new Vice President as we move through the second season. No matter what, it's comforting to know that if she doesn't work out, there is always another train coming.
I can't end this write up without talking about my favorite sycophantic sex robot Edward Meechum. That tension is still alive and well here (trick didn't exactly seem broken up about Zoe Barnes), and the newest agent of the Secret Service even goes so far as to pick up Frank some cufflinks for his birthday. And nothing says "we will see these two character hook up by season's end" like some tasteful man jewelry.
Willimon has never been particularly subtle with his imagery, and it doesn't look like that's changed here either, leaving us with a close up of Meechum's birthday present. Or, as they're rendered here, the letters FU.
Oh, is that directed at people like me? I'm fine with that, as long as show continues to make me scream in public places.
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Photos: Netflix
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