The Underwoods were done for, right? They were cornered. ICO (this show's ISIS) became a huge issue in the last two episodes as Frank not only had to deal with a domestic terror situation - with a time table AND a forced partnership with Conway - but also Hammerschmidt's big editorial about Frank's crazed and crooked path to the presidency. Freakin' reprehensible, yet quintessentially Stamper. Then he grossly fixated on the guy's widow and kind of swooped in as a generous donor and nabbed her. He made that woman bump the guy to the number two spot. Maybe because he sort of forced someone else to do it. Granted, this is a guy who's murdered in cold blood.
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YES NO Touching on some more notable moments.Doug basically killing the guy who was next on the liver transplant list in order to save Frank was some next-level s***. And that moment at the end of episode ten, when they all sat down for breakfast together - with Yates as Claire's whole-heartedly accepted lover - was amazing. Drudged up by Conway as a possible weapon against the Underwoods, Yates re-eneted Frank and Claire's lives and wound up getting even closer. Speaking of Yates - who was one of the best parts of Season 3 - he came back in big way in the back half of Season 4. And the loss of Meechum (Nathan Darrow, who can now be seen on Gotham) was woefully wrenching, as not many people were close to the Underwoods. So, particularly, episodes four through six were really engaging. All while also ending Dunbar's presidential run and opening up Tom Hammerschmidt's eyes to the truths he ignored back when Lucas came to him for help two years earlier. Episode 4, pointedly, ended the sleazy, petty bickering between Claire and Frank (as she tried to jump into a congressional seat and he tried to woo her back onto the campaign trail) and put Frank out of commission for a few episodes. Which gave her the taste of control she wanted while also instilling her with confidence.
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And by allowing Claire to, essentially, take the reins of the presidency by subtly seducing (not sexually), and pushing, a weak-willed Blythe (Reed Birney) into a big power move against Petrov. By allowing Frank to sit with vivid hallucinations for weeks and come to the realization that he needed Claire more than she needed him. The first six episodes, in fact, were all about the rift between Frank and Claire and how Frank's near-fatal shooting at the hands of a pushed-to-the-edge Lucas brought them back together. It's all one long campaign trail, sure, but there are pull-out stories that provided more wicked weigh-stations than there were Season 3.
HOUSE OF CARDS SEASON 4 SUMMARY FULL
Back in my full season review, I mentioned how the season was sort of fragmented.