EPISODE 312: “Chapter 38”
Let’s make a nickname for Season 3. How about “House of Cards: The Patchy Chapters”? That sounds good, because if this season were a quilt, it’d be patchier than a front lawn mowed by a 10-year-old whose arms barely reach the handle, and this is no more crystal clear than in this penultimate season closer, “Chapter 38.”
The aftermath of the previous episode’s debate is rocky, and all three candidates are sprawling. Jackie tries to cope with her her remaining feeling for Remy Danton (they share a tender scene in which we get see knew sides of them both), and Claire and Frank try to deal with a sudden threat from Heather Dunbar – that Claire lied about having an abortion(s), and she’s got a journal to prove it.
After Tom Yates finally hands Frank the first chapter of the AmWorks book they’d both been working on for so long, Frank is horrified to discover it’s essentially hatchet job – a takedown piece of sorts, more about the Underwoods’ marriage and personal history than policy, and without a moment’s hesitation, Frank fires him. This for once, was interesting twist. For a while, the AmWorks book storyline seemed to be going nowhere – every now and again, we’d cut back to it with no real rhyme or reason, and in the last episode, when Claire made a lightheaded confession to Yates, it was inevitable that something bad would come of it, and this was both a reasonable, and valid conclusion. Of course, Frank just made another enemy for himself, but at this point in the series, that’s nothing new.
Early in the episode, while trailing along on the campaign trail, Claire visits a woman named Susan who claims to be a supporter of Dunbar. As she tries to sway her, the conversation becomes very candid – they begin talking about relationships, and things get a tad too frank. An extremely similar scene to that of Claire’s confession in the previous episode, this scene seems a bit forced. The writers seem to be forcing Claire’s character development down our throats in the latter part of this season, and even if the scenes themselves are alright, the scope of the whole thing grows tiresome rather quickly.
Later, Doug returns to the White House once again, this time to burn up with a lighter the journal entry Dunbar had threatened the Underwoods with earlier. This is followed by yet again another one of Doug’s rhetorics about how he’s done all of this for Frank, and how he’s still loyal. We heard practically the same speech 2 episodes ago, and this time around, it’s practically gruntworthy. Are we honestly supposed to believe Doug would take his trickery this far? Not only does it not at all match Doug’s character/personality, but it simply doesn’t make any sense, and it comes off as really desperate writing. One of the good parts of this scene however, comes at the end when Doug puts Frank in direct phone contact with Dunbar, and Frank’s only uttered words “Go fuck yourself.” This was not only a long time coming, but hilarious and very rewarding to watch.
The episodes closes with Claire and Frank in the beginning of…BIG SURPRISE…another argument!! I bet you didn’t see that coming. It closes with Claire stating that they’ve been lying to another (no shit, really?) and it cuts to black, attempting to build suspense for the finale. At this point, Frank and Claire’s arguments have become exhausting — they fight, and then they’re ok, then they fight, and then they’re ok, then they fight, and then they’re ok again — you get the jist. It’s become crippling, and rather than gripping the edges of the couch in suspense, audiences will probably be rolling their eyes instead.
As an episode, “Chapter 38” is not altogether terrible, but it is a bit of a disappointment. The twists are forced and contrived (as most of them have been this season), the writing is bordering on an unfortunate triteness, and in the end, it doesn’t possess the level of quality or the elements of greatness an episode of this caliber probably should.
Here’s hoping the season 3 finale is among this season’s best, and we can only cross our fingers that it will be the redeeming factor of this patchy new age of House of Cards.
Overall rating: 6.5/10
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