‘House of Cards’ Recap: “Chapter 22”

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.

“The road to power is paved with casualties,” Frank Underwood tells us near the end of “Chapter 22.” And while the show has done an excellent job of demonstrating both the metaphorical and literal casualties of Frank Underwood’s rise to power (RIP Corey Stoll), rarely has it slowed down long enough to address the various personal sacrifices he has to make in order to survive the ride.

Tusk first takes aim at Claire, leaking her dalliance with Adam Galloway to the press. Of course, compared to the other Underwood indiscretions that have piled up over the past 22 episodes, this one seems relatively minor, and the team reacts with an appropriate amount of annoyance. After convincing Adam to play ball, Claire effectively throws him under the bus by taking an opposite stance with the press.

It’s a smart move, a nice subversion of the expected route, though lying to Adam about the plan ultimately ends up complicated things in the long run. Already smarting from this deception, Galloway is approached by Remy Danton, leveraging the life of the photog’s future Colombian father-in-law (who rather conveniently has just become a thing) to get him to release further proof of his affair with Claire.

Hey everyone, let’s stop taking intimate pictures of people while they’re asleep or in the shower!

From here we get to see a little of Seth Grayson in action, as he begins to expertly spin the situation in ways that would probably only really work in whatever crazy world where Candy Crawley would take the time to interview lady.

Really not sure why Seth needed to drag Stephanie Daldry (professional model) around to recite one single line of dialogue for this plan to work, but good on Stephanie for getting that TV credit, I guess.

By episode’s end, the Underwoods come through for Galloway and save his future father-in-law, but in return ask Adam to crawl back under the same bus he found himself under at the beginning of the episode and paint himself as a liar and general drama addict in the press.

While Adam Galloway has never cut a particularly engaging dramatic figure on this show, his presence here is a welcome one as the show uses it to peel back a few more layers of Frank and Claire’s complicated relationship. While neither has had any romantic distractions this season, revisiting Claire’s connection to Adam is a great way for Beau Willimon to solidify, if not their fidelity, their allegiance to one another. If there was any question why a woman like Claire would choose a life with Frank over one with Galloway, it’s answered in one glorious look from Claire as she watches Frank destroy any illusions Galloway might be holding on to about the nature of his relationship with Claire.

I haven’t been 100% on the Robin Wright bandwagon while watching this show, but that’s an Emmy worthy look, y’all.

While Claire is the intended victim, it is Galloway who ends up as collateral damage in the Underwood’s ongoing war with Tusk. And while I’m sure Claire would have rather forgotten about Adam altogether (join the club, Claire), he’s not someone Claire has much trouble pushing into the crossfire when she needs to, nor is he one I imagine elicited much sympathy from the viewing audience. Not so with the episode’s other major casualty: poor, ever loyal, tragic Freddy.

When they introduced the franchise plot two episodes ago, it was clear things would not end well. By the laws of the contemporary primetime drama, anything positive happening in the life of a tertiary character could only spell doom for that character. And predictably, the last minute build up of Freddy was only a way for the show to make it hurt all the more when Tusk sets out to destroy him.

Reg Cathey has been a real pleasure in his various appearances as Freddy, and it’s a shame the show has dispatched with him like this, with the plotting for both his potential franchise and the reunion with his estranged son feeling rushed and sloppy. Beau Willimon, who penned this episode, had obviously been watching a lot of The Wire in preparation for the scenes between Freddy and his son, and they were about as cringe worthy as one might expect.

Despite any reservations I may have with the storyline, Freddy’s final goodbye with Frank may have been the most emotionally fraught scene the show has managed outside of Peter Russo’s storyline last season. However it doesn’t benefit from the careful build up the latter received. Willimon must have sensed this and seems to have attempted to play catch up in the span of two episodes, but it feels unnecessary. Frank has always been distinctly warm and human with Freddy in a way he isn’t able to be with any other character. Stripping Freddy of a promising franchise and a renewed relationship with his son ends up becoming overkill one doesn’t often see outside of a Greek tragedy.

On the flipside, the show has been showing remarkable restraint when it comes to Aayla Sayyad. Attempting to make up for the various offenses against journalism they committed with Zoe Barnes, their less-is-more approach to Sayyad is turning out to be very effective. Case in point: Sayyad has had approximately a quarter of the screen time Zoe received, yet I feel like I have a better, more consistent understanding of who this person is and her resolve is more believably threatening than the entire combined effort of Zoe, Lucas, and Janine on their best day.

It helps that she seems to care about actual, y’know, journalism.

Even if they somehow manage to bungle the execution of the genuinely interesting plot thread they’ve managed to subtly insert into all the madness this season, Sayyad will have proved her worth if for nothing else, then allowing them to demonstrate how terrifying Raymond Tusk can be.

His scene with Sayyad seemed to allow them to finally lean into all the potential Tusk has had as a genuinely alarming threat. While Tusk has always had the faintest air of danger to him, his implicit threat to Sayyad hinted at how unhinged Tusk could get, something that goes beyond the sort of calculating menace we’ve seen from Frank.

While this show may not be subtle, it certainly finds a way to sometimes strike a balance between operatic weirdness and genuine terror. I don’t even like birds, and I still found this to be disturbing in a way watching Frank murder two humans wasn’t.

Now that Tusk has managed to score a few wounds on the Underwoods, and Sayyad is close to piecing together the Underwood/Tusk connection (dibs on this as a band name), the show is beginning to pick up steam. Tusk just made things personal, and with Frank appropriately terrified/proud of Claire’s righteous anger, I’m positively tingling with anticipation to see what their next move is. Hopefully it somehow involves Cashew.
 
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Photos: Netflix