What I’m Watching: House of Cards

House of Cards: Season 2, Episode 4 “Chapter 17” (B+)

This episode used an unexpected and ultimately irrelevant event to sequester its characters, enabling Frank to spend some time with a sworn enemy and prohibiting him from being able to be at Claire’s side, which opened up a monstrous can of worms. Those who were gung-ho about voting for Robin Wright for a Golden Globe will surely want to give her an Emmy now after she coolly and calmly revealed that she had in fact been pregnant before, and that she had an abortion because she had been raped, by a man whose name she announced on live television with the whole country watching. Though it was hard to read Frank’s face while he had his eyes glued to the screen, it doesn’t seem like he was all that surprised by what she said, and so this might just be the latest Underwood family ploy to manipulate others into liking and respecting them. Donald was a formidable foe for Frank, far from content to accept his appeasement. It’s impossible to know if Frank actually does feel for Donald and his poor wife, but something tells me he did manage to eke out a tiny bit of emotion. Frank wasn’t actually the fiercest lobbyist in this hour, an honor that goes to Jackie, who revealed herself to be cold and cutthroat, ignoring Remy and then gathering as much blank paper as she could to pull a big publicity stunt to shame other dissidents into voting her way. Lucas’ interactions with Gavin had been enough of a strain so far, and it’s not too exciting to discover that Gavin is not all who he says he is and that Lucas is in for a world of hurt.