What I’m Watching: House of Cards

House of Cards: Season 2, Episode 5 “Chapter 18” (B+)

Though he used the private site of his ancestor’s death to conduct an illicit secret meeting, this Civil War tribute did ring true for Frank. A main reason for his drive to succeed and take over the world is that he has a deep sense of patriotism, and asking Augustus to be the one to break ground is extremely telling. Whoever did their research and found his ancestor actually got him the best gift he could have asked for, though he was too dumbfounded upon receipt to realize just how great it was. Feng is quite a formidable nemesis, evidenced most by his treatment of Doug, who he called an alcoholic and an errand boy. By, as usual, manipulating events and lying through his teeth about them, Frank managed to accomplish half of what he wanted and get the President to hang up on him and Raymond, the latter of whom was devastated since it was the first time he had done that in twenty years. Claire is doing a fantastic job of following up on her on-air confession about her rape, bringing in the First Lady to force the army to actually reform its practices. As if Connor wasn’t sharp enough, now we have Seth Grayson, so determined to get a job he wants that he would act preemptively on Claire’s behalf to ensure that she can’t be hurt by evidence of her abortions. Gavin’s handler treating him like a dog was rather uncomfortable, and it’s a shame that Gavin couldn’t get out a better warning before Lucas got himself so swiftly arrested and headed for a dark hole where no one will listen to his story.