What I’m Watching: House of Cards

House of Cards: Season 3, Episode 3 “Chapter 29” (B+)

It’s rare than an entire episode has pretty much just one focus, with Doug and Gavin occupying a very small portion of the hour in their own intersecting subplots. The two main obstacles standing in the way of the Underwoods achieving what they want – reelection support and ambassador confirmation – seem to have been dealt with for now, with Frank back in control of his objectives without having to think about 2016 and with Claire having to contend with being thought of first as the President’s wife and second as the ambassador, overshadowing the secretary of state who should really be doing most of the speaking herself. Fortunately, that relationship has been smoothed over thanks to a post-vodka round of beer pong which put Claire and Catherine on even footing and allowed them to bond while decompressing. The visiting dignitary certainly ruled the evening, planting a big kiss on Claire and getting the entire White House party to drink several shots of absurdly expensive vodka. While Frank didn’t let the alcohol affect his demeanor, he did lose control of the night. His personal conversation with Petrov was one of the episode’s best moments, and I like that he chose to get his revenge by holding a press conference without his Russian counterpart, throwing him under the bus for ignoring the protesters who poured out their vodka and stormed out of the party. Doug’s new job did seem too good to be true, and it’s clear that he is not prepared to let go of his former post just yet.