What I’m Watching: House of Cards

House of Cards: Season 4, Episode 5 “Chapter 44” (B+)

It’s strange to have a whole hour of this show that doesn’t feature Frank as a functional character. It was especially eerie to see Frank hallucinating what had to have been a version of Meechum undressing for him and preparing to shoot him while he was unconscious and only Claire and Doug were by his side. With him out for the count, those two were completely fiercely to execute what they thought was best. Claire definitely won in that department, scoring Donald’s eternal loyalty by playing to what she knew he wanted to hear and, honestly, treating him nicely and like a person. Doug’s attempts to ensure that he was falling in line failed miserably, and instead he seemed like he was going off the deep end, nearly poking out Seth’s eye and offering to donate his own kidney despite his alcoholism. Seth keeping his job by throwing Dunbar under the bus was a major power play, and it’s hard to imagine how she’ll be able to recover from that. Remy made an abrupt return to the political scene after Claire sent Leann to make sure he knew what she would do if he didn’t cooperate, and Raymond Tusk entering the Oval Office was not what Doug wanted to see on the president’s behalf. Kate is taking on the role of the intrepid reporter formerly occupied by Lucas and Zoe, and while she’s a great character, she really should fear for her life a lot more than her current attitude would indicate.