So far, House of Cards‘ third season has been uneven at best, but the top-notch episodes all have one thing in common: Viktor fucking Petrov. “Chapter 35” doesn’t rise to the heights of “29” or “32,” but once more the show succeeds by changing scenery and placing itself on a larger, more global scale.
We begin with Frank campaigning in Iowa – which is a beautiful state, by the way, you should visit Dubuque – and right away I applaud HoC for skipping Frank’s announcement of his candidacy. I can infer that it would have earned substantial blowback; I’m sure Heather Dunbar was pissed, Jackie Sharp had to pretend to be surprised, and Kate Baldwin wrote some scathing editorial and probably asked Seth why the president was flip-flopping. I don’t need to see that, I accept that it happened, let’s move the fuck on. Frank is crushing it in Iowa, too, until Claire steps in to tell him that eight Russians have just been killed in the Jordan Valley.
Don’t get me wrong, Claire is vastly more interesting as an Ambassador – even if House of Cards employs a nearly fetishistic approach to showing her doing paperwork while wearing glasses, which she does in seemingly every episode – but until now, this Jordan Valley business has never really resonated with me. Of course, with approximately fifty storylines going at any one time, it can be hard to keep track of what’s going on and why it’s important (uh, probably a bad thing for a reviewer to admit).
But “Chapter 35” does a good job of explaining just why this is becoming such a big deal. When talking to Alexei, Claire picks up what he’s putting down: the Russians killed their own men to have an excuse to leave the Valley. Which, yeah, obviously Petrov did that because it’s something Putin would do and those two are pretty much in lock-step. Anyway, Frank’s attempt to investigate the blast site goes awry when surprised Russians open fire on the Americans; footage is leaked to the Israelis, and when they deploy troops, Hamas and Hezbollah in Palestine vow to round up militias if Israelis cross the border. It’s a well-done slow burn, directed by Robin Wright, Claire Underwood herself, and does a good job of showing just how quickly everything can become a shitshow.
Speaking of a shitshow: Doug Stamper. He was one on here, and I party pretty hard, but I’ve never been “drunk in front of the president” drunk. Maybe one day. #SquadGoals. The reason he’s on such a bender is that Gavin has located Rachel Posner, and she’s dead. Michael Kelly has just been crushing Doug’s downward spiral this season, and he clearly relishes the opportunity to show the man at his worst. Which, believe me, he is. His brother shows up near the episode’s end to help him, and I really hope he does, because I don’t want to see Doug’s foreshadowing bear fruit (he tells Frank, “I won’t go out like Peter Russo”).
One last thing: it’s nice to know that House of Cards can still pull off a “holy shit” moment three seasons in, when we’ve already seen the president commit two murders and piss on his father’s grave. But Frank’s phone call to Dunbar was terrifying, and you can see it dawn on her that she really doesn’t know who she’s fucking with. He chastises her for working Doug too hard, and tells her that if she does anything to hurt him, “I will put you in your fucking grave.” Maybe it’s because Frank doesn’t swear all that often, so when he does, it really lands. Or maybe Kevin Spacey is just really scary at times.
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