Just finished the season, im confused about one thing:
Whats up with that guy LeAnn was meeting? Is he some analytics guy? Why was the NSA visiting his firm during the hostage crisis? How exactly was he helping the underwoods?
It was found out Conway was getting information from PollyHop, a popular search engine. LeAnn decided that information was enough to secure the election and they had to respond. Plan A was to reveal the connection, which Conway created a video in response to and the public was fine with it. Plan B was to counter with their own information source, using the NSA to provide data supposedly for the purpose of anti-terrorism (already pushing legality) but having the guy LeAnn was meeting also analyze it for political value and provide strategy.
Then when the hostage situation occurred, the government was pulling all hands on deck to locate the hostage takers and pulled their analytics guy's group into it. While he was there he could protect against an outside agency discovering the algorithms and such he was using for the Underwoods, but eventually they pushed him out leaving the potential for someone to figure it out. Frank tells Claire they aren't protected on that front, but it's not revealed that anything was actually discovered yet.
Not understanding the ending to the final episode. So, all of the dirt on Frank is published by Hammerschmidt (aside from the murders he committed) - and the Underwoods respond by..."creating fear"? I really don't understand this. They apparently refuse to block the ICO beheading video from being leaked to the media, allowing for all of America to see it - thereby instilling fear. But what's the point of this? Distraction from the article that Hammerschmidt published? Trying to convince the public that they need the Underwoods for protection? I don't get it. "We create the terror" was the final line - but none of this seems like an actual counter or defense to what's coming for them - even though the show tried to imply that somehow it was.
Not understanding the ending to the final episode. So, all of the dirt on Frank is published by Hammerschmidt (aside from the murders he committed) - and the Underwoods respond by..."creating fear"? I really don't understand this. They apparently refuse to block the ICO beheading video from being leaked to the media, allowing for all of America to see it - thereby instilling fear. But what's the point of this? Distraction from the article that Hammerschmidt published? Trying to convince the public that they need the Underwoods for protection? I don't get it. "We create the terror" was the final line - but none of this seems like an actual counter or defense to what's coming for them - even though the show tried to imply that somehow it was.
It makes absolutely zero sense and again highlights the pure fictional nature of the politics of HoC. They are basically trying to create fear and war in order to distract the public away from their scandals and get them to cling to them as the only savior from the coming terror. Of course, that makes zero sense and the idea of a war would make the people far more likely to want to vote for someone like Conway whose actually fought in a war.
Everything about what they did makes zero sense. Like, the President went on national television and basically said, "screw it let them kill this innocent man, I don't give a shit, we don't negotiate with terrorists." Any sane person would see this has a horrible act and a sleezy tactic to deflect attention away from their scandal. Hell, Cathy Durant saw through it right away and straight up asked Frank. People don't expect a President to negotiate, they expect them to stall long enough to find or capture the terrorists. Frank basically just said, "fuck em" when there was still time left to try and find the terrorists. It's utter nonsense.
But again, the idea that the public would be distracted from a war he created so that they would want to vote for him is sheer stupidity, most especially when the need for war arose under his watch because he failed to deal with ICO sooner. The whole ending is written as something that's supposed to sound cool and badass, like when Walter White says "I am the danger!" However, it doesn't have the same effect because it makes no sense upon any sort of analysis.
Frank's speech to Claire in their old home about how he can from nothing and while she doesn't appreciate anything might be the best acting Spacey has done on the show. Just amazing.
I really liked the season overall. Thought Conway and his wife made good adversaries. But what the fuck was up with the ending. Dirty secrets come to light > plunge the country into a war > ???. Really don't see a logical way to write them out of this corner for the next season. But overall found it a really enjoyable season.
I wasn't loving it until episode 4 when Frank got shot.
The season so far is good, but not great. I miss the crazy political power plays mixed with shady activity and consequences.
On another note, he really bounced back fast after the liver transplant. I would kinda like to see him now struggling physically and having it bleed over to his actions.
Frank's speech to Claire in their old home about how he can from nothing and while she doesn't appreciate anything might be the best acting Spacey has done on the show. Just amazing.
I really liked the season overall. Thought Conway and his wife made good adversaries. But what the fuck was up with the ending. Dirty secrets come to light > plunge the country into a war > ???. Really don't see a logical way to write them out of this corner for the next season. But overall found it a really enjoyable season.
Even though I enjoyed the season it sort of felt like it was season 3.5, like an epilogue to what's to come. Season 4 is the shit and season 5 is the fan.
Claire stuff for the full season.
Funny seeing all the people who just started the season complaining about Claire cus after Frank gets shot she gets her shit together and pretty much runs the country for 2 weeks using the VP as her puppet. I also love that scene when they're planning how they'll manipulate everyone in their meeting. It reminded me of this gif.
I am two episodes in and i am abit lost really. Season 3 is offcourse a year ago so i forgot alot. What is the deal now with Claire? Season 3 ended with her leaving because she wanted her own career? But that only works if Underwood is not President anymore?
I dont know i am abit lost
what she is trying to that Congress woman and the clinic etc?
I'm about 15 minutes into episode 5 and I have to say
that Claire seems to be jumping between being a great tactician and being really incompetent. Which I suppose is an improvement from last season where she was just totally incompetent
I am two episodes in and i am abit lost really. Season 3 is offcourse a year ago so i forgot alot. What is the deal now with Claire? Season 3 ended with her leaving because she wanted her own career? But that only works if Underwood is not President anymore?
I dont know i am abit lost
what she is trying to that Congress woman and the clinic etc?
Spoilers for the first two (maybe three) episodes:
The thing with the Congresswoman is trying to set the stage for a run at the White House (i.e. she needs experience before she can run a country). Remember that she left Frank at the end of S3 because she felt that Frank saw his run at the White House and his Presidency as a solo thing rather than a team (Frank and Claire) thing.
The clinic is just something she is using to try and grease the wheels to get what she wants (i.e. I scratch your back and you scratch mine).
Spoilers for the first two (maybe three) episodes:
The thing with the Congresswoman is trying to set the stage for a run at the White House (i.e. she needs experience before she can run a country). Remember that she left Frank at the end of S3 because she felt that Frank saw his run at the White House and his Presidency as a solo thing rather than a team (Frank and Claire) thing.
The clinic is just something she is using to try and grease the wheels to get what she wants (i.e. I scratch your back and you scratch mine).
I really liked the season overall. Thought Conway and his wife made good adversaries. But what the fuck was up with the ending. Dirty secrets come to light > plunge the country into a war > ???. Really don't see a logical way to write them out of this corner for the next season. But overall found it a really enjoyable season.
It was bizarre. I mean, Hammerschmidt basically walked in, told Frank what he knows and that he's going to publish the information, and Frank just lets him walk out. Then, when the article comes out, he and Claire are basically like "Well, shit..." as if they didn't see that coming. And then the whole "respond with terror" thing...
I was expecting Frank to sink into the utter depths of moral and political corruption in order to stop Hammerschmit - ie, something like generating a fake leak from within the feds that there was a terror threat at the Herald's HQ, and having it raided by the FBI, with employees being detained and computers (with all of the information) being confiscated.
I guess i'll go into my view of the full season. Finished it last night, had some time to reflect on it.
Spoilers:
Season 4 was overall better than either season 2 or 3 for me, especially 3. A bunch of the writing inconsistency that plagued both Claire & Frank from Season 3 are gone, although theres a few bits of inconsistency that do creep back with some of the older characters who seem to get retired by the end of the season (Freddy, Tusk, Raymond, Jackie).
Obviously, the biggest turn is the ending of the season. Having Hammerschmeidt piece a bunch of the story together, then getting people to go on record, felt a bit anti-climatic of a 'gotcha' as opposed to say, (Breaking Bad spoiler)
Hank finally piecing together Walt's identity as Heisenberg while he's taking a dump & reading Gale's book
.Part of the problem is Hammerschmeidt has both picked up & put down this story a few times, and season 3 pretty much dropped him & Lucas off the face of the earth. I loved how they brought Lucas back in Season 4, but Hammerschmeidt felt a little forced. I would've preferred Kate Baldwin had been the one who picked up the story & managed to blow it open. She already has the motivation, as she isn't a fan of the Underwood's, and it would make more sense for her since she is more pertinent in the current plot anyway.
So, the hostage crisis is obviously open for a ton of criticism. It's an odd move, and one that Frank is taking a huge Underwood-ian gamble on. So, he's gonna use the shock & terror of that live, broadcasted death of an American to have the public completely look past the Underwood's dirty secrets being exposed like that? On one hand, Frank created a spin that would frankly fly & explain away the beginning of the story in the last meeting he had with Tom - chalking up Frank & Zoe's relationship to undermine the education bill in the beginning of the show in order to better steer the ship that was the Walker administration, could absolutely be used. In fact, Tom seemed surprised by such a seemingly innocuous explanation being able to poke that big a hole of doubt into his story. The fact remains that he has 3 people - Remy, Jackie, Walker - who are all on the record, that all publicly have axes to grind against Frank Underwood. Unless you get Raymond Tusk admitting he lied, which would expose him to purgery charges, then theres no way to conclusively prove one way or another whose version of the story is true or not.
The handling of the hostage crisis was a mess, no doubt, but Conway is getting blowback on it too. He was just as involved in allowing ICO to continue to gain strength, and he has a VP on his ticket whose main objective was to eliminate ICO, whom they purposefully allowed to fester just to stay on political message. And now, the public knows about that. So, on the campaign front, the thing that will come out is both sides pointing blame at one another for allowing this situation to get out of hand. Allowing the ICO leader to communicate with the kidnappers was a huge mistake, but again, everyone who was in that war room will be getting shit for it, Conway included.
In terms of shock & impact, it was a fantastic season finale personally, cause it showed to what lengths the Underwoods were willing to go to hang onto their political power: they would allow an American to die on American soil by terrorists, just to have a chance at furthering their political ambition. For me this act alone, and the fact that both were breaking the 4th wall at the end there showed me that Claire's downfall is going to be as necessary & as poignant as Frank's, drew huge parallels to Breaking Bad when (Breaking Bad spoiler)
Walt organized & allowed the death of 11 witnesses incarcerated in different prisons just to protect himself
. For me, HoC has always been a show where I had one question that I kept trying to answer - "Ultimately, do the Underwoods want all that political power to better the people they are meant to serve or to better themselves?". There have been things that have occurred or that either character pushed for that made me think "See, they are trying to help out after all". But after that ending, I think the answer is crystal fucking clear.
Been really loving everything post Frank recovering from the gunshot. The season was good before (far, far better than S3 and possibly S2) but the scheming is back to S1 caliber with some audience talking and some fun plans.
Also kind of funny to see that the token video game mention of the season went to agar.io.
Literally just started ep 1 and will binge watch a bunch more when I get off of work tonight but I can't even describe how excited I am to see people compare this to season 2 or even better than 3-2 combined. So pumped
Been really loving everything post Frank recovering from the gunshot. The season was good before (far, far better than S3 and possibly S2) but the scheming is back to S1 caliber with some audience talking and some fun plans.
Also kind of funny to see that the token video game mention of the season went to agar.io.
It started off good, but then second half was alright at best. I don't see how they will get out of this one. But they are Underwoods, so somehow they will make it work in their favor lol
I am definitely starting to feel that this show is overrated, looking at the IMDB ratting, and stuff.
Anyways, on side note, I have a huge crush on Hanna Conway <3
Hammerschmidt and his team's article amounts to, "We've done a lot of research; the president took trips that Edward Meechum erased from the travel logs and Remy Danton and Jackie Sharp have said that Underwood abused his power and broke the law to gain the presidency. President Walker feels like this is true."
The DoJ and the attorney general will have to conduct an investigation into the allegations and find evidence of wrongdoing. Congress will probably hold a vote whether to impeach.
That will be the main conflict of next season.
We should also see the election, the war with ICO, and Remy and Jackie's relationship.
Like we knew there would be a fifth season, we'll probably know whether Frank and Claire are toppled by whether it's renewed for a sixth season. Netflix could keep the show going for as long they want; Frank could serve eight more years in office and then Claire could serve another eight. So provided Spacey and Wright are willing, there could be at least sixteen more seasons.
I think so far I loved the pace of this season. Its almost like different interlocking arcs fitting well together like a puzzle.
In terms of the current plot
I love the whole difference between the underwoods and Conway house. I loved that they basically are running the "new kids on the block vs the old guard of politics" storyline. Made the republican candidate runner interesting
Calling it a day with 7 I think. Loving this season alot especially over the 3rd.
Overall, I thought it was a nice return to form for the show. Best season since S1 IMO. The recipe is there for a strong 5th season, and I'm kind of getting a final season vibe for S5. Although like someone mentioned, they could go way further than that if they wanted.
So next season will look like: election, more on ICO, this scandal with Hammerschmidt, the FBI and the search engine stuff (little confused by that arc) and Jackie+Remy?
The final shot with Claire and Francis looking at the camera was fantastic. I look forward to seeing the things they'll pull in S5. Hopefully Claire will now break the fourth wall as well.
meechum...best body gaurd
