House Of Cards “Chapter Thirty-Eight”

We’re down to the home stretch for season three, and quite frankly, it’s been ridiculous.

There’s been no central through line this season.  No Frank scheming his way to the vice presidency or the presidency afterwards.  No Raymond Tusk to lock horns with, no Zoe to placate, no Peter Russo to use and abandon.  The writer guy doesn’t quite get to that level.  Neither does his reporter girlfriend.  They break up because Frank squashes the book when he sees it’s about his marriage.

Frank knew all along about them, too.

Instead, we had a haphazard season where Frank’s enemies seemed to be a Russian president who was always three steps ahead of him, and Heather Dunbar, the only real competition he has for the nomination.  And since she won’t take the Supreme Court vacancy even when her pal the Justice asks her to, she’s gone from crusading true believer to supervillain.  But she isn’t much to fret about either.  Frank can deal with her, and as soon as she reaches out to Doug for the proof of Claire’s abortions, when she steps over the line, it allows Doug to have an in to become Frank’s Chief of Staff (Remy’s old job), and to…drive a wedge between Claire and Frank?

I wish the show would make up its mind about whether or not Frank and Claire are getting along.  They’ve been bouncing back and forth on that as much as Frank remembers that America Works thing.

So, maybe when Frank gets a Republican to run against for the presidency, he’ll have a real opponent, though probably still a weak one.  House of Cards hasn’t given either of the Underwoods an enemy they couldn’t take down in three moves without breaking a sweat yet.