House Of Cards “Chapter Forty-Nine”

And, like many others, the Secretary of State proves to be no real obstacle to the Underwoods.

To be fair, neither is the Constitution that, once again, states the president and vice president can’t be from the same state.

But what to do about Durant’s betrayal? Well, Claire goes home to her dying mom with Tom Yates. Frank calls an emergency session back in D.C., delaying the delegate vote while he and Durant supposedly handle some nasty terrorist types in Syria. This is also a world where the U.S. can make deals with a Syrian president, so let’s leave that be.

Look, there’s no way that Durant was going to win this one. Claire is going to be (still unconstitutionally) selected as her husband’s running mate. No one anywhere seems to think this is a dumb idea. But Claire gets a gift from her mom, maybe the only one she ever really got from that mean old woman, and then after sleeping with Tom (!), she delivers the speech Tom wrote and gets the VP nomination.

But Frank had to handle Durant first. How does he do that? Well…he has three steps.

Show how Russian President Petrov, unsolicited, cited Claire as being the real force behind the recent negotiations, not Durant.
Pull out the gift from Claire’s mom…she died, giving her daughter the sympathy vote.
Tell Durant the truth about Peter Russo and Zoe Barnes.

Oh sure, Frank laughs off the confession to murder a second later, but unsurprisingly the threat of lethal force can stop Durant. Who knew her mortal weakness was not wanting to die a sudden and violent death?

Meanwhile, Tom Hammerschmidt is still putting his evidence together, and he’s even consulting Heather Dunbar about the whole thing…