House Of Cards “Chapter Fifty-Seven”

Raise your hand if you believe Frank won’t somehow win the presidency.

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

So, here we are, it’s nine weeks after the election and due to two states’ failure to certify the vote, the election falls to the Congress.  Frank explains this in an opening monologue.  The House chooses the president, but votes by state, not by Congressman.  The Senate gets one vote per Senator, and they choose the Vice President.  If the Senate can’t make a decision, they literally flip a coin.  And later we learn, until the House comes to a decision, the VP serves as acting president.  Sure, there are all kinds of protestors outside the White House, but it’s not like the Underwoods care what anyone else thinks.

But something jumped out at me in the last few minutes of what was a rather average episode of House of Cards, starting with Frank learning from that Civil War re-enactor that the story the man told Frank about his great-grandpa was completely made up.  There’s the usual stuff going on.  Hammerschmidt is talking to Rachel Posner’s former roommate about Doug.  No proof of anything beyond the young lady’s word for it.  Tom Yates is still…wait, why is he still here?  Seriously?  LeAnn is looking for the hacker dude for some reason.  Doug gets laid.  Frank is blackmailing all kinds of Congressmen for their votes, while the Conways are going crazy at home.  Will has something going on, and Hannah is concerned, but as the Conway marriage is falling apart, the Underwoods are tighter than ever.

No, the thing that jumps out is Claire going to chat with Donald Blythe.  He’s still the Vice President, and he’s, well, a decent idealistic man who won’t just abolish the filibuster because Claire asked him to.  Now, if this were anyone with a sense of reality, and not, say, someone needing to make a dramatic speech on a TV show to telegraph her emotions, this would maybe not be so stupid, but Claire takes a moment to completely berate Blythe and the man’s dead wife.

Um, you need his help, dumbass.  Remember, most people think Claire is the nice Underwood.

To be fair, Blythe has his best line in the history of the series for him when he tells her her initials are missing an “N” and a “T”.

I didn’t know Blythe had it in him.  Good for him.

So, tune in next time as I am sure Claire wins that coin toss.