‘House of Cards’ finale taking last big swipe at series’ lost viewers
Confession time: I don’t remember the last season of “House of Cards” that I binged in its entirety. Maybe Season 3 or 4? All the corruption of the past five years has just sort of bled into a Rorschach test of my fandom for this undeniably game-changing show.
The last thing I remember was that Claire and Frank Underwood, your friendly neighbor Macbeths, were having some serious marital problems (cheating, murdering, smoking cigarettes) and that Frank wanted Claire to help him out with the midterms or whatever and that Claire was like “no way” and then she was like “OK fine, because I love-hate you.” Or something.
Either way, I was woefully behind when the sixth and final season of “House of Cards” dropped Friday. But since the plot twists and turns of this roller coaster ride are always impossible to keep straight, why not just dive in blind? So, using the questions I had as I watched, let’s break down the final season of Netflix’s political drama.
(WARNING: Spoilers ahead.)
• Frank is dead?
After being fired from the show (and all of Hollywood) following accusations of sexual harassment, Kevin Spacey, who played the almost-comically devious Frank Underwood, had to go. Apparently – and again, I didn’t watch last season, or the season before that – Claire Underwood was already headed to the Oval Office and divorce was on the horizon by the end of Season 5. We learn immediately that Frank isn’t just dead to Claire: He’s dead to everyone. And no one knows how he really died because no deaths are natural or accidental on this show. Claire claims she awoke to Francis (her pet name for him) cold in bed next to her, but later makes it clear that she found him in his own room and that she suspects murder. Murder by whom? We don’t know yet. • Doug is still trying to Doug?
Douglas Stamper, Frank’s right-hand man – the hand of the devil, if you will – is in some type of rehab facility for killing killers. The Underwoods somehow persuaded Doug to take the fall for Zoe Barnes’ death by Metro. Zoe is a character that even the most casual “House of Cards” fan will never forget. She was the journalist whose career Frank helped catapult by feeding her scoops that helped him politically. She’s also the smart young woman (and Frank’s sometime-mistress) who figured out Mr. Underwood was doing murdery things behind the scenes and who therefore got pushed in front of a subway train by Frank. But Doug, being a fiercely loyal Frankophile, is being rewarded for his decades of service to the Underwoods (which included committing murder), with possible jail time. Oh, and he secretly hates Claire’s guts. In seasons past, that often came across as jealousy but has, in this final go-round, blossomed into fullblown contempt.
• I thought the older sister from “Party of Five” was in this.
She died last season.
• Where did the Antichrist from “American Horror Story: Apocalypse” come from?
Apparently there is a third political party operating in super secret, using the substantial wealth of its clandestine 0.00001 percent members to prop up elected officials across the country. In the “House of Cards” universe, this party is run by the Shepherds, a strange brother-sister-son trio with Oedipaly vibes who want Claire dead because she won’t sign a bill that would, like, dismantle every government regulation ever or something. The heir apparent of the Shepherd dynasty is Duncan, played by a creepy Cody Fern, who also stars as the devil’s son in “American Horror Story: Apocalypse,” so obviously everything he does is evil. The Shepherds do everything they can to take down President Hale (she’s gone back to her maiden name), including trying to kill her unborn daughter by inducing an early labor.
• Wait, Claire is pregnant?
Yes. In continuing the apocalypse theme, Claire is carrying the spawn of someone. It is never explained how Claire became pregnant with Frank’s child, seeing as how they were on the outs, she was sleeping with his presidential biographer and Frank is dead. But we’re led to believe that Claire and Frank, who, as far as I can recall, never wanted children, were “trying” and as soon as it was politically convenient, she announces that she’s pregnant. While this does not deter the Shepherds’ plot to assassinate her, Doug seems to feel slightly queasy about killing the mother of his favorite boss’s only heir. Slightly.
•Where did the mom from “Sharp Objects” come from? Patricia Clarkson plays Jane Davis, a Washington insider without a discernible job title whom Claire trusts more than anyone. Claire trusts Jane so much that she moves her into the White House and the two have lunch together and sometimes lounge around in their silk PJs. Eventually, of course, Jane betrays Claire and is summarily sentenced to a beautiful death in a weird Nancy Meyers-designed adult-size cubbyhole. Seriously.