*This article contains spoilers for House of Cards Chapter 50 and 51*
Now that Cathy Durant is no longer a threat, in Chapter 50, it’s time for the Underwoods to focus on Conway and Brockhart, who are still leading by double digits in nearly every poll. Conveniently for Claire, Frank is told he needs to cut down on travel due to his medical condition, giving the first lady the opportunity to appear at events on her own and, once again, practice for her inevitable presidential run. Tom Yates suggests Americans aren’t enthusiastic about the Underwoods lately because Claire has failed to emphasize how well they function as both a team and as husband and wife. At one point, Claire even removes a whole section from one of Yates’ speeches about loving Frank; it’s almost as if ... gasp ... she doesn’t actually care about him. Shocking, right? She quickly begins to play up the marriage angle, though, especially after a couple says that the Underwoods got their vote because they come across as having “a real partnership.”
That’s mighty ironic considering in this very episode, the Underwoods’ marriage becomes more open than ever before. Claire reveals that she slept with Lucas, which is why the speechwriter resigned. But Frank has absolutely no issue with this because, as he puts it, Lucas can give Claire things he can’t. “One person cannot give everything to another person,” Frank says, although that implies they give each other anything a typical married couple does. Rarely have we seen the Underwoods express any sort of intimacy, and never have they had sex except during the bizarre Meechum threesome. Their relationship is nothing but a political partnership. Frank's choice might be seen as a noble sacrifice if he were legitimately in love with Claire, but as is, it’s merely a calculation designed to keep her from going rogue again.
Meanwhile, the president is attempting to stop the spread of ICO by making a deal with Russia. It’s a solid plan, according to General Brockhart, but Conway sets out to ensure it never goes through. Why? Well, because it might work, and defeating ICO would help Frank win the election! “His approach might work here,” Brockhart says. “That’s what I’m trying to prevent,” Conway responds. Lives are yet again being risked in order to score political points, although let’s not pretend Frank isn’t going after ICO to score points of his own. General Brockhart, despite his praise of Frank’s mission, immediately gets Republicans to turn against it. Frank threatens to send in American troops if they keep this up, and although Conway assumes Frank is bluffing, unfortunately he wasn’t. The president signs an executive order to send ground troops into Syria, at least part of the motivation being to earn a victory against the Republicans. Thousands will die as a result of this political theater.
In fact, those stakes become quite real in “Chapter 51,” in which Frank is forced to deal with the consequences of the decisions made from the comfort of his oval office chair. ICO has taken three hostages in direct response to President Underwood's actions in Syria, and they demand the end of this military activity, $10 billion in reparations, and the release of ICO’s captured leader Yusuf Al Ahmadi. They also back Frank into a corner by demanding to speak to Conway, not the president, thinking Conway will be more willing to negotiate. Although in public, Frank appears to be taking the situation rather seriously, we as the audience see where his mind is: what he’s really thinking about isn’t how to take down ICO, but how to use this to take down Conway. In this case, he says that putting Conway in the spotlight will mean the presidential hopeful can’t criticize Underwood for how he handles the crisis, and thus it can not become an election issue. Is this the time to be thinking about November? While Americans are in danger? It’s Frank we’re talking about, so of course it is. He even uses reverse psychology on Conway, pretending he doesn't want the governor involved when in actuality, as the president tells us, "the more involved the better."
Later, in the kitchen, the two candidates don't discuss their phone conversation with ICO and talk about plans going forward. No, instead Conway boasts about the good press he'll get, and Frank accuses Conway of being a pretender and a fraud. Here are the American peoples' options for leader of the free world, everyone.
Honestly, this ICO plot is probably the weakest storyline of season 4. It comes dangerously close to bringing us back to season 3 territory, the year we watched the president deal with foreign policy issues just like in any other political drama. We come to House of Cards to see politicians concoct wildly complicated plans to screw one another over, something there has been a delightful amount of in the fourth outing. But whenever Beau Willimon tries to tackle a more traditional storyline about life as president, like this hostage negotiation, it never manages to land particularly well. We've seen countless hostage crises in movies and TV shows before, and this one offers nothing unique or interesting.
But what's far more compelling is what's happening while Frank is distracted. The Washington Herald is finally close to cracking the story that Zoe Barnes and Lucas Goodwin were on to. Tom tirelessly works to uncover Underwood's corruption, getting Remy to reveal (off the record) that the president conspired to impeach Walker. That’s enough for Tom to assemble a team specifically to deal with this assignment, although unfortunately he seems nowhere close to figuring out that Frank has murdered people. Freddy, despite his deep-seated hatred of the president, refuses to divulge any information, but who does? None other than Former President Garret Walker, who has apparently gone on the record about everything Frank did to him. Also contemplating going on the record are both Jackie Sharp and Remy Danton himself and if that happens, this might be the nail in Frank's coffin. It's about damn time.