Maddi O’Neill
News Editor
The new season of House of Cards premiered at midnight on Valentine’s Day, and it was glorious (but not perfect). This contains SPOILERS, so stop reading if you don’t want to know what happened.
Let’s start with the obvious. Zoe got smushed by a train in the first goddamn episode. A lot of people thought she was going to die soon, but her death was so sudden and violent that it took me completely by surprise. The first episode picked up exactly where the last season left off, but Zoe’s death marked a turn in the plot that continued for the rest of the season. After Zoe was killed, the rest of the show’s journalists began to disappear, leaving the series a little less dimensional than it was in season one.
Lucas vanished into a black hole after trying to hack a federal database, Janine pretty much gave up on everything and Hammerschmidt, after making a promising appearance, went back to his comfortable home life in the end. Without the team of journalists looking into Francis’s movements, the show lost some of its urgency. It feels like Francis can get away with anything at this point.
Now that Francis is the Vice President, there’s less political action as well. Congress is the perfect stage for a political drama because it’s naturally full of egos, alliances and infighting. The White House is calmer and makes for less interesting political battles. Money laundering and diplomatic back channeling, which eventually became Francis’s main political stumbles of the season, are not sexy and never will be. This season did manage to include a great and unexpectedly interesting scene involving parliamentary procedure when Francis ordered the Republicans to the floor of the Senate for a vote, leading many to blockade themselves in their offices as Capitol police tried to break in. Also, there are finally Republicans in the show!
Okay, last complaint: can the show’s writers please explain what the hell is up with Francis’s and Claire’s sex life? Do they ever sleep with each other? Do they exclusively sleep with other people? Or do they just have three-ways with Meechum once in a while to stay happy? That scene was so weird that I thought it was a joke at first.
Now to the good stuff. I love the new women in the show. Jacqueline Sharp is a shrewd replacement whip who is amazing at her job and only had to betray one friend to get her new job (which practically makes her a saint by this show’s standards). And Ayla Sayyad is a probing reporter who, to some extent, picked up the job of last season’s journalists by trying to hold Francis accountable for the ridiculous situations he gets away with. Both women are powerful, intimidating characters, and neither seems to have screwed her way to the top.
I’m also excited about the potential of the hacker plotline. It was weird when Lucas suddenly found himself lost in the little-known world of the secret Internet, but it was also really interesting. Who knew that there’s a whole other Internet where hackers can do a bunch of illegal things anonymously? Probably a lot of people, but not me. I hope the FBI informant with a guinea pig (Cashew, by the way, is my favorite new character) uses his hacking powers for good and investigates Zoe’s death. That would bring back the high-stakes feel that I think this season was missing. If someone is looking into Francis, the show will feel less one-sided, like there’s a chance that normal people could actually win and Francis could finally be shown for who he really is.