S04.E11: Chapter 50

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Frank ups the ante on the war on terror to counter Conway's public show of strength. Tom joins Claire on the campaign trail.

[numbnut]

Stalker Doug!  "Come and meet me at my favorite greasy spoon," said the spider to the fly. All of his romance efforts are so damn creepy. Putting his reflection over that dead man's image so he can picture himself with the wife? Ew. Though making a large donation to a charity is a clever dating tool. Tom and Claire's romance feels a little out of the blue. Was there a romance vibe last season?

Edited March 6, 2016 by numbnut

[RCharter]

Stalker Doug!  "Come and meet me at my favorite greasy spoon," said the spider to the fly. All of his romance efforts are so damn creepy. Putting his reflection over that dead man's image so he can picture himself with the wife? Ew. Though making a large donation to a charity is a clever dating tool. Tom and Claire's romance feels a little out of the blue. Was there a romance vibe last season?

Right?  Gee, Washington is full of women, but let me creepily hit on some widow whose husband's death I kinda had a hand in.

 

I thought Tom was more into Frank last season, but I don't think they ever sealed the deal.  I felt something between them last year, but it was more of a distaste that maybe was masking their true feelings.  No matter how much facial hair they put on that actor (who is amazing) I will always think of him as Mickey Doyle from Boardwalk Empire.

[numbnut]

No matter how much facial hair they put on that actor (who is amazing) I will always think of him as Mickey Doyle from Boardwalk Empire.

 

I felt that way too, but he's so good as Tom that he made me forget about BE.

[Bama]

Well, Stamper is back to his familiar MO - being a manipulative white knight for a pretty brunette who he had a role in ruining her life so he becomes obsessed with her and then works his way into her good graces.

 

I just hope this pretty brunette doesn't end up tied up in the back of a rental van and murdered like the last one.

[TaraS1]

Could someone remind me who the woman Doug's "courting" is? I can't remember her or her dead husband.

[NYCFree]

Could someone remind me who the woman Doug's "courting" is? I can't remember her or her dead husband.

When Frank was in liver failure and was number 2 on the transplant list, Doug forced the Secretary of Health and Human services to illegally bump Frank to first on the list. During the conversation where Doug insisted on changing the order, the Secretary told Doug that the first man on the list was hours away from death. Doug replied "let him die" or words to that effect.

After the successful transplant, the secretary emailed him info about the man who died, as well as the dead man's wife and kids. Doug became obsessed with the widow of the man he killed by proxy.

[TaraS1]

It's embarrassing that those things just happened a few episodes ago and I had already forgotten lol. Thanks so much, NYCFree!

And I love Wendy Moniz, who's playing the widow. She was fantastic years ago on Guiding Light.

[Chaos Theory]

Breakfast with the husband and the lover.  It is good to have these nice quite moments together.

 

What would a Underwood-Underwood White House look like?  Well it looks like a White house with a man in the Oval Office and another in the bedroom.  Claire Underwood may have just become my hero.

 

Its nice to see Stalker Doug again.  I have missed Stalker Doug.  Creepy brutish Doug is all well and good...but Stalker Doug is what he does best.

 

Lucas's boss. (I really have to remember his name now that he might be an actual threat) looks like he is making headway.  I am liking the way the show is handling him.  "He may be a crook but he's not a killer."  I loved that line because although he sees a dark picture (BEST DRINKING GAME EVER!) he hasn't figured out the full account of what the Underwoods have done to get where they are.  I really want to see his face when he does.  

 

Does it say something about me that for a brief moment there I was actually wondering what an Underwood-Underwood Whitehouse would look like?  Yes the streets would flow with the blood of the innocent....but still.......

[SevenStars]

Breakfast with the husband and the lover. It is good to have these nice quite moments together.

What would a Underwood-Underwood White House look like? Well it looks like a White house with a man in the Oval Office and another in the bedroom. Claire Underwood may have just become my hero

I LOVED THIS PART!! I love that they have come to understanding and agreed to this type of relationship. But I hate that I'm thinking it won't last. I really, really hope it last until the series end and Frank dies, and Clair get to have Tom for support.

[Jewlmc]

You know part of the reason Frank set that up was so he can break off a piece.

[hincandenza]

I had read in earlier threads about Conway being on "The Killing", which I only saw the first season of (how was it, anyway? I stopped because of the lack of a reveal at the end of season 1, but did it get better? ), but it wasn't until this episode that I finally realized he was the main male lead, not some politician character I'd not seen. Wow, he looks so different! I didn't realize he was that tall, either.

I wouldn't put it past Frank to be setting his own wife up for a later post-election scandal that has her resigning the VP spot so he can hold the throne himself. There is something deliciously evil in how almost Roman imperial couple the Underwoods are when they work together. So in sync, so regal, so "beyond" petty things like morality or marriage. I sure quite a few "great" men and women of history were just this kind of scheming psyxhopaths, yet we revere them al the same. As twisted as they are, they also (mostly) only hurt other players of the game, schemers towards power. I find I enjoy the show much more when I think of it more like "The Wire" or "Game of Thrones" where it takes place not in Westeros but an America eerily similar to our own.

[DoubleUTeeEff]

I wouldn't put it past Frank to be setting his own wife up for a later post-election scandal that has her resigning the VP spot so he can hold the throne himself.

 

I was totally thinking the same thing!  He could use this against her so easily.  He's really playing the long game though if he expects to use it.  Maybe he just likes having it in case of emergency.

[Bobcatkitten]

All I could think during the breakfast scene was 'wow everyone gets two slices of an apple and that's it?'

[RCharter]

All I could think during the breakfast scene was 'wow everyone gets two slices of an apple and that's it?'

Well, you have to share and share alike.  If Claire weren't such a whore everyone could get three slices of apple....but Claire and her insatiable need for power...

[Sir RaiderDuck OMS]

So Freddy reveals himself to be honorable, even towards men he hates. Am I the only one in thinking his freakout towards Frank was a little out of left field, though? Almost like Reg Cathey wanted to play the character one more time and they had to shoehorn him in.

[knaankos]

Awful episode. Definitely the worst of the season thus far.

All momentum from previous episodes stemmed.

[Ellaria]

And this was the odd "romance" episode, I guess...

Not sure if I want to sit thru another round of Doug's obsessive behavior with a woman. He is creepy and dangerous and I'm uncomfortable watching him.

 

Equally, I don't like Claire and the writer. The breakfast threesome was just weird and silly.

 

And then Freddie reappears (yay) only to be a jerk to the reporter (boo). 

 

Overall, not a great episode. The plot has come to a grinding halt. Hope that these reporters work fast...very fast.

[Primetimer]

S04.E11 writes a new chapter for the Underwood marriage.

Read the story

[monogarden]

All I could think during the breakfast scene was 'wow everyone gets two slices of an apple and that's it?'

Yes! This was driving me crazy haha. Plus how they used like four plates for this one itty bitty apple or pear or whatever it was.

[Jael]

I don't love this weird inclusion of Tom in the marriage. Like the Meechum (RIP) threesome, it just seems like something the Underwoods are too smart to make themselves vulnerable by doing. Somebody's going to notice him hanging around. Or he's going to get disillusioned and spill the beans. Something. I mean, he won't, because the Underwoods are bulletproof in their foolishness, but if this were a normal show, they'd be taking a big bad chance.

[Charlesman]

Didn't they already establish they're allowed to have relationships outside the marriage? I seem to remember Claire knowing Frank slept with Zoe and something about Claire and a photographer not being kept from Frank, right? Memory is fuzzy after all the years.

[knaankos]

Didn't they already establish they're allowed to have relationships outside the marriage? I seem to remember Claire knowing Frank slept with Zoe and something about Claire and a photographer not being kept from Frank, right? Memory is fuzzy after all the years.

 

Yeah but this one is much more dangerous because he is actually spending great amounts of time in the white house residential quarters with unlimited access. Eventually people are going to start asking, why is this speech writer spending so much time with the Underwoods and getting so close to them?

[Maysie]

I liked Freddie's overdue, loud, well-deserved FUCK YOU to Frank. For a guy who seems to be a very astute observer of human nature, he totally misjudged Freddie, as well as underestimated his impact on Freddie.

 

You know, the whole Tom, threesome thing . . . I know it's an open marriage, but during Frank and Claire's conversation I felt like Frank's setting her up for the long game. I don't know why, but I feel like he's going to use this against her, perhaps because he's still pissed from last season/the start of this season. Frank does not forget slights, and I don't think even Claire is forgiven her transgressions against him. In the end, Frank is all about Frank and I can see where taking Claire on as a running mate might have happened because he thought it might help with his re-election (though I still don't really see it) and then he could dump her when the time is right. Just a theory.

 

As for the Tom thing, as they all three sat there, eating their meager apple slices off their giant plates (????!!!!???? - I laughed out loud at that because it was so ridiculous!) I had to wonder what it would be like for Tom to just loll around the white house all day, "writing speeches" for Claire, waiting for whenever she feels like getting busy. Really, that's his idea of a great life? Basically being the fuck buddy of the First Lady? Because to my mind, that's all it is and it's creepy on every level. What kind of self-loathing would that lead someone to? It'd be one thing if he left and did his thing and they got together periodically for the booty call, but this has a weird overtone of being a kept man to it (in the White House!!). As well, it seems incredibly risky. And when it's exposed (because it has to be; secrets like that have a way of getting out), Claire is going to take the brunt of it, being exposed as a fraud after traveling the country and talking all about how she rediscovered her love for her husband, how committed they are to each other and the country, etc. Bad move, Clair. Bad, bad move.

[RCharter]

I had read in earlier threads about Conway being on "The Killing", which I only saw the first season of (how was it, anyway? I stopped because of the lack of a reveal at the end of season 1, but did it get better? ), but it wasn't until this episode that I finally realized he was the main male lead, not some politician character I'd not seen. Wow, he looks so different! I didn't realize he was that tall, either.

 

FFS!!!!! THATS WHERE I KNOW HIM FROM!!! My goodness, that was going to bother me till the end of my days.  I just KNEW I had seen that actor somewhere, but I just could.not.place.it!  Because he is such a different character here.

 

Many thanks to you, that would have just been a hanging question bothering my subconscious forever if you hadn't told me.

 

I watched The Killing until the end, and I truly enjoyed it.  Its been a while (clearly) but I remember feeling like all required questions were answered to my satisfaction and all necessary reveals were made.

 

Dang that guy is an amazing actor.  

[ptuscadero]

I felt that way too, but he's so good as Tom that he made me forget about BE.

 

I finally stopped waiting for him to talk in that cartoonish voice and snicker. 

[CleoCaesar]

I wouldn't put it past Frank to be setting his own wife up for a later post-election scandal that has her resigning the VP spot so he can hold the throne himself.

 

Heh, I was thinking the opposite: that Claire is doing exactly what Frank did two seasons ago - maneuvering herself into the VP spot so she can bump off Frank later and hold the throne herself.

[PRgal]

My husband and I both think Frank is setting things up by allowing an open marriage in order to kill Tom - and maybe eventually Claire, too.  When they were eating breakfast at the end, I was wondering if he'd choke on something...but then I realized that the meal was served family style and no one was serving him...thoughts?

[micat]

I'm in the Claire's going to kill Frank once they are elected camp, and also he should totally expect it. She is hard to read though - I wasn't sure how she was reacting to the talk where Frank gave her permission to see Tom. In a way she could have been relieved, but also, in the context of a traditional marriage, I felt Frank was saying some devastating and hurtful things. I know they have gone beyond traditional marriage and they have this power partnership and all that, but how Claire is emotionally about that is unclear to me. That she wants to be emotional and vulnerable with Tom would seem to indicate to me that she is looking for that in a relationship, so to hear Frank say that he could never be that for her and basically didn't want to be that for her...even if that's the compromise she chose, it could still hurt to hear it laid out like that. Claire would probably say that I'm being very naive lol.

 

I thought the apple for breakfast was a symbolic thing. The whole scene - Tom handing out the plates, first to Frank, then to Claire, then himself, showing the power structure. And the fact that it was an apple which has traditionally been the forbidden fruit, and now he is sharing it with them. The single apple thing was hilarious though -- although I'm surprised Claire allowed herself even that much food. Claire makes me think of the scene in Devil Wears Prada when Emily Blunt's character said she stays as thin as she is by eating nothing until she's about to pass out, and then allows herself a single cube of cheese.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Freddy ain't no snitch!

[ToxicUnicorn]

The breakfast threesome was just weird and silly.

I agree - I think I've passed the limits of my imagination.  That was just weird beyond belief.

And then Freddie reappears (yay) only to be a jerk to the reporter (boo)

I was really rooting for Freddie to give in to the reporter, but I was even happier later with Remy playing the drinking game.  "We're going to need some more beer."  Ha!

 

Good points about the apple symbolism.  I thought there were eggs on that plate, so I was really out to lunch.  

[RCharter]

Freddy ain't no snitch!

He sure isn't!

[Joimiaroxeu]

I liked Freddie's overdue, loud, well-deserved FUCK YOU to Frank. For a guy who seems to be a very astute observer of human nature, he totally misjudged Freddie, as well as underestimated his impact on Freddie.

I gasped as soon as Frank suggested that Freddie cook them one last BBQ. At first I wondered whether Frank was deliberately trying to insult Freddie but it appeared to be a genuine misstep on his part. He doesn't often put his foot in his mouth like that. Ugh, I wouldn't be surprised now if Freddie's new employer's place mysteriously burns down. Frank is all about payback and not letting people leave until he's ready for them to go.

 

Doug must be feeling really guilty because he's leaving himself wide open to get caught. I guess it was okay for him to make the donation but I wonder why he didn't do it anonymously and from somewhere other than the White House? Even if the truth about the transplant line-jumping gets out and Doug falls on his sword, it'll probably do Frank's and Claire's campaign a lot of damage. Many people probably wouldn't believe that Doug pulled those strings without their knowledge. (Frank may have an out since he was unconscious most of the time but it could still stick to Claire.)

[Mama No Life]

Someone remind me again how Freddy ended up losing his ribs place? I remember something about a chain and Frank and blahblah but it's been a while...

[Athena]

Someone remind me again how Freddy ended up losing his ribs place? I remember something about a chain and Frank and blahblah but it's been a while...

In S2, Remy leaked Frank going to Freddy's and as a result Freddy got the chance to sign over the franchise. However his son broke parole by brandishing a weapon against some reporters. Due to media pressure Frank had to tell Freddy that they should play down their friendship. Freddy said he was just a good customer. Either way he had lost the business and franchise by then. He also lost his son back to jail. While Frank did not intentionally take down the business, being associated with Frank caused a lot grief in Freddy's life.

[Mama No Life]

Thanks Athena!

 

That sounds vaguely familiar, and I remember thinking at the time that Remy was as much to blame.  Not a huge Remy fan anyway, though I know that's not a popular position. Never liked Jackie, and I'm sure the two are connected.  Literally and figuratively.

[Maysie]

 

Even if the truth about the transplant line-jumping gets out and Doug falls on his sword, it'll probably do Frank's and Claire's campaign a lot of damage. Many people probably wouldn't believe that Doug pulled those strings without their knowledge. (Frank may have an out since he was unconscious most of the time but it could still stick to Claire.)

 

I kind of go back and forth on what the fallout would be if it becomes known that Frank took someone's spot on the list. My cynical self says "well of course the PRESIDENT is going to bump everyone off the list because it's the PRESIDENT." His medical care is much different from my medical care. If we both get caught in the same burning building, I have a pretty good idea of who's coming out first. So there's part of me that would expect that the president is going to get the first available match, no questions asked (it's kind of like, "what list?")

 

However, my idealistic self would like to think that he can wait it out just like everyone else. I have a friend who's on a transplant list and I have to say, it would be really hard to take knowing anyone could leapfrog over her in line because he/she is perceived to be more valuable/important than my friend.

 

I kind of think that the public's reaction would depend on how they feel about the Underwoods - you know, the supporters would be all "of course he gets the liver - it's the PRESIDENT" and the haters would be "Underwood stole his liver! Murderer!" (if they only knew the half of it . . .) But I agree that Claire would probably take the burden of the blame given that Frank was unconscious.

[quarks]

Freddy is the only character I like on this entire show. I was just sorry he didn't hit Frank.

[Anela]

I agree - I think I've passed the limits of my imagination.  That was just weird beyond belief.

I was really rooting for Freddie to give in to the reporter, but I was even happier later with Remy playing the drinking game.  "We're going to need some more beer."  Ha!

 

Good points about the apple symbolism.  I thought there were eggs on that plate, so I was really out to lunch.  

I liked the comment about the beer, too. 

 

I got the reporter mixed up with the writer, name-wise, yesterday. Whoever the reporter is, I love him. I can't believe I've forgotten his name, and I wish that Freddy hadn't beaten him up. 

 

I hadn't thought about Frank setting up Claire. I had the more obvious thoughts of her getting the Vice-President spot, getting elected, and then finding a way to "accidentally" bump him off. 

 

I want more time spent on the reporter. I'm checking out half the time this is playing, and I'm going to have to go back and re-watch parts of it. When I first tuned in a couple of years ago, I was hooked. 

[Athena]

I got the reporter mixed up with the writer, name-wise, yesterday. Whoever the reporter is, I love him. I can't believe I've forgotten his name, and I wish that Freddy hadn't beaten him up.

 

You are not mixing them up name-wise. They are both named Tom, but on occasion, the Underwoods have called the writer Thomas. I am not sure why the show writers couldn't have used another common male given name.

[ChromaKelly]

Just want to say... I had accidentally clicked on this episode thread (forgot which ep number I left off on) before watching it and read a couple of the posts. I'm glad I did. I was prepared for the cringe-inducing quality of this episode. Ugh, Doug stalking the transplant list widow. What is wrong with him? And the Claire-Tom-Frank situation is just so weird. That breakfast scene was WTF.

[millennium]

I despise the Tom character.   He's a fraud, he's smug, he's weird, and his writing is beyond cliched.   

[EarlGreyTea]

 

I want more time spent on the reporter. I'm checking out half the time this is playing, and I'm going to have to go back and re-watch parts of it. When I first tuned in a couple of years ago, I was hooked. 

 

Of all the characters from S1 who have come  back to the show this season, Tom Hammerschmidt is my favorite by far. He didn't do much for me the first time around, but his efforts at being a detective and avenging Zoe, whom he hated and got him fired, are laudable. There's something inherently likeable about the actor (and the dog) that weren't really there during his first go around. I find his scenes touching, and he is by far the most realistic character on the show. His general unkempt appearance, cute dog, normal-looking house, pounding pavement to get answers....long may he reign.

 

Poor sleepy Meechum may well be Frank's downfall! Shoulda brought a Thermos, Eddie.

[Hanahope]

Loved seeing the reporter's game with Remy and Freddie's take down.  

I find it interesting that the Underwoods do their own meal fixing and not the White House kitchen, but obviously they don't want everyone to know about Tom