What's Next? Season 4 Speculation, That's What!

[David T. Cole]

We talked about what S3 might look like on EHG 21 and Sarah just posted her theories.

Ideas? Wishes? Hope-nots?

[Matt]

So, caveat: I've watched all of the BBC's House of Cards, most of To Play A King and bits and pieces of A Final Cut and read the rest on Wikipedia (I can only handle so many British accents) so I'm going to spoiler-tag some of the giveaways from that. But if you're in this thread and haven't watched all of Season 2 of Netflix's HOC, you might want to exit post haste. 

TPAK had this unfortunate problem caused by the end of HOC because

FU kills the journalist tailing him by throwing her off a roof and becoming PM, like, that day,

so they introduced The King as a character/antagonist. We don't have a monarchy, luckily, and now our FU has ascended the only logical throne left in the United States. I have a feeling Raymond Tusk will stick around like a bad penny since Frank will have to pardon him to make sure he keeps him in his pocket. And with Rachel on the loose, I have a feeling she's going to seek out Janine in Ithaca some day soon and cause the Russo Murder storyline to pick up again. But beyond rehashing that, what else will Frank have to entertain himself? Meechum's story (I saw someone coin the term "Threechum" and omg yes let's always call it that) is saucy but not really all that important from a national intrigue and power perspective. The only thing it will add to is a growing division between Frank and Claire.

The problem with any threesome where one pair is a couple is someone inevitably gets left out and gets jealous. And while he was into it, drunk or not—remember how intrigued he was when he busted in on him watching porn?—Meechum is probably going to want to stick it out for some double-dipping with Claire. Obviously a bad move with Frank being odd man out. That division was already showing cracks with Claire's "tear your heart out" scene. She's proving herself to be the truly diabolical one, the one with more skeletons than the show has let on.

Here's where I think things will get interesting, mostly as the end game: In the original HOC, the killing of

Roger is basically the suggestion of his wife, Elizabeth.

And at the end of AFC, Urquhart becomes very despondent because 

he's basically found out for some of the truly heinous stuff he pulled in Cyprus, including some pretty brutal killings and state-sponsored/concocted terrorism.

(I think the last phrase of that spoiler is going to play a huge, huge part of 3rd and what I'm declaring final season. It showed up in TPAK and leads to a lot more conspiracy theorists hunting down Underwood.) So as Francis is spilling his guts to Elizabeth, ready to turn himself for everything, and Elizabeth 

plays the role of FU-killing-Roger, basically calming him by saying everything will be okay and arranges for her husband to be assassinated in broad daylight by a sniper (with a weird subplot of his security detail also arranging for another assassin to try to shoot him point-blank)

to protect both the Urquharts' legacies and keep her pension.

So my predication for the final season's ending: Francis will be

killed in a highly public assassination

and Meechum and/or Claire will be highly involved, either by 

hiring the people to do it, Meechum botching an attempt to save Francis or Francis/Meechum attempting to save Claire

since she's already a probable target for such acts. In the book version of TFC, FU 

saves his wife from being shot by the assassin

and that feels like an interesting twist to weave into the show, especially if she rises from those ashes to assume a more interesting level of power. All along, they've been playing Claire as Lady Macbeth, so it might be worth asking if they'll kill Claire off and leave Francis behind to have his "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" moment, but that feels kind of a crap sandwich to hand to viewers who invested in the show and, more importantly, not true to the ending of the original series. Still: can't wait for what's next!

[Sheena]

..well, I was going to say that my theory was that

Meechum will assassinate Frank with Claire's involvement, in a similar fashion to the BBC series

, but Matt pretty much just nailed everything I was going to say.

The only thing that's really changed in my theorizing is the possibility that

there's a protective and/or loving intent to the assassination on Meecham's part (ie, he kills one or both of them at his own behest), or it's motivated by a sudden attack of conscience.

I don't mean to set Meechum up as a rather offensive stereotype of a character (the "Depraved Bisexual"), I'm more of the mind that one couldn't really see these people do the horrible things that they do (he certainly hasn't seen it all, but he's seen rather a lot) and keep caring about them as much as Meechum clearly does without, at the very least, lacking the standard amount of empathy (most people would, I would think, at least have some trouble sleeping seeing this sort of thing day after day).

So if Frank does indeed end up being murdered (if), and Meechum does do it (again, if), then it's possible that his motivations may be emotional instead of, or in addition to, purely calculated, because he does care about both of them and keeping them safe is more than just 9-5 for him.

I hope that made sense (I've had about four Timmy's since noon) and didn't offend anyone (I understand that it is a very offensive stereotype, and don't at all mean to reduce anyone- be they real or a fictional character- to it).

Since the writers must know that many people have seen the BBC version, I kind of wonder if they're going to fake us out come the series finale and leave us in a state of more shock than those who haven't seen it. Can't wait! :)

Edited February 19, 2014 by Sheena

[Trick Question]

Watching S1, I theorized that the series would end with Frank becoming POTUS....but for a very brief period of time, maybe even just a day or two before he met his end in some ironic way (either purely by accident to show that not even the great Underwood can control everything, or by one of his many victims getting revenge).  He would thus he'd get his comeuppance by all of his scheming and maneuving ultimately make him only a footnote, remembered throughout history only as the answer to a trivia question about who America's shortest-serving president was.

This could still technically happen, though I suspect S3 will last longer than a few days or few months, and there's also the possibility of future seasons.  And by this point, Frank and Claire have almost moved 'beyond comeuppance' in a way, in that even if Frank's presidency is brought down by some kind of scandal, it won't be appropriate justice for all of the evil he's pulled over the course of the series.

Now, I'm approaching this from the perspective of a viewer who soured on the show throughout S2 (really, more like near the end of the first season) as things got increasingly over the top and the Underwoods went from being manipuators to cartoonish near-supervillians.  I also got increasingly frustrated by the fact that through two seasons, the show still hasn't come close to creating any actual rivals to the Underwoods --- Tusk is the only one who's ever really been a step ahead of Frank at any point, and even Frank overcame him in the end.  There's also the fact that I may be in the minority of viewers who actually want to see Frank and Claire pay for their deeds whereas many HoC fans delight in their unabashedly evil ways, so S3 could be more of the same in that respect.

[TVSpectator]

Hello, 

 

 So, I have been watching Season 2 of House of Cards (and this has been one of the few shows, that I do enjoy that isn't really action/sci-fi, and I do like this one. But sometimes I think that this series has made the surrounding characters pretty stupid or not noticing very hard to make the Underwood's look like super manipulators and that some actions of the Underwoods' are just too much) on Netflix  and I do think that they are dropping hints on how Frank will end up, by the series finale. I think that he will die in office of a heart attack and that he will either get away with all of his shady/amoral doings and/or they will start to come out around the time that he has a heart attack and he will never pay for them. The hints that I refer to is that they hinted that  heart disease runs in his family. His father died suddenly when he was a young boy, and that Claire, back in Season 1, wanted Frank to exercise (like using his rowing machine and also taking up jogging as a hobby) because of his heart, and finally they show Frank (and Claire) smoking. So, I do wondering if they will bring  up his health and will have a storyline about it? 

 

As with the storyline about the prostitute that slept with Russo, I really don't think that will be tied to him right away (although, I do think that they will be an investigation once they find Doug's body and maybe that will get the ball rolling on Frank's eventual demise?).

[jonnysokko]

Really not sure where they take the escapades of President Francis Underwood now. Once a man has achieved the highest pinnacle, or the loftiest goal, what more is there that a man wants-----except more of what he now already has. Absolute power, no matter the cost nor principle, was the Underwoods' long sought after dream and now that they have it, can they have MORE of it?

 

I suppose eventually we'll see the downside of their rapid ascension and perhaps somebody will finally be able to connect all the dots of the Underwoods' ruthless and heartless rise to the Presidency. Those times can wait. Until then, I'm most interested in finding out who the new Vice-President will be (one that will serve no purpose to the Union of course but only to Frank); see what surprises may be in store for the upcoming Presidential election; find out whether or not Doug is really dead; see what path Rachel now takes; hopefully watch Gavin (with Cashew) take more of a central role; watching what anti-U.S. bully will now rear their ugly head and finally see if Claire's mental state snaps enough that everything starts to untangle.

 

Oughta be a great season. Looking forward to it.

[smcallah]

I can see this going much different than the original HOC since Frank is in control of the most powerful country and military on Earth.  A much different situation than being the PM of GB.

 

Frank has "the button" and troops deployed around the world.  We know that something is probably going to happen with China at this point.  That's a much bigger deal than Cyprus.

 

I could see many people wanting to assassinate Frank for many different reasons.  No one wants a war with China.  Someone will know he killed Zoe because of the phone records at AT&T.  Tusk most likely wants him gone.  So I can definitely see it ending the same way over all.  Maybe Frank will even end up a hero or remembered as the greatest president.

[Fen]

I think maintaining power is more difficult than obtaining it: Frank's new position exposes him by placing him under constant scrutiny.  I think we might see him on the back foot more than might have been expected.

 

It's perhaps unlikely, but I am hopeful that Doug Stamper somehow makes it to season 3.  He's got much more depth than a lot of the characters: a combination of brutality, gentleness, loyalty, strength, weakness - and some truly odd psychological hang-ups. He's also got an long-standing relationship with Frank, and a burgeoning interesting relationship with Seth.

 

I felt the same about Peter Russo.  I understand the dramatic purpose behind his murder - but we also lost a complex character with a lot of background story.  Zoe, too, checked out just as she was becoming more interesting.  I get that the deaths of these characters provided the show with its main 'wtf!' moments - but I do think their presence is needed to add depth, and ground it, in a way.  Without them, it's just much more broadly drawn characters being easily manipulated by Frank and Claire, and while that's endlessly entertaining, it lacks something.

 

 

I can see this going much different than the original HOC since Frank is in control of the most powerful country and military on Earth.  A much different situation than being the PM of GB.

 

*Gives you some British side-eye*

Edited September 20, 2014 by Fen

[Athena]

I have renamed this thread to begin speculation for Season 4.

[ZootSuitWyatt]

I don't know if I can handle more election plotline during an actual election year.

[Mattipoo]

I hope Dunbar wins the election. And no more Tom. The guy creeps me out.

[Misty79]

Is season four even confirmed?

[Athena]

Is season four even confirmed?

 

Not yet. Netflix won't confirm until later, but given the speculation from the media, it will probably happen.

[PRgal]

Anyone have spoiler tidbits for season 4, now that it's official?