This episode starts out with an unbalanced Marine carrying a bomb in a duffel bag, hoping to kill Claire because she had an abortion. She is now pretty much confined to the house, which puts a damper on lobbying for her sexual abuse bill. Jackie starts sleeping with Remy and we wonder what his motivations are. He is connected to Tusk, but how is she in the picture. She has two nasty encounters with Frank and Claire over the fact that she has qualms about the bill. She is an ex-military person who has killed several people. It is hard for her to hang her military people out to dry, even if they deserve it. Doug, who has had a lot of problems with alcohol and is in Frank's back pocket begins to create doubts. He feels he is being devalued by Frank and that is probably true. He also realizes he loves Rachel but is in such an awkward position. Things are starting to go sour for him. He is an incredibly sour individual and yet it is hard not to feel a bit sorry for him. Excellent performance by a guy who has made a career of playing heavies. As this chapter concludes there are some strange goings on concerning him.
2 Reviews
"Unlike you, I don't peddle my goods for whoever can pay the highest retainer"
TheLittleSongbird2 June 2019
Season 2 of 'House of Cards' is a more than solid season, with none of the episodes being less than very good. It doesn't have the same number of great episodes that the first season did and there was a slight slump in quality between "Chapter 14" and "Chapter 19", but even then the episodes were very close to great with many fantastic things let down slightly by an over-dominant Frank and in a few of them the charater of Lucas.
Living up to and following from an episode as brilliant as "Chapter 22", one of the season's best and one of the best of the show up to this point, could not have been easy at all, but "Chapter 23" does a great job in that respect. Is it on the same level? No, not quite. Is it quite as great? Again, not quite. Is it great? Oh yes. Does it have a lot of fantastic things about it? Absolutely. It is an incredibly well done and balanced episode with nothing really inherently wrong with it.
Did feel that "Chapter 23" didn't quite have the same level of tension that "Chapter 22" did. The emotional impact of that episode isn't quite matched either.
Not that "Chapter 23" is devoid of either of those things. It actually has both. Especially the tension. Particularly good is the characterisation. Frank, who provides the tension with his increasing unscrupulousness without dominating too much, and Claire continue to be fascinating characters played to the absolute thrilling hilt by Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright. Their chemistry blisters and does their dialogue, along with one of Jackie's best ever lines listed above they have the lines to savour. The latter also directing her first 'House of Cards' episode of ten, and despite not being experienced in directing at that point the inexperience in my opinion did not show, she never allows the episode or drama to become dull and balances the components adeptly.
It is not just Frank and Claire who are interesting. This is a character showcase for Stamper, with Michael Kelly's intensity as the character literally burning through the television screen, with his interaction with Rachel (with her meatiest material yet) being very well written and acted. His sourness is almost frightening and makes one interested in seeing how it turns out. Another very well character in "Chapter 23" is Jackie, one of the better written newer characters from the start, her ferocity and steel being brought to the forefront that is neither over or under played. Molly Parker continues to impress.
Continue to love the darker tone, while the sharply cynical political edge hasn't lost its intrigue, is intelligently done and isn't laid on too thick. Visually, the episode looks great, the slickness has not been lost and neither has the atmosphere. The music knew when to have presence and when to tone things down to let the dialogue and characters properly speak. The writing is sharp and has bite.
All in all, a great episode if not quite on the same level as the previous one. 9/10
Living up to and following from an episode as brilliant as "Chapter 22", one of the season's best and one of the best of the show up to this point, could not have been easy at all, but "Chapter 23" does a great job in that respect. Is it on the same level? No, not quite. Is it quite as great? Again, not quite. Is it great? Oh yes. Does it have a lot of fantastic things about it? Absolutely. It is an incredibly well done and balanced episode with nothing really inherently wrong with it.
Did feel that "Chapter 23" didn't quite have the same level of tension that "Chapter 22" did. The emotional impact of that episode isn't quite matched either.
Not that "Chapter 23" is devoid of either of those things. It actually has both. Especially the tension. Particularly good is the characterisation. Frank, who provides the tension with his increasing unscrupulousness without dominating too much, and Claire continue to be fascinating characters played to the absolute thrilling hilt by Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright. Their chemistry blisters and does their dialogue, along with one of Jackie's best ever lines listed above they have the lines to savour. The latter also directing her first 'House of Cards' episode of ten, and despite not being experienced in directing at that point the inexperience in my opinion did not show, she never allows the episode or drama to become dull and balances the components adeptly.
It is not just Frank and Claire who are interesting. This is a character showcase for Stamper, with Michael Kelly's intensity as the character literally burning through the television screen, with his interaction with Rachel (with her meatiest material yet) being very well written and acted. His sourness is almost frightening and makes one interested in seeing how it turns out. Another very well character in "Chapter 23" is Jackie, one of the better written newer characters from the start, her ferocity and steel being brought to the forefront that is neither over or under played. Molly Parker continues to impress.
Continue to love the darker tone, while the sharply cynical political edge hasn't lost its intrigue, is intelligently done and isn't laid on too thick. Visually, the episode looks great, the slickness has not been lost and neither has the atmosphere. The music knew when to have presence and when to tone things down to let the dialogue and characters properly speak. The writing is sharp and has bite.
All in all, a great episode if not quite on the same level as the previous one. 9/10
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