Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) is sworn in as acting president in the wake of a split vote for the presidency in Congress. This bizarre scenario is a clear foreshadowing to what Claire has been vying for for quite some time.

The shake up in the White House also spurs action from Russia, and we are re-greeted by the presence of Viktor Petrov (Lars Mikkelsen). Movement from the Congressional Black Caucus also heavily influences the way the presidential vote may go.

What comes of this latter point is a meeting between the CBC and Will Conway (Joel Kinnaman), a meeting that goes disastrously for Conway.

On the grunt front, the investigation on Rachel Posner and her relationship to Doug Stamper (and thus the President) continues, leading to the firing of Sean Jeffries (Korey Jackson).

Then there’s the issue of runaway hacker Aiden Macallan (Damien Young), who Stamper and Leann Harvey (Neve Campbell) work desperately to recover before he does something drastic. Which he does.

The intrigue of this episode is the shifting power dynamic between Claire and Frank. They maintain that they are still on the same level, but regardless  Frank is forced to the sidelines on important decisions. There is some interest to glean from this, but the episode largely functions as a delayed gratification for the decision as to who will become president.

As always, thanks for reading!

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—Alex Brannan (@TheAlexBrannan)