In most settings, those who trust and do good for those they trust, will gain rewards. In their world of the Underwoods, those who trust are pawns in the whole scheme. They could be thrown away at the drop of a hat. I keep wondering if the fawning, sycophantic Doug Stamper is going to find the door at some point. He is so loyal, and yet we can see that his protecting Frank is actually getting on the President's nerves. This episode is excellent. Frank has recovered from his liver transplant and is back in the game. He needs to choose a Vice President, but his efforts are orchestrated and manipulative. He and Claire have put aside an effort to return to their sick marriage and are plotting to get a second term for Frank. Dirty tricks are taking place. Since Dunbar got taken down through her chance meeting with Frank's almost-assassin, he has a clear path to the nomination and can now focus his efforts on bringing down Conway, the wunderkind governor of New York. This, to me, is the best episode of the new season.
6 Reviews
Underwood back into a new game
vijaybavalatti15 September 2017
From the beginning of this season, things went as per the viewer's expectations but after the twist in the 4th episode, its totally incredible. Well speaking of 7th episode, its the beginning of the fight between the Underwood and a new opponent who is quite young. The new player against the Underwood is challenging and manipulative. He manages to cover up the rumors related to his past and gains extra momentum in his campaigns. We just need to look what strategy Mr and Mrs Underwood are going to make to make their opponent weaker in the next few episodes.
Frank rejoins the game and an old acquaintance becomes an opponent.
TouchTheGarlicProduction4 March 2016
Warning: Spoilers
This felt like a true episode of House of Cards. It had political manoeuvring and a bunch of the increasingly rare gimmick of Frank talking to the viewer. I had really missed that, and it was great to see it again. The first four episodes built some real momentum, but then the next two fell into a bit of a rut.
This one was better. It may not have re-established a suspenseful main plot, but it was a fun episode. We get to feel the sensation of riding Frank's coat-tails, something that has been less and less common since the first two seasons.
It even shows us a flashback to a scene from the first season, although we see some new things happening there tying in to the things in modern times. I am enjoying the way that seemingly endless side-plots have been actually becoming relevant again and resolving themselves in this season.
This was a fun episode. An enjoyable part of the show.
This one was better. It may not have re-established a suspenseful main plot, but it was a fun episode. We get to feel the sensation of riding Frank's coat-tails, something that has been less and less common since the first two seasons.
It even shows us a flashback to a scene from the first season, although we see some new things happening there tying in to the things in modern times. I am enjoying the way that seemingly endless side-plots have been actually becoming relevant again and resolving themselves in this season.
This was a fun episode. An enjoyable part of the show.
Back to the established formula
snoozejonc10 November 2020
Frank sizes up his republican opponent whilst dealing with potential threats from abroad.
This is an entertaining episode that for me takes the show back to its earlier style of Frank and Claire against the world. We are introduced to a new fresh-faced opponent and we see the Underwoods gearing up for the fight.
The plot again takes some suspension of disbelief to buy into. I'm a cynic and think its par for the course that governments use internet information as part of campaign research, so the big deal made over this is somewhat surprising. The gun control plot is a bit more interesting from my perspective as someone living in a country that doesn't have a gun culture so I'm keen to see where writers go with it.
Technically it is a well made episode, particularly the editing and how the scenes cross cut and jump cut to different visuals whilst keeping continuity with the subject matter. The cinematography is as great as ever and I enjoyed the use of music, particularly during Conway's cheesy, patriotic speech in front of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright are great as always and there is a nice scene with Boris McGiver and Constance Zimmer indicating that Frank's skeletons may yet be resurfaced.
This is an entertaining episode that for me takes the show back to its earlier style of Frank and Claire against the world. We are introduced to a new fresh-faced opponent and we see the Underwoods gearing up for the fight.
The plot again takes some suspension of disbelief to buy into. I'm a cynic and think its par for the course that governments use internet information as part of campaign research, so the big deal made over this is somewhat surprising. The gun control plot is a bit more interesting from my perspective as someone living in a country that doesn't have a gun culture so I'm keen to see where writers go with it.
Technically it is a well made episode, particularly the editing and how the scenes cross cut and jump cut to different visuals whilst keeping continuity with the subject matter. The cinematography is as great as ever and I enjoyed the use of music, particularly during Conway's cheesy, patriotic speech in front of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright are great as always and there is a nice scene with Boris McGiver and Constance Zimmer indicating that Frank's skeletons may yet be resurfaced.
I've given the series as a whole a 9, but some episodes like this are quite poor
VoyagerMN19862 December 2018
Warning: Spoilers
So much of HoC is realistic, with just a bit of over the top hyperbole (say direct murders), that when an episodes makes multiple errors in basic details the sloppiness is jarring. such is the case with "Chapter 46" (S4, Episode 7).
Several in this episode are exactly the type of Hollywood nonsense such as errors concerning the military since it is unlikely to anyone making the show has any military experience. EG troop transports leaving for the Pacific in WWII never left from NY harbors. That would put them at sea for twice as long and exposed them to German U-boats, all units deployed to the pacific were transported across the US by train for west coast embarkation for this reason. Then we have Claire going off the rails on gun control. It has been a felon y for 30 years to "buy a gun over the internet" without a background check, since this has to be done with an FFL. In fact one of the heads of one of the gun control lobby organizations got four out of four Pinocchio's from the Washington Post for claiming it was legal. Just as a well known national reporter made a fool out f herself claiming she bought an AR-15 at a gun show "without a background check" when she did not realize the seller had conducted one. Claire shows great acumen dealing with the Russians but makes a fool out of herself with no command of the facts when talking about this issue publicly and private in the episode.
The issue of use of data mining and analytics also misses completely everything about what is legal and illegal about that. Deep mining of analytics predated the First Clinton Campaign, in fact the Dukakis campaign did it as has everyone since. Both Obama campaigns had issues with valuation of it as a contribution, as of course so did the Trump and Hillary Clinton campaigns
Several in this episode are exactly the type of Hollywood nonsense such as errors concerning the military since it is unlikely to anyone making the show has any military experience. EG troop transports leaving for the Pacific in WWII never left from NY harbors. That would put them at sea for twice as long and exposed them to German U-boats, all units deployed to the pacific were transported across the US by train for west coast embarkation for this reason. Then we have Claire going off the rails on gun control. It has been a felon y for 30 years to "buy a gun over the internet" without a background check, since this has to be done with an FFL. In fact one of the heads of one of the gun control lobby organizations got four out of four Pinocchio's from the Washington Post for claiming it was legal. Just as a well known national reporter made a fool out f herself claiming she bought an AR-15 at a gun show "without a background check" when she did not realize the seller had conducted one. Claire shows great acumen dealing with the Russians but makes a fool out of herself with no command of the facts when talking about this issue publicly and private in the episode.
The issue of use of data mining and analytics also misses completely everything about what is legal and illegal about that. Deep mining of analytics predated the First Clinton Campaign, in fact the Dukakis campaign did it as has everyone since. Both Obama campaigns had issues with valuation of it as a contribution, as of course so did the Trump and Hillary Clinton campaigns
"Conscience has an unmistakable stink to it, sort of like raw onions and morning breath"
TheLittleSongbird29 October 2019
With the previous Season 4 episodes some are better than others, but they made for a very promising first half to the season that was better than that of Season 3, which was better in its second half, and that was still solid enough. Of the previous Season 4 episodes, there is one decent if patchy episode ("Chapter 45"), two excellent ones ("Chapter 41"and "Chapter 44"), one outstanding one ("Chapter 43") and the rest being very good.
After being a little disappointed by "Chapter 45", "Chapter 46" is a big improvement and sees Season 4 and 'House of Cards' back on track. Find it one of Season 4's best episodes, the best since "Chapter 43" and equal in quality to that episode. It may not quite have the same level of intensity of that episode , but it is still outstanding in its own way while having the same strengths and the closest any episode of Season 4 up to this point of it (the halfway point) has come to feeling like classic 'House of Cards'.
Compared to the previous Season 4 episodes, "Chapter 46" is a somewhat lighter episode in places and is not as suspenseful, but there was a freshness to that approach and it was welcome to have something a little less heavy-going. It was good to have a fresh slant and introduce new story strands and such while not abandoning what has happened beforehand, rather than spending too long and too much of the season on the on-going conflicts and struggles. There is still a good deal of tension though, the conflict that is set up is very intriguing already and that is present in also Frank's manipulation of Blythe and Claire's gun control/NRA subplot.
The Conways are also introduced and their storyline is compelling and even genius, providing a reminder of the horrors of social media that is still very much current today. The scene where Frank imagines a duel with Conway in front of former presidents' portraits was brilliant writing and classic 'House of Cards'. That is also the standout of the writing, which is some of the season's finest and even sees a return to the much missed Frank talking to the camera/breaking the fourth wall.
Visually, the stylishness still remains as does the clever direction, the cross-cutting not being too gimmicky. The performances are first rate, with Kevin Spacey dominating and in the most masterful of ways, truly having a great time delivering Frank's ingenious character writing.
In conclusion, outstanding. 10/10
After being a little disappointed by "Chapter 45", "Chapter 46" is a big improvement and sees Season 4 and 'House of Cards' back on track. Find it one of Season 4's best episodes, the best since "Chapter 43" and equal in quality to that episode. It may not quite have the same level of intensity of that episode , but it is still outstanding in its own way while having the same strengths and the closest any episode of Season 4 up to this point of it (the halfway point) has come to feeling like classic 'House of Cards'.
Compared to the previous Season 4 episodes, "Chapter 46" is a somewhat lighter episode in places and is not as suspenseful, but there was a freshness to that approach and it was welcome to have something a little less heavy-going. It was good to have a fresh slant and introduce new story strands and such while not abandoning what has happened beforehand, rather than spending too long and too much of the season on the on-going conflicts and struggles. There is still a good deal of tension though, the conflict that is set up is very intriguing already and that is present in also Frank's manipulation of Blythe and Claire's gun control/NRA subplot.
The Conways are also introduced and their storyline is compelling and even genius, providing a reminder of the horrors of social media that is still very much current today. The scene where Frank imagines a duel with Conway in front of former presidents' portraits was brilliant writing and classic 'House of Cards'. That is also the standout of the writing, which is some of the season's finest and even sees a return to the much missed Frank talking to the camera/breaking the fourth wall.
Visually, the stylishness still remains as does the clever direction, the cross-cutting not being too gimmicky. The performances are first rate, with Kevin Spacey dominating and in the most masterful of ways, truly having a great time delivering Frank's ingenious character writing.
In conclusion, outstanding. 10/10
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