House of Cards Season 3 RECAP- SPOILERS

THIS IS FILLED WITH SPOILERS ON HOUSE OF CARDS SEASON 3. DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS BEFORE YOU WATCH THIS GREAT SHOW.


Apologies for getting this up late, some personal business came up and so this was the best I could do :( before the premiere.

This recap is going to be different. I don't think I need to episode by episode for this one so instead I am going to tell you the main gist character by character.

Frank Underwood

Frank is finally president and he wants to create a legacy to be remembered by. However, 2016 is fast approaching and his Democrat cohorts do not want him to run for re-election and instead have someone like Jackie run. Frank sees this as a betrayal and resorts to the us vs. them mentality even more. He can't count on Doug who is alive but recovering after what Rachel did to him at the end of last season so Grayson steps up to the plate to take over Doug's duties. Meanwhile, Frank has to deal with a Putin-esque Russian president named Petrov who shows up, and seems to always be one step ahead of Frank. 

On the home-front, Frank also has to battle against the Democratic presidential hopefuls, Jackie Sharp and  Dunbar, the special prosecutor who Frank tries to nominate to the Supreme Court but she turns him down wanting to make him lose and be seen as a liar and cheat for his actions in the deposition. While Frank struggles with these three adversaries, he risks making a 4th in Claire when he appoints her U,N. ambassador and doesn't support any decision she makes. Her decisions lead to more trouble with Russia and embarrasses the U.S. to which Frank is infuriated with her. The two have a lot of issues and when Doug returns, Frank is starting to feel hopeful again but Claire says she is leaving him in the season finale. 

Claire Underwood

Season 3 is about Claire and unfortunately, it falls very short of creating great plot development for her as she stumbles through a majority of the season unable to adjust to the newly won power she and her husband achieved. She is met with adversity through every turn when making a bid to be the United States' U.N. representative. When she gets the job, her first task is to negotiate the release of a protestor in Russia who openly came out as gay (alluding to Putin's anti gay laws that were in the news at the time). When she and Frank fly to Russia to meet with the man, he tells her he won't apologize to Petrov and kills himself. Claire is traumatized by this as he used a scarf of hers that she let him have to kill himself. Claire comes back home and decides to start working on her happiness with Frank and the two renew their vows even in the midst of marital problems as she goes back to her natural Brown hair color for 3-5 episodes of the season. 

As the season goes on, Claire becomes more and more aware that she has had to sacrifice more of herself to let Frank get power greater than her and that their marriage that was more arranged for power, is not beneficial any longer. In the end of the season she changes her hair back to blonde to campaign as people know her from when Frank was running for the House. She confronts Frank about them becoming further apart and is met by an obstinate and loathing Frank. This is the last straw for her and she decides to leave Frank with the season ending after she walks down the hall of their new accommodations in the White House.

Douglas Stamper

The only way to describe Doug's story line in this season is "whoa". He is found beaten, bleeding and dying from the rock Rachel smashed against his head leaving him in a dismal state. When he is found, Frank promises there will be a place for him when he gets out. Time passes by and Doug is not recovering fast enough so Grayson is in full control as the White House Chief of Staff. Doug can barely walk and needs to use a cane to get around and the medications he is prescribed are not powerful enough for him. Being a former alcoholic, Doug seeing his life slipping away returns to his old ways hiring hookers that look like Rachel and have them serve him drinks. He is broken for most of the season trying to claw his way back into Frank's favor but Frank is too busy to notice and delegates Grayson to act sympathetic to Doug. 

Feeling betrayed Doug goes to Dunbar and starts to teach her the ways Frank was able to manipulate people around him to get what he wanted becoming Dunbar's campaign manager in secret. He works from the shadows and is plotting his own revenge against Frank and even goes as far as to get the document of Claire's abortion proving it wasn't the result of the rape by McGinnis to prove he is committed to Dunbar but never lets her have the actual journal. After some self introspection he realizes this isn't what he wants to do, he wants to become Frank and decides to switch back to Frank proving his loyalty by burning the diary in front of Frank and becoming his right hand man again. 

There is one more thing eating at Doug though once he sobers up...Rachel. Doug tracks down Gavin, the hacker that blackmailed him, and viciously beats him until Gavin tracks down Rachel. When Rachel is found, Doug tosses his cane away and goes to get her in New Mexico. He kidnaps her, and has her dig her own grave out in the desert as he watches. She admits she was wrong and that she was sorry but that she wouldn't be a problem or liability anymore as no one had looked for her and she was trying to move to Canada. While out there, he has second thoughts of killing her and starts to drive her back. He lets her out in the middle of the road driving away, but the torment of letting her live eats at him and he turns around, kills her and buries Rachel in her grave she dug. He returns to Frank who is delighted to see him without his cane before Claire makes her announcement she is leaving him and walks off ending the season.

That's the basic overview of House of Cards Season 3.  There are other storylines like Remy and Jackie's falling out, or Dunbar handling fighting Frank, or Grayson's own struggle to redefine himself and adjust to the responsibilities Frank gives him that Doug did better. This season was not anywhere as good near the past two seasons but it should still be watched as important character development happens. I hope this show doesn't follow the similar path Dexter took at around season 4 but we will know soon. 

Again as I said before every recap, WATCH THIS SHOW. My recaps (especially this one) do not do the seasons justice and you have to watch it for yourselves to have the true experience of House of Cards. It returns to Netflix at 3:01 EST and that is not far from this post going live. I hope you all enjoyed this recaps and look on Sunday for my recap of season 4 in video/podcast format!