We made it. Ashley Parker and David Carr have been recapping “House of Cards,” which many people binged their way through weeks ago. Dropping the season all at once produced a big splash for Netflix, but it made going through the episodes of the series a bit of challenge. But we are finally crossing the finish line by getting to the finale, and if you haven’t done the same, by all means avoid the spoilers below. If, on the other hand, you want to catch up, you can find recaps of Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 or 12, right here.

Episode 13

Synopsis: Frank Underwood’s ultimate goal, at least for Season 1, is revealed, but he has newsies on his tail who smell a rat and/or a big story.

Carr: Is it just me, or are Frank Underwood’s charms a little less easy to discern now that we know he is a cold-blooded murderer? Sure, he is still wheeling and dealing like the Frank of old, it’s just with that his manipulations seem less beguiling when you spot the blood on his hands.

Everything is bound to be a bit of an anticlimax now that Peter Russo has been rubbed out, but there are some worthies in this last episode of the season. Journalism and politics, which were odd and literal bedfellows for much of the season, have returned to their natural antagonisms.

While Frank is meeting with Remy and Mr. Tusk to iron out his plans to take over the world, Zoe Barnes and Janine Skorsky are starting to zero in on what might have happened to Peter Russo. “We need the arrest record,” Janine says to Zoe, and it is quickly discerned that all traces of Mr. Russo’s initial arrest have been taken care of by Mr. Underwood’s flying monkeys that do all of his bidding.

Working for Slugline, Zoe and Janine are a little short on cop sources, but thankfully, Ms. Barnes has switched beds and is sleeping with her former managing editor, Lucas, who is wired up at the cop shop. Zoe uses her one superpower — keening after coitus — to talk him into doing her bidding, and even though he observes, “This is really manipulative,” he punches in.

Mr. Underwood’s wife, Claire, has both nightmares and an unfolding civil case on her hands and she seems almost childlike as she crawls back under her husband’s wing after a vigorous round of straying and betraying.

Frank Underwood stops by a church for no discernible reason — he has no soul that I have noticed — and prays to both God and Satan before settling on praying to himself. The less said of that particular set piece the better, but speaking of scenes that clank, when Lucas, Janine and Zoe stand in a room and begin to piece the larger story together, it’s hard to watch. Investigative journalism is something that generally happens alone in a room with documents and when the epiphany emerges, it is not usually in conversation. But that doesn’t make for good visual storytelling, so we end up with reporters in a room, rubbing their temples and gaming the story out together.

I liked the season and the show — give or take — and will definitely tune in for the next, but when it becomes apparent at the end that Frank Underwood has been gunning to be the vice president all along, it’s hard to keep dissonance at bay. It’s like the person who spends wads of cash at the county fair trying to get the ring around the bottle and when he or she finally does, they hand him a cheap, dirty stuffed animal. Not that being vice president is nothing, but it’s a hard chair for somebody who is addicted to power like Frank Underwood. We can only guess that he is using it for his adjacency to the president so he can inflict maximum damage from close quarters. What’s your take on all that, Ashley?

Parker: Keep in mind, for starters, that the only reason the V.P. slot is even available to Frank Underwood is because the previous vice president found the job so unappealing — and so utterly powerless — that he was easily convinced to give up the perch in order to run for governor of Pennsylvania, a job he’d already had. It’s a bit of a wonder Mr. Underwood would ever covet being vice president, though as you point out, he seems to know how to manipulate the president from both far out and close in, and we have to imagine this stop is yet another stepping stone to … something.

Like the show, hate the show, or find the show vexing and frustrating but ultimately addicting, what strikes me now at the end of the first season is how successfully — in D.C., at least — “House of Cards” has inserted itself into the fabric of the city. The other day, for instance, I received an email for a friend’s birthday that began by extolling the virtues of “our favorite Slugline colleague” — a k a, the birthday girl, who is in fact a reporter at a major national daily.

And then, the other night, I was eating dinner with a friend (and fellow reporter), and we were commiserating about editors and deadlines and being competitive in a 24-second news cycle world.

“Can you imagine if Slugline was real?” she asked with a shudder of actual horror. “It would be unbearable.”

And on, and on.

Frank Underwood got less palatable and Claire Underwood got more complex and Peter Russo got snuffed out (alas), and Zoe Barnes seems to be committing occasional acts of real journalism. And I’m glad to have watched the show, and glad to be caught up with some of my peers, who binge-watched the entire 13 episodes the weekend or week they were first released.

Carr: Yes, it felt a little lonely out here, still playing “House of Cards” when the rest of the world was now playing “Game of Thrones,” which is kind of the same show in a way, but played out with armor and swords.

I like that the journalism — so much a part of the problem to start the season — has reared its head as a corrective, a source of accountability and eventually, the truth. Looking ahead, you’d have to think that Frank Underwood will find a way to make the dots stay unconnected so he can continue to perpetrate and the show can unfurl for another season, but it’s nice to see reporters hot on the trail and making Frank Underwood sweat.

Here are my wishes for the upcoming season: I would like Doug Stamper, Underwood’s loyal aide-de-sleaze, to turn on his boss. I’d like Ms. Underwood to develop a power base that is used for something besides advancing her husband’s interest. I’d like to see Slugline’s run-and-gun approach get the site in some hot water, and I’d also like Zoe Barnes to go after a story, start to finish, without sleeping with anybody.

We’d like to do something like this again, so if you have ideas on tempo, approach or format, please drop in on comments and tell us where to go.

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/house-of-cards-episode-13-recap-journalism-and-politics-finally-break-up/?partner=rss&emc=rss