Unpopular Opinion : ‘House of Cards’ Season 6 Is Exceptional
Claire Hale became the archetypal strong, fatal, powerful and dangerous woman who is finally given full power.
« Hail to the Commander-in-Chief — Madam President Claire Hale (Underwood). »
This is how I like to describe season 6 — and the entire series — of House of Cards. The story of a woman, at first in the shadow of her husband, who, gradually and unnoticed, climbs the ladder of power until she decides to oust her own husband in order to see herself enjoy a pleasure she has caught herself drooling for : power.
Netflix’s House of Cards is sadly known for being a gem that has lost its grace and value over time, over the seasons, and has, according to many, been dealt the coup de grace with the sixth and final season. But here’s the thing — I don’t think so at all. And I even think, in fact, that this sixth season is neglected, highly underrated, and that it perfectly closes the magnificent political drama that was House of Cards, in addition to offering us a magnificent evolution of Claire’s character.
I’ve just finished the series — in fact, I finished it 3 days ago, as I am typing these words on my computer. From the moment I started watching it last November, I was looking forward to season 6. I had, like many, heard of the more than negative opinions of people on the quality and course of the season, and I was then very eager to progress in the show in order to make my own opinion.
As the final episodes of season 5 played out, I was torn between excitement and fear. Excitement to begin season 6, to see what the United States of President Claire Hale Underwood would look like. Fear that I would fall flat on my face and be, like many viewers and loyal fans of the show, very disappointed. I’m still struggling to put into words how stunned I was after finishing the first episode — and the feeling grew even more so as I went on watching.
It is clear that the show isn’t the same without Francis Underwood, I understand that. But I was surprised at how well Claire was able to take over and preserve the rich legacy left by her late husband. Robin Wright has breathed new life into Claire’s character, she has evolved her greatly to my delight — Claire, who was once this mysterious and understated woman who always acted in the shadow of her husband and whose innermost thoughts were always unknown, has been transformed into a fearsome, cold, calculating and manipulative woman — just as fearsome and manipulative (perhaps even more so) as her husband — hungry for power and authority.
And this greed for power and authority is very much in evidence in her fashion style. More discreet when her husband was still alive, it quickly changed to a strict and severe style, perfectly reflecting the character of the woman it highlights.
The Atlantic notes : « Robin Wright’s Claire Underwood was Frank’s partner, but she also epitomized the show’s quieter brand of menace. Enigmatic and careful, she hungered for power just as much as he did, yet her pursuit of it never felt frantic. Thus, in the rare moments when she broke her facade — or knifed someone without even doing so — the results were a special kind of terrifying. Great credit should go to Wright, and the show’s writers, for locating complexity beneath the pat description “icy” that so often gets applied to powerful women » — and it’s completely true.
Throughout the series, we’ve seen Claire slowly rise through the ranks alongside her husband, without ever once suspecting that this woman was, in fact, a terrible threat. Because, yes, Claire Underwood, at the beginning of the show, was a threat. A more discreet threat, much more « enigmatic » and « careful » than her husband, but a threat nonetheless. And on the rare occasions when she has broken her mask — the murder of her lover Tom Yates or the manipulative and political frame-up of her predecessor, former First Lady Patricia Walker — she has proven to be a cruel, fearless character who will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
Powerful women are very often described and portrayed in this way. They are said and reputed to be « icy », with a complexity that no one can really grasp and decipher. Claire Hale — not Underwood, the distinction must be made — fits this category and description. When she finally reaches the pinnacle of power by becoming President of the United States — upon her husband’s resignation — she burns the costume of the submissive married woman, who was told what to do, to assume that of the strong, independent, powerful woman.
Claire Underwood was the woman who was married to Frank Underwood, the woman in the shadows, the one who was rarely seen and who was told what to do and how to act. Claire Hale is the “post-Frank” era, the ruthless, cold, calculating, power-hungry, dangerous woman. Claire Hale made it clear to viewers, by dropping the Underwood name, that Claire Underwood was dead and not coming back. The distinction must be made between Claire Underwood and Claire Hale because the former represents the before and the latter, the after. And the viewers are in the after and have to focus on that.
Claire Hale’s character and way of being are a perfect mirror image of Empress Catherine the Great. Catherine the Great came to the Russian throne in a coup against her husband King Peter III and later, according to rumours, assassinated him before ruling the Russian Empire with an iron fist for over 30 years. Claire Hale moved to the Oval Office after her husband resigned as President following the Chinese money laundering scandal, and ousted him from politics by not granting him the long awaited presidential pardon before he was murdered by poisoning shortly afterwards. This is in keeping with the common desire of the Underwood couple to rule the United States for many years. Except that Claire decided to enjoy this privilege alone, without sharing it with anyone — not even her own husband.
Claire Hale is a woman of power, a woman who is in control (of what she does, what she thinks, and how she acts) and who controls everything — in this case, politics in all its aspects and its representatives, namely her staff and her enemies. And this is perfectly illustrated in this season 6, in which we notice that Claire is, in fact, quite different from Frank, to a much greater and more significant degree.
Season 6 of House of Cards marks a sudden evolution in Claire’s character — without Frank by her side and with a host of new characters appearing, she shows that she is now in charge, that she holds the cards, and that the fate of these new characters is sealed in her hands. Naturally, given the way recent events have unfolded (i.e., all of Frank Underwood’s crimes, his Senate hearing, and his sudden resignation), people reserve the right to be skeptical about Claire’s rise to power.
Many people — both old enemies and former friends — want to see her fall from grace or, at best, die. So Claire has the difficult task of securing the trust and blessing of the American people and showing that, yes, she is fit to lead the country, and make it great again (no pun intended).
The « political animals » that make up her enemies all seek to manipulate her so that they can remove her from office and replace her with someone they deem “more controllable”. They underestimate her and attack her at every opportunity. Claire then cunningly gets in on their game, so that in episode 5 she feigns a nervous breakdown, refusing to leave the White House’s Executive Residence and appear in public, leading her closest advisers and the public to question whether she is really capable of running the country — this prompts her Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, but before they can do anything, in a masterful move, she fires them all and tells them she has launched an FBI investigation against them for « colluding with Russia ».
As a result, she established the first all-female presidential cabinet in U.S. history. Claire, in doing so, achieved an incredible masterstroke that shouldn’t be forgotten. By falsely making the people and her (former) Cabinet believe and hope that she was, indeed, not fit for the office of President and that, therefore, women didn’t have the expertise and courage to occupy the Oval Office, she brilliantly manipulated public opinion in order to be able to put her real plan into action and establish her authority.
In season 6, it’s all about Claire and how she’s going to manage to detach herself from the political and criminal actions of her late husband. From the outset, she knows that she must rid herself of Frank’s ghost hanging over her, and anything that still ties her to him, if she is to have any hope of seeing her political career — and her presidential term — go down in history, and make a name for herself, so it’s only logical that she decides to preside under her maiden name — Claire Hale — and draw a permanent line under the Underwood name.
But her enemies know that Frank and Claire cannot be separated, and that the two will remain linked forever, no matter what is done. And they are right, in a way. Because we get to see this revelation in season 5, when she murders Tom Yates by poisoning him, or in the last episode of season 6, when she brutally stabs Doug Stamper with Frank’s letter opener. It is revealed that Claire Hale also has an intense complexity, that she is just as surprising and dark as Frank was — but on a much higher level.
Frank may have had the cards in his hand and used them with great pleasure to manipulate people, and get his way, but Claire had the distinction of being enigmatic and mysterious in her moves, no one ever knew which foot she was dancing on. All this proves that her hands are just as bloodstained as Frank’s, and that, yes, they are both equal.
Many people have criticized season 6 for not having that “extra touch” that Frank Underwood added and therefore refused to let Claire have her say and show what she was capable of, which I think is a real shame. Because over the course of the episodes, Claire has proven to be a pro at political manipulation, machinations and tricks. She has been able to use (abusively) the immense power that the presidency offered her to achieve her various goals, and she has done so in an incredibly brilliant way every time.
She got rid of everyone who tried or got in her way — proving that she is just as (but much more) ruthless and cold as her late husband — although it must have cost her a price : being left alone in the end. In the final scene of the season finale, when she murders Doug Stamper, she gives the camera a cold, cruel and dangerous look as she utters a chilling « There. No more pain. » — she makes two things clear : first, that she is, as The Hollywood Reporter notes, « the [only] survivor », and second, that she has realized that she has to « do it all by herself » and that, by doing so, she will inevitably isolate herself. And as the series’ showrunner so aptly concluded, Claire feels a sense of deep freedom and relief, accompanied by a loneliness that she will not be able to escape.
Another point that this season highlights perfectly is that Claire is an extremely intelligent person — the fact that she uses her pregnancy as a political and manipulative weapon is a genuine masterstroke, too. Firstly, she uses it to charm the people and to immediately secure their support and trust, as shown at the beginning of episode 7 in which she hosts the National Women’s Conference and gives a speech that is more than patriotic and hopeful : « My purpose is to elevate America, fight for America, and if it ever came to it, die for America. I will be father, mother, leader, and friend. » — as Bustle so aptly analyzes, Americans already adore her and it seems clear that Claire has established herself as the « nation’s maternal figure », the one to whom mothers and future mothers will want to look like and hold as inspiration.
Secondly, because it allows her to collect the assets left by Frank in his will. Normally due to Doug, the Underwood couple’s prenup stipulated that if they had no offspring, the entire inheritance would go to Doug and Claire would get nothing. But if they did have offspring, the child would get the assets. Claire’s sudden pregnancy is, once again, a real masterstroke and further enhances the admiration we can have for her.
What we can learn from all this is that Claire Hale — and not Underwood — is an extremely cunning, intelligent woman who stops at nothing to achieve her goals. In the end, we realize that she has single-handedly pulled off several masterstrokes — which suggests a bright future for her and her future daughter : she became the country’s first female President, established the first all-female presidential Cabinet, and is also the first woman to become pregnant during her term as President.
So, what should we remember from all this ? House of Cards season 6 is all about Claire, her evolution brilliantly and beautifully led by Robin Wright, and the unsuspected, quite machiavellian genius of her character.
For its final performance, House of Cards pulls out all the stops and shows us just how fearsome a woman Claire is that no one saw coming. For too long overshadowed by her husband, she has fought her way out of it and imposed her own rules, even if it meant making sacrifices.
And it is worth noting the way in which she slowly climbed the ladder : starting as the wife of a Congressman, she was forced to make many sacrifices for her husband’s career before slowly gaining a more important place in power, until she decided, to everyone’s surprise, to oust her husband from the political arena and to take full power for herself.
House of Cards season 6 succeeds where many political dramas — and not soap operas — have failed : showing a woman who knows how to play chess perfectly and who has mastered the rules perfectly, since she created them. And, like it or not, it’s impossible to miss the feminist aspect behind this tension-filled, twisty season — I can’t wait for the day when the United States will have its first female President and its first pregnant Commander-in-Chief in office.
The final season of House of Cards serves as a magnificent farewell to the show’s loyal and new fans and establishes — as well as confirms — its status as one of the greatest made-for-television series of all time, and the greatest Netflix series. And I’m sure that President Claire Hale is kindly and happily making sure that its legacy remains untarnished.
So it is with these last words that I would like to conclude my piece : « Hail to the Commander-in-Chief — Madam President Claire Hale. »
References :
- The Atlantic. House of Cards Is Even Chillier Than Ever in Its Final Season. Spencer Kornhaber. November 1st, 2018.
- The Hollywood Reporter. ‘House of Cards’ Says Time’s Up as Final Season Exposes Fear About Women in Power. Emma Dibdin. November 4, 2018.
- The Hollywood Reporter. How ‘House of Cards’ Pulled Up That Timely, Feminist Coup. Jackie Strause. November 8, 2018.
- The Hollywood Reporter. ‘House of Cards’ Bosses Explain That Complicated and Surprising Final Scene. Jackie Strause. November 9, 2018.
- Bustle. Claire Underwood Made History Yet Again In ‘House of Cards’ Season 6. Rebecca Patton. November 2, 2018.
- Polygon. House of Cards’ final season is horrible, strange and impressive at the same time. Ben Kuchera. November 6, 2018.
