Mixed feelings about the fact I want to be Claire Underwood
I finished watching all of House of Cards Season 4 in two days. Now, it’s time to talk about it, so if you haven’t finished your 13-episode binge, now would be a good time to turn back. There are lots of spoilers ahead, and I’d hate to be the one to spoil Season 4 for you, because it was just that good of a season.
Season 4 might actually be my favorite season so far, because it made me laugh, it made me cry, I cringed, I held my breath, and I kept hitting NEXT EPISODE until there were no more episodes left. By the time the credits played on “Chapter 52” (aka, the last one) I knew one thing in my heart: I want to be Claire Underwood when I grow up.
And then I was like WHOA, maybe I shouldn’t admit that aloud to people, or maybe anyone, because Claire has done a lot of questionable things over the past four seasons. Like, these are just some of the things she did in Season 4:
- • Tried to divorce her husband, aka The President
- • Went behind her husband’s back to run for office
- • Tried to blackmail her husband into divorcing her
- • Actually blackmailed Remy and Jackie
- • Negotiated with Russia, even though she wasn’t supposed to
- • Lied to the American Public (a few times)
- • Manipulated the Secretary of State so SHE could become the VP Nominee
- • Became the VP Nominee
- • Started an affair
- • Got a terrorist out of detainment, and then interrogated him
- • Realized that terror is the way to power
- • Let someone be executed on the internet, in order to get more power
And that’s still only like, 1/3 of everything. That’s not including Season 1 – 3 either. To put it nicely, she’s a bad lady. So… maybe I shouldn’t aspire to be her?
But I do. Because underneath the corruption, and the deceit, and the manipulation, Claire is one badass, kickass, take-no-prisoners lady. She has worked her whole life moving up — Claire doesn’t go backwards. And if she does find herself knocked down, she gets right back up, even stronger than before. Like, Frank doesn’t want her running for Congress in Texas? Okay, that sucks, so how about she become VICE PRESIDENT instead? If that’s not upward momentum, I don’t know what is. She’s so cool.
But yeah, okay, that killing stuff. While Claire hasn’t pushed anyone in front of a subway before — that we know of — she’s still killing adjacent.
This is why it’s easy to not want to be Claire, considering her long political Rap Sheet of Bad Things. For her, no matter the cost, no matter how many casualties (either real, or political) she might leave along the way, she’s doing to do what she wants, and she’s going to do it her way.
But that right there! That’s the reason I want to BE Claire. She is driven, she is smart, and she is one determined female. She says what’s on her mind, and has the power to influence others — though, it’s mostly a bad influence, like, gently pressuring the Acting President into that deal with Russia.
So yeah, okay, we can all agree that Claire is not the most cuddly, or family-friendly, person on the planet, but she gets shit done and is completely unapologetic along the way. There aren’t too many women out there in the fictional realm of television like this. That makes Claire special, and that makes her great, the political backstabbing aside.
And now since you’ve seen all the way to the end of Season 4, that’s a huge Claire moment. It has not just Frank staring directly in our soul the camera, but Claire too.
I hope this means what I think it means, and that the focus of the series will shift to the TWO of them talking to us. Or, maybe it’s finally Claire’s time to do all the talking, since it’s becoming clearer that she’s the one actually pulling the strings. Frank’s nothing without Claire, and I want to be Claire. Even if I still do feel weird about admitting that I’m going to start living my life a little bit more like Democratic Vice President Nominee, Claire Underwood.
