Rachel is alive, working under the table at a grocery store in New Mexico, living in a boarding house, just trying to survive, and I have little doubt that Doug is about to show up and put an end to that soon.
Cool music in the opening scene, though.
Speaking of Doug, he's on a plane to Venezuela to talk to Gavin about Rachel. I love Jimmi Simpson, but I never want to see Gavin on "House of Cards" again.
So there's Gavin, on his houseboat, doing Gavin stuff, when Doug breaks in and starts beating him with a cane. Gavin gives him what he has on Rachel, and promises that he has the right location.
"I found you once. I can find you again," Doug says. "If this information is wrong, you die."
The Underwoods unravel
Claire brings up to Frank that they've been lying to each other for too long, but pulls back before elaborating. Everything is wearing on her, though. The years of lies and backstabbing and lies. Did I mention lies?
Draining Claire even more, is having to campaign with this man that she is growing to resent. Things reach a boiling point in an Iowa hotel, when Claire snaps and demands that Frank be rough with her sexually.
He can't bring himself to do it after she tells him to look her in the eyes. Frank tells her that she should go back to Washington.
After a day of cooling off, Frank calls her back to Iowa, to be with him for the caucuses the next day. Claire agrees to be by his side.
No, Doug. No.
Doug travels to New Mexico, and we see him buying all the materials he will need to kill Rachel and dispose of her.
Rachel has a new Social Security number and a new fake name. She just wants to be Cassie Lockhart. She wants to start over somewhere with trees and rain.
Doug grabs her as she comes out of work one night. He throws her in his van, binds and gags her. She starts struggling as Doug drives and he takes her gag out.
She promises to stay quiet, perhaps resigning herself to her fate.
She starts calmly talking to Doug, apologizing for almost killing him. She tells Doug that she prayed for him.
"None of this is going to change anything," Doug says.
Tell me what you see
Claire has Tom brought to the White House, before she flies back to Iowa. She asks what she said to him the day she passed out in New Hampshire, then asks him what he sees when he looks at her.
"Somebody who's lost," he says.
In the desert
"You're going to be able to live with yourself?" Rachel asks Doug, as she looks at the tools he'll use to dispose of her.
"If it's about punishing me, you don't have to," she says.
Doug remains undeterred. He pulls off the road and starts digging Rachel's grave.
"I know this isn't who you are," she says, when Doug goes back to the van for her. "Please."
She shows him her new ID and begs for her life. She says that Rachel is already dead, and that he'd be killing Cassie now.
Doug seems to relent, and lets her go, sending her off with some water, twenty miles from the closest town.
Moments later, he tracks her down. We see him burying her.
The price of victory
Claire delays her flight, much to Frank's chagrin, but her last-minute no-show turns out to be a non-factor. Frank wins in Iowa, a huge first step on his journey to being elected.
Frank returns to the Oval Office to find Claire, sitting behind his desk. Frank tells her that he hopes her mind is clear, now, because they're on to New Hampshire.
"... One way or another, I need you on that plane with me tomorrow," he tells her.
"When I said we were lying, what I meant was ... For all these years, I thought we were on this path together," Claire says. "But it's not what I thought it would be."
Claire says that they aren't equals, as Tom wrote. She says it bothers her that she needed Frank to appoint her to the U.N., that she couldn't get the confirmation on her own.
"I hate that feeling. It's not me. I don't recognize myself when I look in the mirror," she says.
"You can't have it both ways," Frank says. "You want an equal partner when it suits you?"
"We used to make each other stronger," Claire says. "At least I thought so, but that was a lie. We were making you stronger."
"It's you that's not enough," Claire says.
"When we lose, because of you, there will be nothing," Frank says. "But without me, you are nothing."
He tells her to do her job as first lady. "I don't give a damn if you vomit on your own time," he tells her.
"Francis, I'm not going to New Hampshire," Claire says the next day.
"I'm leaving you."
The best of Frank and Claire
Sorry, this was the worst of Frank and Claire, I think. I've said before, the thing that made this show fun for me was seeing these two unified and running things together.
I understand that formula might not work forever, and that the only formidable opponents for these two might be each other, but I wish that they could have had a longer run.
WTF moment
Claire demanding that Francis be rough with her.
Best Frank Underwood quotes
"Well, Iowa has spoken."
"We earned this together."