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House of Cards

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After six seasons, multiple Emmy nominations, and one hideous scandal, House of Cards has finally come to an end. When the show debuted on Netflix in 2013, it was seen as exceptionally slick artistry. David Fincher, Beau Willimon, and their all-star cast elevated streaming programing and jump-started a creative arms race. The show’s future was put in doubt last year when multiple allegations of harassment and abuse surfaced around star Kevin Spacey. Netflix halted production on the sixth season, but then the show’s female lead, Robin Wright, rallied the cast and crew to come together for one final Frank-less season. This final season was campy, overdramatic, and endlessly watchable, but what about the actual ending? Did House of Cards stick the proverbial landing?

**SPOILERS FOR THE HOUSE OF CARDS SERIES FINALE AHEAD**

Uh…no?

The final scene of House of Cards was definitely an overwhelming bit of theater. After President Claire Hale (Robin Wright) routes all of her enemies, the Shepherds (Greg Kinnear and Diane Lane) enlist Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly) to kill the pregnant Commander-in-Chief. It’s a tense scene because both characters seem to know what his mission is. Claire soon turns the tables and manipulates Doug into revealing that he killed Frank Underwood. Evidently Frank was planning on killing Claire, and Doug says he had to destroy the man to protect the legacy.

Finally, Doug threatens Claire with Frank’s letter opener, drawing blood. As soon as he sees her bleed, he loses her resolve. She then takes the letter opener and stabs Doug. Finally, as he’s dying on the floor, she suffocates him. The final shot of the series is Claire looking to camera while Doug’s dead body is still before her.

It’s a melodramatic ending to an admittedly over-the-top drama series. The imagery in the final scene definitely evokes House of Cards‘ first scene — where Frank comforts a dying dog in the street, only to kill it — but it’s almost too-on-the-nose. As was a scene leading up to this final showdown wherein Kinnear’s Bill Shepherd shows a series of paintings of, uh, houses of cards to his nameless nurse. He makes a big point that all the paintings have children in them waiting for the cards to fall. (Full disclosure: I burst out laughing when he said this.)

All this theatricality could be forgiven if the show didn’t leave us with so many loose ends. Sure, the saga of Frank Underwood and Doug Stamper is over, but what’s next for everyone else? What’s going to happen with Claire and Frank’s daughter? Will the Shepherds be cowed? Is Janine ever going to publish that blistering exposé? Will there be justice for Zoe and Rachel (and all the other Underwood victims)? And, uh, is Claire about to push the United States into a nuclear war with Russia???

House of Cards leaves us with all these dangling plot-threads, and some of them are really big dangling plot-threads. (Like that nuclear war storyline.) Are we supposed to interpret Claire’s final victory as a success or a harbinger of actual doom?