*SPOILERS*
House of Cards season 3 has not actually started yet, but it will be the topic of this passion blog for this spring semester of 2015. On February 27, Frank and Claire will return for a pivotal third season that will be the first full season in which the audience will see Frank in the White House acting as the nation’s second completely-unvoted-for commander-in-chief (s.o. to Gerald Ford, who only lasted 2 years (bet Frank lasts longer)). The previous season ended thrillingly, with Frank giving his predecessor, President Garrett Walker, the ability to effectively save his own skin and have Frank imprisoned. Ultimately, Garrett does not pull the trigger and is forced to resign after his former best friend and teacher, Raymond Tusk, betrays him after Frank’s manipulations on them both. I will make predictions based off the trailer for season three, which you can see here, since there is no true new meat to go off of yet. The most pivotal moment of the trailer is when Claire declares to her husband, “we’re murderers, Francis,” to which Frank responds that they’re survivors. Just like last season, it seems as though Frank and Claire will go through marital issues even though they are no longer chasing power but rather holding it and trying to keep it for themselves. Notably, Doug Stamper does not seem to be in the trailer at all, but this could simply because they want to keep the audience guessing all the way until the 27th at whether or not Rachel actually killed him. Seth Grayson and Gavin Orsay, new characters from season 2, definitely seem like they are wild-cards with regard to how they could help or hurt Francis. Seth is power-hungry, but it remains to be seen just how much he is, and whether this trait would enable him to betray Frank for more power over him. Seth is one of the few that knows the power of power versus the power of money and how power is superior to money, a trait that we as an audience only really see in Frank, Claire, and Doug throughout the series. Gavin is a hacktivist who is starting to wield real control over his former puppet-masters because of the tracker that he has attached to AT&T’s servers through the now-incarcerated Lucas Goodwin. The power that Gavin had over Doug was getting to be greater and greater as last season went along, with him being able to track Doug anywhere and watch his doings with Rachel. Something tells me that sooner or later, Gavin will either become a very great ally or a very great enemy to the Underwoods. Finally some predictions about some loose end characters who lost badly last season: Garrett will have to be pacified, as will Tusk. Frank’s old acquaintance/nuisance Remy Danton will most likely go to the highest bidder and I could maybe even see him going on Gavin’s side if Gavin becomes the bad guy to Frank I see him potentially being.