The first half of Season 4 was a very promising one with all the episodes ranging from decent to outstanding, with the best being "Chapter 43" while "Chapter 45" disappointed a little. The season's halfway point "Chapter 46", which both progressed what came before and set up fresh material for what was to come, was another outstanding episode and was the closest of the season up to this point of feeling like classic 'House of Cards'.
While there is a lot to like about "Chapter 47" and it sets up the second half of the season promisingly mostly, working very well as a set up episode and also progressing what was introduced in "Chapter 46", it was a step down from the previous episode. Also felt that it was a return to the "generally very well done and promising but had potential to be even better" standard of most of the previous episodes, rather than continuing the outstanding standard of the previous episode.
"Chapter 47" is at its weakest with the Thomas Yates subplot. Just found it rather on the dull side and it could have featured less, especially when story-wise it was too thin. It is not pointless as such but compared to the rest of the material it felt somewhat tired and even seemed confused and rambling in some of the dialogue.
It is a good thing however that the newer and more political aspects fare much better. The Conways have proven to be worthy additions and Frank's manipulation has the right amount of tension, especially his intimidation of Austen. The gun control subplot and Claire with Julia has a lot of intrigue as well. The chemistry between Frank and Claire has come on and given another dimension compared to the interestingly strained one in most of the first half of the season. Both Frank and Claire are ruthless here, then again they always were. Frank especially so, and that is apparent here.
Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright are right on point as expected, Spacey relishing some of the best moments of the episode to the hilt. Of the cast, only Paul Sparks struggles to do much with his inferior material. The writing is problematic with Yates, but brilliant with Frank, so it wasn't perfect but mostly it's fine. It looks great visually, again not unexpectedly and as usual.
Summing up, very well done on the whole but could have been even better if one subplot was executed better than it turned out. 8/10
