MovieChat Forums > House of Cards (2013) Discussion > Letting Rachel go?

Letting Rachel go?

posted 8 years ago by jayberds
15 replies | jump to latest

Doug could have let Rachel go and I believe that she would have never talked, she just wanted to live a quiet simple life. Doug obviously felt like he couldn't chance it and did what he did. So I was a little shocked when he donated his money(in his name) to the liver doners wife. It just seems odd that he felt such remorse for what he did to the doners family and none for Rachel.

I wonder why they didn't show him killing her. Doug wasn't much bigger than her and she saw the van coming back so I'm sure she put up a fight.

[–] ColonelHacker12 8 years ago

With Rachel frozen in terror and despair when the van was rushing back to her, it's heavily implied she got run over (and it was a very sad and unnecessary demise).

Much like the alcohol, Rachel wasn't really the root problem, Doug's intense obsessions, hang ups, and paranoia are.

[–] jayberds 8 years ago

Well said.

[–] MovieMusings 8 years ago

Doug felt he'd made a mistake that nearly cost not only his own life but the career of Underwood, to which he'd sworn loyalty.

He knows Underwood, who does whatever is necessary, eliminating/destroying loose ends (Russo, Zoe, Lucas for all intents and purposes). His vacillating and fiddling with Rachel left a loose end over which he did not have control, and it nearly exposed him as too weak to be counted on, and being counted on is his stock in trade.

When he at first let her go, that was the Doug who also showed remorse for bumping the organ recipient who'd later succumb; but, given that allowing her to live nearly got him killed, he realized that, ultimately, he could never be sure she'd remain under control - remember, she'd attempted to blackmail him previously. Could she do it again?

There was only one way for Doug to be able to look Frank Underwood in the eye and say, "I've handled the problem, you can count on me" was to eliminate her, which is what he realized that made him turn the van around.

So, for me, this plot line was not empty filler; it demonstrated the lengths one must go to have the resolve and fortitude Frank does and it reinforces for us that Frank - and all who are trapped in his world - are evil. We want to like Doug (I know I do), but he's made his deal with the dev...er, Frank, and it has sucked the humanity out of him, rendering him just another person Frank has used and destroyed.

Having said all that, I really felt bad for Rachel; whatever her life was about, it seems she couldn't set herself aright. Remember, during her stint as a telephone interviewer, she called her mother, who sounded like she really missed her? Clearly, Rachel was troubled, hurting, wanting to reach out but not being sure how...sad end to a sad life.

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Trying real hard to be the shepherd.

[–] Isis-Ascending 8 years ago

The whole Rachel HoC story with Doug, i.e., her involvement (twice) in Russo's demise, her escape, hiding, etc., was compelling to follow. What topped it off is Michael Kelly's portrayal as the hideously flawed Doug Stamper. The entire production team should get high kudos for finding Kelly and casting him as the complex, obsessive, alcoholic Doug Stamper.

nb: After Doug turned the truck around and Rachel heard it coming down the road, she turned around to see him; fast edit to him pitching dirt on her body in the grave... excellent story telling. Bravo.

[–] ColonelHacker12 8 years ago

nb: After Doug turned the truck around and Rachel heard it coming down the road, she turned around to see him; fast edit to him pitching dirt on her body in the grave... excellent story telling. Bravo.

Agreed; Rachel's ear - the tip of her mangled remains stuck in the ground - was pretty nightmarish imagery there (plus you had Francis walk away with Jesus' ear).

[–] ColonelHacker12 8 years ago

Doug Stamper come the end of S3 and following over into S4 is now much more pathetic than hateful, yet still rather disconcerting, and it's quite likely he'll end up dead through suicide or murder (but if he lives, at least ends up in a cell lined with concrete or padding).

Rachel Posner was akin to Breaking Bad's Jane Margolis or The Sopranos' Adriana La Cerva, in that she made a set of bad conscious decisions that led to her murder, but she was at heart a very damaged person who deserved better (and it's implied her father was a sex predator towards her).

[–] mahlers2nd (2) 7 years ago

I dunno -- I guess I don't feel too sorry for Rachel and really felt like she deserved retribution for the way she left Doug for dead. I felt like the whole "I'm not Rachel. I'm Cassie. Rachel's Dead" thing was manipulative and again, if she had the opportunity, I'm sure she would have tried to kill Doug once again.

I realize she was used by Doug and Doug was also controlling and manipulative as well. However, I guess I felt that she was just as bad and if she the roles were reversed, she would have exploited and/or killed Doug -- just as she tried to do in the first place. In my mind it was payback and self-defense.

[–] SillyGayBoy 8 years ago

It was a way of getting back working for Frank
Closing an obsession
And just being an awful man

He seems to think if Rachel went along with things better she would have lived, which was more or less working until her girlfriend moved in and Rachel tried to kill Doug. She was completely isolated, but alive.

I basically say the Rachel subplot was a huge waste of time. Just bad writing. They wanted Doug to have something to do, they had chemistry, and it filled up time. I try to forget about it just like the writers have. It was a filler story and someone who bad stuff always happened to. Nothing more.

[–] ColonelHacker12 8 years ago

I just wonder why Rachel, when implied to be in deep trouble with her pimp or escort agency after being paid off, decided to go back to somebody as manifestly untrustworthy and creepy as Doug for support.

[–] MovieMusings 8 years ago

Doug was accessible, had money, AND she had leverage on him (the secrets she knew). It was a short-term solution to a long-term problem that itself became more trouble than it was worth for her.

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Trying real hard to be the shepherd.

[–] ColonelHacker12 8 years ago

Well Doug's first bribe cheque was an obvious way out for Rachel and I partially got the impression she went back to Doug then went along with seducing Peter Russo, because as a sex worker and survivor of child abuse, she was a low self-esteemed person who was stuck with a poor, distorted view of how men worked (despite her perception and intelligence).

[–] Isis-Ascending 8 years ago

ColonelHacker12

a sex worker and survivor of child abuse, she was a low self-esteemed person who was stuck with a poor, distorted view of how men worked (despite her perception and intelligence).

You summed up Rachel's dysfunctional, sad life like an expert professional therapist. You could analyze mental patients as a vocation (or is it PC now, clients :)

[–] ColonelHacker12 8 years ago

Well it was upsetting that in a early Rachel segment (Brosnahan really had a big break with a character with relatively limited screen time actually) you had Rachel in a flea motel and selling her body when Doug paid a visit despite wanting to escape the sex trade, but much later when she was living in New Mexico she had cleaned herself up and turned down an offer of sex for money by the fake ID dealer (it's a change in character rendered all the more unfortunate and poignant when Doug was closing in to kill her).

[–] StrontiumAE 8 years ago

Doug was getting sloppy at his job. Remember back in S2 when he was caught on the casino camera footage, which threw the whole administration into turmoil over the President's relationship with Tusk? Frank threatened him, and said that if he messed up a third time he will be fired, and that he should remove whatever Achilles Heel he has thats distracting him, which Doug interpreted as Rachel.

He tried, failed and was incapacitated for several months. He got all weak for her again, and realized he was going down the same road of weakness again, so he killed her. A truly slimy guy who is more in love with Frank than with Rachel.

http://www.1971-reviewae.com

[–] ColonelHacker12 7 years ago

He tried, failed and was incapacitated for several months. He got all weak for her again, and realized he was going down the same road of weakness again, so he killed her. A truly slimy guy who is more in love with Frank than with Rachel.

Doug's love or infatuation for Rachel was a one sided, stalkerish kind of relationship and it showed him up as a deeply dysfunctional if he could not have a healthy personal life when a fixation on a girl affected his professional life (starting with the gaffe at the casino).