'House of Cards' Season 3, Episode 1 - What Happened to Doug Stamper? Recap

Season two of "House of Cards" left a few unanswered questions, but perhaps none of them were bigger than this: what happened to Doug Stamper?

Luckily, the season three premiere of Netflix's political drama didn't leave us hanging any longer. In fact, the episode was more focused on Doug than it was on our Commander In Chief.

The good news is that poor Doug is still alive. The bad news is he has some serious damage to his frontal lobe from Rachel's well-aimed smacks to his head, and he needs a lot of physical therapy.

Over the months, Doug learns to walk again to the point where he just needs a cane to get around, but he spends the whole time wanting to rush back into his job. Claire gives him a visit, but it's less about checking on his well being as it is checking to make sure he has his story straight: that there was a carjacker who attacked him, and Rachel wasn't even there. Rachel doesn't even exist as far as anyone else is concerned.

Once Doug finally gets some face-to-face time with Frank, he's gently but firmly told to keep focusing on his recovery and his sobriety, and that Frank promises that there will be a place for him on the staff when he's truly ready...as much as promises mean coming from Frank.

What's worse, Doug took that meeting even after breaking his arm after slipping in the shower. Due to Doug's pattern of addictive behavior, he's not allowed to have prescriptions for pain pills, so he has to deal with the whole thing minus any percoset.

Doug only takes a couple of pills, but still ends up falling off the wagon. He orders a prostitute (who happens to look quite a bit like Rachel) and takes a shot of bourbon...a literal shot, actually. He draws some bourbon into his syringe and has the girl squirt it into his mouth. Hey, whatever gets you off, man.

Meanwhile, Frank Underwood has plenty of problems of his own. His approval rating is even lower than his predecessor's, which is saying something, and his new jobs program, America Works, is not going well. Even Stephen Colbert (in an appearance where his jokes sound nothing like Stephen Colbert jokes) tears AmeriWorks apart, saying that it "sounds like AmWay."

Frank's plan includes cutting deeply into entitlements, which could be politically devastating. Considering that Frank is planning on another run for the White House in 2016, just 18 months away, he needs all the political points he can get.

He also has to deal with terrorist insurgents in Yemen, against whom he orders a drone strike that may have potentially killed civilians just weeks before an important meeting with Russia about international military policy.

On top of all that, Claire wants Frank to nominate her as a UN ambassador so that she can build up some political experience in order to run for office in the future...especially if Frank doesn't win his bid at re-election. Frank clearly considers it too much of a liability at this point, but Claire insists.

The episode is a rather brilliant way at introducing us back into the world of "House of Cards" after a bit of a time jump. Any exposition that we need comes to us naturally as Doug catches up on current events that he missed while he was out and continues to keep up with via the news.

It seems that the season will likely focus on Frank's re-election campaign over the next 18 months, which is exactly what the show needs; it could have gone stagnant now that Frank has achieved his goal of getting into the Oval Office, but with a new goal ahead there should be plenty more of the scheming and backstabbing we know and love.