Pollyhop Could Destroy Underwood In 'HoC' Season 5

For all of the absurdity that occurs in the House of Cards universe on an episodic basis, nothing comes close to how the show chooses to name its fictional websites. First, there was Slugline, the news site that Zoe Barnes championed in Season 1. Now, there is Pollyhop, the search engine of every politician's dream. But, after its Season 4 addition, you may be wondering if Pollyhop will play a role in Season 5 of House of Cards?

Though it sounds more like a bobby-sock dance move from the 1950s, Pollyhop was of much concern to the Underwood administration in Season 4 of HoC. New political fixer Leanne Masters (Neve Campbell) first utters the damning name after Frank has been shot, and every mention after is like saying the word "vampire" in Twilight, striking fear into the hearts of characters who have at least four homicides under their belts between them. Can Pollyhop become the new "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!"? Someone get Beau Willimon on the line.

Silly name aside, Pollyhop was instrumental in delivering a blow to the Underwood campaign. This season saw the rise of Will Conway (Joel Kinnaman), a redblooded Republican whose journey to the White House is paved with Instagram posts. The Conways have a very telegenic family whom Will is eager to exploit, much to the dismay of the childless Underwoods. But, cute kid videos are nothing compared to manipulating search engine results, which is what Leanne posits the Conways are utilizing the nefarious Pollyhop to do. Using data from Pollyhop, Conway could easily discover the intricacies of his voters' preferences to more readily target them. When you know exactly what to tell people, it makes it even easier to spoonfeed them bullsh*t, which seems to be Conway's specialty dish.

Furthermore, the Conways manipulated the information that was accessible via Pollyhop to make it appear as though Conway was in the lead, even when he wasn't. Conway already appeals to sects of voters that Frank Underwood simply cannot reach, such as the youth and military members, and, with this added manipulation, Conway could easily defeat the incumbent in Season 5. However, seeing as the Underwoods have always decimated any opposition in their path, the Conways should not rest on their Pollyhoppin' laurels next season.

The Pollyhop plotline was another way to set the youthful Conway up as a worthy opponent to the aging Frank Underwood, especially when Conway deviously set up a webcast with the Pollyhop CEO to show the American public just how transparent he intended to be with them. But, since Frank and Claire have taken their murky dealings to even higher levels with the impending war that was alluded to at the end of Season 4, perhaps Pollyhop won't be as strong of a plotline in Season 5. However, as the new dog, Conway will likely have new tricks, and Frank might not be able to keep up with Pollyhop or anything else thrown at him in Season 5. Just a year to go to find out!

Images: Netflix (2)