Chapter 2 (House of Cards)

Plot

Frank is still sitting on the terrace of Freddy's, enjoying his first step to securing his revenge. He is off to meet part of the Democratic leadership for breakfast, where they discuss their course of action on how to handle the disaster of the education bill. They are interrupted by Remy Danton (Mahershala Ali), and Frank introduces Remy, who he explains used to be press secretary to the leadership before leaving to work at Glendon Hill. Remy reminds Frank that SanCorp has heavily invested in him, and they want to see results. Frank assures Remy that he is "on top of it."

Doug (Michael Kelly) finds something on Michael (Kevin Kilner) to keep him from nomination, but Frank refuses, saying "it's thin". Frank deliberately leaks the draft of the bill, in order to secure full control over legislative course from the President and lures Donald (Reed Birney) into his plan to blame him for the leak. Claire (Robin Wright) downsizes half of her Clean Water initiative staff despite her wishes, because the donation contingent on Frank's being appointed Secretary of State is withdrawn.

Frank arranges a meeting with Zoe (Kate Mara) to work on his next task, and hands her the editorial in a student newspaper in which a much younger Kern once called the Israeli occupation of the West Bank illegal. Though skeptical, she takes it to her editors, who also show reservations, though Zoe convinces her editor to publish. During an interview with George Stephanopoulos, Kern criticizes Frank's line of "trickle-down diplomacy" but stumbles over his own words when Stephanopoulos brings out an advance copy of Zoe's article. Much to Frank's amusement, Kern is relieved to know that this will kill his nomination. Furthermore, Stamper managed to locate an old member of Kern's college editorial board, Roy Kapeniak (T.J. Edwards), a burnt-out anti-government extremist and columnist, and Kern's former co-editor of the student newspaper. In order to take full control and raise the stakes, Frank decides to send Peter Russo (Corey Stoll), who is already in his debt over the previous drink-driving episode, to talk with Kapeniak, who reveals that it was actually his article, and that Kern had nothing to do with it. Russo asks him to lie about it and say that Kern wrote it.

Barnes runs the story linking Kern to the editorial, sparking a controversy that ends his candidacy. With everything already planned, Frank calls Durant to be ready to be the candidate for Secretary of State. He asks Barnes to leak Durant's (Jayne Atkinson) name as Kern's replacement in order to fuel early media speculation. Durant leads the polls and thus wins Vazquez's and President Walker's support. Frank provides subtle affirmation of the choice, and convinces Vasquez that she's experienced, that she can communicate across the aisle, and above all that her nomination would prove that the administration is above partisan politics, even though she campaigned hard against Walker in presidential elections.

Main cast

Recurring characters

Guest characters

Reception

The episode received positive reviews from critics. Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert noted that "the first two episodes were expertly directed by David Fincher" and Spacey's harmonious cadence such as those used in the first scene of this episode "makes even his character’s mercy killing of an injured dog — which he does by hand — seem a little less brutal." Ryan McGee of The A.V. Club said, "No actor, even one as skilled and charismatic as Spacey, can maintain interest with stakes this low over the long haul. For House of Cards to move to the next level, things have to stop being easy. They have to start getting hard. If the show does that, what's merely good right now should leap into the level of greatness."