You don’t get to become the most powerful couple in the world by playing nice. Frank (Kevin Spacey) and Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) have been ruthless in brushing aside all detractors in the way of their ascension to the White House. Here’s just a sampling of the lives they’ve destroyed.
Evelyn Baxter (Maryann Plunkett) is like the quintessential cog-in-a-wheel bureaucrat staffer, which made her an easy target for Claire, whom she assisted in Seasons 1 and 2 at the Clean Water Initiative. There’s a particularly heartbreaking moment in Season 2 when Evelyn, bulldozed in a round of budget cuts, is called on by Remy Danton to sell out her former boss: During their meeting over coffee, Baxter says the treat is a “luxury these days.”
Agent Steve Jones (Chance Kelly) is seemingly a security guard placeholder for future threesome-reveler Edward Meechum, but when this Capital Police guy was guarding the Underwoods in Season 1, he harbored a longtime love for Claire. While it was cancer that brought him to an untimely end, Claire gives an award-worthy speech on his deathbed about why her life with Frank is so much more fulfilling than pedestrian true love and honest living. “I know your truth, and now you know mine,” she says before leaving him to die. We know the truth, too: There’s stamina in evil, and Jones was no match.
Connor Ellis (the adorable Sam Page) is hired at the start of Season 2 as communications rep for the newly-installed Vice President and Second Lady. In a brilliant illustration of the subtle sabotage we imagine happening in real-life D.C., Seth Grayson (Derek Cecil) proves himself more valuable, driving Ellis into the private sector and out of the seat of power — all at the behest of Claire.
Originally nominated as Secretary of State, Michael Kern (Kevin Kilner) proved to be an instant breakfast for Frank — who took him down with a controversial editorial on Israel written for Kern’s college newspaper in the ’70s — by someone else entirely.
President Walker’s Chief of Staff, Linda Vasquez (Sakina Jaffrey), is one of the few people to see Underwood’s manipulations for what they are, but she alone is too powerless to do anything about it, so she resigns her job instead.
An Underwood “ally” as much as anyone could be one, Catherine Durant (Jayne Atkinson) was manipulated by Underwood) without her knowing, with Frank putting her up to big moves that ultimately bring about Walker’s resignation and Underwood’s ascension to the Presidency. While she’s sitting pretty in Frank’s favor, he put her directly at odds with then-President Walker.
Unwittingly drawn into the Underwood/Russo investigation by her former rival turned ally Zoe Barnes, Janine Skorsky (Constance Zimmer) ultimately fled D.C. after her colleague’s death, fearing for her own safety.
Another pawn in Underwood’s chess game, Chinese businessman Xander Feng (Terry Chen) was promised asylum for playing along — and then was promptly disregarded as soon as the new President took office.
International photographer and heartthrob Adam Galloway (Ben Daniels) gets his head bitten off and chewed by former lover Claire when he’s implicated in a nude photo scandal he had nothing to do with.
Jackie Sharp (Molly Parker) gets an education in underhandedness when Frank makes her an unlikely but successful choice for majority whip. Slowly stripping away her morals and Army-given ethical code, Sharp tries desperately to cling to her identity in the long shadow of the Underwoods, but is ultimately herself whipped into handing him the presidency.
After they psychologically tortured and murdered her boyfriend/boss Peter Russo, the Underwoods put Congressional staffer Christina Gallagher (Kristen Connolly) on a collision course of her own, recommending her to become a special assistant in President Walker’s office — while filling the First Lady’s ear with whispers about how she slept with her last boss. Christina never stood a chance.
Missouri billionaire Raymond Tusk (Gerald McRaney) tried to play the game of deception and manipulation but was easily outplayed by Underwood, eventually ending up behind bars because he was stupid enough to let his opponent in on his more illegal dealings.
The owner of Frank’s favorite BBQ joint, Freddy (Reg E. Cathey) seemed like one of the politician’s true friends, but even he couldn’t withstand the harsh reality of campaign season and had his business ruined and his personal life leaked to the media for being close to Underwood.
In Season 2, Megan Hennessey (Libby Woodbridge) bravely steps forward as a victim of sexual assault at the hands of the same Army general who raped Claire. Always an opportunist, Claire makes a highly unstable Megan the face of a sexual assault reform bill, attempting to strong-arm the armed forces with civilian oversight. Drinking heavily and self-medicating, Megan breaks under the pressure and Claire sweeps her under the rug with alarming agility.
Lucas Goodwin‘s (Sebastian Arcelus) only crime was falling in love — with the incredibly toxic, manipulative Zoe Barnes. Her murder leads him on a paranoia-fueled goose chase (his conspiracy theories are correct, sadly) that lands him in federal prison for tampering with a cell phone carrier’s servers. Lucas knows the truth, or arrived at it independently. The Underwoods obviously had to hide him under a rock.
President Garret Walker (Michael Gill) and First Lady Patricia Walker (Joanna Going) — where to begin? Stealing an entire American presidency is a feat of unimaginable intricacy, and it still doesn’t even rank as the top Underwood offense. With Frank viciously leading Garrett Walker to slaughter and Claire planting seeds of suspicion and insecurity within Patricia at every turn — the massacre of the Walker legacy was perhaps the Underwoods’ most ambitious undertaking, and done with a deeply-felt satisfaction.
Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara) played big and lost big. Her meteoric rise in journalism was soured by Frank’s increasing neediness and her undeniable ethical dilemma serving as his mouthpiece. And then she got tossed in front of a train. Literally.
Peter Russo (Corey Stoll) is one of the more tragic Shakespearean characters in this saga. Well-meaning but self destructive, and damn handsome for a bald guy, Russo was a false-start political candidate who ultimately helped Frank usurp the Vice Presidency. Frank lets him drink into stupor, then leaves him to be poisoned by car fumes in a closed garage.
Ayla Sayyad (Mozhan Marnò) covered the White House for the Wall Street Telegraph. She first dealt with the Underwoods when Connor Ellis leaked information to her about the Chinese and Xander Feng. She was a member of the White House press pool under President Underwood, but was driven out by Seth Grayson after she harassed Underwood about the arrest of LGBT activist Michael Corrigan in Russia.
Alexi Moryakov (Alexander Sokovikov) was the Russian ambassador to the UN who worked alongside Claire Underwood. He back channeled with her when tensions arose over the situation in the Jordan Valley. He tells Claire that the Russians killed their own soldiers to sabotage the peacekeeping mission. After U.S. soldiers are killed investigating the Russian deaths, Alexi is recalled to Moscow.
Thomas Yates (Paul Sparks) was a best-selling author hired by Frank to write a book about America Works. Over the course of Season 3 they become quite close and share several painful secrets with each other. But Frank is unhappy with the finished work and fires Yates.
Michael Corrigan (Christian Camargo) was an LGBT activist who was arrested in Russia for protesting the country’s anti-gay laws. The Underwoods travel to Moscow to secure his release, with Claire eventually spending the night in his cell. The two talk for hours, at the end of which Corrigan convinces Claire to sleep. When she wakes up, he has hanged himself with her scarf.
Rachel Posner (Rachel Brosnahan) was on the run for most of Season 3, hiding from Doug Stamper under an assumed name. Stamper tracks her down, however, and plans to kill her but she manages to talk him out of it. But as Stamper drives away, he decides he can’t leave any loose ends. We last see Rachel being buried in the desert by Stamper.
Edward Meechum (Nathan Darrow), core team member (and one-time sex partner to Frank and Claire) made the ultimate sacrifice protecting President Frank Underwood, taking a bullet and dying in the line of duty in Season 4.
Elizabeth Hale (a perfectly cast Ellen Burstyn) had long been estranged from daughter Claire Hale Underwood. The two shared something close to reconciliation before her death from cancer in season four, but not before Claire could leverage her one last time. She threatened to liquidate her late father’s estate to raise cash for a state senate campaign, a move that led Elizabeth to compel her deep-pocketed ladies who lunch to donate to Frank’s biggest opponent in season four, fellow Democratic candidate Heather Dunbar. We see where Claire gets it from.
Tom Hammerschmidt (Boris McGiver) is the one journalist who hasn’t been completely dismantled (or worse, killed) by the Underwoods in his pursuit about their true actions, but they have already gotten him fired as Editor in Chief of the Washington Herald. And he hasn’t been able to prove any of his allegations against the Underwoods — yet.