You know the age-old expression "go big, or go home"? Well, House of Cards character Lucas Goodwin definitely went big this season. (Warning: House of Cards Season 4 Episode 5 spoilers ahead.) After getting out of prison for cyber terrorism, Lucas made one final attempt to reveal all of Frank's criminal misdeeds to world by going to Heather Dunbar for help. But, unfortunately, she refused to believe him (at least at first), which drove this former investigative journalist to drastic measures. How drastic, you may ask? Drastic enough to commit attempted murder. That's right, my friends — Lucas shot Frank Underwood on House of Cards and ended up paying the ultimate price. Because, yes, in a painfully ironic twist, Lucas was shot and killed by Meechum moments after he shot and (tried to) kill Frank.
And before you start spinning conspiracy theories about how Lucas may still be alive, let me save you some trouble and assure you that he's not coming back. First of all, there's only so many times this show can bring someone back from the brink of death without it getting old and redundant. Secondly, the news reporters confirmed that Lucas was dead in Episode 5, immediately following the shooting. So I don't really see how any sort of return could be possible, unless it's in some sort of flashback form or hallucinogenic state.
Life has not been great to Lucas these past few seasons, and while I don't consider his death to warrant Meechum-level sadness, I was still hoping he'd get a happier ending than this. All he wanted was for people to know the truth about what Frank has done. However, even with his run of terrible luck, he was smart enough to prepare a contingency plan. You see, he knew was going to either get caught or killed after doing this, so he made sure that the police would find a full account of everything he learned about the Underwoods when they searched his house afterwards. It may not be as much evidence as he would've liked, but it could at least get the word out there to the right people in the hopes that someone else may help put the pieces together further.
I'm not sure yet if it's going to lead to Frank's downfall by any means. (That guy has a knack for getting himself out of all kinds of trouble.) But it proves that Frank isn't able to control everything and may very well be the first step toward his fall from power.
Images: Netflix (2)
