As House Of Cards enters its fifth season, having created a fictional presidency that is somehow less terrifying than what is actually happening in America, the cracks in the Underwood administration are starting to show. After having committed a multitude of crimes to ascend to the highest position in the American government, all it would take to bring him down is for one of Frank Underwood's many secrets to be revealed – and a new Season 5 character may be the one to do it. But who is Sean on House Of Cards, and why is he playing a major role so late in the game?
House of Cards may focus primarily on Frank and Claire Underwood, but the series also sports a massive collection of supporting characters. So many, that fans would be easily forgiven for not knowing which characters are new and which are returning. While Sean is new to the series, he's brought in by a familiar face with the hopes of revealing the dark web of Underwood secrets. Sean is a reporter recruited by Tom Hammerschmidt to begin working alongside him to collect information that can help them piece together the story of the Underwood's history of murder and corruption.
Sean is far from an obvious pick for the role, having previously worked for the style section of The Washington Post, but as Tom puts it to Sean himself, "Word around here is you can get anybody to talk to you." While the job is almost certainly dangerous, Sean accepts it, due to the benefits of working with someone with Tom's stature. Sean may be far down the list of threats to Frank's lifestyle, if he even knows about Sean at all. Depending on how deep Sean gets into his investigation, however, Frank may have to start paying a lot of attention to this former style reporter.
SPOILERS FOR SEASON 5 OF HOUSE OF CARDS. Sean's journey from style writer to investigative journalist eventually takes him to heights he couldn't have imagined however – and also get him alarmingly close to discovering the seedy underbelly of Underwood conspiracies. While investigating the deaths of Zoe Barnes and Rachel Posner in relation to the president, Tom eventually fires Sean for going in an unsanctioned direction. But as the season goes on, it looks as though Sean's firing is part of a larger plan on Tom's part.
Sean eventually ends up getting close to Director Of Communications Seth Grayson, who himself begins to doubt the innocence of his president. Sean's investigation comes up inconclusive, but plants seeds of doubt within the administration. Of course, by the end of Season 5, the doubting Seth is out and in his place is none other than Sean. Despite confronting the dark secrets that this presidency was built on, Sean just can't seem to refuse the draw of working in the White House.
While Sean may be happy to work with the Underwoods now, the information he uncovered and delivered to others could eventually take down his very own bosses.
