There were also Rachel Posner, Gavin Orsay (?), Anthony Moretti, and Claire's mother depending on how you look at it. (I assume the gay activist Michael Corrigan's suicide in a Moscow cell with Claire present but asleep was "legitimate.")

As long as each of the deaths can be explained away as an accident or suicide, no one is going to link them together. I think this part is plausible. Only the Moretti thing looked set to bite back, with Doug's donations and an affair with the widow.

However, I don't see how the renewed interest in the death of Zoe Barnes is going to help the Underwoods, even if Doug takes all the criminal responsibility for it. Unless they come up with some ingenious way of sweeping it all under the carpet, or this is what's supposed to trigger their demise, I foresee this to be a major plot weakness in Season 6.

So far I find the Cathy Durant incident the most implausible of them all. Unless she never recovers or suffers amnesia (which might then be simulated), she can cause the Underwoods a lot of trouble. As Francis cannot control the ultimate outcome here, I find it inconceivable that he would take this risk and push her down the stairs instead of coming up with some more white-collar way to stop her.

They also (I believe) alluded to the fact that Kathy Durant had a husband. And you HAVE to figure she mentioned all this stuff to him. So when she took her dive down the stairs, any husband I know would immediately have accused Underwood of crimes, and likely spilled the beans to the media about SOME of what he knew.

The entire show is starting to border on the absurd, but I'm in until the end, which I hope is the next season.

"HELP! HELP!! THE SECRETARY HAS FALLEN!!!"

My eyes rolled into the back of my head when that occurred.

Yeah, that might have been the 2nd least believable moment of the whole show. And if she survives, she will remember Francis threatened her before by mentioning having people murdered (Zoe I think), although he later turned that into a "joke" of sorts.

The least believable moment for me was that as a public figure appearing on TV on a daily basis you can apparently push someone under the train at a busy station and walk away unrecognized as long as you are wearing headgear and spectacles (not even fake mustache), i.e. the murder of Zoe Barnes. Even third-tier mafia bosses do not usually kill people directly but have them whacked by their underlings so as to have plausible deniability. Why would Francis not delegate it to Doug, and choose to do it himself in a public place full of random people and CCTV cameras: there were just too many factors beyond his control that made it a huge risk. Her "assisted suicide" could have just as well been due to pill overdose.

I agree the total body count starts to feel artificial. I hope the writers keep the plot more realistic. Politicians do not have to have people murdered: they can silence them or discredit instead. The truly Machiavellian thing is to collect compromising material and then threaten its release to ensure loyalty. Francis did that and at some point in Season 1 it is shown that he had a file on everyone he ever had to deal with except Jackie Sharp.

@censorshipsucks06 said:

They also (I believe) alluded to the fact that Kathy Durant had a husband.

Fun fact: in real life, Cathy Durant's husband is Garrett Walker (the actors playing them are married, that is).

@censorshipsucks06 said:

The entire show is starting to border on the absurd

I think this happened in S01...it was just more entertaining back then so it was forgiveable. Now it's risibly stupid and often boring to boot.

@censorshipsucks06 said:

The entire show is starting to border on the absurd, but I'm in until the end, which I hope is the next season.

Totally agree, I'm too invested not to see this through to the end (I'm sure we all want Frank to get his comeuppance) but S5 was one implausible moment after another.

I honestly thought him pushing Durant down the stairs would just be him imagining this. Why didn't he just get someone (Doug) to kill her properly?

Well, it looks as though Season 6, if it even gets completed, will be the final season. I think the timing of NETFLIX's announcement, 18 hours after the Spacey accusations, is suspect. They've 'known for months' this was the final season, but somehow that was kept completely under wraps until Spacey gets accused of harassment and borderline pedophilia. Now they don't even know if they will complete the final season. I'm not sure how they could. They will have to have every single cast member and crew member sign a legal document saying they're okay working with Spacey. And they clearly can't leave the perv alone with anyone - since he apparently enjoys sex with anything that moves - man - woman - child. What a complete mess. Who knew Spacey would be almost as bad as Frank Underwood?

And now they might as well just never release what they've filmed and walk away from HOC. Because the show WAS Spacey and Frank Underwood. Doing House of Cards with no Frank Underwood is like doing All in the Family without Archie Bunker, or Magnum PI - without Magnum. Or 24 without Jack Bauer (yeah - that didn't work at all). Or Happy Days without Fonzie. Or The Crown without the Queen.

Thanks for taking a show that was already starting to go downhill, and just flushing it down the toilet Kevin. Well done.

Hopefully you ARE finished. You POS