Chapter 2 (House of Cards)

"Chapter 2" is the second episode of the first season of the American political thriller drama series House of Cards. Written by series creator Beau Willimon and directed by David Fincher, the episode premiered on February 1, 2013, when it was released along with the rest of the first season on the American streaming service Netflix.

Fandom house-of-cards:Chapter_2

Plot

Frank meets with members of the Democratic leadership to discuss their course of action on how to handle the poorly-received education bill. They are interrupted by Remy Danton, a former press secretary-turned-corporate lobbyist, who reminds Frank that his main client, SanCorp, has heavily invested in him. Meanwhile, Doug finds something on Senator Michael Kern, President Walker's nominee for Secretary of State, but Frank refuses to use it. After leaking the draft of the education bill, Frank secures control of the legislation and lures Blythe into becoming his scapegoat. Claire continues downsizing her staff at the Clean Water Initiative.
Frank arranges a meeting with Zoe and hands her an editorial from a student newspaper in which Kern had denounced the Israeli occupation of the West Bank as illegal. Despite reservations, Zoe and her editors decide to publish. During an interview with George Stephanopoulos, Kern is confronted with an advance copy of Zoe's article. Furthermore, Stamper manages to locate Roy Kapeniak, Kern's former co-editor of the student newspaper. Frank decides to send Russo to talk with Kapeniak, who reveals that it was actually his article, not Kern's; Russo asks him to lie about it and say that Kern wrote it. Barnes runs the story linking Kern to the editorial, ending his nomination. With everything already planned, Frank contacts Durant and has Barnes leak her name as Kern's replacement in order to fuel early media speculation. Durant leads the polls and thus wins Vazquez's and Walker's support. Frank provides subtle affirmation of the choice.

Cast

Main

Kevin Spacey as U.S. Representative Francis J. Underwood
Robin Wright as Claire Underwood, Francis' wife
Kate Mara as Zoe Barnes, reporter at The Washington Herald
Corey Stoll as U.S. Representative Peter Russo
Michael Kelly as Doug Stamper, Underwood's Chief of Staff
Sakina Jaffrey as Linda Vasquez, White House Chief of Staff
Kristen Connolly as Christina Gallagher, a congressional staffer
Constance Zimmer as Janine Skorsky, reporter
Sebastian Arcelus as Lucas Goodwin, editor and reporter at The Washington Herald
Boris McGiver as Tom Hammerschmidt, editor-in-chief for ''The Washington Herald''

Recurring

Elizabeth Norment as Nancy Kaufberger
Mahershala Ali as Remy Danton
Rachel Brosnahan as Rachel Posner
Reg E. Cathey as Freddy Hayes
Kevin Kilner as Michael Kern
Jayne Atkinson as Catherine Durant
Francie Swift as Felicity Holburn
Chance Kelly as Steve
Reed Birney as Donald Blythe
Maryann Plunkett as Evelyn
Chuck Cooper as Barney Hull
Michael Siberry as David Rasmussen

Guests

Morrie Kraemer as Dennis Mendel
TJ Edwards as Roy Kapeniak

Reception

The episode received positive reviews from critics. Boston Globe 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."