House of Cards: Catch Up on Season 1 Before You Watch Season 2!

House of Cards returns with a brand-new season this Friday, and there's a lot to remember about where the dark political thriller left off. House Majority Whip Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) is on the precipice of gaining even more power, and the Slugline reporters are abuzz with new findings that could threaten to take him down. Before you binge-watch season two, take a look at what the DC power players were up to last.

Source: Netflix

Peter Russo

Peter Russo

Peter (Corey Stoll) is dead. After losing the vote for the watershed bill to create jobs in his home state of Pennsylvania, his campaign for governor is in trouble, and he becomes even more susceptible to Frank's scheming. The recently sober congressman gets drunk, torpedos his campaign, and is murdered by Frank, who stages it like a suicide.

Source: Netflix

Frank Underwood

Frank Underwood

The pieces of Frank's plan have come together: now that Peter is out of the running, the current vice president is a shoo-in governor of Pennsylvania. After some initial confusion about exactly who is vetting whom, a meeting with Raymond Tusk (an eccentric billionaire friend of the president's) leads to Frank earning the vice presidential nomination. With his eyes on the White House, the majority whip doesn't appear to be too broken up about having murdered Peter.

Source: Netflix

Janine Skorsky

Janine Skorsky

Thanks to a tip from Paul Capra, a shipyard union leader and childhood friend of Peter Russo, Janine (Constance Zimmer) begins to suspect that Frank is behind Peter's death. She teams up with Zoe and Lucas and gets the truth about other discrepancies, such as Peter's drunk-driving arrest.

Source: Netflix

Doug Stamper

Doug Stamper

Doug (Michael Kelly), Frank's chief of staff, is onto Zoe, Janine, and Lucas, but he's not quite sure how much they know.

Source: Netflix

Zoe Barnes

Zoe Barnes

Now that Zoe (Kate Mara) has joined forces with former rival Janine, the Slugline reporter might be unstoppable. For the moment, her affair with Frank is off, and now she's into Lucas, even though he disapproves of her past relations with Frank.

Source: Netflix

Claire Underwood

Claire Underwood

After confronting Zoe about her affair with Frank and making some political power plays herself, Claire (Robin Wright) escapes to New York to find solace in an old flame, Adam. The tryst with the photographer is short-lived, and she returns to Frank and her life in Washington. Her nonprofit organization, Clean Water Initiative, is also going through some turmoil: the pregnant Gillian is suing for wrongful termination.

Source: Netflix

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