Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Frank enters the season as vice president, with Zoe increasingly convinced that he arranged Peter Russo’s death. When she confronts him at a Metro station, Frank pushes her into the path of a train. Janine is intimidated into leaving the investigation, but Lucas continues and is later imprisoned after trying to prove Frank’s guilt. Doug moves Rachel Posner into hiding and tries to keep her under control, while Frank recruits Jacqueline Sharp as his successor in the House whip’s office and begins preparing her for a larger role.
Frank’s fight with Raymond Tusk and President Walker grows out of a dispute over Chinese trade and political donations. Tusk uses money routed through a Missouri casino owned by businessman Daniel Lanagin to fund political campaigns, bringing special prosecutor Heather Dunbar into the investigation. Claire presses her influence in Washington, including by publicly recounting her rape and confronting her attacker. Jackie becomes whip but struggles with the demands Frank places on her; she and Remy Danton begin a relationship, while Claire and Frank draw Secret Service agent Edward Meechum into their intimacy.
As the money-laundering inquiry closes in, Frank persuades Tusk and Walker to turn against each other. Walker revokes a pardon offer, Tusk implicates the president, and the House votes to pursue impeachment. Walker resigns before removal, leaving Frank to be sworn in as president. Doug’s pursuit of Rachel ends badly when she escapes his car and knocks him unconscious in the woods; she is not shown dying here. Frank restores trade relations with China by giving up Xander Feng, and Claire gives him a copy of the class ring he buried at a Civil War memorial.