Why Frank Underwood Needs to Kill Himself

A good story ends with a character in a different place from where he started. He can be better off or worse off. It doesn’t really matter as long as he is different. Luke Skywalker goes from farm boy to fully-fledged Jedi. Harry Potter goes from sad, orphan boy to wartime hero. Walter White goes from high school chem teacher to meth kingpin.

The first two seasons of House of Cards ended with Frank Underwood in a better place, or at least in a more powerful position. The problem now, at least from a narrative standing point, is that he can’t go any higher. I suppose he could still become supreme ruler of everything but that lacks believability. A season ending with him still being president is boring. The only place for him to go is down.

There’s a couple of different ways this could happen. The most obvious would be that loses the presidency. He could either lose his re-election bid or he could be impeached. He could also pull and Nixon and resign before any of this happens but that goes against his character.

What’s unclear is where the story goes from there. He could try to regain power by getting re-elected to lower office. The problem there though is that if he is successful, the story now has lower stakes than it did earlier. If he is unsuccessful, then it is just delaying the issue that there is no story left to be told.

He could also be assassinated. This is believable exciting but it would defy Frank’s character. This is a man who takes control over everything and everyone. An assassination is the ultimate forfeiture of one’s life. Thematically, this would be a very interesting move but it seems more like something Game of Thrones would do than House of Card.

If Frank Underwood is going to die, it is going to be at the hands of Frank Underwood. Believe it or not, the show already told us this. The show opens with Frank’s hands around a dog’s throat and saying that he has no patience for useless things. If Frank loses the presidency, he would see him as useless and what do we do to useless things?

This is the promise of the show and it is how the show will end. Breaking Bad promised that Walt would leave money for his family before he died, and he did, and then the show ended. Avatar: The Last Airbender promised Aang would defeat the Fire Lord, and he did, and then the show ended. True Detective promised that they would catch the bad guy, and they did, and then the show ended. House of Card promised that Frank has no use for useless things and that someday he will become one, so that must happen, and then the show will end.