 Previously, on House of Cards, Season 3 ended with Claire walking out on Frank and Season 4 started with Claire arriving at her estranged mother's house in Dallas, Texas. Claire meets with Leanne Harvey and tries to recruit her as a campaign manager to run for an elected office and even governor, but before Leanne agrees, Frank steps in and attempts to scare her away. Claire then meets the congresswoman for Dallas, Texas, which is crashed by Doug and asks for her daughter Celia to hold off for four years while Claire steps in so she can have a seat under her belt before running for governor. Celia says she'll consider Claire's proposal. Frank then arrives in Dallas and breaks the news to Claire that her mother is dying and wants to spin the media to think that this is the reason Claire and him are not doing events together. Frank then ruins Claire's chances at the seat in Dallas by announcing it will be filled by Celia. Meanwhile, Lucas Goodwin is seen in jail before making a deal for snitching on another inmate and is put under witness protection. He's given a house and a job at a car wash. Lucas then sneakily meets with Heather Dunbar to share his knowledge of Frank's wrongdoings. Remy and Jackie are still doing their thing, but get photographed doing it. And back at the White House, a Russian billionaire is seeking asylum in the United States and Frank is trying to use him as leverage against Petrov, who wants him back as his broken Russian law. Claire and her mother fight while Frank reaches to a church on his new policies. Leanne, however, carries out Claire's plan to have a billboard directed at Frank's father with a member of the Klu Klux Klan. The congresswoman and Celia are not impressed by this and Frank tries to reconcile it at the church to no avail. Frank then discovers that Claire was behind the billboard and it becomes clear that Claire wants to be Frank's running mate and threatens to publicly divorce him if he doesn't agree. Frank draws Meacham's hand on a wall before both of them are shot by Lucas, killing Meacham. Frank is hospitalized, so Donald Blythe steps in as acting president. Donald doesn't know what to do with the Russian plan, so enlists the help of Claire, who turns over the table and comes up with her own plan. Leanne blackmails Remy with the photos to enlist his help, while Doug tries to put Claire back in her place. Doug forces the donor woman to put Frank on the top of the list for a new liver, which pushes a family man down the list. Frank, meanwhile, is having vivid hallucinations, before the boy from 13 Reasons Why Kills Himself and His Liver Goes to Frank. Claire undermines Kathy Durant's authority and talks to Petrov in place of her, while Heather Dunbar is forced to drop out of the race due to the suspicions around her talking to Lucas before the assassination. Frank returns home and enters Conway, who is the Republican candidate for president and current governor of New York. Frank pretends to try and have Donald as his running mate, but then hints at Kathy Durant, even though it's all a ruse to eventually have Claire by his side. Conway admits to using a search engine called PolyHop to pull voter data, so Frank disarms him by using the NSA for the same reasons. Conway recruits Admiral Brockhart as his running mate and also tries to get Tom Yates to release his tell-all book on the Underwoods. Yates, however, refuses and ends up joining the Underwoods as a speechwriter. The other Tom, Tom Hammersmith, is starting to conspire against Frank. Frank assures Kathy that she has his support before votes start heading to Claire because of her work with Petrov and Kathy discovers the truth. Then Claire's mother dies, which pushes Claire to win VP and Doug starts to feel bad for the family of the man that he indirectly killed due to pushing him down the donor list. Frank scares Kathy into submission and Yates and Claire sleep together. Hammersmith digs around to get people to go on record, starting with Remy, who refuses. And even after calling the president a mother f***er, Freddie doesn't snitch on Frank either. And at first, neither did Walker. However, Hammersmith coaxed him around and Jackie and Remy also decide they've had enough of the Underwoods. Frank discovers Tom and Claire's fling but decides to allow it, which results in a kind of polyamorous relationship. The terrorist group ICO kidnapped three Americans and demand only to speak to Conway to undermine Frank. However, Frank manipulates the situation and kicks Conway out of the White House for lying to the media. Hammersmith's article hits the White House and sh** hits the fan. Frank tries to dissuade Hammersmith and fails. Two of the captured Americans are set free, however, Frank is still frightened. Jackie and Remy skip town and Frank and Claire decide to run the country with fear. Frank detlares war on terror, Doug falls in love with the wife of the man he killed, and Claire looks at the camera. We make the terror.