A few grave TV news dispatches announce Zoe's death. There’s one dutiful scene in which Lucas sinks to the floor of his office in anguish. But most frustrating is the aftermath of the murder-which is to say, the lack thereof. The actual moment when it happens is thrilling, after a quiet confrontation between Zoe and Frank at the Cathedral Heights metro station. And then, major spoiler alert, comes the show’s biggest shock thus far: By the 35-minute mark, Zoe Barnes is dead. Soon the story swerves to Zoe and her aggressively unethical journalism-for instance, attempting to track down Rachel by telling the woman’s employer that she is mentally ill and considering suicide. Arriving home, they’re greeted by Underwood’s chief of staff, Doug Stamper, who informs the congressman that cub-reporter-turned-Internet-journo-phenom Zoe Barnes and her lackeys (editor-boyfriend Lucas and fellow reporter Janine) have tracked down Rachel Posner, the former call girl who seduced Congressman Peter Russo as part of Underwood's sinister plan. “What do you want me to do about Zoe?” Stamper asks. It picks up exactly where the previous season left off: Congressman Frank Underwood and his wife Claire jog together at night, moving through the shadowy park dressed all in black. House of Cards would have done better if they had let Zoe rest in peace - anything rather than reduce her to her sex appeal and nothing else.At first, season two seems poised to deliver the same slow narrative burn and atmospheric gloom as season one. You can’t say the same about her afterlife. I was disappointed when Zoe died, but at least her death was interesting. If Zoe Barnes had to return to House Of Cards as a ghost, there are many more interesting and less sexist ways to do it: Use flashbacks to show her uncovering the story as another (young! female!) reporter puts it together in the present, or have a draft of Zoe’s story get published posthumously so that she can haunt her murderer’s career from beyond the grave - literally, if need be. By having a Washington Herald editor break the story by using a recorder and a map of Post-It notes, House of Cards is implying that old school journalism is what effective journalism looks like - not the kind carried out by young women like Zoe Barnes. Remember, Zoe quit the Herald to write for Slugline, a sort of Politico-meets-BuzzFeed website - she was all about new media and untraditional reporting. That’s another way that House of Cards fails Zoe Barnes: by letting the story she died for finally get published - and a former (older! male!) editor of the Washington Herald takes all the credit for it. I found her far more interesting than any of the other writer characters - Tom Yates, who plagiarized his only successful book but somehow spends all his (boring) screentime waxing poetic on word choice Zoe’s boring boyfriend Lucas Goodwin (I was so annoyed when I realized he was getting out of jail) the scheming (and boring) Kate Baldwin who never seems to come out on top and Tom Hammerschmidt, the (boring) former editor of the Washington Herald who finally publishes Zoe’s story. I loved her passion for her work and her determination to get to the bottom of the story by any means necessary. She fell into the sexist trope of being a fictional female reporter who sleeps with her source to get the story, a plot point that has been rightfully criticized.īut I loved Zoe Barnes. Now, Zoe Barnes was never a perfect character. ![]() And that’s reducing one of House of Cards’ most interesting characters to some sexy scenery. That’s right: In House of Cards season 4, Zoe Barnes is a wordless, sexy ghost who has nothing to do other than menacingly make out with people. Oh, lines? What lines? You don’t have any of those. You’re going to sexily make out with two older men. ![]() “You’re going to need to look really, really hot. ![]() I’m wondering what the producers told actress Kate Mara when they asked her (or maybe told her, depending on what her contract was) to come back.
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