Entertainment

We. Need. More. Lucas.

by Casey Rackham

There is an endless supply of fascinating characters on Netflix's House of Cards , most of whom have their own quirks and self-debilitating personalities that charm us into hating or loving them. Lucas Goodwin (played by Sebastian Arcelus) is one of those characters, so naturally, I'm not about to accept that House of Cards Season 3 would dare exclude him. Basically, he's a journalistic nincompoop with a naive heart of gold. He's a cute, little dumb-dumb that wants the right and moral people to win and the bad guys to pay their dues. Too bad for poor Lucas, he doesn't live in a just world — he lives in Frank Underwood's world. Ahem, President Frank Underwood's world. (Do you need a hug, Lucas?).

By the end of Season 2 of the show, Lucas was, well, in the shitter. After investing way too much time into the murder investigation of his kind-of late-girlfriend who he was way too into (oh hai, Kate Mara), he got himself into a spot of trouble with the government — you know, just facing approximately a gazillion years in prison for cyberterrorism because Mr. I'm-Creepily-Obsessed-With-Rachel Doug Stamper was on a mission to ruin everyone's freakin' lives. Of course, Lucas being Lucas, he refused to take the plea deal and got his editor-slash-ex-editor Tom Hammerschmidt (can someone even have an editor if they're incarcerated?) to keep on looking into the idea that Frank killed Zoe Barnes and Peter Russo. However, what results is Frank winning once again (obviously), Hammerschmidt writing an article that makes Lucas look like a complete wacko (he is kind of a wacko), and Janine Skorsky backing out and telling Lucas to just give up (he eventually does).

So what does this mean? Is it the end for Lucas? Hell to the no. Or rather I hope it's not the end for the lovable dope because I'm definitely not done with him yet. Here are all of the reasons (probable or not) that Lucas should get his confused and paranoid butt over to Season 3:

He's fun to watch fail at journalism.

Okay, he's really bad at being an investigative journalist. Sure, he's written some great stuff before (or so he says), but he's definitely not proving that he can handle the seedy underworld of politics with his clumsy journalistic prowess. I mean, he's like really, really bad. Like, "Lucas, please stop being so stupid and go take a nap or something" bad. So maybe if he comes back to the show unshackled, then we can give him something more mellow to do. Or, maybe he can still be a part of the investigation, but he'll just be responsible for getting everyone coffee.

He's really pretty to look at when he's not disheveled and paranoid.

Man, oh, man did I love me some Lucas during Season 1. It was probably because he was so in love with Zoe and she didn't love him back. But when he's all, "Frank killed Zoe" with his crazy eyes, he's a little less, er, nice to look at.

Someone needs to stand up against Frank.

1. He can team up with Gavin Orsay and take maybe-dead Doug and very-much-alive Frank down.

Once Lucas was put behind bars, Gavin the guinea-pig-loving computer whiz went on a revenge-war path to get back at Doug — I still believe Rachel Posner didn't kill him — and the Feds. Now that Gavin has some info on the whole "Doug wants to own Rachel" thing, hopefully he and Lucas can team up and connect some dots.

2. He can team up with Ayla Sayyad or Janine.

Compared to Season 1, I definitely felt like the level of sane investigative journalism was lacking in the second season. Both Janine and Ayla seem like they have somewhat-sensible heads on their shoulders, so maybe they can rein Lucas in and actually solve something.

All I know is that if Lucas comes back, he needs to chill the fuck out because Frank isn't going to tolerate any of his shit, and neither will I. Best of luck, Lucas — I hope to see you during round three of The Frank Underwood Games.

Images: Nathaniel Bell/Netflix (2); giphy; wifflegif; mondayzed; Melinda Sue Gordon/Netflix