Entertainment

Neve Campbell's 'House Of Cards' Character Will Haunt Claire Underwood For All Of Season 6

by Genevieve Van Voorhis
David Giesbrecht / Netflix

The season finale of House of Cards Season 5 left multiple cliffhangers dangling that could spell disaster for the future of the Underwood Legacy. Claire turned on Frank, Doug took the fall for Zoe's murder, and, most violently, LeAnn's car was run off the road in a graphic crash that is anything but an accident. And it's the question of how LeAnn died in House of Cards Season 5 that could have the potential to undo the presidency in Season 6.

LeAnn Harvey (played by Neve Campbell) had been a loyal political strategist to Claire since her introduction during the political campaign of Season 4. Since then, she's shown herself to be kind of a female Doug Stamper (although slightly less murder-y). She's loyal to her boss, and ridiculously driven when it comes to advancing her own career.

In fact, she'd almost found the success she'd been craving her whole life when President Claire appointed her to Doug's old post as Chief-of-Staff, but that success was extremely short-lived. Later that episode, Mark Romero told LeAnn to pack her bags, since LeAnn had swapped info on Aiden MacAllen with Jane in order to get the job in the first place. Not a good move.

David Giesbrecht / Netflix

As LeAnn left the White House and went to see poor, house-arrested Doug, her car was run off the road and wound up in a crumpled heap on the side of the highway. Frank, who was pretty much Big Brother at this point, saw all of this unfold on clandestine NSA footage, which seemed to insinuate that he's at least partially responsible for the tragedy.

But did LeAnn really die, anyway? Not necessarily. Campbell and Michael Kelly (Doug Stamper) caught up with THR to talk about the upcoming Season 6, and Campbell was unsurprisingly tight-lipped about one of the biggest cliffhangers of last year's finale. "I can't talk about that," she answered, when asked whether LeAnn will live or die. Kelly, however, added a far more hopeful — or confusing, depending on how you look at it — tidbit to the conversation. "You even saw my body [after my supposed death], and Doug still came back," he said. So just because there was a car crash, doesn't necessarily mean there's going to be a funeral.

David Giesbrecht / Netflix

But whether LeAnn lives or dies may not make that much of a difference when it comes to the ripple effect this could have on Claire's presidency. With her term still in its early days, challengers like Jane, Mark, and, according to the promo, the media, have already started to appear from all sides to try and chip away at her power. It would have been in Frank's — or many other people's — best interests to take away her righthand woman and try to instill someone more easily corruptible in LeAnn's place.

Whether was the one that gave the order to kill LeAnn himself, Frank was clearly up to something. A Season 6 promo revealed that Frank himself won't be making it out of the final season alive, but he will continue to play a role throughout the season. So will LeAnn, whether she's dead or alive.