Watch: New 'House of Cards' Season 4 Trailer

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Trailers for season four of the Netflix original series 'House of Cards' have come in the form of fictional presidential campaign ads for Frank Underwood. The most recent trailer premiered during the Golden Globes on... Netflix US & Canada/YouTube

Warning! Spoilers ahead. Turn back now if you don't want to know what happened last season.

When House of Cards left off, sitting President Frank Underwood's chief of staff had just killed and buried a young woman and his wife had turned her back on the oval office with the words, "I'm not going to New Hampshire. I'm leaving you." Having schemed and manipulated his way into the presidency behind the scenes—the stuff of seasons one and two of the show—Underwood had his eye on a full term in office, gained through a real election.

It seems fitting, then, that the trailers Netflix has released teasing the fourth season would come in the form of fictional campaign ads urging citizens to vote for Frank Underwood, played unflinchingly by Kevin Spacey. The first trailer, which aired during a nonfictional Republican primary debate on December 15, featured uplifting music and sun-strewn scenes of Americans going to work, reuniting with family and feeling safe. "It's a new day in America," that ad proclaimed.

"America," Spacey added in his unmistakable Underwood drawl, "I'm only getting started."

Indeed. But what comes next is not nearly as rose-colored or sun-kissed. The second trailer, which premiered during the Golden Globes on Sunday, takes a decidedly darker bent. The Frank Underwood that fans know well by now—and love to hate—is back, and his words echo more ominously than ever.

"They say we get the leaders we deserve. Well here's what I think America deserves," Spacey-as-Underwood says in the latest ad, sitting in the oval office, fingers intertwined and resting on his desk. Somber music plays in the background. If it weren't for the shocking clips interspersed with his words, which remind viewers of everything they've gleaned about his character thus far, and the resulting sinister undertones to his spoken soliloquy, those folded hands on the heavy wooden desk might inspire confidence and calm. But they don't.

America deserves "a leader who's not afraid to look you in the eye and tell you what he believes. I believe in putting people first, I believe in putting America back on track, I believe in opening doors, and I'm willing to work with both sides to get what we want," he continues, as every few seconds, a snippet of footage flashes on the screen like a punch to the gut: Underwood matter-of-factly snapping a dog's neck, placing a razor blade on the edge of Peter Russo's bathtub, throwing journalist Zoe Barnes in front of an oncoming subway train, pushing his wife violently onto a bed, spitting on a statue of Jesus and peeing on his father's grave.

These momentary forays into Underwood's nauseating past that weave through his campaign ad might have viewers wondering whether the house of cards that is his political career might finally come tumbling down in season four, which Netflix is due to release on March 4.

"They say we get the leaders we deserve. I think America deserves Frank Underwood," he says as the one-minute clip comes to a close. "And in your heart, you know I'm right," he adds, these last four words spoken in a low, deep voice so quietly haunting they're enough to rattle even the most stoic viewers and make them forget for an instant that Frank Underwood is not real.

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About the writer


Stav is a general assignment staff writer for Newsweek. She received the Newswomen's Club of New York's 2016 Martha Coman Front ... Read more

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