As long as Frank Underwood is scheming, journalists will be trying to uncover his wrong doing, but that hasn't always ended well for those who've tried. What happened to Janine Skorsky on House of Cards ? She is one of the only people living who knows the extent of the President's corruption, and seems to be effectively staying out of the spotlight, which is a smart move considering all her reporter friends are dead.
In Season 1, Janine teamed up with Zoe Barnes and to investigate Frank Underwood's cover-ups, rise to power, and Peter Russo's death. She worked for the Washington Herald. After Zoe Barnes died and she and Lucas correctly suspected Frank Underwood was behind it, Janine fled the District lest she end up like Zoe. In Season 2, Lucas Goodwin went to Janine and tried to get her to rejoin the investigation but she refused. She was content to disappear into her new life, out of danger. Later, Janine visited Lucas Goodwin in jail and tried to convince him to take a plea deal and get out early because Frank was going to get away with it anyway, but he didn't take her advice. We hadn't seen Janine since — presumably she continued living in Ithica with her mother.
But, in Season 4, we finally see her again when Tom Hammerschmidt goes to see her following Lucas' assassination attempt and death. Lucas left Janine's name out of his suicide note in order to protect her, which she appreciated, even though she knows Lucas was right about all of it.
It looked like all the knowledge she had took a toll on her, as she was popping Xanax during Tom's visit. Afterwards we don't see her again, so I guess she's contented living her life in Upstate NY.
I actually wondered if Hammerschmidt's storyline wasn't initially supposed to be Janine's — but Constance Zimmer was too busy on other projects. She is the lead on Lifetime's UnREAL (with Kate Mara lookalike Shiri Appleby) and had a lengthy guest appearance on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as well. Still, I'm glad she made time to stop by HoC, even if just for a moment. It's nice to know Janine has survived all these years and will hopefully get to a point where she can lead a safe, and even happy, life in Ithaca.
Images: Netflix (2)
