Warning: Major spoilers ahead from “House of Cards” Season Four
Several important characters have died over the course of “House of Cards,” but few of those deaths will have the impact of Edward Meechum’s. As head of President Frank Underwood’s (Kevin Spacey) Secret Service detail, Meechum (Nathan Darrow) was the commander in chief’s handsome shadow, always at his side, both in public and in the White House.
So viewers were shocked when at the end of Episode 4, which dropped on Netflix last Friday, Meechum came in the of line fire while taking out would-be assassin Lucas Goodwin (Sebastian Arcelus). The scene ends with Underwood being scooped up by Secret Service agents and Meechum left behind on the pavement, dead.
“The longer we went on, I’ve had time to think where this character is going to go,” Darrow tells The Post. “This ending was one of the ones in my mind. I think that’s the relationship he wanted with Frank. Your life is in my hands and in some way, my life is in your hands. It’s nice for Meechum to burn for a second and be gone.
“My only problem with the ending was that Frank was hit at all. If I could have written it he would gone away without a scratch.”
The actor praises the guidance of the real-life Secret Service agents and stunt men who worked with the actors and Robin Wright — who expertly directed the chaotic scene — which unfolds so quickly you don’t realize who has fired the shots. He sees Meechum and Goodwin as “two more casualties of Frank’s bulls—t. Two more deaths on his head.”
Fortunately for Darrow, that scene was not his last day on the set. “They worked [the schedule] so it wouldn’t be so grim,” he says. “The scene where Frank traces my hand on the wall in the White House was my last day. It was so nice to connect in a playful way.”
Darrow played Meechum with an enigmatic fidelity that bordered on the erotic, as seen when he entered into a Season 2 threesome with Frank and his equally circumspect wife, Claire (Robin Wright).
“We took our time filming it,” he says. “We talked it through from the standpoint of character and motivation, and once we had it down, the moves of it, then it was simpler to shoot than you might think … it was like choreography. I had a good time shooting it. Actors love those scenes that are a little dangerous.”
In the first few episodes of Season 4, we see Meechum lingering in the president’s bedroom after the workday while he is estranged from the First Lady. Are we to assume from that scene that Meechum and Underwood are still involved?
“That’s really delicate,” says Darrow, who also has a recurring role as a finacier on “Billions.” “I’ll just say [series creator] Beau Willimon never came to me and said, ‘Hey, they’re still sleeping together.’ The audience likes having their own idea. The story becomes a little more satisfying.
“I always felt like Meechum wanted to be available to Frank and Claire in any way he could.”
Now that he has left “House of Cards,” Darrow has come full circle with Spacey. They first worked together in a production of “Richard III,” where Spacey played the title role. Darrow was cast as Richmond, who murders him at the end of the play.
“I went from killing him to dying for him,” he says.