Who is Danny in House of Cards S4?

Question

In Season 4 of House of Cards, while Frank Underwood is still comatose and awaiting a liver donation, Doug Stamper is trying to get Underwood to the top of the list of people waiting to get a transplant. After pressuring the person in charge of said list to bump Underwood from the second spot to the first, we see a scene in which a young man named Danny shoots himself in the head.

I'm guessing that just from the direction and the order of sequences that Danny was somehow connected to the man whose spot Underwood took. After Stamper gets the ordering of the list changed, we see Danny shoot himself, and then Underwood immediately undergoes surgery. The viewer can infer that Danny's liver is the donation liver that Underwood needed.

After Underwood goes into surgery, we learn that the man whose spot he took passed away. Underwood later greets Danny's mother and introduces her to the other people who received organ donations from her son. In this scene, however, there is no mention of the man whose spot Underwood took. Given that, it is unlikely that Danny and this man are related.

It's highly unlikely that Stamper somehow found a teenager with a compatible liver to Underwood's and pressured him into killing himself given how little time Underwood had to get the donation.

Given that, do we know who Danny is and what his relation was to either of the top 2 spots on the liver transplant list?

Answer 1

There isn't a link as such, Danny is the donor, who committed suicide and his organs benefit both Underwood and others. His appearance is just to indicate that moving Underwood up the line was fortuitous as a donor is found in time.

The other subplot concerns Doug Stamper's romance of Laura Moretti, the widow of Anthony, who should have got the liver Underwood was given.

We initially see Doug have a bout of guilt by donating to the appeal for Laura, and after which she gets in touch to thank him, which eventually leads to a relationship, and may further develop as the next series is done (has all the hallmarks of something that will blow up for either Stamper or Underwood or both).

Answer 2

I just re-watched this episode. When the Secretary of Health calls at 38:00 the photo she emails to Doug has the father who died because he got bumped to move the President up the list. The son in that photo look a lot like the Danny that killed himself. Maybe they didn’t have the last name....