all of the time spent on Doug killing the girl. It seemed to take up much too long of the episode. There was little doubt that the season was going to end with Claire leaving Frank, and even that was pretty boring, but the Doug stuff once again was just awful

I know a lot of people were disappointed that Frank wasn't scheming and wheeling and dealing as much. I understand that, but I actually enjoyed seeing a guy like Frank have to deal with the restrictions and difficulty that come with being President. He got humbled a lot this season.

I always thought that the previous couple of seasons went a bit over the top when it comes to Frank's involvement in people's death's. I always thought Frank should've been a guy giving an order to get rid of someone, rather than him doing it himself given his position of power.

I thought the Doug stuff was incredibly weak. I wouldn't go so far as to say it ruined the season or completely dragged the story down Kim Bauer-like, but it was close. It felt that they tried to redeem his character and humanity, only to destroy it all again. I guess it's fine if the producers/writers want to suggest that people don't ultimately change much, I just don't think we needed 13 episodes to discover that. To me, Doug was never that interesting of a character, so to see him fighting alcoholism and crying over some young woman--I just didn't care enough. And certainly, when there's a vote in Iowa going on, to devote so much time to Stamper in that finale episode was absurd to me. A lot of that screen time--or at least some of it--could've been devoted to Remy and Jackie.

But I also thought there was a lot of good stuff this season. I enjoyed the political stuff, and Frank trying to get America Works funded. I enjoyed the chess match with Russia too.

One thing I found odd, along with the Stamper stuff, was the guy writing the book about America Works. Around episode 10 or so, he basically tells Frank that if he wants someone else for the job, he's fine with it. He makes it seem like, while he's willing to do it, he's okay with the project getting axed because he understands he might not be the 100% best fit for the job. And either way, he's going to get paid for his work, whether AmWorks is funded or defunded.

But by the end of the season, he's completely distraught at the idea of his book being canned. I didn't get this. He only wrote the prologue. He was BEHIND schedule (the book was supposed to be completed), and he was going to get paid regardless. I could see if, perhaps, he had the whole book finished and the President said thanks but no thanks. But I didn't get his passion and frustration over Frank killing the book--the guy didn't come through when he was supposed to, and the work itself wasn't close to what was expected of him anyway.

Just found it bizarre. Overall, I enjoyed the season though. Just didn't like how it all ended in the finale.

Mendoza not suddenly up and disappeared, unceremoniously explained away by a line of dialogue by Frank. The show had been planting the seeds of him being Frank's only credible GOP rival. With him gone, I assume they decided to reel it in a bit to focus on the primaries.

Presumably this is because Benito Martinez got a role on American Crime. If only he stayed we could've gotten a scene of Frank yelling "MENDOZA!!!" to the heavens after being screwed over by him.

I was kind of hoping that all the time spent on Doug and Frank pissing on the people around him was going to pay off with the season ending with all of them getting behind Dunbar (a character who is the complete antithesis of Frank), and Frank's actions and failures leading him to have his wife run for President. A culmination of a failed experiment and plan - that worked well for him in the past, but in his new position was a recipe for disaster.

However, they quickly painted Dunbar as slimy and unable to win against a lame duck president who was never elected, raided FEMA funds, pardoned political allies, appointed his wife to the UN, and created mid east tensions? WTF? A mannequin with a sign saying "At least I'm not him" would have won.

This would have been realistic and put the character on the ropes - maybe giving us a reason to root for the underdog.

I also agree that the time spent on Doug was a waste - and all the energy he spent finding this person to kill her - when the FBI guy fabricated her death (what better outcome could you want if you were Doug?)... and how did he catch her again?.. the guy has a bum leg, and she could run away from him and the van. The van was a piece of junk - not an off road 4wd truck... one little rut off the road would have grounded the rear wheel drive econoline. She just needed to run off the road, jump over the fence and zig zag through the rough desert. Doug would have been making 3 point turns until he ran out of gas, got stuck, ruptured a tire, fuel or break line, etc.

I found the way we were shown Rachel's death was pretty startling. I mean, I suspected it was coming, to the point when she was in the van talking about moving far away and getting a dog I thought Doug was going to pull a pistol and cap her. But just seeing her head covered in a shovelful dirt was a bit jarring.
I had really hoped she would get away...

I really wanted to see him turn a corner, like he did with his drinking, physical recovery, etc. and for some reason it just didn't work for me that he ended up murdering Cassie anyway. I liked his character and was glad when the season started off with him not dead, but now, meh.