In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, House of Cards showrunner Beau Willimon revealed the most difficult scene for him to write in season 3.

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Turns out, killing Rachel off was not easy Willimon as well, and he might have had a sleepless night or two over plotting that development in season 3. But at the end of it all, he believes that it was the right decision.

"When Doug (Michael Kelly) turns the van around to take care of Rachel (Rachel Brosnahan). For most of the season he was going to let her go, but I realized the only way for him to come back into the fold of Team Underwood was to do this act [and kill her]. Michael said, "Oh man, people are going to hate me." I said, "Maybe." And he said, "But we have to do it." We filmed with the knowledge that if we changed our minds, we could maybe take that scene out. But once we saw it, we knew it was the right choice."

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Earlier this year, Willimon also addressed the disapproval of critics and fans over Rachel's murder in season 3.

That twist in the plot didn't go down well with TVLine's Michael Ausiello, so he took the issue up with Willimon. In an interview with the show's creator, Ausiello was concerned about the gimmicky nature of the deaths, and how easy it was for Frank to get anyone who threatened him out of his way. Ausiella straight-up told Willimon that he was not happy about Rachel's death on the show. Willimon tried to get to the root of Ausiello's discontent, asking him what it was exactly that bothered him about the choice they made.

"Well, let me ask you, were you not happy in that emotionally it was just a punch in the gut, but you felt like, 'Oh, that's where the story had to go?' Or did you think we made a mistake with the storytelling?" asked Willimon.

While stating that it was slightly lazy on their part to just murder these people, he added that it took away from the suspense of the Netflix drama. Willimon gave a very lenghthy explanation for the choices made by them, and also revealed that it was not something they conveniently resorted too. Rachel's death at Doug was up for a lot of debate even right up until the filming of the finale.

"But, ultimately, we arrived at our own moment of truth, which is Doug's moment of truth," he said "If Season 3 was about his recovery - physical and emotional - the [goal] of the recovery, for him, was getting back into [Frank's] inner circle... And the only way to do that was to for him to tie up this loose end that had been plaguing the Underwoods for the bulk of three seasons, and become a brother in blood with the man that he is willing to make any sacrifice for. If he had not killed her, then he would be reverting back to where he was in Season 2, where he was not being entirely truthful about Rachel, where he was not getting the job done. And he and [Frank] paid a price for that."

Willimon added that the toughest part was trying to reconcile Doug's "humanity with his willingness to commit murder." The drive to be one of Frank's main aides is what pushed him over the edge.

"And if he had not done that, I think in his worldview, it would've been a sign of weakness," Willimon said. "It would've been a sign of giving up. Or it would've been a sign that he had completely eschewed loyalty from his playbook. Because to have not completed the job is the equivalent of choosing Rachel over Frank, and it would've been against his true nature and his character to dispense of that loyalty entirely."

Season 4 is set to return in 2016.

Watch a preview for season 3:

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House of cards, Netflix, Television