She hasn't been moping or whining, she's been gradually establishing a relationship that would be close enough to render plausibility to whatever actions she and Finn might take to "protect" each other. They've been playing it kind of low-key, because they learned their lesson from their last show, about having the male lead's daughter be too involved or in too deep with things her father does. So rather than throw her into the relationship with Finn right off the bat, they've been building up to it.

Last season, a lot of people hated her too, and thought she was wretched or useless, and she turned out to be the key to getting Brody to change his mind. That phone call at the end paid off lots of scenes of her just talking in her high-pitched grunt to Brody, because those scenes established a closeness between them, and gave her enough looks at him acting weird to make her following up on Carrie's visit a plausible decision.

Given how they moved this season along so fast and so well, I think they've earned some faith in their use of the character. The way last season ended, and given the typical pace of these premium cable shows, who would have thought they'd have brought Carrie back in so easily and quickly, that they've have gone right to the uncovering of Brody, Carrie's vindication, and then flipping him, in so few, but excellent episodes?