Another question-- Emmit's car appears to run out of gas or break down on the rural highway, which prompts his phone-smashing fit. But then, after the State Trooper and Nikki have shot each other, Emmit gets in the car and drives away. Huh? I'll agree with you all that this was the weakest season. It was also the bleakest, I think, but that's not necessarily why I found it weaker. It has more to do with the characters being weaker.
The creators were trying to make some deep point about the nature of truth, but instead lectured us about the obvious and boring point that power can control information. YAWN. Oh, and people can be so greedy that they do bad things. The Meemo character was AWFUL. I cringed every time his over-affect-ridden character appeared. Groovin to the music, oh yeah! Varga had bulimia! -- how quirky! Nora from the Leftovers wasn't as angry in Minnesota, but she also was like a crappy version of Molly. Until the love of a good barren other female trooper, she couldn't get soap out of auto-dispenser. Whoa. Hey, look! Dumb guy boss cop! There were enjoyable moments, for sure. But taken in total, what a piece of shit.
It was the weakest season, but it had a few standalone episodes that were good, one of which was truly great ("The Law of Non-Contradiction"). Though it says something about a season of TV when the best episode is the one least related to the overarching plot of that season.
Oh, there was enough good stuff in there that I stilly mostly enjoyed it, but I still thought it was the weakest of the three seasons by some distance.