Can't say that the rape scene was unnecessary. They want to show the Ramsay's story line in this season and how a monster he really is. We can all agree that he already shown that. BUT, Ramsay said that he will never hurt Sansa to Littlefinger, which is obviously not true now, so they want us to see Sansa growing as a more powerful character but still being vulnerable, which is fine. Sansa knew how horrible was Ramsay but she never really "experimented" Ramsay's torture. So I felt like "Okay, it sucks for Sansa but she got more now enough excuses to kick the shit out of Ramsay".
My final thought, the episode was named "unbowed unbent unbroken" which is the complete opposite of what happened to Sansa.
UP TOP.