With the sestras pulling themselves together to move past the tragedy and struggles of the past two episodes, this week Orphan Black sees the return of a couple characters (though sadly still no Helena), says goodbye to a third, and we move hopefully closer to finally finding a cure to the clones’ disease.

Because simply being in prison isn’t enough of a complication, Donnie quickly discovers that Neolution has a man on the inside keeping an eye on him. And with two days to go until his bail hearing, Donnie doesn’t think he’ll make it until Monday. Once he shares his fears with Alison, she sets up a meeting with Duko to find out what Neolution wants with them. According to Duko, the Hendrixes are just caught in the crossfire, and it’s really Sarah that they’re after.

S. had been trailing Duko with her shotgun, ready to take revenge for her mother, but held back on shooting once she saw Alison arrive and approach Duko. She and Sarah try to convince Felix to go visit Alison and see if she’ll confide anything, but Alison reaches out first, calling him to ask if he’ll drop by the church to help with rehearsals. She remains tight-lipped when he arrives, even when Felix directly asks about more problems with the police or Duko, insisting that nothing is wrong beyond Donnie’s initial arrest. Still, Felix offers support, reminding her that her sisters and Sarah are there for her.

When the threats to Donnie’s life escalate – the Neo spy with him is ready to stab him in the eye – Alison apparently caves and tells Duko where he can find Sarah. But when he follows Sarah into the comic book store later that night, it’s to discover Alison set him up – both Art and S. are ready and waiting for him. They force him to call off the hit on Donnie’s life, and then he’s left alone with S and a car battery.

Even with the torture as an incentive, Duko wasn’t able to reveal much of Evie’s plans: He knew she’s planning on implanting her robot maggot into millions of people under the guise of gene therapy, but he didn’t know why. When S. confronted him about being a corrupt cop, interfering in cases related to Brightborn (the details of which were supplied by MK), he claimed he only complied with their instructions to protect his young niece. Realizing she’s gotten all she can out of him, S. picks up her shotgun, declares “This is for my ma,” and pulls the trigger.

MK’s return to the Clone Club had been prompted by her discovery of Evie’s intentions towards the self-aware Leda clones. “You and Beth were right,” MK told Sarah, “we can’t do this alone.” In addition to providing the dirt on Duko, MK helped Cosima connect with Susan so they could collaborate on a cure. They hit a breakthrough with the realization that by combining a Leda egg with Castor sperm, they can create stem cells comparable to the original genome. (At least, that’s my rough understanding of the science of it.) Since Cosima and Scott’s lab isn’t equipped for that kind of work, Cosima flies off to meet Susan, bringing along some of Sarah’s eggs.

And as Cosima heads to the island, Rachel is getting ready to leave. She say she wants to work with Sarah and the others to stop Evie, but given that she’s still seeing the swan – and also saw a man at one point? – I’m suspecting she has other reasons as well tied to her glitching eye.

Honestly, with two episodes left, I have no idea what to think. After episodes 5 and 6 picked the pace up, I’ve felt like it’s slowed back down again in episodes 7 and 8. This season as a whole hasn’t pulled me in like the show has in the past, but hopefully they’ll use the final two episodes to finish strong.