UnReal season 2, episode 4 knocked out both its suitor and its audience in one hit. We need a producer to bring the series back to life, stat!

UnReal won viewers over in season 1 with Quinn’s quick quips, Rachel’s damaged psyche that pushed her into the arms of all the wrong men, and the contestants’ extreme gullibility. Season 2, however, needs to come up with something new and it needs to do it fast. Quinn’s razor sharp tongue is losing its edge, Chet’s extreme actions are draining my attention span as quickly as the Everlasting budget, and Coleman needs to figure out his place on the show.

If you were asleep or just tuning into “Treason,” there are plenty of reminders strewn throughout the episode to get you up to speed. UnReal is currently stuck in a cycle of rehashing information week in and week out with the stunts getting less and less believable. But didn’t we spend last season learning what extremes these people will go to? Were we not reminded in the first three episodes that no one is as good as Quinn when she sets her mind to something? The show needs to lean a bit more on connecting the personal journeys of these characters to the work.

Everyone wants to be in charge until they actually have to make the final call. This is true for everyone, except for Quinn. As she sits in the control room watching Darius on his back laying on the field, she rolls her hands in joy. But she is alone. The one person she loved and trusted to go on the journey with her stabbed her in the back. She is a woman, playing in a world where the old man in the suit and tie miles away makes the final call without all the details.

Quinn has had one foot out the door of Everlasting since last season. She is reckless. Forget the ambulances and the tears, Quinn’s developing like a crazy person, but does she have any of the chops to make it outside of Everlasting? I mean, take a look at her vision board. When wild animals attack? Come on, Quinn. You’re better than that!

However, one thing still lingers. Quinn thrives on the high she gets from running other people’s lives, which is why when her life begins to fall apart, she steps into action.

Just look at the series of events over a five minute span of the series. After orchestrating a way to have Darius put in an ambulance, exposing his injury to the world, she gets Chet back in her lap begging to take him back. The world and cameras bend to her whim in that moment. Until Darius walks outside. Those moments are fleeting and much like Quinn, I am getting tired of the whiplash from trying to stay on top of who is working against who.

UnReal operates best when it is tearing the crutches right out from under the characters at the worst possible moment. “Treason” did this to an unlikely character, the suitor, Darius. Instead of Rachel or Quinn, the show took Romeo away from Darius, his manager and cousin.

The Darius and Romeo relationship mirrors Quinn and Rachel’s relationship. If Rachel leaves Everlasting, she is likely to die, much like if Darius stays he is going to get himself injured and throw his life away. Rachel poisoned the water of the best relationship, though arguably ridiculous and unhealthy, she had with Quinn, and she is now watching herself do it all over again with Darius and Romeo.

The more time we spend with Rachel examining her actions, the better the episode. Without Quinn as her point person, Rachel is forced to find her own footing. Perhaps the major problem with this season is that the stories for each contestant are too broad and their situations too easily manipulated. Is this is an extremely gullible group of contestants, or am I forgetting how easily manipulated all the ladies were in season 1? This is giving Madison and Jay a chance to shine, but at the cost of making Quinn and Rachel seem like they can wink and make everything better.

If UnReal can find a way to create situations that are more complicated to solve and focus on Quinn and Rachel’s battle not only with each other, but the larger war against the network, the season will be better for it. Quinn describes her life rather well when she says to Rachel, “We work.” Kudos to Constance Zimmer for working each and every week bringing the fierce woman who does what any man can do backwards and in heels. Let’s see them work and not settle. We’re going to get a war this season — I just hope the battles get better on the way there.

Stray Observations

• “Act as if Taylor Swift asked you to be a part of her girl squad and then changed her mind.” Look, I’m not saying all of Quinn’s writing is going to waste. She still has some zingers.

• Graham in that football uniform. What a goof. I never want him to leave.

• The seed of Quinn’s past, dirt road and drunk dad, was planted last week and paid off this week when her dad died. Is there more to come here?

• What is Yael up to? Is she going to steal footage? See how the production works? I think she has something major up her sleeves and I hope it is a sting operation on the crumbling illusion of Everlasting.