UnREAL season finale recap: 'Codependence' and 'Commitment' 

, where — even though a new season is right around the corner — characters are left in places of uncertainty, new opportunities, and most remarkably, hope.

But before we get there, we need to start at the beginning of this two-hour finale: with Rachel having just slept with Alexei (to Jay’s horror), Chet and Quinn teaming up again to take Gary down once and for all, and Serena having cut Alexei, leaving her with three potential mates in August, Owen, and Jasper.

Rachel wakes up in Alexei’s bed, in a mix of regret and pain, before quickly rushing off to see Dr. Simon. The good doctor, who rebuffed her sexual advances, says he’s glad she returned to speak with them and that they can continue their therapy, transference notwithstanding. He challenges her. “It seems like the people you become intimate with, you tend to sexualize the relationships,” he says. She disagrees, expressing glee at the fact that she’s just had sex for the first time in nine months.

But the criticism bugs her — she spends this finale on a mission to prove that she has “friends.” She tries to play buddy-buddy with the cameraman Dan, even suggesting they go out for beers at one point, but a part of her knows how much of a strain it is. She’s struggling to come to terms with her relationship with Quinn, which remains undeniably dysfunctional. In this particular moment, she’s left with the promise of her bond with Serena — a genuine if quick friendship that’s been struck. They chat about the guys like with a giddy intimacy, and there’s a naturalism to their interactions. Serena even offers Rachel a job, promising to whisk her away from the drama of

some gravitas as its touching sincerity contrasts with the unending ridiculousness of

. More than in past seasons, the stakes feel real and the emotions of the controlled environment intensely relatable — a result, at least somewhat, of Serena emerging as such a fully-realized character. Even when she’s left to get steamy with each of the men in a sweat lodge segment, there’s meaningful room for connection. Owen confides his harrowing trauma as a veteran, even, shedding new light on the one contestant beginning to seem like an afterthought.

Chet and Quinn, meanwhile, are gearing up to put their big fundraiser on — the one that Chet’s young girlfriend Crystal has been doggedly planning. The two have intense chemistry and it shows here, in the way they scheme against Gary and almost seem to finish each other’s sentences. They’re getting ready to expose their boss by revealing his crimes to reporters at the fundraiser; they’re also, on the side, sleeping together again in secret.

Against the wishes of Quinn, who’s all about that “wounded warrior sh–,” Serena chooses August as her designated fundraiser date — the man she’s most recently slept with. The fundraiser begins and the event is lavish: pumping music, black tie attire, glitzy decorations and a sneaking, delicious vibe that things might just blow up. It’s all but confirmed when Gary arrives, sporting a nasty little smile — he’s got something on Quinn.

Indeed, also in attendance is Robin, that meddling tabloid reporter whom Quinn had previously kicked off set for her incessant questioning. She knows Fiona — chalk it up to the “lesbian mafia” — but, more crucially, she appears to be aligned with Gary. The network head confirms that he leaked all of the unsavory details of

past (including, you know, those couple of deaths from last season) and that Robin’s going to expose Quinn in an article. Her days are numbered. “Women like you can’t afford to make mistakes, remember?” Gary says to Quinn coldly.

It gets worse: The emails Quinn had exposing Gary’s fraud have been wiped from her computer by someone with knowledge. Gary is about to get on the stage, in front of everyone in attendance, and humiliate our hero. But Quinn acts fast by deploying her secret, ever-reliable weapon: Rachel. Indeed Rachel acts so fast and so brilliantly it’s almost terrifying. Just as the fundraiser is heating up she pulls August aside for a quick interview, and gets him to make some less-than-kind statements about veterans. Jeremy, who’s sensitive about veteran’s issues, takes offense and goes so far as to show the clip of August’s rant to Owen, in the middle of the ceremony — just as Rachel hoped. And then, as Gary takes the stage, Owen confronts August. He’s been set off. He starts a fight, and the entire night’s energy shifts. This is no place to fire Quinn. Gary has to postpone his sweet revenge, and instead, dedicates the rest of the fundraiser to veterans.

, not only because of her character development but because it’s also an essential plot engine. We see it used to sparkling effect here: It’s damn impressive what she accomplishes, and convenient to the show, but there’s that undercurrent of whether she’s too good at this, what’s really driving her, which prevents it from feeling like a narrative shortcut. Same goes for Quinn: Her leaning on Rachel in this pivotal moment looms large, right through to the season’s final moments.

The whole debacle may have been engineered, but it’s still eye-opening for Serena. Owen volunteers to eliminate himself but she stops him, suggesting that she’s not only sympathetic to his moment of losing control, but that it also revealed his humanity. “I’m damaged too,” she confesses. She cuts August, saying his comments — while not a deal-breaker in and of themselves — proved he lived in a bubble she’d be unable to pop. And then there were two.

Simon forces Rachel to look inward after her latest masterful manipulation. He notes she’ll sabotage any relationship, any state of peace or contentment, to do Quinn’s bidding. He asks her to consider why, but then pushes her to come to a conclusion of his own finding: Her relationship with Quinn is deeply dysfunctional and she needs to end it. This seems a little premature, and indeed, we’ll soon find out why.

As for Quinn: She’s still in survival mode, just hoping to make it to the next day. Chet is telling her he wants to leave Crystal, but she’s having none of it; she fires Madison, presuming that her previous willingness to betray her is enough to indicate she was the one who hacked onto her computer and deleted Gary’s incriminating emails. But in fact, we learn, it was not Madison, who’s become attached to Quinn and her mentorship. It was Fiona — who, just hours earlier, had told Quinn she was suddenly in need of a job. When Quinn couldn’t deliver, Fiona turned on her old friend, seemingly at the drop of the hat. Fiona tells Gary, “It’s just business.” Nothing personal.