Orphan Black is back, and it hasn’t lost even a little bit of that distinctive energy that characterised almost every episode in its excellent first season. We hit the ground running here as the episode begins with Sarah literally running from the ransacked home of Mrs S.

This premiere is entirely devoted to dealing with the shocking revelation that she and Kira had been kidnapped at the end of ‘Endless Forms Most Beautiful’, although it manages to subtly introduce new conflicts, characters and changes to the dynamic.

All of the clones that we’ve been introduced to so far are involved in this episode’s drama, and if that wasn’t enough Tatiana Maslany gets a chance to play Sarah posing as Cosima for the first time. While Sarah isn’t quite committed or focused enough to fool Delphine with her subterfuge, Maslany certainly hasn’t missed a beat in her multi-faceted performance. She plays every character she’s previously played here, and we get to know Rachel a little better too.

The whole episode seems to follow Sarah as she frantically searches for Kira, even if there are smaller subplots developed at the same time. The pace with which this central story unravels doesn’t leave us with a moment to think about the logistics of her scenario or how unlikely it is that she’ll learn of her daughter’s whereabouts.

The surprise in the climax – that Rachel hasn’t kidnapped her daughter at all and is just using the situation to lure Sarah to her – comes as a shock initially but then seems entirely obvious, as some of the best twists do. The continuing presence of “Helena’s people” makes sense, as does the last-minute reveal that Helena survived Sarah’s gunshot. Where this goes, though, now that’s completely unpredictable.

‘Nature Under Constraint and Vexed’ is all about the clones under pressure. While Sarah speeds from place to place desperately searching for Kira or trying to get a gun that she can use to threaten Rachel, Cosima is dealing with the realisation that she’s sick as Delphine urges her to make use of The DYAD Institute’s resources to treat herself, Alison’s doing her best to pretend everything’s back to normal when it clearly isn’t (we’re sure to see the consequences of that soon) and Rachel is still rather mysterious but she’s clearly instrumental at DYAD, seemingly even more important than Dr Leekie.

Expectedly, the fact that the cops now know more than they ever previously have changes things. It’s safe to assume Art will remain a constant presence as he is closely tied to this case and, as of the end of this episode, probably knows a whole lot more about it than anybody else on the policing side of things.

Where Art fits into this conflict is hard to tell but it’s always fun to watch him in scenes with Sarah. The same can said for Paul, who still doesn’t seem like he fits anywhere but remains interesting to watch. He’s conflicted, but at least we know he can’t bring himself to hand Sarah over to Rachel.

It’s great to have Orphan Black back for Season 2 and it’s reassuring to see that it remains supremely confident in how it tells its story. It may move fast and sometimes feel rushed but this is clearly a story that Graeme Manson and John Fawcett have under control.

The astounding performance from Maslany continues to amaze, and this moody premiere is full of intrigue that should fuel another exciting season for the show.

Aired at 10pm on Wednesday 30 April 2014 on BBC Three.