WARNING: SPOILER ALERT
The first season finale of the Showtime Original Series “Ray Donovan,” was wall-to wall non-stop action and intertwining plots and the season opener for season two followed suit. Donovan (Liev Schreiber), the former boy from South Boston, who became the ultimate “Fixer For The Stars,” in Hollywood finds himself putting out lots of brush fires, while trying to keep what could become a raging inferno, contained. Some issues emanate from last season, although new flare-ups spring up throughout the first hour.
Our first image of the new season finds Donovan sleeping on a plush cabana lounge-chair in a suit with a blood stained white shirt on a beautiful beach, when woken by a shovel full of dirt gets dumped on his torso. We realize it’s a dream as he finds himself looking up at the sky from the bottom of a grave. He wakes up out of breath and shaken, then takes his wife Abby (Paula Malcomson) sexually even though she’s sound asleep as he begins. He completes the act and then rolls away from her on the bed, the anguish visible in Abby’s eyes.
We shift to the Donovan’s kitchen and Abby tells her teenage children Connor (Devon Bagby) and Bridget (Kerris Dorsey) that she and Ray have some private business they have to attend to, however Ray tells his wife that he wants to drive the kids to school first and will meet up with her. He gives his daughter the keys to the car although she has yet to get her license and explains to his kids that he and Abby are going to see a counselor. The kids ask questions about their parent’s marriage, but Ray assures them everything is fine.
Ray and Abby are in the counselor’s office and start discussing their difficulties. Abby starts off by taking responsibility for the events of the past year, by inviting Ray’s estranged father Micky (Jon Voight) to their home when he got released from a Boston area prison, without telling her husband and letting him develop relationships with their children. The counselor thanks Abby for her honesty and then goes to town on Ray, lambasting him for his problems with violence. He brings up incidents that his children witnessed and asks Donovan if they can negotiate a contract stating Ray will not show violence to his daughter and son. Donovan agrees to the counselor’s request, but his cell-phone rings and he has to leave the session.
Abby remains and the conversation gets more intimate, as they discuss her sex-life with her husband and she immediately becomes defensive. The counselor then brings up that Ray recently revealed to her that a priest molested him as a child and tells her that until he husband comes to peace with that, their marriage will be in danger. She tells the counselor she regrets sharing that with him and leaves the office.
Ray’s call is from a client, an NFL player who tells Donovan he’s in deep trouble and the fixer has to get to his home immediately. Ray drives up to see the player’s tiny children huddled together outside the house and we hear two women in conversation, one extremely angry and the other terribly scared. The player appears and tells Donovan that his wife came home early from his weekend trip and caught him in bed with another woman. Just as he tells Ray that there are no guns in his bedroom, we hear a shot and Donovan bursts open the door to find the woman in the bed with a shoulder wound and the player’s wife shaking with anger. She tells him that she can’t deal with her husband’s antics any longer and Donovan tells her that the player’s rotten and she should shoot him. The reverse psychology works and she sits down and gives Ray the weapon.
The other woman is a contestant on an American Idol type of show and scheduled to perform that evening. Donovan stops his car in front of a park and tells her she can compete and possibly win, or live in infamy as the other-woman shot by the player’s wife and grabs a pistol out of the car and tells the woman to get out. He then fires the gun at a tree right behind her and tells her to tell the police she got mugged in the park and drives away, leaving the woman alone and crying. Seconds later, Donovan’s aide Lena shows up, comforts the woman and calls 911, she then tells the woman she’s a fan, but if she doesn’t stick to the story she got mugged, Lena will shoot her again.
Connor is at school and showing a girl a video of Marvin Gaye Washington (Octavius J. Johnson) who’s blowing up YouTube with his latest rap video. Connor tells the girl Marvin’s his sister’s boyfriend and he’s been over their house a lot when some other kid calls him out as a liar and knocks the phone out of Connor’s hand and breaks on the ground. Connor retaliates by pushing the other kid who falls down a flight of cement stairs fracturing his collar-bone.
Ray and Abby meet with the principal and told their son will serve a five-day suspension and he fears the other boy’s parents might sue the school and press for a criminal investigation. As the three get to the parking-lot, Abby screams at her son while Ray reassures him that they will both apologize to the boy and his family that night and rectify the situation. Donovan gets back in his car and the phone rings with a devastating call from Ray’s lackey on the FBI Frank Barnes (Michael McGrady). Turns out the office director’s (Hank Azaria) back at the bureau and found inconsistencies from the ballistic tests on former Public Enemy Number One Patrick “Sully” Sullivan, killed by Micky in last season’s finale. Their tale has unraveled and the director wants to question Ray.
Donovan drives to the bureau office and Frank tells him that the director knows that Sully was working for Ray and wants to question Donovan about his murder. Ray, shows Barnes total disdain and barges into the director’s office and introduces himself. The director informs him he knows exactly who Ray is and describes in a very uncomplimentary fashion. He starts questioning Donovan who responds that the director really doesn’t want to know the answers. Frustrated the director grabs his phone telling Donovan he would soon be behind bars when Ray tells him that he paid Sully $2 million to kill Micky and the director puts down the phone and kicks Barnes out of his office. Ray then tells him that Micky killed Sully and the director responds he wants to talk to the elder Donovan. Ray replies his father has left town but that doesn’t satisfy the director.
Ray drives to his brother Terry’s (Eddie Marsan) gym and asks his older sibling where their father is, Terry replies he’s in Mexico but doesn’t know anymore. As he starts to leave the gym he sees his younger brother Bunchy, (Dash Mihok) molested by the same priest and became traumatized, trapped as an adolescent in a man’s body. Bunchy is wearing a dress shirt and tie although he’s wearing shorts as he doesn’t own any long pants, after his session with other victims of molestation he has an interview for a job in a bicycle shop. Ray get’s back in the car and calls his half-brother Daryl, (Pooch Hall) the product of Mickey and his Black former girlfriend. When he asks Daryl where Mickey is, he swears at Ray and tells him he has no clue.
Daryl was lying to his half-brother as he is heading to Rosalito, Mexico to fight in a match Micky had arranged. Micky’s shacked up with a Mexican hooker, drinking tequila from the bottle and smoking a joint in a beach-side shack. He tells the woman he is going for a swim and she tells him not too as he’s far too intoxicated. When the old man starts swimming, he hallucinates seeing a talking dolphin who implores Micky to swim with her. When Micky says he’s tired the dolphin responds that he’s not a sailor, he’s a captain. The mammal disappears and Linda (Rosanna Arquette) his companion that got murdered by Sully takes her place. Linda blames Micky for leaving her in a very dark place but he blames Sully for her fate. She vanishes and Mickey swims to shore.
Ezra Goldman the Hollywood agent that’s Ray’s employer gets a visit from the local FBI director and calls Donovan in a panic telling him to get there immediately. The director asks questions about Ray, but Ezra tells him that Donovan’s also a client so he can’t divulge any information. Ray shows up then and the director tells Ray he’s got 24-hours to bring him Micky, Donovan responds that the director should forget about the real incident and award his two agents citations for taking out Public Enemy Number One.
Daryl arrives in Rosalito and Micky gets his son to pick up his outstanding balance with his landlord, and Daryl gives the man 500 dollars. He then asks his father about his opponent and Micky tells him he hasn’t seen him but how big could a Mexican boxer be? Daryl finds out soon after that his opponent is basically a wall with a face, a gigantic man, bald and glaring. Daryl gets one good punch in, but his opponent pulverizes him leaving him bloody and hazy on the canvas, but he sees Micky collecting money as he bet against his son.
Bridget is getting driven home from school by a female friend when a cruiser pulls the girls over. They tell the driver she made a right-turn without signaling, but it becomes quickly apparent that their real interest is in Bridget. The cops ask her name and whether her backpack was on the car’s rear seat and when she responds it is, they tell her to leave the vehicle. Ray’s phone rings and he sees the calls from his daughter, she’s crying on her end and then one of the cops takes the phone. He tells Ray they caught his daughter with an ounce of weed, but because she seems like a good kid they’ll let her off with a warning. Donovan responds that the cop should tell the director he got the message.
Ray tracks down Terry and once again asks his brother where Micky is but he refuses to tell him. Ray then tells his brother that he’s in deep trouble and his world will come crashing down if he can’t find their father. Micky is the King of the Cantina, flush with money from betting against his son and buying drinks for the house. Daryl is angrily sitting by himself eating and watching Micky party, until he confronts his father about how he could set up his own son. Micky offers Daryl half of the winnings, which he refuses at first, but then grabs it and goes out to the parking lot and calls Ray giving his half-brother Micky’s location.
Micky and the hooker are dancing to La Bamba when she says that she’s not a sailor but a captain, shocking the elder Donovan by saying what the dolphin had said to him earlier. Ray enters and tells Micky they are heading home but his father wants to stay and the men in the Cantina show that they are ready to take on Ray to keep Micky there. Ray then changes the song on the jukebox, walks out to his car, opens his trunk and takes off his shirt and grabs a bat. The screen goes dark as we hear broken glass and the woman’s screams.
The story will pick up again next Sunday night on Showtime.
