Warning: Spoiler Alert
Things looked bleak for the Donovan clan, at the outset of episode five of the Showtime Original Series “Ray Donovan,” but the “Fixer For The Stars,” solved a problem that could have caused grave danger for his father Micky, Los Angeles FBI Director James Cochrane and himself, however due to some quick thinking and revisionist history, the trio avoided revealing the true story to a crafty and tenacious Boston reporter. The solution kept Cochrane on course to become director of the entire Bureau, as well as keeping both Micky and Ray out of prison.
Although the main story-arc concerned Ray and his father, Donovan’s wife Abby and teenage children, son Connor and daughter Bridget are all caught up in their own situations that have them courting trouble. First on the docket, the apology Connor owes to his classmate that he pushed down a flight of stairs earlier this season, resulting in the boy fracturing his collar-bone. Both boys as well as Ray and the other boy’s father are sitting in the other family’s living room.
Connor tells his classmate that he had done wrong pushing him from behind and causing him to fall down the stairs, but he said the other boy started the altercation by breaking Connor’s cellphone. The classmate’s father pushed for Connor to apologize and Ray chimed in as well, but he refused to, stating that an apology would make him look weak and the other boy’s father exploded in anger, grabbing him by his shoulder and threatening him. Ray, restraining his anger told his son they were out of there and they left the house with the other man’s screaming ringing in their ears.
As Ray drives his son to school, his phone rings and he picks it up hands-free, to find Micky’s parole officer Ronald Keith on the other end, telling him what we witnessed in the previous episode, that two plain-clothed law-enforcement officials had taken his father from his apartment the previous night. Connor, hearing his grandfather’s missing becomes concerned and Ray picks up the receiver to talk privately. Keith tells Donovan he has no idea where Micky’s at, but he’ll find out.
Turns out that the elder Donovan’s been spirited away to FBI headquarters and he’s held in an interrogation room. Cochrane soon walks in and Micky demands to call his lawyer, telling the director he knows his rights. The director in a fit of bravado, grabs a chair and destroys the close-circuit camera filming the proceedings. He then hands Micky an affidavit, claiming that Ray killed the FBI agent that the elder Donovan killed last season. The old man tells the director he won’t rat out his son and Cochrane walks out of the solid brick room telling Micky to enjoy the view.
Ray heads to the marina, seeking out his paid informant at the bureau Frank Barnes, whose pounding down beers on his boat. Donovan beats the agent mercilessly, first trying to find out where Micky’s hidden and secondly to find out dirt on Cochrane. The agent is clueless where Micky’s stashed, but he does tell Ray that there are rumors that Cochrane’s having sex with his assistant’s wife, the same couple that were over Cochrane’s house for Scrabble night in the previous episode.
Abby’s heading to the gun-range, hoping to see the young detective she flirted with the day before. Bridget comes into her room and tells her mother she’s not feeling well and Abby, realizing that her daughter just wants to stay home for the day gives her permission to skip school. After her shooting session, she tries to ask about the detective, but then gets embarrassed and leaves.
Kate McPherson, the Boston Globe reporter investigating the death of former Public Enemy Number One Patrick “Sully” Sullivan and has Cochrane terrified she’ll find out how Sullivan really died, shows up at Micky’s to find he’s not there. Donovan’s neighbor Shorty asks if he can help her and she explains that she’s the reporter who had set up a meeting with Micky. Shorty’s about to hand her something from Micky, when Ray arrives, so he slips it into her purse and heads back to his room.
Ray tells Kate, that if she keeps digging her life’s in danger and then shows her the newspaper article on Tiny’s killing. She tells Donovan, she’d faced threats on her life when she wrote about pedophile priests, she kept digging then and she intends to do the same in this situation. Ray gets out of her way and she leaves the building, while Donovan gets another call from Keith telling Ray where Micky’s at.
Bridget’s back with boyfriend Marvin Gaye Washington, whose become a rap superstar since last season. He’s sporting a pair of diamond earrings and takes one off his ear and puts it on hers, then invites her to a party. The event’s a swanky poolside affair, hosted by a guy named Cookie, who was recently released from prison and gave Marvin the earrings. It turns out however, that Marvin’s guardian who’s also at the party, wants the young man to stay away from the former convict and Marvin and Bridget leave the party.
Abby heads back to the new house in Truesdale that she and her family will soon move into, when the female neighbor she met the last time she was there shows up with a friend and a bottle of wine as a peace-offering, due to their rocky introduction. Shortly there after, the three woman feel buzzed and laughing giddily, when Abby feels sick because she drank so quickly. The alcohol removes, the neighbor’s inhibitions and she tells Abby that they know what Ray does for a living and she has a marvelous divorce-attorney. Abby’s back goes up and says she has no intentions of getting a divorce and the other woman responds that he’s a common thug. Abby sees red and grabs the woman by the throat, telling her she’ll kill her, then barricades herself in the bathroom, while the women call the police.
Ray’s able to get a Federal Judge whose a close friend of Ezra’s to issue a warrant for Micky’s arrest as a person of interest in a murder case and get him out of FBI custody. A detective and two uniformed officers armed with a warrant, take Micky away from Cochrane, who tells the detective he’ll have his badge. His phone rings and Ray’s on the other end, Cochrane threatens to kill Donovan, who responds that soon he’ll be thanking him.
Abby’s in the back of a cruiser, but the detective she met at the firing range has interceded on her behalf and got the charges dropped. He tells her he’ll take her home, but she asks if he’ll take her to a hotel and have sex with her instead. The detective, gently refuses and tells her she’s emotional and then she asks him to hug her which he does.
Kate gets a call from Ray and tells her to meet him at Ezra’s and she’ll get the true story of how Sully died. When she arrives, Ray, Micky and Cochrane are there and Ray tells McPherson that he and his father had worked for the FBI to help capture Sully and Micky was the bait. Micky had told Sully that he could get him to the Maldives and Ray produces a passport with Sully’s picture on it. Cochrane tells her she can have the exclusive, but she has to keep Micky’s name out of the book for his own protection from Sully’s friends.
She apparently buys the story and Ray drives her to LAX to catch a plane back to Boston. She asks him if he loves his wife and if he has any friends. He responds that he does love Abby, but he has trust issues, something Kate herself can relate to. He tells her he’ll miss her and she heads back to Boston.
Abby receives a text message from the Detective, when she gets out of the shower, asking if she’s okay and she responds that she is and thanks him for being a gentleman. He texts back next time he might not, and she texts him back a nude selfie. We see Ray sitting in his car in the dark, until a figure comes out from his house with some trash for his barrel. It’s the other father and when he comes outside Ray drives away, perhaps just attempting to scare him.
The story will pick up again next Sunday night on Showtime.
