Warning: Spoiler Alert
When it comes right down to it, the most important job of any parent or guardian’s doing what ever they can do to ensure the safety of the child under their care. Everything else in our existence, really pales in comparison, whether you’re a captain of industry, or discover the cure for the common cold, could you live with yourself if your child died due to an ill-thought decision on your part? Strip away all the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, the power available to agents and attorneys and even basic right and wrong; that was the basic story of the ninth episode of the second season of the Showtime Original Series “Ray Donovan.” What was the route that would ensure that Ray’s daughter Bridget safety, both in the short and long-term.
Proceedings began shortly after the climactic scene of the previous episode, after Bridget lying down undetected in the back seat of Rekon’s car, witnessed recently released convict Cookie Brown, gun down both Rekon and Bridget’s boyfriend Marvin Gaye Washington, killing them both with a shot to the head right in the middle of Hollywood. After Brown left, a dazed and blood spattered Bridget, left the car walked about a thousand-yards and called her father.
Ray brought his daughter back to his apartment in Los Angeles, where she showered and scrubbed off every bit of blood and tissue off of her body. While she showered, Abby tried calling her daughter on Bridget’s cellphone, saying they had lots to discuss, but it’s 2:00 am and she’s still not home. Abby hangs up just in time for her son Conor, to run into her bedroom with his laptop, telling her that Marvin and Rekon got shot to death.
Overcome with fear, she calls Ray and he tells her that he’s got Bridget and she’s fine but asleep, however Abby tells him to wake her up and put her on the phone. Donovan reasons with his wife, telling her he’ll bring her home in the morning after a needed night’s sleep. No sooner does he hang up, then his daughter walks into the living room, wearing one of Ray’s t-shirts as a nightie. She’s traumatized and confused and the ensuing events in the next 24-hours are only going to make that confusion multiply and consume her.
Donovan asks his daughter to describe the events and she tells him that Brown came up to the car at a red light, shot Rekon through the driver’s side window, then Marvin begged for his life, but Cookie showed no mercy and shot him in the head. Ray asked her if Cookie could have possibly seen her walk out of the car and she says she doesn’t think so. Donovan then tells his daughter then when she talks with the police, to say that Rekon was getting high while driving and she asked him to let her out of the car two blocks before they got shot.
Bridget can’t believe her ears and tells her father she’s telling the police exactly what she witnessed and put Cookie Brown behind bars for the murders of Rekon and Marvin. Ray then tells her what probably the toughest thing he’s ever had to said to his daughter: That’s not the way it works, this is what I do for a living. That there’s only so much protection he can give to Bridget, a guy like Cookie Brown will do anything in his power to maintain his freedom and taking out the only witness that identifies him as the murderer of Rekon and Marvin’s just child’s play for him. Imagine just how small the “Fixer For The Stars,” Ray Donovan felt right at that moment, for all his accomplishments throughout his career, he couldn’t guarantee his own daughter’s safety if she did the right thing.
Abby called her lover LAPD Detective Jim Halloran, telling him that the rapper that got murdered was her daughter’s boyfriend and that Bridget spent the day with him and now she’s at Ray’s apartment. The cop asks her what she wants him to do and she responds to go over to her husband’s apartment and bring her daughter home. Halloran, displays common sense and tells her that he can’t do that, the best way help he can provide, is looking into the case and says goodbye, though Abby’s clearly dissatisfied with the response.
The next morning Ray takes his daughter home and Abby rushes over embracing her daughter and asking her if she wants to eat, but Bridget says she just wants to sleep. Husband and wife argue, before Ray leaves the house, while Abby goes upstairs trying to talk to Bridget. Her daughter says she just wants to sleep and Abby covers her and leaves the room.
Lee Drexler, who unknowingly engineered the gangland slayings of Rekon and Marvin calls Ray and says he’s a dead man and that Donovan has to come over and protect him. He then pulls up in front of Cookie’s gated mansion where he meets Avi, whose been keeping any eye on Brown and tells Donovan that Cookie’s at home, Ray then tells Avi to drive over to his house and keep an eye on his family. He rings the bell at the front gate, which opens immediately and Donovan’s greeted by a group of about six of Cookie’s enforcers.
One guy tells Donovan that who ever he’s looking for isn’t there, when Ray takes one of the guys down with a blow to the chin. He may have been able to handle two of the men, but the six gang up and bang on his body like Desi Arnaz on the conga. They throw him onto the floor inside the house and Cookie comes out and asks Donovan what’s he there for. Ray, gasping for air and spitting out blood, asks him how he could have been as stupid enough murdering the two of them out in the open like that. Cookie responds, though it was common knowledge there was bad-blood between he and Rekon, why would he kill his money-maker Marvin. Donovan says he still shot them both, but Brown states that somebody shot them, their identity unknown as no witnesses have come forth. Ray now realizes that Cookie has no idea that Bridget was in the car.
Brown then asks why he really came to his house and he said he wanted to make sure that Cookie and Drexler were square, at which point he dismissed his men from the room. He then tells Donovan, that he wants Drexler to give Brown any recorded material by Marvin and Rekon’s catalog as well. Ray tells Cookie he’ll convey the message and leaves.
Abby goes back upstairs to Bridget’s room and this time she tells Abby that she was in the car when they got shot, she watched Marvin’s head explode and some of his brain got into her mouth. Abby asks why Bridget didn’t tell her sooner and she says told Ray she’d remain quite, so she’d stay safe. Abby calls Ray and curses him out for not telling her. Donovan apologizes, but tells her to remain calm and not do anything.
He gets off of the phone just as he walks into Drexler’s office, then proceeds to pick the attorney up by his lapels and throw him to the floor on the opposite side of his desk. He tells Drexler that he bears sole responsibility for the murders of Rekon and Marvin and now they have to hand over all Rekon’s and Marvin’s material. Ira, uninvolved in the situation until that instant says the firm will not and over that material to a murderer and storms out of Drexler’s office.
Ray follows Iran into his office, but the older attorney refuses to listen, until Donovan says that Bridget ducked out of Cookie’s vision, but was in the car and saw it all occur. Ira, turned soft saying that beautiful young girl witnessed that horror, enough said.
Back in his car he gets a call from Avi, telling him that Abby’s boyfriend Detective Halloran just arrived at his house. Abby introduces Bridget to the detective and he says he’s a friend of her mother’s, but the daughter replies her mother doesn’t have friends. Halloran, then basically undermines everything her father told her, telling Bridget it’s her duty to come forward and testify, which is when Ray walks in the front door and tells the detective to leave his home immediately.
Ray heads into Bridget’s room as she’s dressing to make her statement to the police. She tells her father she wants Cookie charged with taking the two lives and she’s the only one who can make that happen. Ray tells her he’s proud of her sentiments, but the only way she can spend the rest of her life not looking over her shoulder is to tell the police she left the car before the shooting.
They head to the department and the detective tells Ray that he needs to speak with her privately, despite the fact she’s a minor. The detective then after some friendly banter asks her if she was in the car when the two men got shot and Bridget said she wasn’t. He tells her she’ll be in lots of trouble for lying and she says she’s telling the truth. She then says Rekon got stoned and driving funny, so she asked them to pull over, she got out and then called her father for a ride. The cop says he realizes that her father’s only looking out for her, but who’s looking out for Marvin? She then asks the detective if she’s free to leave.
Abby’s arrived by the time Bridget comes out and she tells her parents, she told the truth, that she wasn’t present at the shooting. As they head into the parking lot, Cookie and entourage are heading into headquarters. He puts his arm around Bridget and calls her “Snowflake,” expresses his sorrow for her and says he’ll miss Marvin as well. To her credit Bridget didn’t react and Abby asked her if that was him when they got into her car and they drove back home, without saying goodbye to Ray. Donovan told Brown, that the deal with Drexler was all set, then noticed Halloran about to get into his car, sneaks up behind him and has him in a grip with his arms pinned behind him. He tells the detective that he can keep having sex with his wife, but if he hurts his family Donovan will kill him. He then gets into his car and drives into the night.
The story will pick up again next Sunday night on Showtime.
