Photo: Suzanne Tenner/Showtime
Warning: Spoiler Alert
As the season finale of the Showtime Original Series “Ray Donovan” concluded, the network announced that the show’s renewed for a third season and that wasn’t much of a surprise, given the way the episode and the season turned out. The “Fixer For The Stars” still stands, while those attempting to cross him either got mortified publicly or killed. The episode ended with Donovan sitting in his house, after pouring himself a drink, attempting to process all the information that took place over the last few months.
Donovan and Boston Globe reporter Kate McPherson got locked into an incredibly strange relationship, adversaries with a very deep emotional connection, which caused Ray to threaten anybody attempting to silence her, despite the fact she could send him to prison for a very long time. The book she plans to write’s an expose on former Public Enemy Number One Patrick “Sully” Sullivan, that includes bad deeds done by Ray, his father Micky and a cover-up by the nominee as Federal Bureau Chief of the FBI James Cochrane. Her stories could also inflict damage and possibly criminal charges on the two attorneys’ that employ Donovan Ezra Goodman and Lee Drexler.
Near the end of the previous episode, Ezra sat down with Donovan’s right-hand man Avi and discussed the dangers that McPherson posed to Ray, his family and all his associates and put the matter in Avi’s hands to resolve. The resolution came quickly in the season finale, as Avi waited for the reporter to return to her apartment then put a bullet through her heart and one into her head, made sure he left no evidence and left the apartment.
Ray spent the previous evening as guests of the LAPD, after getting busted last week when he attacked Micky twice in front of a pack of uniformed officers. Lena posted bail and got her boss out, however she told Donovan that his brother Terry refused the bail and remains in jail after getting caught during Micky’s botched attempt at a big score, robbing the local Medical Marijuana Dispensary. Ray heads to the jail to talk with Terry and the older brother says that bail’s a promise that the person won’t flee, but he’s a flight risk so he’ll remain in custody. Ray tells his brother he’s just punishing himself for listening to their father and getting involved in the scheme. He infers that he can likely get a deal for Terry in which he wouldn’t serve time in jail.
He then tells his older brother that he may head to Leavenworth, due to McPherson’s book and if so he wants Terry to take charge of the family. Terry says he doesn’t want the responsibility, but his younger brother tells him that if Terry steps aside, Micky will step in to fill the void. He then tells his brother, when he gets sick of jail to call Lena and she’ll get him out.
Ray gets on the phone with Cookie Brown, who left ten voicemail messages on Donovan’s phone while he slept in the Graybar Hotel, Brown tells him he’s seen the tape of the shooting of Marvin and Rekon and the two have to sit down and talk. Ray tells him he’ll stop by Cookie’s house a bit later.
The two remaining members of the “Over The Hill Gang,” that messed up the robbery of the dispensary, Micky and his son Daryl, finally split open the safe and find there’s just $20 thousand, when they were expecting close to a million. Daryl’s finally had it with his father and says he wants nothing to do with him. But Micky sweet-talks his son, telling him he can have the entire twenty grand. He then tells Daryl that they should head to Palm Springs to talk to Daryl’s stepfather Alan, as he wants to apologize for the trouble they had the last time they got together.
Per usual Micky lied to his son about the reason to visit the man who married the mother of his son. The agent told Donovan when he first arrived in Southern California, that he’d pay Micky half a million dollars for him to go away. Donovan says he wants his money and Allen tells him to get lost, then insults his step-son.
Micky starts talking tougher and Alan tells him to come into the house and he’d write Donovan a check, then in an attempt at misguided machismo, attacks Micky with a tennis-racket. Micky soon gets the better of the matchup and flings the agent through his plate-glass doors and into his swimming pool. Daryl’s mother Claudette hears the commotion and finds Alan sputtering in the pool, telling his wife to call the cops. Micky tells her that if she does that Alan will get arrested as well. She tells Micky to leave and she never wants to see him again.
Ray shows up at Cookie’s house in the midst of a birthday party for Brown’s son. After getting frisked, he’s ushered in to see Brown and we soon realize that Cookie’s indeed seen the tape, as he mentions that Bridget’s on it and asks what she said to the police. Ray told Brown his daughter told the police the truth, Rekon was getting high and she didn’t like his driving, so she asked to get let out a couple of blocks before the incident occurred. Cookie says to Donovan that he’s glad that both of their children will grow up with their fathers alive. Ray tells Cookie he’ll be back later with the million dollars that the Gang Lord gave him.
Back at the office, Ashley’s waiting for him and she’s quite distraught. She says that she thinks he might be following her and suddenly her fiancée Steve Knight walks into the office. Knight starts talking about Ashley’s stalker Bob’s been lurking about and this time he struck Ashley. Ray asks her who actually assaulted her Knight or Bob, when Lena walks into his office and says she needs to talk to him immediately.
They head into her office and Lena shuts the door and tells Ray he should sit down, but Donovan blows her off and just tells her to spit it out. She takes a deep breath before telling Ray that somebody murdered Kate McPherson earlier that day, shot down in her apartment. Donovan gets the wind knocked out of him and has to sit down, then tells Lena to get rid of Ashley and Knight which she does. Ray goes into his safe gives a video to Lena and tells her to bring it to Stalkerrazzi, a sleazy celebrity gossip site, immediately.
Ray drives to Tom Cochrane’s office, barges through the door and starts assaulting the Los Angeles FBI Bureau Chief with a hammer, two agents enter the office immediately with guns drawn. Cochrane tells the agents he’s fine and to allow the two of them some privacy. As soon as they leave, Donovan accuses Cochrane of setting up Kate’s murder and the director replied he wasn’t involved, he’s too busy heading for Washington. Donovan spits out that Cochrane’s not going to Washington and storms from the office. Cochrane yells after him asking if Donovan’s threatening him.
Abby gets a call from her boyfriend LAPD Detective Jim Halloran, asking her to drop by his house. He apologizes for not being able to set-up Cookie, but he tells her he can offer her and her children protection if they’d move in with him. Although the dwelling’s half the size of the house she lives in, she’s overcome with gratitude at the offer.
Daryl and Micky are driving south down the highway when Micky’s cellphone rings and it’s his parole officer Ronald Keith on the other end. Keith was part of the gang for the heist, but bailed and turned them in when he got informed by the facility’s security guard that the safe held very little money. Keith and Donovan swear at each other over the phone, but before Keith hangs up Micky hears the trumpet from a racetrack. He and Daryl turn around to give Keith some payback.
If Cochrane didn’t arrange Kate’s murder, Ray realizes that Ezra sent Avi to Boston to kill her, one of the reasons he and Lena have gotten his voice-mail all day. Donovan walks into Goodman’s office and Ezra, admits immediately that he sent Avi to kill McPherson. He tells Donovan, that he’s lost himself, forgotten who he is and Ezra had to step up for everybody’s good and clean up the mess. Ray then picks up the phone and calls the police, alerting them that a body’s buried in the building’s foundation. The body belonged to the Catholic Priest that raped Bunchy and Ray when they were children and Donovan killed in a fit of anger last season. The adverse publicity that finding the body will cause will the death of Goodman’s dream, a cancer center dedicated to his late wife.
Daryl and Micky show up at the track and see Keith shortly thereafter, chase him down to the men’s room and take turns pummeling the stuffing out of him. Keith, says he can make it up to them, he has a sure thing in the next race with 7-1 odds, they put the twenty grand on that and they can walk away with a nice jackpot. Daryl wants no part of it, but ever the con-man, Micky wants to go down and look at the horses.
Keith’s horse’s number one, but as number seven walks past Micky, he hears the voice of Linda, the woman Sully murdered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time last year. In the season opener, the voice came from a dolphin in the ocean with him in Mexico, telling him he’s not a sailor but a Captain. In the middle of the season, the dolphin on Shorty’s Miami Dolphin’s cap told Micky, that she was wrong he’s just a sailor after all. However when he heard the voice from the horse she said she’s in a better place now, that she forgave him and he’s indeed a Captain. Micky asks Daryl what’s the name of the seven horse and of course it’s Captain. The pair put the wad on the horse and Keith puts all his money on it as well.
Although, I truly expected the opposite Lady Luck rode with the trio and Micky ended up with a million dollars. He heads to Terry’s gym just as Terry’s getting back after having a change of heart of staying in jail. Mickey goes into his office and tells Terry that he won a million bucks and starts to give Terry his share, but Terry glares at him when he tries to short him, because he wasn’t at the track. Terry responded that he was in jail instead then tells Micky to leave the gym and never return.
Ray heads back to Cookie’s with the gym bag carrying the million in cash, the two bodyguards pat Donovan down, but don’t check the bag. Ray enters the office and Cookie’s sitting at his desk and a pistol’s sitting in front of him. Ray asks if Cookie’s going to shoot him and Cookie tells him he’s not sure, he’d like to live without looking over his shoulder all the time. Ray, tells him he can relate and starts taking the money out of the bag and stacking it on the desk, Cookie tells him he trusts him but Ray keeps piling the money on the desk. Ray then asks Brown how he can be sure Bridget’s safe and Cookie responds, he can’t. Ray replies I thought so and grabs the pistol in the gym bag shooting Cookie first in the heart and then between the eyes.
The two bodyguards enter, but Ray gets the drop on both and they give up their weapons. Donovan puts the guns on the desk and tells the two guys there’s a million in cash on the desk, if they split it it’s 500 grand each, or one gets a million. Ray leaves the house and at the ten count, we hear one pistol fire.
Donovan gets a call from Ashley, pleading that he come to her and Steve’s apartment immediately. Steve’s sitting outside on the steps when Ray arrives then follows him up to the apartment. Ashley points to the ground below and we see the corpse of her stalker Bob in a heap on the beach. She tells Ray, that he tried to stop Steve from beating her and Steve killed him by throwing him off the balcony. Steve’s clearly insane and Donovan talks him into lying in the trunk of his car until the police arrive. Ray leaves and tells Ashley to tell the police everything.
Abby, Conor and Bridget are home watching TV, when a news bulletin interrupts the program to announce that Cooke Brown was found shot to death in his home. Abby looks so happy she’s about to burst.
As Tom Cochrane leaves his office to head home from the night he hears moaning coming from his secretary’s computer, she’s watching the now viral tape of the Cochranes and the Volchecks involved in wife-swapping.
Ray enters his house pours a drink and sits in the dark in his living room. Abby’s upstairs in her bed with both kids, she goes down to see her husband, but asks if he’s alright when she sees the expression on his face.
Ray Donovan will return next summer for Season Three on Showtime.
