What drives the aging LA hatchet man? The secret sauce, though, has always been his devotion to Ezra Goodman, his west coast benefactor and erstwhile substitute father. It was a literal secret— never much dramatized on the show and abruptly ended last week when Ezra succumbed to cancer. You can opt out anytime. Will Ray settle in beneath the wing of a new fatherly taskmaster?
Will Mickey find a sense of purpose and stability in the world of prostitution? Can Abby put Ray behind her and start anew with a stray dog the size of a mechanical bull? Paige Finney, high-powered sports agent and even higher-powered prestige television casting coup, summons Ray to the sunny climes of San Diego for some football-related bagman work. Undaunted, he embarks on a scheme to borrow ten thousand dollars to purchase cocaine for his his? Teresa complains that the locker room is dirty and draws Bunchy into a very strange performance of psychosexual domination, forcing him to clean the floor with a toothbrush as she castigates him.
Later, as Teresa continues to rehearse, Bunchy retires to the office and masturbates. We finally check in on Terry, whose life in prison is almost as grim as his life on the outside. When a jail yard scuffle reveals his pugilistic skills, Terry becomes the target of a gang of huge trapezoidal white supremacists.
Ray Donovan is largely about men and women struggling against the ties that bind. As the wheels of season three begin to spin, the show is most satisfying when characters show some caution about lashing themselves to new problems.
Similarly, Terry has become the most relatable character on the show simply by choosing to turn his back on the chaos and take his lumps. Ray Donovan has shown that it can deftly pivot from the grave to the glib, and quite frankly, neither of these modes, taken separately, would be worth pursuing.
