Abby's pretty stressed out by Mickey's continued presence, but as a passive-aggressive way of getting back at Ray for spending too many nights in LA, it has its advantages. Irritated by Ray's busy schedule, Abby decides to take Mickey and the kids to Malibu, then to the Donovan Fite Club -- a whole day for the entire family (minus Ray) to get closer and closer. Over the course of the afternoon, Mickey gets to dole out excellent sexual advice to young Conor, form a strong funny bond with Bridget, and work his way right into Abby's heart.
And, frankly, show a nuanced portrait of a man who is very interested in rebuilding some kind of life after twenty years along, but then that's the rub: What Ray believes – and what nobody else will -- is that this is all somehow a massive conspiracy to fuck with him. Not that he's wrong, just that there might be more to it: When Sean Walker (Johnathon Schaech), an actor tied to the original murder that sent Mickey away, gets a midnight visit from poor Other Brother Darryl.
Elliott Gould's Ezra Goodman gets to show more charming sides to himself this week in a spell of lucidity, but we're still left wondering what it is, exactly, between him and Ray in the first place: They don't seem to speak the same language, regardless of this rich history they keep talking about. Anyway, in response to these offenses, Ray lets Avi talk him down from shooting the bastard himself to merely sending back a message literally stapled to Darryl's chest.
It's not all bummers this week, however: Action Tommy's in rehab when he receives a blackmail video of himself going down on the charismatically ratchet Chloe, for whom his feelings are a bit stronger than he first let on. Eventually Ray must intervene in the scheme, so he tapes the girl's confession and roughs her up at home... and then, in his Ray Donovan fashion, uses the sex tape to extort enough money out of that horrible Stu Feldman to pay for Chloe's sexual reassignment, without Tommy (or Lee Drexler) being any wiser. And that's nothing compared to the joy that spreads across Ray's face when he confirms the identity of the priest Mickey murdered.
Did you like it? I think I liked it a little more. You could barely see Austin Nichols's face last week, so it was hard to get a line on what was going on with him, but this well-meaning, occasionally cocksucking schlemiel we saw this week seems pretty LA-realistic. Abby's pinched mean affect got to spread out and be beautiful for a lot of the episode, now that she is talking about other things besides real estate and prep school. Things between the brothers are going from "complicated" to "overwhelming," as Mickey supplants Ray's authority role... and best of all, Lena got to leave the office and interact with other actors, which -- considering Katherine Moennig is pretty much entirely famous for generating nuclear chemistry with everyone she comes into contact with -- seems like probably a good idea.
Week: Mickey works his magic on Bunchy and Terry, and I guess retaliates for the attack on Darryl, and maybe strikes a deal with the FBI. Ray involves himself in the urban music demographic of Calabasas, which should go off great. Ezra holds a fundraiser for his dead wife, but seems like he's still pretty obsessed with his whole moronic full-disclosure idea.