Ray Donovan recap Season 3, Episode 2 – Go home already Ray!

Ray Donovan Season 3, Episode 2 “Ding” (original air date July 19, 2015): Oh Ray, just go home. As much as his family and his loyal partner Lena look to get inside his twisted head and help, Ray (Liev Schreiber) continues to turn everyone who cares about him away. The episode starts with Ray, alone at Fite Club, releasing his demons on a punching bag.

Mickey (Jon Voight) is looking to turn his condom-infested Melrose Place into a golden opportunity now that Gary is dead. “Tragedy or not, the girls still need to put food on the table,” Mickey reasons. He gathers the girls for a meeting, but his archaic plan that involves him as their pimp — providing supplies and protection when they work the streets — is laughable, as well as his 40% cut. Welcome to 2015 Mickey. “These girls don’t walk the streets and stand on corners, this isn’t 1979,” Ginger (Faruza Balk) informs him. She shows Mickey how things really work today and opens his eyes to the powers of the World Wide Web (that’s how the tricks are coming in these days).

“Finding girls through the Internet, seems weird,” Mickey assesses. Yeah, you’ve got a lot to learn Mick, so Ginger tells him to figure it out. Mick continues to serve as a pseudo father figure to Ginger’s daughter Audrey and agrees to take her to her Shirley Temple audition in Burbank. Ginger’s got more pressing business  — a threesome.

Frustrated with Ray’s lack of communication on the business side, Lena (Katherine Moennig) considers Avi’s (Steven Bauer) pitch to work for him. While Avi who would prefer to make amends with Ray, he has to move on and offers Lena a full partnership opportunity. She needs some time to think about it.

Bridget (Kerris Dorsey) calls Ray to tell him how Abby (Paula Malcomson) is seriously losing it. She rats out her mom for coming drunk to her school and bringing home some slobbering stray dog that’s now living with them. Ray agrees to come home and address Abby.

“You’re scaring the kids,” Ray tells her and admits that he knows about her past behavior.

“What are you going to do, call the cops on me?” Abby counters.

“No, that’s your thing,” Ray rebuts, and pushes her away as she tries to get intimate with him.

In the prison yard, Terry (Eddie Marsan) tries to fly under the radar aligning himself with some of the weaker inmates but that plan backfires when a gang starts pushing him around. Left to defend himself, Terry unleashes his boxing smarts (the inmates have no idea of his Fite Club upbringing) on the guy and Terry walks away the victor. He’s officially screwed now. While Ray’s got one of the prison guards on his payroll to protect Terry, he was unable to predict this one. The guard was able to break up the fight and get Terry looked at by the prison doctor. The doc notices Terry’s Parkinson’s and tells him the disease will progress much faster in prison, even predicting he’ll be in a wheelchair in a year. Terry refuses to be put on a disability list, get a cane or go into isolation. Dead man walking.

Some comic relief comes when Abby walks in on Conor (Devon Bagby) literally screwing his bed while watching porn. She uses the absurdity of their son’s latest antics to call Ray. Did he ever do that, she asks Ray. Nope, that’s a new one, Ray says, and he smiles. Abby invites him to come for a family dinner claiming the kids need him.

The Finney family is back in the picture. This time Paige Finney (Katie Holmes) needs Ray’s service involving a client she has on a professional football team. Paige is impressed with how Ray got her disappointment of a brother, Casey, out of his latest mess, telling him she’s use to headlines like “Casey Finney found drunk” or “Casey Finney arrested in panties.” Paige needs Ray to protect her client Troy, a San Diego quarterback, from Carl (Wole Parks), an enraged Navy SEAL  who has threatened to kill Troy for sleeping with his wife.

Ray heads out to find Carl. Lena’s left to keep an eye on the quarterback. Ray finds Carl at his home burning his wife’s belongings. For what it’s worth I’ve been where you are, Ray tells him, and that no one is offering him a half a million dollars. (OK, Ray you can’t play that card with your past transgressions.) Ray tells Carl over a beer he’s helped himself to that he needs to take the offer. Carl’s not interested in the money, he’s read the book “The Privileged Few” and won’t stand for a wealthy, white man seducing his wife and then in exchange he’s suppose to shut up and agree to some payout. “Take the money,” Ray advises. Ray manages to convince Carl to come with him to sign the papers and start his life over.

Daryll (Pooch Hall) is still feeding into Mickey’s bullshit. The two take Audrey to Burbank but make a few personal stops along the way. Including using Daryll’s $80,000 car as collateral to get cash to buy cocaine. Daryll wants in on Mickey’s “big picture” business plan. Mickey’s plan involves supplying the girls with cocaine so they can upsell it to their Johns. Daryl needs to be the muscle behind the business (he gets 20% of the cash).

The audition is a total bust, Audrey (Shree Crooks) didn’t get the part. Mickey’s fatherly words of advice go something like, “failure is a part of life. When God closes the door, he opens a window.” Audrey soaks it in and says, “Fuck you, Mickey.” Touché.

Ray and Carl meet Paige at a hotel. Paige gives Carl a room key and tells him to go in and make the deal. She then turns to Ray and asks him to follow her so she can show off her Aston Martin. “I started my business with my own money,” Paige tells Ray, on recruiting Troy. “I bought the car with the money I earned.”

Paige suggests they leave now. “Just remember, I didn’t break the law and neither did you,” Paige tells him. Realizing Paige just played him and wasn’t up front about the deal with Carl, Ray runs back into the hotel to help Carl. It’s too late, Carl is running out of the suite. “You fucking liar,” he shouts at Ray while exiting. Inside, Carl’s naked wife is hovered over Troy’s naked, bloodied body. Looks like Carl stabbed his throwing arm. Good news is that Troy’s still alive, bad news is he won’t be playing. But that was all part of Paige’s plan, as her client is the backup quarterback.

Back at Fite Club, Bunchy (Dash Mihok) approaches the Luchadores telling them he ran their credit card (which Abby had got from them earlier) and it’s not working. No pay, no training. That lasted for about five minutes, until Teresa (one of the Luchadores) gives Bunchy a guilt trip. She later complains about mold in the locker room and threatens Bunchy about being a potential real problem. Bunchy appears to be pretty turned on by his new man servant relationship with her, as she barks out orders while he’s on hands and knees cleaning the floors.

Ray tracks down Paige in the woman’s bathroom at the football field. “You looking for a strong arm, bitch? Someone to break bones for you,” Ray asks. “You like a little blood? Does it turn you on?”

“You better watch who you’re talking to,” Paige warns.

I don’t think so. Ray grabs her and throws her against the bathroom stall, his hand clenched around her petite neck as he explains just exactly what needs to happen. That is, he needs a check made out to Carl today.

“Or what?” she challenges.

“I’m going to put you in the trunk of that Aston Martin and drive it off a fucking cliff.” Message received.

At prison, Terry’s being forced to a rematch. The yard calls Terry “The Ding” and he’s ready to fight. It’s a bloodbath. Terry has the upper hand, but someone slips his opponent a knife and Terry’s stabbed in the side and lower neck. Terry manages to grab a weight, slam it against the guy and then proceeds to brutally beat the man – each punch he unleashes he asks, “Whose the ding mother fucker?”

Ray gets the check from Mr. Finney (Ian McShane). He also gets a contract. Finney wants to buy Ray and his company so they can work for him. “I’m not for sale,” Ray tells him and he throws the contract back at him.

On the ride home from Finney’s Ray tells Lena to take the job with Avi, as she doesn’t want to be his partner right now. “What is it with you? Why can’t you ever just ask for my help?” Lena asks him. He doesn’t answer.

“You’re right, I don’t want to be your partner,” Lena says.

“Fair enough,” Ray says.

Terry’s put into isolation, but his fate is pretty much sealed in blood and this time it looks like there’s not much Ray is going to be able to do about it.

Ray calls Bridget, “Something came up.” He’s not making dinner. Abby grabs his dinner plate, loads it with food and serves it up to her new mate — the stray dog. She sits on the floor with the dog keeping him company as she watches him eat. Freaking out the kids even more.

The episode concludes with Ray taking the check to Carl. Carl doesn’t want the check and demonstrates so with a hard blow to Ray’s face. “Don’t be fucking stupid, take the check,” Ray extends it again. BAM! Another shot to the mouth. He extends the check again. BAM! He’s emotionless and void of feeling.