Recap Ray Donovan Season 3 Episode 4: Family first doesn’t always work out

Ray Donovan recap

Ray Donovan Season 3, Episode 4 “Breakfast of Champions” (original air date Aug. 2, 2015): Lots of crazy cereal talk in this episode. Made me pick up a box of Captain Crunch (so why does that cereal rip out the top of your mouth, anyways?). OK, enough of that, here’s the recap Ray Donovan Episode 4. The episode begins with Abby returning to Boston to visit her Southie family. She surprises her brother Dave (Aaron Hendry) at their family bar. “You look like a fucking teenager,” he tells her. “I feel like an old woman.” Abby (Paula Malcomson) takes no time to make herself at home at her family’s bar, serving up shots and announcing “this rounds on me.”

recap Ray Donovan Episode 4Ray (Liev Schreiber) is at Fite Club helping Terry (Eddie Marsan) reacquaint himself to freedom. They share coffee and a pop-tart. Terry looks like shit. “How did you get me out?” Terry asks. “I’m worried Ray. If I owe you something I need to know what it is.” Ray tells him he doesn’t owe him a thing. Bunchy (Dash Mihok) and Mickey (Jon Voight) join them, anxious to welcome Terry home. The Donovan reunion is cut short, however, when Ray gets a call from Varick Strauss (Jason Butler Harner), a.k.a. Finney’s goon, telling him his next job. Ray’s got to chase down Casey Finney (Guy Burnet) as his attendance is needed for a 10am meeting and he’s no where to be found. Once Ray leaves Mickey tries to take credit for Terry’s release claiming he had to pull off a few tricks.

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Despite Bridget (Kerris Dorsey) and Conor (Devon Bagby) being parentless, Bridget isn’t about to babysit her little brother. Instead of driving him to school when he misses the bus, she tells him to stay home and make love to his bed. Ouch! She knows too. Conor, instead, takes the car to school (oh yeah, he doesn’t have a license, as he’s only a freshman) and picks up his friend for their own Ferris Bueller. Some older classmates catch wind of a parentless house and a naïve Conor gives out his address. Conor’s surprisingly smart enough to call Ray to tell him he’s sick and that Abby left. Ray’s stunned to hear that news, He calls Abby and tells her to get her ass home but she calls him a hypocrite and tells him the same. Looks like no one is going to own the family.

At school, Bridget makes an attempt to bring up that D asking her teacher if she could do some extra credit. Dismissive to the idea, he tells her that if she wants to bring up her grade she needs to start paying attention in class and turn in her homework. When Bridget calls him an asshole to her classmate, her classmate tells her she should really be nice to him. Apparently his wife died last year in a car accident, she was decapitated and he was driving. Looks like Bridget might just care. Later she runs into him at a coffee shop and tries to make light conversation. When he gives her the brush off, she heaves out her woes from her parents not getting along to her boyfriend being murdered, but then stops and says she shouldn’t have said all that.

Recap Season 3 Ray Donovan Episode 4Apparently Paige is looking to unload a company and Varick is applying some pressure for Andrew Finney to get it down, but daddy Finney is a bit hesitant to sell another American institution to a foreign company.

Ray DonovanSpending the night on her brother’s couch, Abby awakes to an unfriendly — her sister Margaret (Karina Logue), who says she heard from Dave that Abby’s leaving Ray. “I got drunk last night so I probably said a lot of things,” Abby says, brusheing off the thought, and asks how her daughter Lauren is instead. Guess she’s flunking out of college and dating some asshole, Margaret asks her if it sounds familiar. Rough start to their reunion. Abby’s going to stick around to see her.

Ray finds Casey sprawled out on his outdoor patio. Casey’s surprised to see Ray; he hoped he’d never seem him again. The feeling is mutual. It turns out the company in question that Paige was looking to sell is actually Casey’s movie studio, Imperial Pictures. Casey’s not on board with the sale, nor with going with Ray. “Get in the fucking shower,” Ray orders. The two make a pit stop at a small store where Casey asks Ray what type of cereal his kids eat. What? Like Ray would ever know. He tells him he has no clue. “That’s sad,” Casey says. “Breakfast use to be a family meal. When I was growing up it was all about Trix the Rabbit.” Finney’s kid is seriously out there, and then he starts rearranging cereal boxes on the store’s shelves while professing to Ray the hierarchy and artwork involved in the marketing of cereal. Varick calls. Meeting is canceled. Ray’s still going to deliver the freak to the studio. At the studio lot Ray meets up with Varick. Here we learn Varick’s real role in the Finney Organization, as he serves as chief of staff, a job he obtained for being married to Paige. Wait, what? Married to Paige? Yep, Mr. Serious is attached to the domineering Paige Finney (Katie Holmes). Never saw that one coming.

Ray donovanAbby spends some time at the bar reacquainting herself with her niece Lauren (Lulu Brud). Abby hasn’t seen her father in years, Lauren wants to know why. Abby picked Ray over her family and left Boston and never looked back. She helps Lauren dump her sleazebag boyfriend who gave her gonorrhea. Her sister Margaret chastises her for getting Lauren drunk, telling her that she never wants Lauren to be reliant on a man. Her words hit home and Abby breaks down. Margaret invites Abby to stay for a few days thinking it would be good for both of them. “He’s a dangerous guy … you don’t need to stay with him,” Margaret advises Abby.

Terry won’t let up on Ray, as they wait for his appointment at the doctor. He wants to know how he got him out of prison. Ray can see he’s not going to let it go and tells him that he’s on Andrew Finney’s payroll now, although he has no idea what that’s going to mean. “It’s not the end of the world,” Ray says. “It’s just another rich guy I’m on call for.”

“So he made you his servant,” Terry assesses. “I heard you ain’t living at home. That’s no good for you Raymond. You’re the only one of us with a chance for figuring this shit out. The shit Terry refers to is actually having a family.
“Leaving something behind that’s worth something,” Terry explains. “You’re the only one fucking strong enough.”

Frances (Brooke Smith) is working at the clinic. She’s lays into Terry on ruining their chance for happiness. “Why didn’t you tell me you were going to do something so stupid. … We had something. I trusted you,” she tells him.
“I know,” Terry says, realizing he screwed up the best thing he ever had.
“I left my husband. You were suppose to leave your family, not get back involved in all the things that they do. You choose your family over me, Terry.”
The doctor interrupts them and instead of getting his treatment, Terry leaves.

Ray DonovanRay’s next job for the Finney’s is helping Paige with Mr. Lu (he’s the Asian interested in buying the studio). Apparently Lu is a huge fan of the game show Spin Cycle, which is produced by their studio. The humor isn’t lost on this bit, as the game show is a Wheel of Fortune of sorts with Cheryl Ladd playing the Vanna-like role as Tina Harvey, and Jack Wagner as the Pat Sajak host who is named Sandy.  Looks like Tina’s tired of spinning the wheel. She’s not just eye candy and actually has a brain (she went to Vanderbilt) and wants a speaking role. Sandy, however, has the IQ of a guinea pig. Tina tells Ray she’s sick of being a prop, she wants to talk. On his way to talk to Paige about Tina’s demands, Ray runs into his former client — movie star Tommy Wheeler (Austin Nichols) who’s shocked to hear Ray’s working for the Finneys. Looks like Casey won’t let Tommy come out of the closet and marry his transgender partner Chloe because it could affect the studio’s profit margins. “I will walk away from this whole business,” Tommy tells Ray. “I have to live my life. I love Chloe.” Ray agrees to talk to the cereal-obsessed Casey. He reminds Casey how they first met and maybe it wouldn’t be the worst idea to let Tommy be true to himself. But Ray’s still got to work with Paige and Sandy on getting Tina to host the show. Ray gives Sandy some bitch slaps when he lips off about Tina, it’s hilarious (Holmes almost looks like she’s smirking for real), but Ray’s slaps prove to be effective as the two do a role reversal and Tina’s great. While watching the episode Paige gets a crippling migraine and Varick asks Ray to take her to lie down. That’s typically not a good idea, but Ray doesn’t touch her. Resting Paige tells Ray that her father hired him because he can’t face the things that he’s done.

Back at the Donovan residence, Conor’s little get together doesn’t go to well. The upper classmen used him for his empty house and when he asks them to leave he gets a severe gut bunch and gets kicked out of one of his bedrooms. Conor literally goes bat-shit crazy on the dude that punched him, beating him with a bat. As he’s unleashing his Donovan side on the kid, Bridget walks in and stops him. The kids split. So much for playing hookey.

At Fite Club Mickey’s got his gals gathered and they are celebrating Terry’s release from prison. Terry is numb to emotion, he’s given up. Screw the champagne, he wants whiskey. Mickey proudly tells Terry he can now take care of them with his prostitution/cocaine business. Terry’s not interested. Mickey sends one of his girls, Jade, after him but that backfires when she brings up Francis. Terry comes after Mickey, but Daryl breaks up the party. Mickey tells Terry he knows he has done a terrible thing to him, and promises him it’s going to get better. Terry doesn’t buy it, “For me, it’s going to get a lot worse. You going to stick around for that?” But Mick is for real. He tells Terry he started the business for “you kids” [yeah, right] as he wanted to leave a legacy, and when the shakes get real bad “I promise not to go anywhere.”

Ray DonovanThe Finney clan finally gets together for that meeting. Andrew Finney (Ian McShane) informs them that they aren’t selling the movie studio. Casey’s pleased. Paige is irate. She needs to talk to her father alone. After their chat Finney calls Ray into his office and tells him “A good family business is not the same thing as a good family.” He agreed to Paige’s plan that calls for selling the studio so they can use the profits to bring an NFL team to Los Angeles and build the grandest stadium ever. Finney tells Ray that Paige no longer sees him as her father but more so someone who is getting in the way of her professional ascension. Finney reminds Ray that he works only for him.

The episode ends with Ray returning home to a barrage of questions from Bridget, including if he’s going to get a divorce. He doesn’t know. She knows she doesn’t need a babysitter, or him, and goes to her room. After cleaning up the dishes, Ray turns to a box of Frosted Flakes on the counter and pours himself a bowl. His phone rings. It’s Paige, she wants to meet face to face and explain a few things. He can’t. “My father is going to tell you lies about me and he’s going to ask you to do cruel things to me. Do you care about that?”

“I work for your father, I don’t work for you.”

And then, out of nowhere, Dog scratches at the backdoor. Abby’s Dogo Argentino returns. Welcome home Dog!

1 Comment

  1. Terry’s situation won’t be helped with the expected return of the guy snooping around about the priest’s body under Ezra’s hospital, but that’s true of all the Donovans. It’s just that Terry looks like he’s hanging by a thread. What’s gonna make him want to stick around and not jump off a building? And Abby? Yeah, I’ll bet we get to meet her father, before her Southie visit if over. http://www.tvruckus.com/2015/08/03/ray-donovan-breakfast-of-champions-recap-silly-rabbit-trix-are-for-kids/

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