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Ray Donovan – Housewarming Review: Ray Returns With Gritty Action, Even Scares The Kids

Well, after a bit of a break, this week's episode of Ray Donovan features a healthy dose of action and violence, the likes of which we have not seen as much of in the past couple of weeks. Ray is back at it and he means business, taking his threats to the next level as he approaches his father with a gun, even with his children present. Bridget and Conor do not seem to want to listen to anything that Ray tells them and proceed to join in as much trouble as they can find. Marvin stops by again as well, keeping up his history of bad influence on the Donovan children. The housewarming party that gives the episode its title is one thrown by Bunchy, and all of the Donovan family, excluding Ray and Abby, seem to be there, including both Conor and Bridget, which gets them in big trouble with Ray.


In an opening scene that shows Ray being the most violent that he has been in a number of weeks, he shoves a member of the FBI, one that he apparently knows, into the marina and continues to threaten him, while questioning him about the other FBI agent, the one that has been trailing and cooperating with Mickey. He forces a name out of the agent and continues to step on his fingers in a difficult scene to watch, especially right at the beginning of the episode. After this scene, we are taken back to the Donovan household where Bridget and Conor both seem to already know about a party that Bunchy is having at his new house. Ray becomes angry when he finds out that Bunchy has bought himself a house and asks Abby what he would need a house for. I can see where Ray is coming from, since he just does not want Bunchy to blow all of his money right away and is simply trying to look for his brother and his finances. At the same time, Bunchy is an adult, and if he wants to hang around with Mickey and be irresponsible, then that is also his choice.

Ray Donovan

Ray finally finds out the name of the FBI agent that we have been seeing for weeks, and in this episode we also see more scenes with him present. He is confronted, and of course threatened, by Ray but we do not see him encounter Mickey at all throughout the episode. In a couple very odd and funny scenes, we even see him hallucinating things and he's later pulled over by a cop for going too slow. When the cop pulls him over, Agent Miller acts completely clueless, and upon being asked the question about how fast he thought he was going, he replies with "100, no? Was it 200?" It is unclear what caused him to act this way he tells the officer that he had only nonalcoholic drinks before leaving the house when he learns that the officer is concerned he's drunk. The officer then escorts him home and gives Ray a call, revealing that the officer was working with Ray and must have pulled him over like this as a favor. After he returns, Mickey and Avi proceed to go over to his house and threaten him for information on what he has been doing with Mickey, and they find out that Mickey is working with the FBI, startling news that they are forced to deal with somehow. 


As the party draws close, Bunchy and Mickey turn to Abby for help with decorating and bringing some furniture into the place. She comes over and has an interesting talk with Bunchy filled with all sorts of emotion that results in him bursting into tears. Bridget, Conor, and Marvin all show up at Bunchy's party together, which makes him happy, and Mickey even makes a racist joke toward Marvin as if he is their chauffeur and congratulates them on their ride over. Bunchy goes upstairs during his own housewarming party at Mickey's command, in order to have sex with a woman that Mickey has set up for him. After they get up there and he is unable to perform and is completely embarrassed, he freaks out and burns a Red Sox pennant, the only thing that he's brought with him from his old place. This does not burn the house down, but does get smoke everywhere and causes the party to get shut down. Soon after, Ray arrives, and upon finding his kids there, he is furious with Mickey and waves a gun in his father's face, threatening to kill him. Bridget and Conor are so afraid of the way they see their father acting that they refuse to leave with him and in fact go to Terry for comfort. Ray then goes to Ezra who is in the hospital and tells him of the news involving Mickey. He tells him that the only option seems to be to kill him and Ray realizes this as well but tells him that it is not that simple since he is still his father. In an intense relationship such as this one, it is hard to know what to do.

Ray Donovan

Thoughts and Quotes

-- Mickey: "I want to respect Ray's boundary issues. I really do." Yeah, sure you do, Mickey. This family just seems to have too many obstacles coming between them.

-- In a confessional moment with Abby, Bunchy says, "Why didn't I stop it? Maybe I wanted it to happen." He is referring, of course, to his sexual abuse as a kid. He is getting very emotional and clearly not thinking when he says this.

-- Due to the longtime friendship that they have maintained, Ray feels that he needs to be there for Ezra and comforts him when saying, "You're going to be okay, Ezra. I promise." Of course, this is not something that anyone can promise, especially in this type of a situation, but it can often help just to hear it.

-- In his fatherly voice that he feels illustrates power over Ray, Mickey asserts that, "You may have had the balls to put me away, but there is no way that you are going to shoot me." Sometimes I wish Ray would just pull the trigger when his father says things like this to him...although he can be a nice guy some of the time too.

-- Mickey hands over a beer to Conor, not knowing what alcohol has recently done to him, because he feels that Conor should grow up and be a man. He tells him, "You're a Donovan." I don't think Conor is ready for this yet, Mickey. He needs to think about what he is doing and at least be responsible with his grandchildren, if not his children. 

Rating
7.5

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