Ray Donovan - Yo Soy Capitan & Uber Bay - Review: "We're Going Back To The Start"

Note: Please be aware that English is not my first language.

Hey guys, I'm Adil, a new member of the SpoilerTV team and I will be reviewing Ray Donovan's second season. I'm really looking forward for you to read my reviews so don't hesitate to share your opinion and feel free to ask anything in the comments section.

"Yo Soy Capitan" and "Uber Bay" premiered respectively on Sunday, July 13 and 20 at 9:00PM on Showtime.



The first season ended on a very satisfactory note as all the storylines had an accurate and proper conclusion towards the construction of the characters throughout the season. On one hand, the storyline involving the priest who raped Bunchy when he was younger ended by his murder allowing the characters to move on from this part of their lives. And on the other hand, the main story of the end of the season concluded with Sully Sullivan’s death thanks to the alliance between Ray, Mickey (Ray’s father) and Frank, the FBI agent. FBI most wanted criminal ended up shot in the head by Mickey which led us to Ray’s father departure from L.A. to new horizons and Ray new beginning for him and his family. And the last sequence was very beautiful in this sense depicting the family reunited again.

They could have ended the show with “Same Exactly” as it was a perfect ending. They didn’t even give us a warm-up for next season with a little tiny cliffhanger. Nothing. It was therefore legitimate to ask ourselves: “what can we expect from this new season?”

And the answer to this question is very difficult after watching the first episodes. Especially after the first episode. “Yo Soy Capitan” written by Ann Biderman (Southland) was a very particular episode. The season kicks off two weeks after the first season finale of the show. Sully Sullivan’s murder is all over the news. But Ed Cochran, the head of the Los Angeles FBI doesn’t believe that Frank, the FBI agent, shot Sully and Ed wants to know why Ray and Mickey were on the docks the night of his death. Ray confesses everything in front of Cochran admitting that Mickey was the one who shot Sully. Cochran asks him to bring Mickey down to the bureau but Ray’s Father left L.A. for Mexico with Daryll.

Otherwise, the show goes smoothly and slowly. At first sight, it seems that we are facing a different show as the first season hasn’t hesitated to shock the viewer in a very fast pace. Now, they are taking their time. Abby goes to therapy with Ray after he revealed that he was also raped by the priest. Bunchy is trying to get a new job at a bicycle shop and move on with his past demons. Terry is overwhelmed by his break-up with Frances (interpreted by the brilliant Brooke Smith) and Conor has to face some anger issues as he pushed one of his classmates down the stairs at school. We might think that the show has turned a little into a “family drama” but the end of the episode is clearly reminding us that it’s not quite true: Ray is walking into a bar with a stick to get his father back to L.A., demonstrating Liev Schreiber’s charisma on screen.

“Uber Bay” also written by Ann Biderman is following the new direction of the show. And frankly, this new direction isn’t really a bad idea as Ray Donovan is before everything else, focused on the Donovan family. So trying to mix the family drama with what the show accustomed us is quite clever and might lead us to surprising things.

In this episode, Mickey is returning to L.A. with Ray and they go immediately to Cochran who puts Mickey on parole and is asking Ray to keep an eye on Mickey. Thus, Ray bribed a parole officer to take care of Mickey’s case, giving him a job and a house so Ray can be sure to oversee everything Mickey does. We understand that Ray is capable of anything to keep his father straight and keep the both of them out of jail.
After Cochran meeting with Mickey and Ray, he holds a press conference making the FBI take the credits for finding Sullivan and killing him.
On the other hand, Abby and Ray face some problems as Ray isn’t ready yet to open to her and talk about his rape and Abby feels that a gap is growing between them, especially in the way they are dealing with Connor’s behavior at school.

But the most interesting part of the episode is probably the one with the new character, Kate. She’s a reporter from Boston and she doesn’t believe FBI story about the Sully Sullivan case after Cochran press conference. She starts investigating Sully’s death and decides to come to Los Angeles to dig deeper and find what’s the FBI is hiding. This storyline certainly needs to be exploited in the next episodes.

Verdict: 6/10 for "Yo Soy Capitan" and 6,5/10 for "Uber Bay". To put it in a nutshell, the first two episodes of the season were very interesting, shaking up things a little bit in the familial cocoon. But what I really enjoyed was the characters deepening, going through what they really feel towards the different events of their lives.
The appearance of a new character digging through the Donovan’s family is also a good way to shake things up a little bit in this calm introduction to the season.

It's your turn now ! So what did you guys think of the first two episodes of the second season of Ray Donovan? Did you enjoy it as I did? Hit the comments below and let us know what you thought about them.

About the Author - Adil Daoumer

Adil Daoumer is an almost 18y/o Moroccan student living in Paris, France, studying law and economy. He spends the majority of his life watching TV shows, reading books and listening to music. He has a lot of favorite TV shows such as Breaking Bad, LOST, Six Feet Under, Friday Night Lights, Shameless, Fringe, Hannibal, Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, Revenge and more recently, Fargo and The Leftovers. He also enjoys having a good laugh in front of Community, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Happy Endings. This season on SpoilerTV, Adil will review Ray Donovan and Shameless.
Don't hesitate to contact him on one of these social media sites.

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