I'm not going to say "Fish and Bird" is Ray Donovan's best ever episode (I think Conor's unbelievably stupid subplot ensures that it isn't), but this was an incredibly effective episode of television that took advantage of the solid work this season has done so far regarding character and theme to deliver something more moving than I had expected.
This episode held some remarkable similarities to one of 2016's best episodes of TV thus far, that being The Americans' outstanding "The Magic of David Copperfield V: The Statue of Liberty Disappears". That was an episode that deftly and excruciatingly explored the fatigue and disillusionment of the protagonists, as their job becomes just too much for them. This episode of Ray Donovan (this entire season, really) is interested in exploring something similar. Was this on the level of the aforementioned episode of The Americans? Of course not (very few shows are capable of achieving such a high standard), but this was damn good nonetheless.
I've written in previous reviews of Ray's desire this season to become a better man, and of how difficult that would be for him if he were to remain in his particular line of work. More specifically, this season's premiere tackled this idea. Ray, at the start of this season, had stopped drinking, stopped cheating, and was going to SNAP meetings regularly. But over the course of six episodes, all that has been eroded.
Ray's role has always, over the course of the series, been that of a tool used by the rich and powerful to clean up those things too unpleasant for them to clean up themselves. It doesn't matter whether these people are studio executives or Russian gangsters, they all use Ray because he does the things nobody else wants to do. And Ray has somehow convinced himself into believing that he can stay clean despite this. That he can stop drinking and cheating on his wife, that he can be a good man. Yet how does this episode end? With Ray, blood covering his face and his pristine white shirt, leaving the body of an unnamed sex slave in front of a mortuary.
Ray throughout this episode is in a worse state than we have seen him in quite some time. Some of this is due to Abby's breast cancer, some of it is due to being reminded of the fact that when he's not doing the bidding of gangsters, he's doing the bidding of people like Stew Feldman and Ashley, who is willing to intentionally release a sex tape in the hope of being relevant once more. But curiously, much of Ray's anguish is a result of Mickey's sacrifice, which Ray is surprisingly affected by. The phone call between the two was one of the series' most beautiful moments, not just because of the excellent performances, but for uncovering the love and affection between the two that, after years of animosity, is so deeply buried it is almost nonexistent. Though of course, by killing Belikov at the end of the episode, Ray seems to have sealed Mickey's fate. We're only halfway through this season so Mickey may still get out of this alive, but I'm getting the feeling that he may not be around next year.
Ray's weariness at the events of the last few episodes is incredibly visceral, and is conveyed through a remarkably subtle performance from Liev Schreiber that will likely garner him another Emmy nomination next year. This episode sees a frustrated Ray getting slowly pushed to his edge. Despite the horrible things he does every day, Ray does have a limit. He has spent the past several episodes trying to pay off his debt to the Russians, and Mickey's surrender should have been the end of it all, yet it wasn't. And so when Ray sees the limp body of that innocent girl through the bedroom door, he has had enough. Right there, he makes the decision to kill Belikov, regardless of the consequences.
I mentioned last week that so far this season the writers haven't really bothered trying to develop any of this season's guest stars into fully formed characters, but that changed with last night's episode, which included an attempt to give Sonia some depth. Her having terminal breast cancer is a little bit too convenient a parallel with Abby's arc this season, yet it does make Sonia feel like more of a character. Though given this show's history with its guest characters, I'm doubtful this is going to pay off.
This episode also gave us a powerful scene between Abby and Bunchy, as the latter learned of the former's cancer. It's a well acted and emotional scene, though I feel it would have had more impact if the two characters had interacted more this season, and if Bunchy didn't feel so adrift as a character. Other than that, not much else happened, other than further confirmation that Conor may be the most irritating character on television. This really was a strong episode for the show. I'm still not invested in this season's main story line, but I continue to be impressed by the stellar character work, and at the end of the day, that's what's most important.
