Come and Knock on My Door Recap: Ray Donovan

In Episode 3 of Season 3, “Come and Knock on my Door” (7/26/2015), Terry’s life isn’t worth a plug nickel in jail after he killed Garth. Doesn’t matter that Garth asked for it. Ray Donovan wants to get Terry released but Terry does not want Ray’s help. When Mickey gets wind of Terry’s predicament, he takes drastic action. Heavy stuff but there was some great comic relief in this episode.

The episode opens with Ray watching his daughter Bridget sleep in her bedroom. She wakes up and is shocked by the condition of his face from the beat-down he got at the end of “Ding.”. Ray just says he’s sorry he didn’t make it home for dinner. Bridget tells him that Abby fed his dinner to that big dog. He chuckles and Bridget says Abby “thinks you’re still punishing her over that cop.” Her next question, “Why didn’t you come?” goes unanswered as Ray see his dead sister, Bridget, standing on the other side of the bed. Bridget follows his gaze but sees nothing. Ray picks up his whiskey bottle, tells his daughter to go back to sleep and leaves while Abby’s dog noisily tries to get out of her bedroom door. Abby listens miserably to the sound of the door opening and closing and Ray’s car taking off.

Ray returns to his apartment and sticks his bruised face in a bowl of ice water. “Three’s Company” is on the tube and Ray has a laugh at Mr. Roper getting a shock from an electrical cord. He turns his head and there’s sister Bridget sitting at the table this time. He raises his glass to her in the toast gesture. At his office, Ray’s trip down TV memory lane continues with an episode of “Bonanza” while Lena packs up. She looks just as confused by his choice of shows as she is by his appearance. Ray tells her that he lost a fight and that he did not accept an offer to work for Andrew Finney. “I spent 25 years being told what to do,” Ray says. “I’m done.”

Bunchy stops by to tell Ray that he needs $20K from his settlement fund to invest in the Luchadora shows. Before Ray can answer, Kevin the prison guard calls to inform him of Terry’s predicament. Ray says he’s coming out. Bunchy says he’s serious and can make a lot of money for the club. “It’s a front, Bunch,” Ray replies, “it’s not supposed to make money.”

Outside Andrew Finney’s Man Friday, Varick Strauss, is waiting with the Finney family attorney, Mr. Goldberg. They want Ray to pay a visit to the one that got away in the fake kidnapping that occurred in The Kalamazoo but Ray says it’s not his problem and he’s already told Finney that he’s not for sale, despite Goldberg’s pregnant advice that it’s best to keep Finney as a friend.

Ginger talks “the girls” into giving Mickey Donovan’s business proposition another listen. Mickey asks them for one day to see if his new vision will work: the girls will sell coke to their johns, keeping half the profits. Daryll will be their driver and bodyguard while he takes care of the online advertising and bookings. The ladies are skeptical but agree to the one-day test. While Mickey kids Daryll about his “delightful dilemma” of driving 7 girls around all day in one car, Ginger drops a sullen Audrey off. Mickey tries to make her laugh with a “why the long face” horse joke. Just then he gets a collect call from jail from Matty Flynn, a jailhouse lawyer.

Before going to school, Bridget tells Abby about Ray’s visit and Abby pretends it’s news to her. Bridget needs a calculus paper with a big D signed. Her teacher says she needs a tutor. Public high school didn’t prepare her for Rossmore’s standard. Abby is more concerned with all the bother it took to get Bridget in that school. Bridget scoffs that the real reason they went to the bother was because of what happened with Marvin Gaye Washington. Conor helps himself to some lunch money from Abby’s purse and splits. Abby turns to her dog for comfort, “the best boy in the whole world.” We’re surprised the dog didn’t do his business on the rug right then. Oh, the symbolism.

Supporting Cast of Come and Knock on My Door

Mickey has beat Ray to the prison, as Ray learns when he comes across little Audrey sitting alone in the car outside. Mickey is told that the place is on lock-down and he has to leave. As Mickey explains how he found out, Ray grabs his hand with the bags of cocaine in it and tells him to stay out of it. Mickey insists that his ability to survive within the prison system all those years makes him the one Ray needs. Ray scorns his help. He walks up and gives the guards his name. Presto, alakazam! He is buzzed in before Mickey’s astonished eyes.

Kevin gives Ray the 411 that the Aryans have most of the guards and the warden under their thumb, not just in that prison either. If Terry had killed a Norteno or a Blood, maybe he could help. Ray and Terry have a short and bittersweet reunion. They laugh over their battered faces and Ray says he will get Terry out. Terry thinks the Aryans will be doing him a favor by taking him out. His body is shutting down, his girlfriend doesn’t answer his letters (Frances, the one he wanted to take to Ireland with his cut from the robbery), and the club’s not his anymore. Ray tells him not to give up but Terry says “I love you, Raymond. But I don’t want your f–king help.”

At the club, Mickey tries to find out the address and phone number of the judge who put Terry away while little Audrey pulls up the name on the computer. Abby responds to his urgent request to meet him at the club and he asks her to babysit Audrey. She balks until he explains that it’s a life or death situation involving Terry.

Meantime Ray has already arrived at Judge Wettick’s home. He makes his pitch for a compassionate release based on Terry’s Parkinson’s and offers the judge $50K now and another $50k once Terry is released. Judge Wettick is unmoved. He pulls out a gun and kicks Ray out.

Ray goes back to his office where Abby has taken Audrey. Abby tries to get Ray to open up about everything that is going on, including why Lena is gone. Ray gives her the short version and she wants to help. Ray sarcastically asks if she can talk the Aryan Nation out of killing Terry. Abby decides that she’s been delusional, sitting at home, waiting for Ray to come back but Ray doesn’t have time to sympathize. He’s on a mission. Audrey gives her a bit of advice, courtesy of her mom, Ginger. “My mom says if you want to make a man run fast, act needy.” LOL.

Daryll has to chauffer a bunch of girls and Ginger can’t keep an eye on things. Luckily, Bunchy shows up right then looking for Mickey. Daryll puts him to work taking topless photos and Ginger sends him off to get breast milk and adult diapers. Hilariously, Bunchy recruits a Mexican woman in the supermarket and when Abby shows up with Audrey in tow, what a sight meets her eye. She tells Bunchy that he should be ashamed. Bunchy says “It’s just part-time.”

While Ray is blackmailing FBI Agent Frank Barnes into putting the screws to Judge Wettick for campaign fraud, Mickey is strong-arming parole officer Ronald Keith. Mickey says he’ll give himself up without involving Keith but he needs the judge’s address. He gets it and the judge isn’t any more cooperative than he was with Ray. Wettick is outside working in his garden this time and threatens Mickey with the shears. Desperate, Mickey begins knocking the old man around, ordering him to make the call that will get Terry released. The judge’s heart starts acting up and Mickey knocks his pills out of his hand.

At the prison, the doctor put some stitches in Terry. An inmate sticks a shiv in the doc when he leaves the cell and violently warns Terry that his life expectancy is very short. Kevin calls Ray with the bad news: he’s been pulled off the detail and the warden is sending Terry back to general population. Ray and Frank Barnes high-tail it to the judge’s house but it is too late despite a CPR attempt by Ray. “Everything you touch turns to sh-t,” Ray tells his father and says he just killed another one of his kids because he has always blamed Mickey for Bridget’s death. Mickey runs after him, pleading. “I’ll tell ’em it was me, Ray. I’ll trade my life for Terry’s” but Ray turns a deaf ear.

When Abby gets home, her disaffected children can’t even be bothered to say hello. She tells Conor to take her big boy out for a walk and puts the leash on the table. Conor opens the door and the big dog lumbers off. After a frantic search, dog bowl in hand, Abby reaches the end of her rope. She gives Bridget some money and the keys and tells her she is leaving for a few days “to figure things out.” Bridget thinks she is kidding. But she’s not. She’s even got her suitcase out in the hall on the ready.

While Ray downs a bottle of booze in a liquor store parking lot, his dead sister silently stares at him from the backseat. A lightbulb goes off in his head when he looks up at a billboard featuring Governor Tom Verona and his “proven leadership.” Ray recalls seeing the governor leave after a visit at Andrew Finney’s mansion. Terry is being returned to the same cell he shared with “Huey Lewis,” who doesn’t want to be left alone with a marked man.

Ray goes to Finney and tells him his story. Now Finney has Ray where he wants him fo’ sho! They go to see the Governor who isn’t too keen on doing the favor until a week after the election. “This is taking far longer than I thought it would,” Finney observes, and the Governor folds. Upon returning to Finney’s, Ray signs the contract and is instructed to show up for work the next day. “I thought you were through with the Finney family,” Paige Finney taunts on his way out.

Daryll asks Bunchy how things went when he returns. Bunchy says “Fine” and Daryll says he was “born to pimp.” A heartsick Mickey returns and can only say “Ain’t that wonderful — working with your brother,” when he sees his boys together. Ginger and the girls come by and are dropping money on the table left and right when Ray calls to tell Mickey: “He’s out.” This was the biggest surprise of the entire episode to us. We never thought Ray would call Mickey.

Ray picks Terry up at the prison in an emotional reunion but Terry isn’t doing the Dance of Joy. He wants to know how much it cost Ray to get him out. “What am I worth on the street,” he says, taking a swig of Ray’s bottle. Ray says it didn’t cost him anything. He forgot to add “yet.”