The Octopus Recap – Ray Donovan

Bunchy got married in “The Octopus,” the 9th episode of Ray Donovan, Season 3 (9-6-2015), but it was not without both tense and awkward moments. Mickey walked into the lion’s den and there was a surprise return.

Mickey thought he could get Det. Sheila Muncie off his back by supplying info on a numbers runner named “Toozik,” but Muncie said it’s a common Armenian nickname like “buster” or “dude.” Enter Alan Freedman, U.S. Attorney’s Office and officers from the Metro Task Force on human trafficking. They want Mick to help get the goods on the Minassians, who have partnered with the Russians to bring girls into the country and force them into prostitution. Mickey explains that he is not exactly tight with the Minassians these days but Freedman says they have enough to lock him up for at least 10 years. He has no choice but to agree to be able to get out of there, but he has no intentions of cooperating in getting himself killed.

Abby hosts an engagement dinner party for Bunchy and Teresa. Ray still doesn’t trust Teresa. Abby thinks Teresa is “a badass” and that she loves Bunchy. Ray delivers a horribly awkward toast, referring to the short engagement while he has Lena rifling through the guests’ belongings in another room, taking pictures. Avi is guarding the door. Later, Abby cuddles up to Ray. They begin to make love when suddenly, there is banging and screaming coming from Terry’s room. They rush to find Terry hallucinating. He comes out of it to discover that he wet himself and the bed and wants them to leave, but Abby is able to calm him down.

The inability to contact Varick Strauss has created a snafu in the progress of the NFL deal. He was a minority stakeholder. A woman named Iris assigns an investigator whose cubicle smells like Lubriderm to find out where Strauss is. Why, it’s Ed Cochran, former head of the FBI, whose Swinger Scrabble nights were exposed by Ray. Ed is obviously keeping a low profile in this job and saying his daily “affirmations” to a mirror that even though he is flawed, he is beautiful and has a healthy attitude towards sex. Yeah, right. Later, he finds out about Ray’s 3 percent stake in the file Iris gave him.

Lena tells Ray that she found nothing but small-time stuff on Teresa’s family and nothing at all on Teresa. She chides Ray for doing this background checking but Ray is still suspicious and orders her to keep on it. Ray’s accountant, Harriet, arrives and suggests that giving “short-bus” Bunchy his trust account is a foolish move. “If I had known you were going to throw this money away I would have embezzled it from you,” she says and thinks they should treat the wedding as an experiment and revisit the topic in several months or years.

Ginger and Audrey go to The Octopus Motel to bring Mickey some money. Mickey gives little Audrey a notepad as a souvenir to remember him by until he comes back from Mexico. That little notepad ended up being an important part of the puzzle for Ray.

Ray visits Bunchy at Mickey’s place for a pre-wedding lecture and Bunchy realizes he ran a background check on Teresa and her family. He angrily says: “It’s not about her. It’s about you. You can’t stand that I might make a bleeping decision by myself.” The police show up looking for Mickey. Muncie arrests Bunchy for racketeering and prostitution. Ray tries to intervene but is told to shut up or they’ll take him in to. Later, he goes to see Muncie and makes a deal to bring in Mickey if she’ll let Bunchy go. She doesn’t quite get the dynamics of that but agrees. Ray doesn’t quite get the dynamics of why Bunchy would go to work for Mick either but Bunchy says it’s Ray’s fault because he needed money and Ray refused to give him his money.

Ray goes back to Mickey’s where Ginger is taking what she wants. Ray doesn’t care. He just wants to know where Mickey is. Ginger claims to know nothing until Ray lays five Jacksons on her. She says Mickey took $10K and left that morning. She admits she knows Bunchy a little and knows Daryll a lot better. Ray’s next move is to get a hold of Daryll who is en route to the wedding with Michelle.

Daryll is falling in love with Michelle and wants her to give up the hooker life, but she refuses. Ray calls Daryll and tells him to meet him at the church. Ray gets there first and Teresa thinks Bunchy is with him. He doesn’t tell her that Bunchy is locked up. Ray says he won’t make it for the pictures but everything will be fine. When Daryll gets there, Ray learns about the Minassian involvement but Darryl really does not know where Mickey is.

When Ray steps outside, he sees the big Octopus sign on the motel across the street and makes that connection to Audrey’s souvenir. The motel clerk has no one fitting Mickey’s description to her knowledge but when Ray steps out of the office, he notices the blinds being suddenly shut in the very room he happens to be looking at. He kicks the door in where Mickey is sitting in a chair with a loaded gun, dressed to attend Bunchy’s wedding. Ray tells him that Muncie has Bunchy. Mickey explains why he can’t let Ray take him in: “I go in, what they want me to do, I’m bleeping dead.” He gathers his stuff and orders Ray to get out of his way. Ray tells him to go ahead, like he always does– “make a run for it.” Mickey folds.

On the way to the church, Bunchy thanks Ray for getting him out and admits that he knows working for Mickey is dangerous and he knows Teresa could take his money or he could lose it. “Give it to me or don’t,” he tells Ray, “but you’re not going to tell me what to do anymore.”

Throughout the episode, we’ve seen a different side to Teresa than up till now. She is suddenly very loving and caring, the tough girl facade set aside. She accepts Bunchy’s apology for being late and laughs at his socks. She brought an extra pair because she knew he’d forget. She kisses him and tells him to get his head on straight. Couldn’t tell if Ray was impressed.

Mickey goes in wired to see Mrs. Minassian with a satchel of cash, impressing the old battleaxe who didn’t think he had the nerve to show his face. She is suspicious when he proposes buying girls off them but accepts his explanation that her family members have loose lips. A guy named Ivan turns around and hands Mickey a bunch of polaroids of young girls with prices under them in the $7K range. All this is captured by the surveillance van.

Bunchy and Teresa take communion while the priest intones: “Whoever eats of the bread and drinks of the cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord…,” which is a passage from Corinthians 11. Bunchy looks back while Terry tells Ray they can’t take communion. “It’s a bleeping cracker,” Ray says and they all go up and commit a sacrilege. Even Daryll, who we’re not sure is even Catholic. And if it does turn out that Ray’s suspicions about Teresa are true, she also partook in an unworthy manner. Just pointing it out because we’ve never heard that particular passage read at a communion service so we figure they put it in there for a big unworthy reveal later.

A reception follows at the Fite Cub where Ray offers an apology for his suspicions about Teresa, and says he realizes how much Teresa cares for him. Ray says it feels right looking at the two of them together and he knows they are going to protect each other. Later Ray gives Bunchy his settlement check.

Ray finds Mickey in the bathroom. He is still convinced that he is not coming through this situation alive and asks Ray to help him. Ray responds with “Go say congratulations to your son.” Mickey does and Bunchy blows him off. Ray seemed very happy to watch Abby and Terry dancing and laughing. Outside, Mickey offers to help clean up but Ray blows him off and watches him walk away. Ray calls Lena and tells her to look into the Minassians.

A fun scene: When Abby and Terry went out to get the booze for the reception, she sent him over to pick up a couple of cases that we thought he was going to drop. But an old woman came buy and noticed how wobbly Terry was. She thought he was drunk and said, “I hope you’re not driving.” Abby attacked: “He got Parkinson’s you bleeping c$*!.” Terry was happy to have a “Southie b*tch” on his side and sang K.C. and the Sunshine Band’s “That’s the way, uh huh, uh huh, I like it,” while he did a little dance in the liquor store aisle.

A not fun scene: Greg Donellen took Bridget bowling, not exactly the way to put the kabosh on her crush on him. He told her to stop when she began rubbing his leg. He just doesn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea. All he wants is to take oxy and go bowling with her. “So we’re just drug buddies then,” Bridget observes. “I guess,” Donellen replies. She snatches the prescription bottle and runs off to the ladies’ room. When she comes out, Abby calls and Donellen tells her not to answer it but she does. She leaves her mother on hold while she demands that Donellen admit he is attracted to her. He does and she tells Abby to pick her up at school. In the car, Conor, Abby and Terry all notice that she is high as a kite. Yes, Conor finally made an appearance after inexplicably disappearing for 3 episodes. About all he said in the whole episode was “are you bleeping high? when Bridget got in the car.