Ding Recap: Ray Donovan

“Ding” was the title of the second episode of “Ray Donovan” Season 3. Ray has a prison guard looking after Terry Donovan in jail and he’s not doing too good a job, but it’s not as if Terry is cooperating in that endeavor. Bunchy is still doing a lousy job taking care of the gym which makes you wonder why Ray doesn’t have someone looking after this emotionally crippled brother, too. Bunchy is holding SNAP meetings at the gym and one of the attendees was Father Romero. He bought a 2-month gym membership under the pretext of getting back in shape, probably way more time than he needs to find out what he wants to know from Bunchy.

Mickey is wheeling and dealing again and, this time, it will be probably be Daryll who ends up in jail over his hare-brained schemes, or at least lose his $70K ride.

As for Ray, he accepts a job from Paige Finney that involves stopping Carl Lafell from shooting Troy Landrieu, a philandering quarterback who took up with Carl’s wife. Despite a half million dollar offer to back off, Carl is not down with “The Privileged Few” and their methods of violating the dignity of the little man. Ray tries to establish rapport with Carl by divulging that his wife stepped out on him and no one offered him $500K. He never did tell Carl that the man wasn’t one of the privileged few though.

Ray talks Carl into accompanying him to a meeting that Paige has set up where he will supposedly sign a few nondisclosure papers and pick up a check. When they arrive, Carl is handed a key to a room and Paige tells Ray not to go with him. So this didn’t set off any warning bells, eh? Since when do you need a key to get into a room where a meeting has been prearranged? Well, Troy and Carl’s wife are up in that room in flagrante delicto, and Troy ends up with a broken arm. When Ray gets a bad vibe from Paige he runs up to the room. Carl comes out, calls Ray an f–king liar and dashes off. Ray corners Paige and demands a $500K check for Carl that she better get from her father, Andrew Finney. She does get it and the pater familias isn’t the least disturbed by his daughter’s methods. In fact, he seems proud that she hedged her bets by representing Troy’s replacement. Then Finney whips out a contract that will entitle him to own Ray and his company “lock, stock and barrel.” Ray throws it back at him with a matter-of-fact “I’m not for sale.” Undeterred, Finney says they are still negotiating.

Ray takes the check back to Carl Lafell who is still burning his wife’s belongings. He refuses to take the check and punches Ray in the face. Ray refuses to fight back and Carl takes a couple more shots at him. Somebody’s earning that money, right?

Mickey Donovan is all set to take over Gary’s stable but he’s stuck in a time warp and doesn’t even know that the girls work from the internet these days. Ginger has a high-paying date that conflicts with her daughter Audrey’s audition for a role as Shirley Temple at Disney Studios. The wig kind of made her look more like Little Orphan Annie. Mickey and Daryll agree to get Audrey to her audition, but first Mickey has to stop off to do some business with Vartan where they pick up a $10K loan and have to give them back $15K in a month. They are holding the title to Daryll’s $70K vehicle as collateral to boot.

Stopping off for a bite to eat, Daryll becomes annoyed with Audrey’s patter about how she is going to be famous, get millions and how he is just some car person. He tells her there are probably 2,000 girls going to the same audition all thinking they will get the role and be famous. What they all have in common, Daryll says, is “ain’t none of y’all gonna play Shirley Temple.” Audrey starts crying and Daryll tries to back pedal but Mickey interrupts to spend $5K of the loan to buy cocaine.

At the audition, Mickey tries to explain his business plans to Daryll within earshot of another Shirley Temple hopeful and her horrified mother. The whores will sell the cocaine. Daryll realizes that Mickey had something to do with Gary’s early demise but Mickey says that technically, the water killed Gary. Audrey takes her rejection hard and drops an f-bomb on Mickey despite his efforts to get her a second chance and console her. Daryll agrees to be Mickey’s muscle in the new business venture but he wants a bigger cut than 20%. “Young man, I will tell you what my father told me,” Mickey says, “F–k you, 20% is all you get.”

At the prison, Terry gets picked on by Garth, a member of a gang, who thinks he is a weakling because of his Parkinson’s Disease. Garth gets his ass kicked though when Terry’s boxing skills kick in. The prison doctor checks Terry over and advises him that his condition will worsen in prison and he will be in a wheelchair within a year or so. He offers to put Terry on the disability list and get him a cane. Terry refuses. But the conflict is far from over. In fact, it’s on like Donkey Kong. Terry is goaded into a rematch with Garth. Once again, Garth is no match for Terry hand-to-hand so someone slips him a shiv and he stabs Terry in the side and neck. Terry grabs a weight and beats Garth’s face repeatedly with it. Blood is just flying all over as each blow lands with a “Who’s the ding, motherf–ker?” Terry is put in isolation in chains.

Other storylines:

• Avi offered Lena a job as his partner. Ray told her to take it.
• Bridget wanted Ray to come to dinner but he couldn’t make it so Abby fed his dinner (lamb, mushy peas and roasted potatoes) to that big dog she almost hit with her car when she was driving under the influence.

More on this episode and its cast in Supporting Cast of Ding

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