Breakfast of Champions Recap: Ray Donovan

Isn’t Wheaties the Breakfast of Champions? Yes but several other cereal brands were an ongoing thing in the fourth episode of Season 3 of Ray Donovan as Casey Finney ran around making plans to have the Trix Rabbit play an international spy in a film which would also have roles for Captain Crunch and Tony the Tiger. Well, we already knew that Casey is a nutcase but we didn’t know that Varick Strauss is Paige Finney’s husband. We really liked the way that came to light. Ray Donovan asked Strauss exactly what he was and he said the Chief of Staff for the Finney family. Ray asked him how he got that position. “I married his daughter,” Strauss deadpanned. LOL! You can do that too, Ray. Just divorce Abby and get Paige to divorce Strauss.

After leaving her kids to their own devices, Abby hopped a flight to Boston and dropped in on her own family at their bar. There she ran into Gus O’Dea, a fine man who ended up in a wheelchair after a motorcycle crash. Abby’s brother, Dave Kelly, is running the bar, her father is in assisted living and there’s tension with her sister, Margaret. Abby’s niece, Lauren, shares a family trait– poor taste in men. Ray has found out from Conor that Abby flew the coop and calls her up. “Get your ass home, Abby,” he orders. “You get your ass home, you f–king hypocrite,” she retorts and hangs up.

Terry continued to hound Ray about the cost of his release from prison. Ray finally admits that he agreed to work for the Finney family in return for Andrew Finney’s ability to pull powerful strings. Ray is not entirely sure about what his duties are in his new position. Terry thinks that makes him Finney’s servant and he is also not happy that Ray and Abby are living apart. Terry says that Ray is the only Donovan strong enough to really make something of his life.

At the gym, Mickey, Darryl and Bunchy put together a welcome home party, complete with coke and hookers and offer Terry champagne when he arrives. Terry just wants the whiskey. Mickey tries to set Terry up with a hooker named Jade but that doesn’t work out when she compares her sexual prowess to Frances. Mickey apologizes sincerely for letting Terry take the heat all alone for the robbery and promises to still be around when his Parkinson’s gets bad. As we recall, Terry got himself locked in the room at the robbery and told Mickey to take off with Darryl and refused any legal help from Ray, so we would like to know why he is he blaming Mickey now.

Supporting Cast of “Breakfast of Champions”

In the absence of Abby’s maternal influence, Bridget tells Conor he can stay home from school, relax and make love to his mattress. But “C-Money” has other ideas. He drives to school and picks up his friend. When 3 girls in a higher grade find out Conor’s parents are gone for the day, they see an opportunity to take advantage of a dumb freshman and ask if they can come over. They show up with their boyfriends, except one — Madison. Just when Conor sends his friend home so he can hit on Madison, her boyfriend Tate shows up. He thinks the Donovan house is like being at the Bellagio. A disgusted Conor tries to kick them out, but Tate punches him in the stomach. Conor gets a bat, shuts off the breakers and calls Tate out from the bottom of the stairs. Tate gets his lumps just when Bridget walks in. She threatens to call 911 and the usurpers all take off.

At school, Bridget tried to get a “modicum of leeway” from her calculus teacher, Mr. Donellen, who wasn’t into giving out second chances just so she can have an “A”. He told her to show up, do the work and stop screwing around. A classmate overheard her call the teacher an a-hole and told Bridget his tragic story of losing his wife in a traffic accident when he was driving. We wouldn’t say this exactly evoked empathy on Bridget’s part. She ran into him in the coffee shop and blurted out that her parents are at each other throats and her boyfriend was murdered and it came off like a cheap attempt to establish rapport. Mr. Donellen seemed genuinely shocked at these revelations. She seemed immediately embarrassed and ran out without even picking up her medium Americano.

Ray’s day at the movie studio involved straightening out Sandy Patrick, the host of Spin Cycle, who treats his wheel spinner, Tina Harvey, abominably. “She spins a wheel and keeps her mouth shut,” the chauvinist pig tells Ray, “She’s a pair of tits and an arm.” That gets him a couple of smacks from Ray. Tina hosts the next episode and Sandy spins that wheel. This is important to Paige Finney because she is trying to sell the studio to Mr. Liu and Tina Harvey is his favorite. Paige’s father, however, is not happy with the deal and plans to cancel it. After a confab with Paige, he does an about-face and sells, which is lucky for Tommy Wheeler. Now he probably won’t have to play Captain Crunch and he may even get to marry Chloe. Ray also had to babysit Paige for a while when she suddenly developed a horrible migraine.

Since Abby wouldn’t come back, Ray went home to the family hacienda and, after an unpleasant encounter with a no-longer dependent Bridget, decided to have a bowl of Frosted Flakes. Just as Andrew Finney warned, Paige called up and wanted to meet to “explain a few things.” Her father, she said, was going to lie about her and ask him to do cruel things to her. Ray informed her that he only works for her father. The episode ended with the return of Abby’s lost white dog who still doesn’t have a name.