Tulip Recap – Ray Donovan

So all throughout “Tulip,” the 8th episode of Ray Donovan, Season 3 (8-30-2015), you see Ray or Avi or Ray and Avi digging a grave and they do their best to make you think that Father Thomas Romero is the one who is going to end up in it, but it wasn’t. It was Varick Strauss.

Even though Paige Finney is divorcing him, Varick thought he was still on the Finney payroll but when he showed up to work, Windsor met him at the door with his severance package. Varick was quite disturbed and called to Andrew Finney who was sitting at a window. He refused to budge. Paige told Varick that his problem was that he really thought he was a member of the family when he ought to just say “thank you” and get lost. But Varick wasn’t going down like that and they forgot to take his keys away so he went to confront Finney personally. Varick brought up Finney stealing from his own charities and seducing his own daughter’s husband. Apparently, having oral sex performed on him in the back of a Rolls Royce at his own father’s funeral was the last straw. “I’m not gay,” Finny exploded and clocked Varick in the head with a fire iron. That killed him.

The Worm Has Turned
Finney now had to call Ray to get rid of the dead body and Ray played it for all it was worth. Finney agreed to pony up the $90 million for the Napier property. An elaborate set up was put in place to make it look like Varick stole $8 million from Paige’s trust fund and skipped out to Belize. Ray needed Avi’s help to pull this off and Avi tried to have a heart to heart with him about murdering Kate McPherson aka the Rodef. Ray said he would have rather done his time than have that happen. This is probably not the last we’ll hear of this since Avi seems to need forgiveness badly.

In the meantime, Ray had cooked up a scheme to get Napier to lower the $90 million asking price for the property Paige needed for her NFL football team dreams to come true. He was going to put drugged snakes in his golf bag. All Helen Miller of Fish & Game had to do was grab Napier, flash her badge and tell him he’s under arrest for smuggling snakes full of heroin into the USA. Helen got cold feet and a little hysterical so Lena knocked her down with a punch in the mouth. A snake got out and bit Helen in the leg. Lena had to take her to the hospital for some anti-venom. And that was the end of that plan.

Excommunication is an invitation
Father Romero showed up at the gym to talk to Ray but only Bunchy was there. Bunchy told him that they had killed one “piece of sh*t” priest already and another one wouldn’t be that much of a chore. Ray came over with a loaded gun but all Romero wanted to do was return the box with all the Father Danny files in it and explain to Ray that being excommunicated wasn’t a punishment. All he had to do was repent and everything would be cool again. Again, the whole excommunication thing was pretty silly. Most fallen away Catholics don’t go to confession or communion in the first place. They effectively excommunicate themselves.

The Armenian Power Syndicate
The Armenians came by and torched Daryll’s Caddy. The police showed up and Det. Sheila Muncie warned Mickey that he was in over his head with the Armenians. His only option if he wanted to see his kids and himself come out of it with all their arms and legs was to throw in with the law. She said she knew his history of informing. (Well, that must have been in prison. She couldn’t possibly have known about FBI Agent Van Miller, could she?) Mickey went through the rest of the episode like a man who knew he was about to make a deal with the devil when we thought he had already done that. In the final analysis, he called Muncie.

My Medicated Teacher
Greg Donellen tried to put the boundaries between himself and Bridget back in place. He explained to her that he responded to her Starbucks Run message because he was taking his medication and being totally effing inappropriate. Bridget swiped a magazine off his desk with his home address on it, showed up at his home and asked to use the rest room while Donellen conked out on the sofa. In there, she inspected his medications, then went and sat by him. She put her head on his chest. Abby was so happy that Ray came home (he slept over with Paige the night before), she probably didn’t notice that Bridget didn’t.

Conor continues to be MIA without any explanation. Abby also managed to get Terry to the barber for a Balbo and a clean shave and to sleep in the room that she set up for him.