Ray Donovan Recap: Ellis Island

Lena was still tracking the movement of the 3 million dollars while Ray Donovan was trying to get Conor to visit the Statue of Liberty in “Ellis Island” (11-25-18), Season 6, Episode 5. Ray also had to quickly execute some more dirty politics for Sam Winslow and, as is typical, he managed to kill two birds with one stone. (Not literally!)

Our wish come true: Stu Feldman showed up as a replacement producer for Darryl. He told Ray he’ll be in New York for a month. Samantha Winslow’s stepson, George, also made an appearance.

I don’t really like to lie to Bridget.. ~ Smitty

The episode began with Chalky Silver’s girlfriend wondering if she should take him to the hospital while his son looked on in horror. Chalky was trying to tell the kid that it looked worse than it was when the cops broke in and hauled him off to jail. Ray drove Smitty back home and was telling him to tell Bridget that he was out drinking with his buddies. Ray was more than a little annoyed with space cadet Smitty acting like he never hides anything from Bridget. Before they could part ways, Bridget came out and began yelling at Ray angrily. It’s rather funny. She thinks she’s protecting Smitty from Ray while Ray is protecting him from murderous drug dealers.

So you’d rather have a selfie with K’lei Hughes ~ Ray Donovan

Ray had to go pick Conor up for one last visit before he was shipped out to Germany but first he had to have a heart-to-heart with Terry about Bunchy. Terry was not convinced that Ray did his best to persuade Bunchy to get away from Mickey. He felt he could have done a better job because Bunchy has always been afraid of Ray. Later, Bunchy showed up at the Fite Club to drop Maria off and Terry had no better luck than Ray did with that.

Ray and Conor got off on the wrong foot right at the airport when Ray questioned Conor about drinking. He wanted to take Conor to Ellis Island but Conor wanted to meet K’Lei Hughes on the “Mr. Lucky” set. They soon found out that Darryl was banished from the set and none of his relatives were welcome.

Ray got an urgent call from Sam Winslow and dropped Conor off with Bridget. Sam was rebuffed by Mayor Ferrati in her attempt to get him to sign off on the prison she is dead bent on acquiring. Ray had a plan up his sleeve and called Lena to set it in motion. Lena was looking at a computer showing the $3 million headed north. Neither of them knew yet that Mickey no longer has the money. Ray’s plan was to have Lena’s gal pal, Justine, play an assault victim, with Darryl playing the attacker. Anita Novak would be in place to rescue her. Lena had to punch Justine in the face to make it look even better. Sam agreed to give Darryl back his job on her movie if it worked out and it all went just as planned, in plenty of time for Ray to keep his 2:30 p.m. date with Conor at the ferry to Ellis Island. That did not work out when Conor dissed him to stay with Bridget and Smitty.

Ray had a companion anyway when Annie, a red-headed Irish woman, chatted him up on the ride over. They talked about Conor going into the Marines and Ray told her how 3 of his relatives died in the service. Then she suddenly disappeared into thin air. We’re sure she wasn’t a Ray-Ray hallucination because she was standing in line ahead him, eavesdropping on his conversation with Conor, before she approached him. Maybe she’s Ray’s guardian angel from the old country.

Hey, accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative. ~ Mickey Donovan

Not one to dwell on misfortune, Mickey was ready to figure out his next move. He stole a vehicle and took Bunchy and Maria to a motel where a brochure about the jitney to the Hamptons gave him a new inspiration. He wanted to rob the jitney passengers while Bunchy would pretend to be a regular passenger, pleading with the others to cooperate because he didn’t want his child to be hurt. Bunchy thought it was an idiotic plan but didn’t have anything better to offer. Still, he took Maria out of the equation by leaving her with Terry. He said if he didn’t return in 48 hours, Terry should call Teresa.

Let’s go shoot some guns ~ Mac McGrath

Mac McGrath and his partner Rad were two of the cops who busted Chalky on Ray’s intel. As they sat in court, Rad questioned Mac about whether his unfaithful wife, Amber, would spill anything to her lover, Johnny Caputo. So the plot surrounding Mac and the Internal Affairs detective thickened. It was made even more clear that they were involved in some shady dealings when the two of them went to see a judge who had a desktop stacked with money. We wonder if Amber will make a convenient scapegoat.

When Ray dropped Conor off at the airport, he awkwardly tried to talk his son out of going. We don’t know what he expected Conor to do now that he was already enlisted and made it through boot camp, but Ray should have given the kid some praise and encouragement for his accomplishments. Ray went to the bar where Mac hangs out and complained that he should have made Conor stay. Mac gave him the facts of life, that Conor was 18 now and was not going to listen to Ray when it came to making his decisions. They should have had this line in there: “You can’t put old heads on young shoulders.” Ray went with Mac and his buddies and he sat in the car drinking, watching them shoot up cars at the boatyard. Ray sadly watched an airplane fly overhead.

The episode wrapped up showing what everyone was doing at 11 p.m. Terry and Sam were watching the news about Anita’s “heroism.” Mickey was sleeping. Bunchy was eating Cheerios. Lena was comforting Justine and tracking the $3 million on her notebook.

Ray went home and got a visit from kinky sex addict Anita. We don’t even think that Ray likes Anita but he was drunk as a hoot owl. Swaying drunk. So when she made her move, he didn’t resist. Then she bit his lip and he slammed her around on the counter and proceeded to have the kind of sex that made Abby complain that she felt like she was being raped back in the day. Anita didn’t feel that way about it.