Ray Donovan Recap: Bugs (S7 E9)

Ray Donovan’s creativity was once again on full display in “Bugs”, the ninth episode of Season 7, as he set about getting himself out of the jam Smitty got him in. Mickey found a way to make Smitty useful in his quest to get his hands on the Sullivan Industries’ stock certificate. Darryl had murder on his mind and Terry went back to therapy and met “Artie” — none other than Dr. Amiot.

But what if I can bring in Judge Scholl? ~ Ray Donovan

Detective Perry and Fareed confronted Ray with his incriminating statements on the tape, admitting to killing Det. Radulovic. Unruffled, Ray matter-of-factly told them how the three officers they were so upset about were Mayor Feratti’s henchmen. They kidnapped his daughter and killed an IAB officer who was investigating what was going on at Arthur Kill Prison. Ray offered to flip Judge Scholl to corroborate his story. If you recall last season, Feratti ordered a hit on Judge Scholl when Ray was the one wearing a wire. It was on TV and Ray was forced to publicly state that the tape was a fake, created by Sam Winslow. Whatever, this spelled BIG FISH to Detective Perry and they cut Ray loose to give it a whirl.

They’re never gonna let me walk ~ Judge Scholl

Ray tapped Bunchy to trail Judge Scholl and his wife and make sure they knew he was doing it. Ray bugged Judge Scholl’s office and later, in the judge’s presence, unbugged it. Ray led hizzoner to believe that this was all happening at the behest of Mayor Feratti, setting him up to take the fall for all the dirty deals. Feratti made the whole thing easier by refusing to take the judge’s phone calls. It was quite a sight to see the judge slowly unravel, culminating in his confronting Bunchy while Ray set off a detonator that blew the judicial car up right in front of them. Judge Scholl was ready to sing.

I’ve got good news. Donovan just flipped Judge Scholl ~ Detective Perry

Detective Perry ran right to her superior, Lt. Bricker, with the exciting news that Judge Scholl was going to help them draw a straight line to Judge Feratti. They would be able to take down the mayor for corruption. Murder, even! She and Fareed didn’t stop to consider that Feratti’s supply of corrupt cops had not run out. As soon as Bricker got the news, he made a call and you didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out who he was calling.

It’s Daryll. I think he’s in real trouble ~ Claudette

Ray had to take a little detour to check on Daryll. He already knew where Daryll was because Jim Sullivan had called and told him Daryll was at the Lightning Motel out in Queens, after his run-in with Declan. Daryll had parked his car in broad daylight, got out and just left Jasmine’s corpse there for lots of witnesses to see and film on a cell phone. He called Declan and said: “You killed her, so you explain her body to the cops.” Declan said he wanted the papers but Daryll wanted what he was promised first. Daryll was probably going to bump Declan off if he showed up, with or without the money. Daryll called his mother and told her he was going on a trip. He assured her that he was fine and he was done with Mickey. He just wanted to hear her voice and tell her he loved her. Claudette could tell something was very wrong so she reached out to Ray. Ray talked Daryll out of killing him, Declan or commiting suicide. Ray took the briefcase, promised to fix everything and sent Bunchy to pick Daryll up. Daryll wanted Ray to kill Declan.

Everyone thinks that they can hold up. The truth is, everyone’s a rat ~ Mickey Donovan

Mickey went to see a guy named Frankie Lee, who turned out to be a woman, about selling the stock certificate. Frankie told Mickey that 20% of Sullivan Industries was worth an estimated 2.4 billion and she could get him 65 to 75 million minus her 20% cut, if he wanted it in “old-fashioned cash.” In the meantime, Bridget was leaving Smitty, who kept insisting he wore the wire so she wouldn’t get arrested because she didn’t kill anyone. As soon as Bridget walked out of the building she was arrested and Smitty ran off to tell Ray. Ray ignored him and that’s when Mickey came along. Mickey listened to Smitty’s tale of woe and told him it was no big deal, noting that even Ray ratted him out. Mickey checked to make sure Smitty didn’t rat on him. He wanted Smitty to open a bank account to receive the money from the stock sale and promised Smitty $100 grand for the favor. Frankie Lee called with a better offer. Now all Mickey has to do is get the stock certificate that ended up in Ray’s hands.

The episode ended at the remote spot where Judge Scholl was taken to spill the beans. Three armed men (more bad cops, no doubt) opened fire on the cabin and killed Fareed. Judge Scholl escaped. Detective Perry called Ray who got there and the two of them ran off into the woods after the bad guys.

Other storylines:

Throughout the episode, Ray had flashbacks to his teen years, sparked by listening to tapes with young Gary and his sister Bridget listening to Rare Earth’s cover of the Temptation’s “(I Know) I’m Losing You” on Gary’s father’s kickass sound system. In those flashbacks, Ray knew something was going wrong in Bridget’s life but she refused to open up about it and told him to mind his own business. She did say she was done with babysitting Molly.

Terry made Dolores very happy when he returned her emerald. She made him promise to take good care of himself, take his meds and go back to therapy. Terry was teamed up with Dr. Amiot at therapy because they both had LSVT (speech treatment for Parkinson’s patients) They got to chatting and Dr. Amiot eventually revealed that he was a psychiatrist. When he found out Terry’s last name, he did not tell Terry that he was treating Ray.