Fish and Bird Recap: Ray Donovan

Maria Agnes Donovan was baptized in “Fish and Bird,” the 6th episode of Ray Donovan’s Season 4 (7-31-16). Abby made her choice regarding her cancer. Sonia Kovitsky had cancer too. Maybe the bird part of the title referred to her stage of cancer, as she explained to Ray: cancer is either a turtle, a rabbit or bird. “A turtle you can easily catch, a rabbit you can chase, but a bird, once it flies away…” Don’t ask us about the fish.

Mickey Donovan was processed into prison and had to convince Jackson Holt that he was the lone actor at the Armenian massacre. The old boy handled it with his usual devil-may-care bravado, telling the D.A. a prison rape joke. His final explanation of how some of the Armenians ended up shot in the back although he was in front of them was that things got confusing and the Armenians were shooting each other, true in one case– Vartan accidentally shot Davros. In order for Ivan Belikov to be released, Mickey had to be charged with the crime.

At his home, Ray told Abby what went down in Primm and how Mickey turned himself in. She told her husband that she was going with the induced menopause option and they made love. Outside, Ray spotted Vlad. That is the guy in the Chrysler from last week. We should have known his name was Vlad. (Note to writers: Russians have other names besides Ivan and Vlad – go watch Taras Bulba). Vlad gave Ray the bad news that he was not off the hook until Belikov was released. Ray showed Vlad who the tough guy really was and after Ray relieved him of his gun, Vlad had no choice but to drive away bloody mad. Literally.

Ray went down to Kovitsky’s art gallery where he ran right into Jacob Waller who was about to deliver a bill to him. Ray took the bill to Sonia and informed her that even if he wanted to pay it, he was broke. Sonia didn’t care. She put him work to pay his debt, sending him to the port to pick up a valuable painting for a charity auction. A very young girl was sitting there playing Cat’s Cradle. Vlad was there too. He told Ray that she was a present for Belikov and offered her services to a disgusted Ray.

After delivering the painting, Kovitsky informed Ray that he had to escort her to the auction for security purposes. Ray met Dr. Witlin, representing the cancer institution getting half the proceeds. Guess who else was there? Ashley Rucker, now Feldman! That’s right, Ashley married crazy Stu Feldman. As Stu indulged in his usual vulgar behavior, Sonia delivered the understatement of the entire episode: “You’re so crass, Stu.” At auction, Stu called the lady bidding against him the “c” word and ended up winning the painting for $2.7 million.

On the way home, Ray figured out that Sonia had cancer. She told him it was terminal, after offering a bit of wisdom from her uncle about big thieves getting pardoned, while little ones get punished. Ray said she was just a pimp and a drug dealer with an art gallery for a front. She gave him his next assignment: pick up a forgery of the painting that Stu won and deliver it to him. Ray declined but Sonia said “it’s for charity,” adding “Stu Feldman’s a complete idiot.’

So Ray picked up the forgery. The cat’s cradle girl was there again, this time speaking English that she learned from watching “Two and a Half Men.” When he delivered it to Stu, the Feldmans were in the process of making a sex tape of Ashley with Prince Johnson, the Black Python. Ray refused to deliver the tape to Marty at Stalkerazzi.

Fish and Bird Guest Stars and Co-Stars

That wasn’t the end of the Belikov storyline by a longshot. At the art gallery, Sonia wanted Ray to make one last delivery to pay Belikov plus an extra $100K and she wanted Ray to apologize for any trouble he caused by framing him for murder. LOL. Admit it, you would want to kill Ray too. Not Sonia, Belikov.

Sonia had another activity in mind for Ray. She took him to a room, empty but for a white chaise lounge type thing. He actually got on it at her request. She started a universe presentation with stars, saying she’ll become part of it when she’s gone. Then she took off her top. Ray turned his head when she revealed her scar from breast surgery but she told him not to turn away. Sonia climbed on top of him and asked him if she was beautiful. Ray said yes. Throughout all this, you may have noticed, poor conflicted Ray was going about in a somewhat robotic state. His reactions in this scene were no different, but we think that given Abby’s predicament, he did have some sympathy for Sonia.

Ray had to stand godfather to little Maria after that and he did that robotically as well. Back at home, Ray started right in on the hootch and got so drunk that he thought it would be a good idea to give baby Maria a rosary that Father Danny gave him when he was little. Bunch was appalled and deeply offended. Ray went to sit outside and Mickey called collect. He inquired after the baby and everyone else and joked that he’ll get out when he’s 310. In the end, Mickey said, the only thing that matters is love. Ray broke down in tears as he thanked Mickey for taking the rap and Mickey broke down after he hung up.

Ray left to make the final payoff to Belikov and found him sitting on the floor outside a bedroom door. Inside the Cat’s Cradle girl was lying on the bed dead. Belikov wanted Ray to take the money and help him dispose of her body by shipping it back to Russia. Who would believe that and go along without questions? Nonetheless, Ray went with him. On the way, Belikov talked about how he would protect Mickey in jail. At their destination, Belikov told him to put the girl’s body in a crate during which time, we assume, he planned to kill Ray but Ray killed Belikov with his own gun instead and put him in the crate. Then Ray dropped the Cats Cradle girl off at the All Saints Mortuary and left Father Danny’s rosary with her. Sonia called to make sure everything was back to normal. Ray said “Sure” and hung up.