Ray Donovan Recap: Staten Island Part 1 (Season 6 Premiere)

It sure was a long wait for the Season 6 premiere of “Ray Donovan” on 10/28/2018. We mean Season 5 actually ended on on 10/29/2018! If you want a refresher on the Season 5 finale, it’s in “Time Takes a Cigarette.” We left Ray as he was falling into the East River in New York City, after he did Doug Landry in to repay a favor to Samantha Winslow. We picked up right there. Ray gets rescued and he gets beat up twice in the season opener. Let’s dive right in:

You jumped off a ten-story building. ~ Sam Winslow

Ray was not knocked out by that long fall off the parking garage ledge, or if he was, he came to when Sean “Mac” McGrath, a Staten Island police officer, spotted him and started hauling him back to safety. Ray punched Mac and headed back into the deep while Fetu Autufuga, the big Samoan guy Mac had in the back of his cruiser yelled loudly and tried to break out. Mac got Ray into the back and drove out to Staten Island even though he was supposed to call an ambulance for Ray and drop Fetu off at Manhattan’s 35th Precinct.

Fetu and Ray were thrown in jail in Staten Island but somehow Lena and Sam Winslow showed up. Fetu’s efforts to get his and Ray’s story straight were cut short as Ray was released. Sam wanted to help him. Lena wanted him to go back to L.A. Ray went to a bar and bought Mac a drink. Mac has some marital woes involving a fireman and a bunch of fireman starting whomping on Mac outside. Ray tried to help Mac and got a whupping himself. So he ended up staying with Mac. Ray told Mac that he wasn’t trying to commit suicide. He was just following his dead wife. Mac laid a Keanu Reeves quote on Ray: “Grief changes shape, but never ends.”

Melinda Getkin, a New York tribune reporter, showed up trying to get a comment from Ray on how he and Fetu ended up in jail in Staten Island, Ray found out that this would cause Mac a lot of trouble. Mac wanted to pay Fetu $5,000 a month to keep his mouth shut but Ray insisted on being the middleman. He took the money to Fetu with a promise that he’ll get another $5K per month up to $120K. Fetu kicked Ray’s butt. There has to be so much more to this storyline. Where does Mac get an extra $5K a month to pay Fetu, for one thing. Till we find out, we’ll just have to sit around and admire Ray’s superhuman stamina.

I’ve run across a few fixers in my time ~ Anita Novak

Mac’s problems led Ray back to Sam Winslow to kill the Tribune story and Sam wants Ray to fix a problem for Anita Novak, her candidate for mayor. Novak got herself beat up by a guy she agreed to have sex with online. He taped the action. All she has is a fake email but Ray gets Lena to track it down to a location. He gives the info to Sam, and soon gets an SOS call from Anita. She went to the address and evidently, the guy is now dead.

Mac’s problems also led Ray to Terry’s gym to ask him to give Mac’s son some boxing lessons. Bridget and her boyfriend Smitty were there, too. Bridget noticed Ray’s beard. Ray noticed her haircut. He noticed Smitty but didn’t even nod at the guy, nor did he hug his daughter.

Once a week? How am I supposed to only see her for once a week? ~ Bunchy

Last season, after Bunchy was unable to get over Teresa’s infidelity, she moved to Pismo Beach and left little Maria with him. Looks like she decided she wants her kid back now that she’s settled and we saw Bunchy at the courthouse having to relinquish his baby girl to the bailiff. At least, we hope that’s it and the State didn’t take Maria.

Mr. Lucky will be the first straight-to-streaming, big-budget film produced by Sam Winslow’s Pacific Media. ~ TV News Reporter

Mickey Donovan was in jail, awaiting trial for the murder of FBI agent Frank Barnes, after being framed by his sons, Ray and Daryll, the real shooter. A report came on the news that Mickey’s movie script, Mr. Lucky, will begin shooting in Harlem and will feature action star Jay White. Mickey is not down with this blatant theft and is inspired to ingest a large quantity of nicotine. Then he ran in place and did push ups until he had a heart attack and went to the hospital. He’ll be on the loose soon enough, as shown in the preview of the next episode: