Ray Donovan recap: “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (Season 7 finale)

Scores were settled in the Season 7 finale of Ray Donovan but, if we’re going to be honest, a lot of questions went unanswered so let’s get right to it.

Mystery No. 1 (unsolved): Here is the phone conversation Molly played for Ray. It was between young Larry O’Malley (Gary’s father) and young Jim Sullivan regarding Ray’s sister Bridget.

LARRY: No, Jim, check this out. Gary said that she said she went to the drugstore and got one a those, um, uh, pregnancy tests.
JIM: Who got a pregnancy test? Gary’s girlfriend?
LARRY: Yeah, what’s her face, uh
JIM: She bought a pregnancy test?
LARRY: Yeah, what’s, uh –
JIM: Bridget Donovan
LARRY: Bridget bleepin’ Donovan, yeah.
JIM: She’s in the family way?
LARRY: Look, that’s what Gary says, Jim. And you you know what I told Gary? I said, “That’s on her.”

Certainly, one would conclude that Gary was the baby’s father from that. If they had anything in the episode that made it clear to Ray and Molly that Jim was the baby’s father, we missed it. We’re not talking about scenes between Jim and Bridget confirming to the audience that it was true. Neither Ray nor Molly would have known about it. Also, why wouldn’t Bridget tell Ray if she would tell Gary? Why wouldn’t Gary tell Ray? Why would Bridget try to call Mickey when she found herself unable to go into Planned Parenthood. How do we even know it was Mickey who hung up on Bridget? When Mickey kidnapped Jim Sullivan, he said he was in jail when Bridget died. And so on and so forth.

Also, there were several references in Season 1 to Bridget and drugs: In Episode 1 (The Bag or the Bat), Ray told his daughter, Bridget, that his sister was high when she jumped off the building. In Episode 7 (New Birthday), Ray talked to Gary O’Malley in Boston and asked him if he knew why Bridget did it. Gary said it was 25 years ago, they were high all the time and he can’t look back at that because there are no answers. (Ray went to the cemetery where it showed his mom died on 3/20/1977 and his sister died on 5/15/1987). In Episode 8 (Bridget), Ray told his daughter Bridget that “Auntie Bridget” killed herself because she was pregnant and on drugs.

Mystery No. 2 (solved): The identity of the dead body that Ray took out of his trunk and dug a very deep and wide grave for was eventually revealed. First they had to make us think it was Mickey, because Ray looked pretty happy about the whole thing tramping through the woods with the body slung over his shoulder.

Mystery No. 3 (solved): We wondered whose side Molly Sullivan would be on as things came to a head between the Donovan clan and the Sullivans. She most definitely wanted to be on Ray’s side. But Ray decided that was not going to work out since he was going to kill her father.

He was tryin’ to protect you, Bridge ~ Ray Donovan

Now aside from all that, the episode did pick up out in the woods with Ray and Detective Perry hunting the cops Mayor Feratti sent to kill them and vice versa. Ray and Perry managed to take them out. They found Judge Scholl alive and scared out of his wits. Ray asked Perry to try to keep Bridget off the stand and she indicated that he could just go pick up Bridget. Ray took his daughter to a quiet bench in front of the water and encouraged her to forgive Smitty, much to our surprise. For no reason in the world, Bridget began warbling “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” 🤣🤣🤣 We can’t see how that triggered a flashback to the day Ray’s sister died for him. Perhaps “I Miss You” (1986) by Klymaxx would have been a better choice. (“I thought I heard your voice yesterday….)

I made a deal for the papers ~ Mickey Donovan

Mickey and Smitty were at Daryll’s place when Bunchy and Daryll showed up. Mickey had no idea what had transpired since he last saw Daryll so he thought he was about to get his hands on the Sullivan Industries stock certificate, only to learn that the briefcase is in Ray’s hands. Bunchy was pissed off that Smitty the Rat was there. Daryll didn’t give a thought to how his own greed and stupidity led to Jasmine’s death. Instead he told Smitty that he’s a good kid but he needs to get away from Mickey or he’s going to end up dead. How convenient to have Mickey as a handy scapegoat, eh?

Um, God please forgive me. I was weak and I betrayed my family ~ Smitty

Anyone who grew up in a superstitious Catholic family (I did) had to have found Mickey’s “signs” hilarious. There was the “auspicious” robin red breast. Then Mickey convinced Smitty to confess his biggest sin directly to God, in imitation of the Jewish Day of Atonement. As soon as Smitty finished doing that, Bridget called and told him to come home. Smitty and Bridget made up but he wanted to get in on Mickey’s deal. Bridget told him to forget about the money and asked him to go back to L.A. with him. Smitty was cool with going to L.A. Secretly, he still intended on getting some of the Sullivan money.

Mickey confessed his myriad sins and also asked for forgiveness, and Frankie Lee called right up with a new offer of $25 million. To a Catholic, practicing or not, these would be genuine signs from God that He is listening.

It always comes down to money, doesn’t it? ~ Ray Donovan

Mickey tracked Ray down and demanded, at gunpoint, that he hand over the stock. Ray gave it up without a fuss, other than letting Mickey know how contemptible he is. He told Mickey what Jim Sullivan did to Bridget and how Mickey left his children alone to be preyed on by wild animals. Okay, but at the time Ray was working as Jim Sullivan’s enforcer, beating guys who owed Sullivan money with a bat. If Bridget had told him what happened, surely Ray would have taken care of pervert Jim then. But when Bridget pleaded cramps to get out of working for Jim, Ray insisted that she go to work.

Mickey took the briefcase. Ray called Bunchy and told him there was a tracking device in the briefcase: “Follow it, don’t let him outta your sight.”

Jim Sullivan showed up at Ray’s office, feeling pretty chipper. He thought he was going to get the papers back and he wanted to take Ray to Pete Luger’s for a celebratory steak dinner. Ray confronted him with a gun and asked Jim what he did to his sister. Jim claimed he didn’t know what Ray was talking about and Ray shot him down.

I’m here to find the man who stole from my father ~ Declan Sullivan

Frankie Lee got a visit from Declan Sullivan. He put a gun on the table and demanded to know who was buying the Sullivan stock. She didn’t have much choice but to give up his brother, Kevin, and the location where the trade was going to go down.

And that is how Declan Sullivan and his backup showed up at the same time as Bunchy and Daryll while Kevin Sullivan and Mickey were about to trade briefcases. Declan demanded that Kevin hand the stuff over. Daryll spotted Declan, pulled out his gun and fired at him. It missed and Declan fired back, hitting Smitty. Daryll shot Declan right between the eyes, then walked past Smitty and shot Declan some more. (Mystery No. 4 (unsolved): We never did find out Declan’s awful history.)

Kevin Sullivan closed the briefcase with the money, got in his car and split. Mickey was trying to collect the scattered papers from the ground. Daryll walked up and trained his gun on Mickey, shouting “You did this.” “Daryll,” Bunchy yelled and Daryll just left. Mickey finished scooping up the papers and left, too. Smitty was left to die in the street, all alone, another victim of greed and stupidity.

Terry’s storyline: Terry heard on the news that his friend Dolores committed suicide by jumping off somewhere. Last time we saw Dolores, she was bedridden in a hospital bed so how she managed that is another unsolved mystery. It’s still very sad. Dolores stopped Terry from committing suicide at the ashram. Now she’s done it herself.

Terry went to see Dr. Amiot at his home and told him about that and how Linda Ronstadt has Parkinson’s. He cried when he learned she can’t sing anymore because she “lost her gift before she lost her life.” The good doctor soon realized that Terry was entertaining suicidal thoughts himself. Terry left and went to the Empire State Building and that’s where he was at the end of the episode. We’ve been batting zero on our assumptions of what’s going to happen, but we’ll take a guess that Dr. Amiot will call up Ray before he goes to sleep and Ray will rescue Terry.

Supporting Cast of You’ll Never Walk Alone