Girl with Guitar Recap: Ray Donovan

The Dysfunctional Donovans are back for a fourth season of problem fixing for the rich and well-heeled, while the fixer lives in a world that can’t be fixed. “Girl with a Guitar” (S4 E1) opened with Ray Donovan at the Fite Club, taking part in a support group with Father Romero and his brother Bunchy. When Ray is asked how he came to be in the group, flashbacks show what happened to him after he was shot in the Season 3 finale Exsuscito. A bullet was removed from Ray’s abdomen and Hector Campos, a boxing champ, took care of him. Hector told Ray they’ve both been through a lot and how Father Romero worked a miracle by helping him forgive “his priest” on the abuser’s deathbed.

After the meeting, Ray had to go see Detective Sheila Muncie, apparently for the sixth time. She was in a really bad mood over the disappearance of Ray’s father, Mickey, not to mention how Ray sabotaged her sting operation. There’s the dead girl that was in Mickey’s motel room and Muncie has Mickey’s DNA from the final showdown with the Armenians. It won’t be long till she gets a subpoena for Ray’s DNA. Ray tells her all he knows is that Mickey is gone, hopefully for good and leaves.

Meantime, Ray’s wife Abby is at the hospital, having just learned she has breast cancer. When Ray calls her, she lies and says she’s at the grocery store. Ray wants her to pick up his brother Terry, who is at a church finding out if he was accepted for a church mission in Brazil. Abby sat outside smoking a cigarette. She told a complete stranger about her “stage zero” diagnosis and breast removal recommendation.

Ray tracked down his runaway daughter Bridget in Venice. He wants her to come home, telling her that Abby misses her and Terry might be gone for a few years. Bunchy and Teresa’s baby is due any day. She agrees to come home for dinner.

Next we have Jacob, an attorney representing art dealer Sonia Kovitzky. He gives Ray a $10,000 check to do a job for her. He won’t tell Ray what the job entails, only that his client prefers to tell him in person at her gallery. Once there, Ray admires a painting of a girl playing a guitar that is work $60K. Sonia’s problem involves art smuggling. She was trying to help her client avoid custom duties but Det. Muncie caught her and impounded the artwork that really belongs to her client. She needs Ray to bribe Muncie. Well, she’s barking up the wrong tree there. Ray’s had enough of Det. Muncie at the moment. He returns her check.

Abby found Terry at the church and he was beside himself. His application was denied and he is sure it’s because of his Parkinson’s Disease and not because “his faith hasn’t been tested,” as he was told. Terry thought his faith was tested plenty when he almost died.

So far so good for Ray staying out of trouble but then the mess of all messes arrives when he calls Hector who didn’t show up for training. Hector is frantic because he screwed up bad. When Ray arrives at the the scene of this bad screw-up (a run-down motel), a woman is getting in a car. She asks Ray what he’s looking at in a challenging manner. Ray notices a police car and finds the cop it’s assigned to in Hector’s room, gagged and bound, moaning on the floor of the bathroom. Hector and the girl were creating some kind of disturbance and when the cop showed up, Hector lost it.

Ray goes straight into fixer mode, putting in a call to Lena to get any info she can on the cop. All she learns is that his name is Vincent and he has a past DWI suspension. After a quick trip to the liquor store, Ray sent Hector home and put the cop on the bed. He explained to Vincent that he was going to take the gag off and they were going to have a talk. The cop curses Ray and says he and Hector are going to prison but Ray gets him drunk, even joining him (there goes his own 6-month sobriety). When Vincent is good and blotto, Ray takes him for a ride. He says his associate will come to see Vincent in 6 weeks with $50,000. And if he keeps his mouth shut, he’ll get another $50,000 after that. Vincent doesn’t understand the time frame, but Ray says that’s how long he’ll be in rehab. He crashes the cop car into a wall, forces the door open and moves Vincent to the driver’s seat.

Ray’s next stop was Hector’s house where he gets the disturbing news that the woman this all happened over is Hector’s half-sister, Marisol. Hector could not let it get out that he is sleeping with Marisol and that is why he attacked Vincent. It is obvious that Marisol has some kind of sick hold on Hector. The inkling we get is that she helped him prove his manhood after the priest who abused him was sent to jail and everyone was calling him gay. Hector has a young daughter who lives with him. She tells Ray that her daddy is going to “da story” a boxer named Whittaker.

Ray returns home and staggers in the house. Much to his dismay, Bridget hugs him and thanks him for the Girl with a Guitar painting. Ray breaks down and tells his family how much he loves them.

Girl with Guitar Guest Stars and Co-Stars

Mickey Donovan’s Bad Day
The question of Mickey’s whereabouts was swiftly answered when he was shown working at a casino called Buffalo Bill’s in Primm, Nevada, an hour outside of Vegas. Using the alias Chip O’Malley, he is tending bar and has a little team disabling the cars of rich people who stop for gas. When the lastest victim finds his filter mysteriously needs replacing, he goes to bar and order a drink. Mickey slips him a mickey. LOL. At a signal from Mickey, a hooker propositions the man. Just then, casino security shows up and questions Mickey about a report that a patron was drugged and robbed recently. Mickey plays dumb and they warn him to watch his step. Just as they are about to leave, the guy he just drugged passes out cold on the floor. The next thing you know, Mickey is in Buffalo Bill’s office. They know that Mickey’s social is a fake and the real Chip O’Malley went to his reward over 40 years ago. Mickey is fired and threatened with physical harm if he ever shows his face in the casino again. He meekly returns to his current digs where an Indian man tells him he’s a crooked tree and needs to bathe in the half moon. He gives Mickey some Peyote.

That produces a hallucination where he sees his dead daughter, Bridget, walking into Buffalo Bill’s. He follows her and the house singer follows him. Mickey says he saw his daughter and knows it’s a sign that he has to get the “green horseshoe.” Then he can take her and his whole family to Boston. Security arrives but before they can do him dirt, Mickey punches one in the face and takes off running down the road. The police show up and place him under arrest right before he passes out. When Mickey comes to, he’s in the hospital and he has a visitor: Det. Sheila Muncie.

The Bridgets
In addition to Mickey’s Dead Bridget hallucination, there was a scene where Ray was having a dream. He went in a room where he saw a young boy (himself, we guess) watching TV with his abuser, Father O’Connor. They were holding hands. On the TV, two young girls were on a rooftop. You only saw their backs, but when they turned around, one was Ray’s sister Bridget and the other her namesake, Ray’s daughter.

When namesake Bridget went to dinner, her Uncle Terry said “You look like my sister.”