The Kalamazoo Recap: Ray Donovan

Showtime’s “Ray Donovan” kicked off its third season ‘Kalamazoo” with an early airing of the episode and that was good and bad. For fans, the long wait between seasons was over but now, we’ve got another week’s wait before we will see our laconic fixer again.

In the opener, Ezra Goodman (Elliot Gould) was in the hospital when a priest stopped by and Jewish Ezra was horrified, thinking the priest meant to give him last rites. But the priest wanted to know who told him about the dead body buried at the Ruth Goldman Center. That was Ezra’s pride and joy, his legacy, until Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber) got so pissed about Ezra sending Avi to kill “the rodef,” Kate MacPherson, that he revealed the secret about a Catholic priest (that Ray murdered) being buried at the Center. Ezra became super agitated, pulled the tubes out of his nose and began bellowing Ray’s name. Ezra’s wife Deb called for a nurse and also told her not to send a chaplain anymore. The nurse informed her that there was no chaplain on that night. When Deb returned to Ezra’s side, he was gone.

After his estranged wife, Abby, tells him about Ezra, and after a one-night stand, Ray goes to the service. He profanely refuses to talk to Avi, who is now working for Lee Drexler. (Lena is still working for Ray.) Abby and their kids, Bridget and Conor, are there. Deb angrily kicks Ray out, saying he abandoned Ezra. Bridget and Abby want Ray to come home but he won’t. Avi still tries to make up with Ray by dropping off the material Kate had on him that could have sent him to prison. C’mon, Ray. We want you to make up with Avi. There seems to be hope for that as throughout the episodes, Ray had flashbacks to when he first came to L.A. with Ezra, so maybe it will occur to him that he would feel horrible if something happened to Avi.

Ray is not without a wealthy employer for long when a millionaire named Andrew Finney hires him to rescue his kidnapped son, who is being held for $5 million ransom. Ray meets Finney’s family, saves the son and manages to keep the ransom money, too.

With Terry in jail for last season’s safe heist (but refusing visitors), Brendan “Bunchy” Donovan is now managing the gym. Immature Bunchy is better playing boss than being one. Potato Pie tells him that the Mexicans haven’t paid their dues for 2 months, something Terry would never have tolerated. Bunchy goes off to the office to work on his Match.com profile. Abby drops by to while a way a few hours with some drinks and helps Bunchy get his profile in order. She tells the Mexicans to pay up or get out and is handed a credit card. Bunchy gets a match message from a plump lady while he is ogling the Mexican hottie. She flips him the bird. The credit card gets declined.

When Abby picked up her daughter from school, Bridget smelled the alcohol and refused to ride in the car. At home, Bridget complained to Conor who didn’t think it was that big of a deal. According to him, “”Everybody drives drunk and everybody looks at porn and everybody steals sh*t when people aren’t looking. Dad’s a bleeping thug.” He meant that in a cool way. Unlike last season, when it comes to Ray’s father, Mickey, though, Conor is obeying his parents and not speaking to him.

Supporting Cast of The Kalamazoo

Mickey and Ray’s half-brother, Daryll, are staying at a complex that would be family-oriented if it wasn’t for a pimp named Gary. Mickey negotiates the purchase of a bunch of Kalamazoos, top-of-the-line grills, and he throws a party for the residents. Gary mistreats the ladies. One named Ginger has a little girl, Audrey, with show biz aspirations. Mickey watches over her and encourages her singing of “The Good Ship Lollipop” and coaches her toothpaste commercials. Mickey suggested to Gary that he run his business out of a donut shop and keep it away from the complex, but Gary wasn’t into being socially responsible or less abusive to his workers either. Mickey solved the problem by giving Gary a Xanax-laced burger. After Gary passed out, Mickey helped him fall in the pool.

In last season’s finale, Mickey and Daryll won a ton of money at the track but they spent it all without paying the taxes on it. Daryll was panicking over a notice from the IRS but Mickey did not seem the least perturbed over that news.