TV Review: RAY DONOVAN: Season 3, Episode 8: Tulip [Showtime]

Showtime’s Ray Donovan Tulip TV Show Review. Ray Donovan: Season 3, Episode 8: Tulip featured a death that was toyed with in numerous scenarios that involved new and old Ray Donovan characters. When the actual death occurred, it was a surprise for two reasons: 1.) the person that actually died, and 2.) the other person involved in the death. Regarding the latter, that person had always presented as cool and in-control, a persona bred from amassed wealth, prestige, and career success. With his rash action, he saw that prestige vanishing, replaced by innuendo, scandal, reporters, police, and possibly jail.

Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber) played the situation beautifully. He sat back and let his employer come to him. Andrew Finney (Ian McShane) owns Ray’s services and yet Ray acted as though murder clean-up was something that he couldn’t sully his hands with or be involved with.

Ray let it seem as though he was acting out of Terry Donovan-gratitude but he had an agenda the entire time (or at least for a percentage of the time).

When Andrew Finney said: “Oh yes, I got it,” he wasn’t just talking about Ray’s cover-up story. He was saying: “I know this is blackmail and I’ll play ball.”

The priest situation in Tulip took a surprising turn. The protagonists in this section of the episode weren’t expecting what Father Romero (Leland Orser) had in-store for them and had to adjust to it on the fly.

Between the last episode and this episode, the excommunication was not what it initially seemed (to both episodes’ credit and benefit). Redemption is a strange animal, different for each person that attempts to “capture” it. For Ray, it’s taken a unique form. The question as, will Ray attempt to wrangle the beast or leave the opportunity on the table.

The Mickey Donovan (Jon Voight) situation gets increasingly more idiotic with each episode. It was asinine for Daryll Donovan (Pooch Hall) to leave his car in Tulip, a point of contention between the Donovans and the Armenians, out in the open and in the very same location they stole it from days ago. It was inexplicable lunacy with no explanation (what possible explanation could make that decision, under those circumstances, make sense?). Then the Donovans were actually surprised that the Armenians took action against Daryll’s $70K car (finding it in the exact same parking lot they had original taken it from). Why leave the car out in the open, in the exact same parking lot? Why not place the car in a private garage? Why not put the car in a public garage two towns away and pay in advance for months? Of course not. That would make real world sense (as would not staying in a place where a gang with international ties could find you). The viewer and fan of Ray Donovan learned long ago that the real world bears only a passing semblance to the Ray Donovan universe.

The “Rat Proposition” presented to Mickey Donovan as a means of escape from the Dagobah System-like hole he had dug for himself and his son introduced an old turnkey methodology back into Mickey’s life. This was a chapter in his life I am sure Mickey thought he had closed the door on.

What was hilarious about the police work that Detective Sheila Muncie (Michael Hyatt) exhibited in an hour (and sad for the show in general) was that similar detectives, a prosecutor, and a judge were incapable of the same police / investigative / detective work when it came to Terry saying: “Get the f**k outta here Mick” during Terry’s armed robbery trial. The cops, prosecutor, and judge couldn’t connect “Mick” to anyone in Terry’s life (lol) yet the detective that showed up to the car incident in Tulip already knew about Mickey Donovan’s current business enterprise, his old occupation, and his associates, past and present. These two turns of events were convenient for the plot of the series and completely inconsistent.

It was very Dexter of Ray Donovan‘s writers to implement both of these scenarios and think no one would notice (or not care if someone did).

Like I said before, the real world and Ray Donovan bear little resemblance at times.

The Avi (Steven Bauer) / Ray reconciliation was bound to happen. What the viewer might not understand is why Ray would let it happen. What Kate McPherson was going to print in the newspaper was the truth. Ray was guilty, he knew he was guilty. That is why he was willing to go to jail. Avi killed a completely innocent person to protect a murderer. That is what drove the wedge between the two of them and what should continue to drive the wedge.

Kate printing the story and Ray paying for it was Ray’s defacto penance. He was at peace with it, ready for it. Avi stole that from him. Now he has to continue carrying his guilt, anguish, and pain with him plus Kate’s death. Does needing Avi erase all that? Does Avi’s rationale for murdering Kate make it okay? In the Ray Donovan universe, it might. A better aleavement fulcrum, narrative-wise, would have been through the church.

Perhaps that’s coming.

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