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Liev Schreiber as Ray Donovan in the Season 1 Finale



When Ray pops by Ezra’s to tell them they got some of the money back, he finds Frank in Ezra’s office waiting. Frank threatens to arrest Ray for Van’s murder, but Ray asks for 12 hours, telling Frank that he knows Ray’s not that sloppy and that if Ray goes down, Frank does too. Ray hands him some cash, which Frank accepts.

Bunchy, finally at peace knowing his molester is dead, takes control of his life and kicks Mickey out of his apartment, but not before revealing the details of the night with the priest, including the fact that Ray was molested as a child too. Mickey wants to know how Ray feels about killing a priest and seems to be remorseful that he didn’t believe Bunchy when he first told Mickey he’d spotted the priest. With nowhere to go, Mickey calls Conor and finds out where they’re all staying in Malibu.

But he’s not as welcome as he thought he might be. Abby wakes up to find Mickey in bed with her at the hotel. He fell asleep by accident next to her. She screams. As they talk, it’s revealed that she’s suddenly unsympathetic towards Mickey (for the first time this season). She tells him to leave. He tells her she needs to shower and go take care of her children, and then he’ll go. Abby does so, but when she gets down to the pool to see the kids, Mickey is still there. She takes him aside, finally having come to the realization that Ray was correct, and Mickey is bad news. She tells him so and chastises him for not being a better father. Ray’s being abuses comes up. Mickey admits to having known, but says he struggled in those days. She tells him to stay away from her family. Leaving the hotel, Mickey calls Ray. He asks for 10 minutes with him, promising to leave town after that. They agree to meet at the gym.

Sully attempts to buy ID off of a homeless man, but the homeless guy decides to shake Sully down with a knife instead. Sully kills him in a bathroom stall near the beach, then with blood on his shoes, returns to the motel. He beats Tiny with the shoe when he finds out Eddie took off with a bag of money and Tiny let it happen. He sends Tiny out for new sneakers. Tiny stops to eat first, and is met at his table by Ray. Ray offers him a deal to take to Sully. Tiny admits killing Sean Walker was a mistake and says that he’s been crying over it ever since. Tiny asks if he can work for Ray instead, knowing Sully won’t likely take him out of the country. Still, he takes the deal back to Sully: that Ray will get them out of the country if they give back half of the money they took after the botched attempt on Mickey’s life. Back at the hotel, Sully directs Tiny to tell Ray there’s no deal.

Terry and Ray talk briefly about what the priest did to Ray. Ray tells Terry he might have to let Frances go over the night they killed the priest. Terry is upset and when Frances tries to talk to him later about the incident, he flips out and ultimately chooses family over Frances.

Lena and Bridget have a heart-to-heart. Bridget is having negative feelings about her father, but Lena seems to put them to rest telling her what a great guy her dad really is. Abby seems to feel forgiving as well. She leaves Ray an emotional message, asking him to come home.

With no deal accepted, Ray plays hardball with Sully. He alerts the press that Sully is in Santa Monica. Sully sees the news and realizes he’s in trouble. He prepares to run.

Ray meets Mickey at the gym and they have the discussion we’ve waited for all season. Mickey tries to appeal to Ray and apologizes for all that’s gone on, but Ray is unmoved by his attempt. Mickey says he’ll leave town, but first wants to know why Ray wanted him dead. Ray laughs, surprised that Mickey has no clue. Ray rhymes off all of the reasons, including: their sister killing herself, letting Terry fight beyond when it was medically safe for him to do so, and letting their mom die alone. Mickey tries to make excuses for it all, but Ray says there is no excuse, that Mickey made the decision to sell coke and whore around every night. Mickey gets emotionally, saying he did 20 years to protect Ray. Rays says he only did jail time because he stole a lot of money from Sully and jail was the safest place for him to be. Mickey tells Ray he’s always been his favorite child and that they’re alike. Ray scoffs and appears to almost relent, but then reveals that he told Mickey about the priest abusing him and when he did Mickey beat him up for it, and accused Ray of being a liar. Ray says the priest kept coming after him after that, until he finally turned his attention to “sweet” Bunchy.

“That’s when I decided to kill you, Mick. You’ve been dead to me since that day. You’ve been dead to me since I was 10 years old.”

Mickey says he’s sorry, but Ray says, “There’s no forgiveness for you.”

Avi interrupts, showing up at the gym, and says Sully will be at the Marina. Mickey asks about the plan, but Ray ignores him and he and Avi leave together.

Avi and Ray wait at the Marina. It’s dark. When Sully and Tiny finally show up, Mickey is with them. He says he wants to go with Sully and start a new life too. Sully shoots Avi, gives Ray half of his money back and takes his new passports from Ray. Then Sully and Tiny point guns and Ray. Ray leads them down a dock to what they assume is their getaway boat. Frank is on his boat. He asks Ray what’s going on, and then pulls a gun on Sully. Sully instructs Mickey to take the gun from Frank, which he does. Sully turns his gun to Ray, says he’s taking all of the money and is going to kill Ray. Mickey puts a bullet in Sully’s head, giving Ray a chance to get Tiny’s gun. Frank freaks out, asking how he is supposed to explain that the FBI’s most wanted is on his dock.

Ray says, “You were just in a shootout with Sully Sullivan.” He tidies the crime scene to reflect that and hands the gun back to Frank. He tells Frank to say he hired Ray’s firm to help him find Sully, to explain away all of the details. Frank later looks like a star for the capture.

At the car, Mickey gloats. “I saved your life Ray, Ray. I guess we’re even now.”

Ray says, “Is that how you see it?” Ray hands Mickey a wad of cash and tells him to leave. He says goodbye.

We see Avi in the hospital, with Ray covered in blood at his side. Lena arrives.

The show ends with Ray listening to Abby’s voicemail message, which we’d only partially heard when she left it. She tells Ray she loves him and that he doesn’t have to talk, she just wants him to be there, that she needs him. We see Mickey return to the gym like nothing has happened. He sits down with the boys and they all watch a fight and toast to life. He asks Terry if the cot bunchy slept on is still at the gym. It is, Mickey says, “good.” We see Ray sleeping in a chaise on the beach, his shirt still bloodied from Avi’s shooting. Conor and Bridget arrive and take a chair next to him. As they lie listening to the waves, Abby arrives climbs onto Ray’s chair and the show ends.

Were you looking for a cliffhanger? Did you feel any pity for Mickey?

Follow Stephanie Krikorian on Twitter @StephieKrik.

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