Season 7 Finale SPOILERS
Wow! Best! Ray! Donovan! Episode! Ever!
I’ve loved this show from the get-go. This tied SO MUCH together. We learned Ray’s sister killed herself because Jim Sullivan used his power to force her to have sex with him and got her pregnant, and because her scumbag father, Mickey, hung up on her when she called him for advice about what she should do!
The casting of an actress who looked so much like Ray’s daughter, Bridget, to play Ray’s tragic sister, Bridget, was clearly deliberate.
Mickey’s completely contemptible piece-of-shit-God-foresaken-hood is finally manifest, palpable and irrefutable. Voight is an AMAZING actor (as is Eddie Marsan), but the days of anyone thinking Mickey is funny and enjoyable ended with him pissing all over his family and leaving Smitty—still fighting for life—to die in the street.
Smitty’s death was required. Bridget needs to be with a man. Smitty was not a man.
I think it’s telling that the script was written by series Executive Producer David Hollander and series star Liev Schreiber, and was directed by Hollander. The heavyweights were behind this one.
On a personal note, because this may have resonated with none but Yours Truly, the song, You’ll Never Walk Alone (from The Fantastiks) has always moved me, and I’ve always found that Elvis Presley’s rendition is the most beautiful, and it was THAT with which this amazing episode ended. The man IS The King of Rock n’ Roll, but he could also sing a ballad or a hymn that moves every cell in your body.
Fantastic episode!