Fish and Bird is one of those episodes.
Things start off simply enough.
Mickeys for sure turning himself into the cops and taking the fall for the Armenian murders.
Credit: Michael Desmond/Showtime
It looks like Mickeysfinallytaking one for the family.
How it will affect the Donovan clan is the big question.
Back at home, Ray and Abby once again talk about her cancer and potential treatments.
Basically, Abby is willingly killing herself.
Hes already losing a father, however complicated and harmful, to prison.
The last thing he needs is to lose his wife, too.
Just another day in the Donovan house.
No wonder they all drink as much as they do.
With his family doing their thing, Ray goes to visit Ms. Kovitsky.
He assumes that since Mickeys in prison now, theyre square.
She has other ideas, though.
She says that until Belikov is released, he owes her.
Its the first hint Rays actually considering the implications of letting Belikov out of prison.
Itll make Ashley feel better, insists Stu.
She admits hes right, and apparently her cancer is terminal.
But who has time for such things when theres art and underage girls to be smuggled!?
Kovitsky gives Ray another job: Deliver a forgery of the painting to Stu the next day.
Again, Ray refuses to leak the tape to the media.
I cant even imagine what the point of this storyline is.
Thats when things getreallyweird.
Kovitsky brings him into a large white room, empty except for a single chair.
She says she wants to show him something.
She flicks on some sort of image projection that shows stars and other nighttime nature scenery.
She blabs on about the universe and energy and how shell join the stars when shes dead.
Then she takes her top off and reveals her breast with a scar.
She asks Ray if shes beautiful, and the two make out and, presumably, much more.
Again, whats the story here?
Its a Catholic-guilt thing or something, or maybe a Boston thing.
All that matters is everything goes off the rails at this point.
Everything is bad, and the Donovans only make it worse.
Ray feels like hes losing everything; his father, his wife, control of his business.
His mental state is what makes the episodes climax so powerful.
Ray goes with him, but getting rid of the girls body isnt the outcome.
He cant take the injustice anymore, so he shoots Belikov in the face and putshisbody in a crate.
Nothing is ever normal onRay Donovan.
