Ray Donovan 5.9: Congas

Episode 5.9 of Ray Donovan was just the way I like it - back to the classic Ray.  Although he hasn't gotten over Abby's death, and never will, he's beginning to focus on some other things.

But, actually, my favorite scene, for some reason, was Mickey playing congas on the backsides of the prostitutes in Ray's home.  Or would bongos be a better analogy?  I don't know.  But Jon Voight, who's been giving Emmy-deserving performances in every episode of this series, was never better than he was last night.

I'm also enjoying the writer's-plight-in-Hollywood story that Mickey is delivering this season.  As I said in an earlier review, it rings true as a bell.  I'm always rooting for Mickey, but never more than about this movie.  I hope we get to see it made the way he likes it.

I wasn't happy to see Natalie dead on the bed.  Lili Simmons deserved a bigger or at least longer-lasting role.  But, hey, that's Hollywood, too.  And we now have the mystery of who killed and her sleaze boyfriend or whoever he was exactly.  As soon as he left his dog in the bar, I figured he'd soon be getting his just desert.  As to who killed them?  I'm betting Samantha Winslow.

Back to Ray - so now he's lost not just Abby but Natalie.  About the only bright spot in this episode for him is that Bridget came home.  And she handled what she saw going on with her uncle and grandfather and those prostitutes pretty well.  Will she forgive Ray for what he did to the boy in New York, depriving him of his life-saving treatment?  Will she understand that Ray did it, yes, out of selfishness but still out of love for her mother?

Ray Donovan has always been about family, so I'm thinking the chances are pretty good.

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See Ray Donovan 5.1: Big Change  ... Ray Donovan 5.4: How To Sell A Script ... Ray Donovan 5.7: Reckonings ... Ray Donovan 5.8: Paging John Stuart Mill

See also Ray Donovan 4.1: Good to Be Back ... Ray Donovan 4.2: Settling In ... Ray Donovan 4.4: Bob Seger ... Ray Donovan 4.7: Easybeats ... Ray Donovan 4.9: The Ultimate Fix ... Ray Donovan Season 4 Finale: Roses

And see also Ray Donovan 3.1: New, Cloudy Ray ... Ray Donovan 3.2: Beat-downs ... Ray Donovan 3.7: Excommunication!

And see also Ray Donovan 2.1: Back in Business ... Ray Donovan 2.4: The Bad Guy ... Ray Donovan 2.5: Wool Over Eyes ... Ray Donovan 2.7: The Party from Hell ... Ray Donovan 2.10: Scorching ... Ray Donovan 2.11: Out of Control ... Ray Donovan Season 2 Finale: Most Happy Ending

And see also Ray Donovan Debuts with Originality and Flair ... Ray Donovan 1.2: His Assistants and his Family ... Ray Donovan 1.3: Mickey ... Ray Donovan 1.7 and Whitey Bulger ... Ray Donovan 1.8: Poetry and Death ... Ray Donovan Season 1 Finale: The Beginning of Redemption