"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Monday, January 6, 2020

Ray Donovan 7.8: The Wife



An unusually good episode 7.8 of Ray Donovan tonight, in an unusually good season.  And the single best line, coming from the late, electrocuted O'Malley's son, was about what Jim Sullivan did, not only to Ray's sister, but his "wife".

Now as I've no doubt already mentioned elsewhere in these Ray Donovan reviews, we still don't really know why Ray's sister Bridget took her own life.  I'd always assumed she was going through some kind of profound trauma based on what the priest did to Ray and his brothers.  And she was on drugs.  But, for all we know, Bridget could have jumped off a roof for a completely different reason - because of something Jim Sullivan did to her, or made her do.

There are only two more episodes, and I hope that's time enough for us to get an answer.  But in many ways even more important is what Jim Sullivan did to Abby.

First, let's assume that Ray's wife back then was Abby.  It's not impossible he was briefly married to someone else back then, before Abby.  But not very likely.  We saw an episode or more in an earlier season with Abby and Ray, much younger, in Boston.  Not as young as the Ray in Boston we saw tonight.  Old enough that Ray and Abby were played by Liev Schreiber and Paula Malcomson, but much younger than Ray is now.  I can't quite recall if Bridget was in any of those older episodes, but I'm pretty sure she was, back around the 2013 season?   So that means that Jim Sullivan could well have done something bad to both Ray's wife and his sister, as O'Malley's son indicated.

Which would be a major, story-changing revelation.  It would mean that Ray and his family were victimized not only by the priest, and, in a very different way, but their biological father Mick, but by Jim Sullivan.

I haven't gone into some of the other important developments in tonight's episode, like Daryll's girlfriend apparently killed, and Smitty wearing a wire to entrap Ray.   Those two elements in the story would in themselves make the next two episodes especially worth watching.  But the Jim Sullivan revelation skyrockets that right off the charts.

See also Ray Donovan 7.1: Getting Ahead of the Game ... Ray Donovan 7.2: Good Luck ... Ray Donovan 7.3: "The Air that I Breathe" ... Ray Donovan 7.4: Claudette and Bridget ... Ray Donovan 7.5: Bing! ... Ray Donovan 7.6: Phone Booths and Cellphones ,,, Ray Donovan 7.7: Back Story

See also Ray Donovan 6.1: The New Friend ... Ray Donovan 6.2: Father and Sons ... Ray Donovan 6.4: Politics in the Ray Style ... Ray Donovan 6.6: The Mayor Strikes Back ... Ray Donovan 6.7: Switching Sides ... Ray Donovan 6.8: Down ... Ray Donovan 6.9: Violence and Storyline ... Ray Donovan 6.10: Working Together ... Ray Donovan 6.11: Settled Scores and Open Questions ... Ray Donovan Season 6 Finale: Snowfall and Mick

See also 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 ... Ray Donovan 5.9: Congas ... Ray Donovan 5.10: Bunchy's Money ... Ray Donovan 5.11: I'm With Mickey ... Ray Donovan 5.12: New York

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


It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

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