Ray Donovan recap: One Night in Yerevan

It won’t be long before Mickey Donovan is dead, at least according to Mickey Donovan. He’s preparing for his reluctant sting operation with Detective Muncie, which involves him making jokes about his death and being tailed by an agent all day long. Muncie’s at least somewhat hopeful he’ll make it out alive though, telling Mickey that she’ll set him up in witness protection in Reading.

It’s this thread that influences much of the events in “One Night in Yerevan.” While Ray spends part of the episode dealing with Finney and the new (and old) threat of Cochran, his focus is a bit off because of having to deal with Mickey. For once, helping his father seems to take priority, but as we learn by the end of the episode, helping him might boast some added benefits for Ray.

If Ray’s going to help Mickey with the Armenian mob, that means getting his dad out of some bad business in more ways than one. He starts by heading to Mickey’s apartment and kicking out the sex workers and flushing all the cocaine down the toilet, much to Darryl’s dismay. What’s he supposed to do now? After all, it was Mickey that dragged him into this business. As it turns out, his plan is to steal Mickey’s car and disappear with his girlfriend.

Ray’s plan for Mickey involves bringing in his old employer, Lee Drexler. Ray gets Lee to act as a legal representative for Mickey. Their angle is to say that Mickey is senile, which is signed off on by a doctor whom they pay, and then appoint Ray as his guardian. That means that Mickey can’t rightfully participate in Muncie’s sting. It’s a tactic that works, and Muncie is livid. Now all Ray has to do is convince the Minassians to let Mickey out of the deal they made.

Meanwhile, Cochran is gathering more evidence in his investigation of Ray, using the vetting of the Finney NFL deal as a reason to dig into any potential dirty business. Of course, there’s a lot of dirty business. When checking on Varick’s passport, Cochran finds a picture of Avi. He looks back through Ray’s file and finds Avi as his employee.

Cochran isn’t ready to reveal that information just yet, but he does tag along when his boss goes to interview the Finneys as part of the vetting process. He sees Ray and lets him know that he’s coming for him, and that this time he doesn’t have a whole lot to lose.

Things get more complicated when Finney refuses to do an interview. Ray tries to warn him that they need to be careful with Cochran, but he’s not about to give him details. Finney isn’t swayed to participate though, especially since Ray is still keeping secrets about how he took care of Varick’s body and the murder weapon.

NEXT: Dances with Avi

While Ray attempts to enlist the help of an Armenian pop star, hoping that she can convince the Minassian’s to let Mickey’s deal slide, Bridget is knocking out her classmates. Well, just one, but it’s a solid left hook. That leads to her being suspended and Abby starting to wonder just what’s going on with her daughter.

Worried about Bridget, Abby searches her room for something that will help her figure out what’s wrong. She finds Mr. Donellen’s pill bottle and confronts Bridget about it. When Abby learns the truth, she first threatens to call the cops, but then goes to Mr. Donellen’s house and tells him to quit his job and move. Donellen lies to Abby, telling her that Bridget is just obsessed with her because they both lost loved ones. Considering what Abby knows or intuits about Ray and his business, it’s understandable that she (somewhat) believes it. The situation also brings her closer to Terry, especially when Paige shows up later with new NFL team gear, reminding Abby that her husband is the literal worst.

With that Donovan problem taken care of for now, Ray is back to constructing the most elaborate plans to get Mickey out of a jam. The only way his pop star friend will help is if she’s able to get some press for her new single, which is a political anthem about genocide. Ray makes that happen by blackmailing Flip Brightman with a picture of him using a glory hole in a washroom, getting Flip to let her sing her song on his show. Seriously folks, you can’t make this stuff up.

With her song set to be performed, she’s happy to help Ray, and at just the right time. Mrs. Minassian’s goons seem about to beat Mickey to death when the pop star makes a timely appearance and says she’s a friend of Ray’s. Just like that, all is forgiven, but not for too long. One of her goons sees one of Muncie’s agents following Mickey, and then later sees him again when he’s arrested for sex trafficking, connecting Mickey to the cops.

With Mickey off the hook for now though, Ray’s true plan comes into focus. Back at Mickey’s apartment, he tells his dad that he needs to leave town, that it would be best for the whole family. Mickey refuses, but Ray has the upper hand. The deal he struck with the lawyer confirms that he is Mickey’s guardian, and that Mickey is mentally incapable of taking care of himself. Ray can put him in a home if he wants, especially if Mickey doesn’t agree to leave. That’s one way to treat your dad!

That mess may be cleaned up, but Cochran is getting closer to learning the truth. He meets with Finney, gets a sense of where he stands, and also bribes his way into Avi’s storage locker. Why would a hired killer have a storage locker full of evidence, you ask? I don’t know, just go with it, says Ray Donovan.

Cochran takes a bunch of photos of the storage locker and when he’s perusing them later, he sees the fire poker that was used to kill Varick, the same fire poker that seemed to be missing from Finney’s home. At the end of the episode he shows up at the Finneys’ house, knocks on his window, and shows him the murder weapon. Cochran has what he needs now, but the question is, how will he use this discovery?