Ray Donovan Season 5 Episode 9 Review: Mister Lucky
Paul Dailly
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Ray Donovan cannot catch a break, can he?
On Ray Donovan Season 5 Episode 9, Hollywood's most notorious fixer found himself at the center of a media storm when a story about him and Natalie living together and expecting their first child made the rounds on the show's version of TMZ.
On paper, it sounds like a great plan on Landry's part to throw someone else in the frame for being the baby daddy. In the process, it put Natalie right in the crosshairs of her delusional ex-husband.
He knew he was going to die for taking a strike at her and that's why he left the dog behind. Nothing good was going to come from his crazy actions.
I breathed a huge sigh of relief when his body was the one on the street. I presumed there was some sort of scuffle and Natalie sent him crashing to his death.
I was so sure Ray was going to find her in shock about the whole thing and that it was going to bring them closer than ever. The revelation that Natalie had been murdered hit me like a ton of bricks.
It came out of nowhere, and you could tell it also crushed Ray. Despite pushing her away, he has grown closer to her over the course of Ray Donovan Season 5.
I'm not one for people rushing into relationships so soon after becoming a widower, but there was something about Ray and Natalie together that made for great TV.
It's difficult even to call it a relationship when it seemed like Ray was essentially a father figure to Natalie. He was so protective of her and did not want her to become another casualty of Hollywood.
Something had to happen to unite Ray and Sam until death, and taking down Landry will be that thing. Vicky being alive came out of the left field.
Her death was hinted at a little too much a few weeks ago, so I had to squint when I noticed she was still in the land of the living. Having Landry be the one causing all of the crap was not entirely surprising.
Ray essentially told Sam to get rid of him, so he retaliated, and it's just unfortunate it has resulted in a real stunner of a death. Landry had best hide because there's a good chance he will be following Natalie to the other side in a matter of weeks.
The other big shocker involved Bunchy's quest for his money. The whole money storyline did not flow well with the rest of the episode. It felt like those scenes were added in at the last second to pad the episode out.
That being said, the big shootout for the cash was crazy, and it's only going to make matters worse because Dukane was inside Bunchy's car, and they will already be linked together because Bunchy was the one to bail him out.
Bunchy would have been wise to go to the authorities because it's only a matter of time before the whole family is sent to the slammer.
Mickey threatening Jay White was a bold move, and he should have prepared himself for the tremendous consequences that are going to come his way on the back of it.
Given the fact that Jay is one of the most popular actors in the world, there will be a crazy amount of media attention surrounding the whole thing, and that crappy news channel will be covering all of it.
I can get on board with Mickey being mad about signing away his creative control and having a different iteration of his work released to the masses, but he should have thought about the can of worms he was opening before making that phone call.
Jay has already proven that he's close to snapping in the past, and Mickey has screwed everything up. It's only a matter of time before the truth comes out about Frank, and I don't see Ray helping get him out of the slammer when it goes nuclear.
"Mister Lucky" was one shocking hour of television. Every single time I caught my breath, something crazy was just around the corner.
Other tidbits from the episode:
- What will become of Terry now that he's let the gym go and that Ray hates him? Will he skip town and start afresh elsewhere?
- Bridget returning home to watch her Grandfather and Uncle's drug-fueled binge with prostitutes may have been crazy, but something tells me that was not the most shocking thing she's seen from the family in her time.
- Ray following the vision of Abby to help the man at the Marilyn Monroe square was actually well-executed. It was like Abby was asking Ray to look out for him.
- We've not seen nearly enough of Smitty to feel sorry for him. It sucks what happened, but we need some more character development to really care.
- Did anyone else expect Ray to break Sam's son's hand? That dude was persistent, and Ray was not impressed.
Remember you can watch Ray Donovan online right here via TV Fanatic. Get caught up on all of the shocks right now!
Over to you, Ray Donovan Fanatics! What did you think of the big twists?
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Ray Donovan continues Sundays on Showtime!
Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.
