The fourth episode of Ray Donovan season 4 was a step in the right direction after last weeks misstep. It’s far from being back on its A game but the episode didn’t manage to get bogged down in its own bad habits. ‘Sold’ shows a Ray who finally seems to be coming to grips with the hand he’s been dealt. He’s actively deciding to let go of the past in an attempt to move forward. Furthermore, there was finally some movement on the Susan Sarandon front. Sarandon’s character finally returned in episode 4 and divulged a personal tragedy to Ray in which the truth had been covered up long ago. This tragedy seems to be on the verge being made public which is why her character needs Ray’s services. Ray is hesitant but ultimately happy to oblige, no matter how heinous the original act may have been. Making sure this awful event is never brought to light is in Ray’s best interest if for no other reason than keeping his mind off of his own personal issues. The episode veered slightly off course with the arcs of Mickey and Bunchy though.
Mickey has been trying to get his script turned into a major motion picture for quite some time now and in ‘Sold’ he decided to take matters into his own hands, literally. This situation was goofy and somewhat unnecessary but it set up the rest of Mickey’s arc for the episode so it can be forgiven. Bunchy, on the other hand, is another story. Please be aware that the rest of the article will feature minor spoilers for episode 4.
‘Sold’ opened with a somewhat vague shot of two characters that we’d never seen before that were trying to pull off a heist at a local subway knock off. Their racket involved luring customers in and holding them in the back storage area after they had stolen their belongings. This plan is absurd on many levels but I won’t get into that here. Throughout the episode, we see customers being lured into the sandwich shop one by one and they’re taken hostage. At one point it seems as is if there are 15 plus people held up in the back. I guess no one decided to go to the sandwich shop with a friend that decided to wait in the car that day. As the episode draws to a close we see Bunchy pull to the bank that is next door to the sandwich shop. Bunchy is holding an extremely large amount of cash at the time for a big, legitimate business deal that he’s about to invest in. Now, I know Bunchy isn’t supposed to be the brightest bulb in the box, but if you felt strongly enough about your money to put it in a safe at your house, why would you not try and offload the cash as soon as humanly possible to avoid any potential screwups? You’re literally standing in front of where the money’s final destination is supposed to be! I wouldn’t feel comfortable walking into a church with a big bag of cash and I don’t think any real person that can put one foot in front of the other would either. But, of course, Bunchy tummy was growling and he felt the need to go into this sandwich shop that was conveniently being held up in the worst way possible, at the worst time possible, and the metal bros who were holding the store up got away with all of his cash. This arc of the story is truly one of the worst things I’ve ever seen on TV and I’m really glad there are other characters on this show because if there weren’t they would have lost a viewer for life.
Besides the truly, historically awful bunchy arc. The show managed to get mostly back on track and I’m looking forward to seeing how every other character besides Bunchy’s arc plays out over the course of the rest of the season.
Ray Donovan airs Sunday’s at 8 PM EST on Showtime.
