'Ray Donovan' Season 4 Finale Postmortem: Showrunner Talks the Family’s New Closeness, Hints at Season 5’s Hollywood Focus
Warning: This interview contains spoilers for the “Rattus Rattus” Season 4 finale episode of Ray Donovan.
They’re alive! Heading into a Season 4 finale where it was in no way a given that the Donovans, especially titular fixer Ray (Liev Schreiber), would end the season intact individually or as a family thanks to a tiff with the Russian mob, the final scene left us with Ray watching his family dance at a celebration of Dimitri’s death, Hector Campos’s boxing championship after being trained by Terry, Abby’s (apparent) cancer remission, and a newfound closeness between Ray, his father, and his brothers.
Ray Donovan showrunner David Hollander talked to Yahoo TV about Ray’s evolution in Season 4, how his willingness to be vulnerable with his family is what saved him, how heartbroken Mickey and half-brother Daryll also earned their way into the newfound Donovan closeness, and whether or not moral center Terry will get to enjoy his happiness with Maureen, Damon, and the gym. He also hinted at what the show will focus on in Season 5.
It’s a good surprise to end the season with all the Donovans alive, and not in jail.
Yeah, we did a mousetrap this year.
Abby tells Ray at the end that no one can touch them. And they, Ray specifically, only survived the threats coming at them because they all finally worked together as a family. Is that the takeaway of Season 4?
I think for sure. I mean, dramatically we walked into the season experimenting with where Ray was going to put his faith. Was it going to be faith in God, faith in the Catholic church, faith in another human being like Hector or Romero, faith in himself, ultimately landing with faith in family. Ray is more himself than he’s ever been. He may be more devilish and darker than ever at the end of the season, but he has evolved fully into someone who has brought his family close, and at least is showing his true self and his vulnerability to them.
I love when Sonia tells Ray she was trying to use her art business as a way to climb out of her life, when maybe she should have just accepted who she was. The look on his face said that resonated with him.
Absolutely. I think any time you’re writing a character study of a sort of titular character, every guest you bring on is a facet of that character’s personality, or they don’t have any traction. Sonia definitely represents, in a way, Ray’s own desire to be different than who he was and his own realization at the end of this year that that’s not going to work for him, either. Sonia ends up dead, and Ray ends up surviving only by going back to his roots.
What is Ray’s philosophy going forward, then?
I think Ray is ready to be honest and vulnerable with his family. Whether that will work, we’ll see. I think he is ready to. Not like he was this year, which was to sort of hide himself in a new persona or a new version of himself, a sober, God-fearing, church-going, forgiving Ray Donovan, who he was hoping or aspiring to be when we first met him this season, after last year’s chain of events. Moving forward, Ray will be Ray, the person he’s always been, honestly, in front of the people he loves, for good and for bad. We’ll see what happens with that.
Two of the most fun scenes of the whole series happened this season: Ray singing Bob Seger karaoke with Cochran, and Ray playing Just Dance with Conor. Those were just purely delightful moments to watch as a fan of the show, to see that character cut loose, as much as Ray would, anyway. Also, fitting in with what you just said, they were him being a little more vulnerable than he has been in the past, with some surprising people.
That’s very astute and very true. Those were carefully thought out from the writing side, because we knew we were taking risks with the character, opening him up in ways that stepped a little further than he’s been open before. He has danced before, he’s done these things before, but they were more abstractions and responses to pain, if you will. His vulnerabilities before were really generally driven by him being in either agonizing psychic, physical, or emotional pain. To dance with Conor, just because Conor asked him to, or to sing karaoke as a trade with Cochran with an unknown result, those are all elements of the character that are new to us. It was interesting to do them, because we knew we were pushing the limit. We certainly saw and felt that some of the audience didn’t love that, and some of the audience did. I guess I feel, from where I sit, it’s important that the character that we’ve all been living with so long goes through some changes and value systems change in front of our eyes. I’m glad we did it. I’m glad you liked it.
The karaoke, with Cochran (Hank Azaria)… that character really continues to be the gift that keeps on giving.
Oh, no doubt. Hank really, because he’s so talented and so able to ground comedy in honest drama, he’s a rare actor for us that can both be very funny and still maintain a sense of authenticity. We really need him for that pivot, because he’s not a comedian by nature, but he’s very funny. He’s actually an actor who has this very wry, dark, comedic sensibility. We love him. Whenever he comes every season, we’re always excited to have him, because he always creates a lot of change and a lot of fun.
This season, there was a new, and really fun, dynamic change between Cochran and Ray — the karaoke scene, but even more in the water torture scene — where they had a grudging respect for each other. It was almost like a buddy comedy between the two of them.
That’s exactly how we thought of it. Initially, it was sort of a spy-versus-spy idea where we wanted Ray and Cochran to go after each other. Then, there came this moment where the idea of them colluding and working together was far more interesting, each knowing the other was going to screw him over. Each knowing it was just a matter of time, so every moment they had together was precious. I love that waterboarding scene. I think that waterboarding scene turned out so well because you can feel them both equally hating the persona of the smug Hollywood agent. Each of them knowing the minute that the shoe drops and the information comes out, this is when they will take that information and go after each other. The minute the agent says Ezra’s name, their relationship — and they both know it but would never say it to each other — is over.
Safe to assume Cochran will return in the future?
Oh, absolutely. Hank and I are good friends, and we talk a lot. I always scour Hank’s schedule long before we start writing, so that I understand when he’s available to join us and try to figure out a way to make it work.
Emmy-winning Hank now.
Emmy-winning Hank, that’s right. The only Emmy winner so far. Hank has something that none of us have here, which is a Ray Donovan Emmy.
It’s crazy that that’s the case, but I’m sure you’ll take it. That’s a great win.
We’re so happy for Hank, and we were thrilled when he won. He’s coming out today to spend the [Emmy] weekend with everybody, so we’re looking forward to being with him.
Related: Emmy Talk: Hank Azaria on the Fun of Playing His Disgraced ‘Ray Donovan’ FBI Agent, Ed Cochran
Jon Voight as Mickey is certainly another Emmy-worthy Ray Donovan performer. There were plenty of great, lighter moments with him this season, as there always are, but we also saw him genuinely heartbroken after the death of Sylvie. The upside of that is that it brought him closer to the family, in a way we’ve never seen.
Absolutely, and he has been more accepted by the family. Abby has always had sort of a closeness and acceptance of Mickey, and it’s been sort of a joint discussion between the writers, myself, and Jon, the whole feeling of the story. Mickey has an incredibly attractive duality of viciousness and love. Every year we kind of toy with both. This year, I think Mickey’s dreams were so earnestly thought out. He felt so horrible for what happened at the end of last season, letting that puncture him, Terry’s shooting and his responsibility for it, and actually leaving Los Angeles and ending up in Nevada. When we find him this year, he is so earnestly going after a new life with a new name, a new idea, and new love. That construct really lived long this year. The loss of Sylvie, and the loss of the idea of a last love, I think, initially made him the old Mickey — murderous, rageful and scary Mickey. By the end of the season, it also allowed a window into him where Ray was actually looking to his father for help. As magical as that moment is when he walks in with the drugs in the painting, it was designed — Mickey needed to deliver salvation to Ray, and he got it.
Even with Terry. Terry seemed like the last one who would ever sort of embrace Mickey.
The ending of this season… Ray is watching his family dance. They’re all together, and they’re all on the same page. That is the momentum that the show wants to have right now, which is a very dynamic family that has a lot of love, a lot of hope, and also a lot of criminality. We’ll see what they do with that.
We have to talk about Terry for a minute. Eddie Marsan just breaks your heart over and over again. It’s fantastic to see Terry potentially find some happiness and companionship with Maureen the cop. This doesn’t seem like his past relationships. This could actually move forward. But we also saw him stumble in the locker room, suggesting his health is definitely deteriorating. Will Terry get to enjoy this new relationship at all?
Of course. First, [Eddie] is brilliant. I say “we” when we talk about the show, because he makes this show with me. In this individual, he makes my life so much easier as a showrunner and writer, because he’s so brilliant. They all are, but he gets so much less, and he makes so much of what he gets. The reason you remember him so vividly is, he only may have five or six scenes an episode, but they’re all memorable. He’s extraordinary. The storyline that is being concocted right now really looks at Terry in both the peak of his happiness coming up and also the true beginning of his descent. I want to live with that.
You also tackled mental health issues this season with Bunchy and Teresa. Her problems pre-date her postpartum depression, and this is something they’re potentially going to deal with throughout their marriage.
I think her character is a really important part of Bunchy’s evolution. She stands for something that is deep inside of Bunchy’s makeup. I think that her insanity is also Bunchy’s insanity. It’ll be interesting to see where that goes.
He is someone who has been taken care of, that the rest of the family has seen as someone they had to take care of, that they didn’t maybe have respect for in terms of believing that he could take care of himself. Is he, now, with Teresa and the baby, getting a chance to step up and prove them wrong?
Exactly. He has a chance to practice taking care of somebody who reminds him of himself.
Ray and Abby… she tells him in the finale that her cancer is going away. She doesn’t get specific, and with everything else going on, he’s happy to get that news. But do we know for sure that she’s telling him the truth?
No, we don’t.
There’s sort of a feeling that she could be simply taking a lot on herself, that she sees the family has come together and has a lot to celebrate, and she doesn’t want anything bad hanging over them.
Yep, could be. There’s no evidence other than her word.
Ray and Abby end the season genuinely closer, bonded in a way they maybe haven’t been before?
Absolutely. There is a bond there that is essentially the best it’s ever been.
Conor… he’s growing up and is very confused about his family. Unlike Bridget, he really wants to embrace who he thinks his father is, what he thinks the family is. Something to be explored next season?
Yes. We’re reaching college years for those kids. I think it’s important that we are going to treat that construct as well, which is, no matter what, Conor and Bridget are going to be forced to walk the sort of crooked ladder to success that the Donovans all missed themselves. Not so much Sopranos-esque, but certainly they need to have their experiences. I think Conor’s initial desire to be like his father will change a little bit once he is separated from his father.
Daryll, poor Daryll. He wants so badly to be a bigger part of the family. With this last act in the finale, helping to get rid of Dimitri and the Russian mobsters, is that going to move him closer to getting the level of acceptance and respect that he so craves from his brothers?
Yes, absolutely. I think that when we start next year, the audience will find a new level of participation from all of the brothers in Ray’s life.
Will hosting Hector’s championship training prove to be a boon for the Donovan gym?
Absolutely, and particularly for Terry. And there’s a lot of energy that we put into this Damon story, Terry and Damon, and that story will continue as well.
Dimitri and his closest cohorts have been dealt with, permanently, by the Donovans. But he could have some mafia cohorts running around elsewhere who won’t be happy about his demise. Should we not assume that this problem has completely gone away?
I would tell the audience to be free to not worry about that. Personally, as a writer, I’m not interested in getting back to that. So, if it becomes something essential, we’ll go from there. I have much different ideas for next season than more of this sort of idea.
Fantastic. Can you hint at that?
Yeah, I think my desire for [Season 5] is really all about a full-on Hollywood assault. A grand Hollywood year. It’s going to be a little concentrated now, but that’s where we’re going. Family focused, Hollywood, boxing, relationship between Abby and Ray, and the brothers working more closely with Ray.