The end has arrived for Showtime’s Ray Donovan series. The popular drama, which ran for seven seasons, wrapped things up Friday night with a two-hour movie that answered a few questions on what made Ray the man he is today.
A film version was necessary thanks to the surprise cancellation after the Season 7 finale, which left fans, star Liev Schreiber, and showrunner David Hollander hanging. After a huge outcry, the decision was made to tie the outstanding threads together and reveal whether the Donovans stand together or go down swinging. After all, Ray doesn’t leave loose ends.
For the uninitiated, Ray Donovan is a professional “fixer” who handles the messy details of illegal activities to protect celebrity clients. The drama also brought out the interactons between Ray’s children, brothers, wife and the menacing patriarch of the family, Mickey, played by Jon Voight, who gets an unexpected release from prison.
*** SPOILER ALERT – DON’T READ PAST THIS LINE IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE FILM
In the Friday finale, the movie picked up where Season 7 ended. Mickey Donovan is on the run, and his son is close behind.
The unexpected result of that confrontation, though, was Mickey being the one to die. But not at Ray’s hand – instead, Ray’s daughter, Bridget, did the deed.
“David and I both agreed early on that it made sense that somebody had to go in the end. And it felt like having Bridget inherit the [Donovan family’s] mantle of pain [by killing Mickey] was an interesting and logical choice,” Schreiber said.
Hollander added, “In my head, it was the only death that could occur… And it had to be [Bridget that pulled the trigger]. Thematically, we’re pushing all of this sh-t downhill, and who’s watching Ray? And it’s Bridget.
The choice to bring things to a conclusion would have been more ambiguous, Hollander said, if the series had continued on for an eighth season.
“It may have been more of a disappearance or a mysterious thing. But the story really is about, not just the legacy of violence, but, “Who is the wolf? Who is the person that’s really stirring the pot?” We had to wake Ray up to his part in all of this because, in a way, he’s the bigger antihero of the two. And he is the genesis of a lot of the things we see in the show.”
Schreiber agreed. “It’s the thing about inherited trauma that’s compelling about the show to me. The conscious and unconscious ways in which we promote and reproduce trauma.”
