Ep 3. Gem and Loan

As the third episode of season two of Ray Donovan begins, we find Ray in a bit of a bind. His wife Abby has just gone back to Boston to be with her family after her mother's death, leaving Ray to care for their two children on his own. At the same time, he's got a new client to deal with, a Russian oligarch named Andrei who wants Ray to help him get his stolen cash back from a group of thieves.

Meanwhile, Ray's father Mickey is still working with the FBI to bring down Sully, the man who put Mickey behind bars for 20 years. In this episode, Mickey gets wind of a lucrative opportunity to smuggle a shipment of guns from Mexico into the United States, but he needs Ray's help to pull it off.

As the two separate storylines develop, we see Ray struggling to balance his family responsibilities with his intense, high-stakes job as a "fixer" for Hollywood's elite. He's torn between his desire to provide a stable home for his children and his need to chase down leads and track down criminals.

At the same time, Mickey is discovering that his past mistakes and selfish actions are coming back to haunt him in unexpected ways. He's desperate to prove to his family that he's changed and that he's worthy of their love and respect, but he keeps getting sucked into schemes and lies that threaten to destroy what little goodwill he's managed to build up.

Throughout the episode, we see Ray and Mickey both grappling with their own demons and trying to find a way to move forward despite their troubled pasts. The tension between them continues to simmer just below the surface, as Ray struggles to reconcile his love for his father with the anger and resentment he feels over the way Mickey has hurt him and his family in the past.

Overall, "Gem and Loan" is a tense, exciting episode that sets up several key plotlines for the rest of the season. It's a showcase for the show's impressive cast, particularly Liev Schreiber as Ray and Jon Voight as Mickey, who both deliver powerful, nuanced performances. The episode's themes of family, loyalty, and betrayal resonate strongly throughout, making it a standout installment in an already strong sophomore season.