History Series / RayDonovan

* NeverLiveItDown: In-universe, Mickey is this to some people around him. Even when he’s reminiscing about the good times, someone (mostly Ray) will remind him of the terrible things he has done in the past.

* BadassGrandpa: Sully is quite fearsome despite being fat and middle-aged.
* BadassFamily: No words needed for Ray. All of his brothers are more or less badass. Abby isn’t [[FieryRedhead someone to mess with too]], while Conor is [[IJustWantToBeBadass growing up to be one]]. Mickey is pretty tough too, [[BadassGrandpa despite his age]].

* BigApplesauce: Parts of Season 5 take place in New York City, while the show moves there full time in Season 6 ([[spoiler: after Abby dies)]].

** At the end of Season 5, [[spoiler: Ray himself. He jumps off a roof after following another vision of Abby that does the same thing, but he ends up landing in the river next to the building and presumably survives (assuming the series has a sixth season of course).]]

* TheLancer: Avi is this for Ray.

*** "Horses": [[spoiler:Ray gets Abby into the clinical trial, but not before she dies from assisted suicide.]]

** Like Season 2, Season 3 features a secondary big bad who is much more of a threat. In this instance it's the Minassian Family of the Armenian Mafia (especially Mrs. Minassian, their EvilMatriarch leader), whom Mickey gets involved with to get loans for his new pimping operation (and drags Daryll and Bunchy into it as well). [[spoiler: Mickey being Mickey, he incurs enough of their wrath over the season to the point where they send two hitmen after him. They shoot up his apartment while he's having a "hookers and blow" party, resulting in the death of Daryll's new girlfriend, and the near fatal shooting of Terry (the only reason it wasn't a total massacre is because Ray happened to show up right afterwards and drive them off). The next day Ray and Avi (and Mickey, acting on his own) return the favor at their restaurant HQ.]

->''"We can fix this"''
-->--'''Ray Donovan'''

** Mickey getting involved with the Minassians proves very costly later on, directly leading to the main conflicts of Season 3 and 4.

* TheLostLenore: [[spoiler It happened to Ray (over 20 years back), Bridget, and Darryll respectively.]]

** Season 4 has an even worse counterpart to the Minassian Family of the Armenian Gang is [[spoiler: The Russian Mafia.]]

* {{Badass}}: Ray himself, Sully, also Avi, Ray’s right-hand-man.
** BadassIsraeli: Avi is a former Mossad.
** BadassGrandpa: Sully is quite fearsome despite being fat and middle-aged.
** BadassFamily: No words needed for Ray. All of his brothers are more or less {{Badass}}. Abby isn’t [[FieryRedhead someone to mess with too]], while Conor is [[IJustWantToBeBadass growing up to be one]]. Mickey is pretty tough too, [[BadassGrandpa despite his age]].
** HandicappedBadass: Terry suffers from Parkison’s, which is attributed to his taking too many blows to the head during his last boxing match. He’s still an excellent trainer and can seriously throw down when he needs to. [[spoiler:Subverted, as Ray points out at the end of Conor’s birthday party that he was actually a pretty poor boxer back in Boston]].

** Like Season 2, Season 3 features a secondary big bad who is much more of a threat. In this instance it's the Minassian Family of the Armenian Mafia (especially Mrs. Minassian, their EvilMatriarch leader), whom Mickey gets involved with to get loans for his new pimping operation (and drags Daryll and Bunchy into it as well). [[spoiler: Mickey being Mickey, he incurs enough of their wrath over the season to the point where they send two hitmen after him. They shoot up his apartment while he's having a "hookers and blow" party, resulting in the death of Daryll's new girlfriend, and the near fatal shooting of Terry (the only reason it wasn't a total massacre is because Ray happened to show up right afterwards and drive them off). The next day Ray and Avi (and Mickey, acting on his own) return the favor at their restaurant HQ.]]

** Like Season 2, Season 3 features a secondary big bad who is much more of a threat. In this instance it's the Minassian Family of the Armenian Mafia (especially Mrs. Minassian, their EvilMatriarch leader), whom Mickey gets involved with to get loans for his new pimping operation (and drags Daryll and Bunchy into it as well). [[spoiler: Mickey being Mickey, he incurs enough of their wrath over the season to the point where they send two hitmen after him. They shoot up his apartment while he's having a "hookers and blow" party, resulting in the death of Daryll's new girlfriend, and the near fatal shooting of Terry (the only reason it wasn't a total massacre is because Ray happened to show up right afterwards).]]

** [[Creator/IanMcShane Andrew Finney]] is this for season 3, as he subtly secures this role after [[spoiler:murdering his daughter's husband and his former lover.]] [[OhCrap Then Ed Cochran comes back into the picture]] after being [[spoiler:disgraced, thanks to the controversial sex video and his underling Volchek having killed himself]].

* BigBad: Mickey was this in the first season, before [[BiggerBad Sully]] [[SummonBiggerFish came into the picture to take care of him]] and assumes the role of BigBad throughout the rest of season 1. By season 2, Ed Cochran has become this [[spoiler:after the death of Sully in season 1]].
** BigBadDuumvirate: Mickey and Van Miller, though Van Miller likes to treat Mickey as his [[TheDragon Dragon]].
** Cookie Brown also qualifies for this role in Season 2. He's much more of a threat than Cochran is because he's willing to do his dirty work himself, evidenced when [[spoiler: he personally kills Re-kon and Marvin. In the season 2 finale, he even makes no promises to Ray that he wont come after Bridget later on due to her witnessing his murders, despite Ray paying him off with the money Re-kon owed him. Ray knew damn well the type of person Cookie is (having already tried to warn Lee not to double cross him, who proceeded to do so anyway which led to said killings) and stashed a gun in the duffel bag he had the cash in, ensuring he'd never get the chance to break their deal]].

** [[spoiler:Recon and Marvin, by Cookie Brown]].

* DealWithTheDevil: [[spoiler:Sully and Ray’s deal]]. [[RuleOfSymbolism It is also struck in a church.]] [[spoiler:Ray does this again, to strike a deal with Cochran regarding Mickey]].

** A clearer example is Sully, who talks and acts like a overall affable (if grumpy and snarky) old man, but is actually a ruthless murderer. [[spoiler:His brutal murder of his girlfriend for something that seems relatively minor in hindsight attests this, especially after it’s revealed in the finale he did the same to both of his previous girlfriends]].

** [[spoiler: However, he ends up getting killed by Steve Knight after he intervenes during one of his bouts of abuse towards Ashley. Ray is finally able to convince Ashley to turn him into the police after this.]]

** Cookie Brown also qualifies for this role in Season 2. He's much more of a threat than Cochran is because he's willing to do his dirty work himself, evidenced when [[spoiler: he personally kills Re-kon and Marvin. In the season 2 finale, he even makes no promises to Ray that he wont come after Bridget later on due to her witnessing his murders, despite Ray paying him off with the money Re-kon owed him. Ray knew damn well the type of person Cookie is (having already tried to warn Lee Trexler not to double cross him, who proceeded to do so anyway which led to said killings) and stashed a gun in the duffel bag he had the cash in, ensuring he'd never get the chance to break their deal]].