‘Ray Donovan’ Postmortem: Lisa Bonet Discusses How Marisol’s Story Washed Out
[Warning: The following contains spoilers from Sunday night’s episode of “Ray Donovan.”]
Well, knock one more thing off Ray Donovan‘s to-do list for this season to wrap up the loose ends.
Ray (Liev Schreiber) was on the road to redemption with the help of new pal, boxing champ Hector (Ismael Cruz Cordova), who turned out to be in a twisted relationship with his half-sister Marisol (Lisa Bonet). Unfortunately, after she threatened to ruin his life by revealing their sordid secrets, Marisol found out the hard way on Sunday night’s episode what happens when you start mucking up someone’s life in Ray Donovanland.
“I got that infamous call right before you show up at the table read to learn that your time has come,” said Lisa Bonet, who spoke to IndieWire on the phone from London. “I think I did have a pang in my heart because I wish I had a little more time to play in her damaged world.”
Her exit wasn’t so surprising considering Hector’s realization that Marisol was going to make him lose everything – his career, his wife, his daughter – and decided to take matters into his own hands.
He drowned his sister, using the very same warm bath with which she tried to seduce him.
“I was very wet and irritated by the end of the night,” Bonet says of the shoot. “The stunt double did the flailing but I had to be in the water, dead.”
Bonet said she had to “go to my peaceful place. It’s challenging because you have to breathe and the water keeps coming up. And I had to change and get dry several times. I think I was No. 14 on the call sheet that day.
Despite the brutal outcome, Bonet felt there was a genuine love between the half-siblings.
“You don’t know what is really true. They were both wounded people and Marisol was deeply wounded,” said the actress. “She was molested and she never knew what was right and what was wrong, so she was also damaged.”
The two characters began a sexual relationship when Hector was 13 and had been molested by the priest and Marisol was 25.
“I think it was love and I think it was familiar and they saved each other at a time when they needed that,” Bonet said. “It was this understanding of a physical need and chemistry that people have between each other and it became unstoppable for them.”
Playing that complex relationship was challenging but her co-star Cordova made it work. “For me, I need to feel safe to explore those places and remember him looking me and saying, ‘I’ll support your ugly.’ And he did,” Bonet said.
Bonet is currently on vacation with husband, actor Jason Momoa, and their two children. She hasn’t yet had time to watch the episodes she’s appeared in yet, but whenever she does get around to watching, it won’t likely be with her husband.
“I’m married to an alpha male and it’s very hard for him to see me with connect with another man. And vice versa,” Bonet said. “We don’t watch a lot anyway. Raising two wild beautiful rascals, we limit our intake of media. I know that ‘Ray Donovan’ has a loyal following, and it was a real privilege to take the words of talented writers and bring them to life. Acting with this cast, particularly Ismael, made the journey all the more rich.”
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Looking back at where Ray was at the beginning of the season, things were a lot more promising. The fix-it man attending his first abuse survivors’ support meeting, trying to get his family back together and kicking alcohol to the curb.
But “Ray Donovan,” the series and the man, thrives on misery, and the happily ever afters just aren’t going to happen. It’s all about family, choices and debts. And debts are always paid one way or the other.
Like the story Abby tells Mick in Sunday’s episode about the first time she and Ray were “together.” He had put on Eric Clapton’s ode to love “Layla” and then told her to slit his throat and let him bleed out after the song ended because he was never going to be happier than he was in that moment.
With only two episodes left this season it looks as if happiness is once again going to evade our Ray now that the Hector and Marisol story is done and the show is free to focus on Ray’s troubles with the Russians. And we’re pretty certain it’s going to get a lot more ugly.
“The whole show is ‘poor Ray,’” said Bonet. “He never gets a break.”
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