I've never missed an episode, and I've been sad about the sagging ratings the last couple of seasons (and arguably plummeting ratings might be more accurate), but I can understand why. The tension between doing his specialty and taking care of his family disappeared once Conor went off to TV oblivion and Bridget is doing her own thing, and Abbey gone.
It feels like it's taken a while for the show to find a new footing, with several plotlines just disappearing, characters acting out of character, episodes ending in apparent cliffhangers that the following ones didn't deliver on the promise of, and other issues that seem to creep up whenever a high drama action series starts getting long in the tooth, when they can start feeling more like soap operas. Last season I was worried that the series was going the way that Dexter did, but this season in general proved me wrong, and it's only picked up more and more steam throughout.
But tonight's episode blew me away. Though the main reveal of the episode kind of telegraphed itself from a mile away, it was still satisfying to see how it played out. With Showtime still not announcing on renewing for another season I'm guessing these remaining episodes will be the last of Ray Donovan, but it looks like if they are they'll be going out with a bang. This may be my favourite episode yet (though I'm probably biased with one of my all-time favourite directors doing another great job), I wish more people were tuning back in to give the show another chance, because I know they'd be satisfied.