Lena, Ray Donovan

Lena (Katherine Moennig)

Crime drama series Ray Donovan centers around Donovan who works at a law firm and is a “fixer”, meaning he arranges bribes, payoffs, and threats to ensure the outcome desired by his clients. Lena is his assistant and PR press agent.

Lena was introduced in the pilot when she woke up next to an unnamed woman, told her to get dressed and sent her away, implying it was a one-night stand. Later in episode 8, Lena talked to her friend Avi about her girlfriend who was married and refused to leave her husband, saying it was just a “mid-life crisis, fuck a lesbian kind of thing”. Avi suggested she talk to her, which Lena did. When she arrived at the woman’s office she walked straight in and punched her in the face then left again. That was the only time her love interest was shown on-screen. Lena was arrested at the end of the episode, and later admitted she has anger issues and it wasn’t the first time she hit someone.

In season 4 Lena’s ex-girlfriend Jeannie showed up to help talk to Lena’s friend Abby who had just been diagnosed with breast cancer, as Jennie herself was a breast cancer survivor. They took Abby to a strip club where Jeannie first kissed Abby and then made out with Lena.

Most of Lena’s love interests were either mentions in passing, or only seen for a few seconds, played by uncredited actresses, and one-night stands. Lena rarely got much screen time, and when she did, revolved around Donovan, her boss.

Female love interests:

• Jeannie (Rya Kihlstedt, lesbian, guest, 2 episodes)
• Others (off-screen/uncredited)

Relationship story arc with a woman: No

No male love interests

Relationship story arc with a man: No

Male love interest after being identified as a lesbian? No

Filter Relationship Arc:

• None

Storyline during sweeps? No

[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.
[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.