Ray Lynn Character Analysis

Ray is Billy's father and Denise Lynn’s husband. In his younger days, Ray was a rock and roll radio DJ, but after the economic recessions after September 11, he had trouble finding work. For his DJ jobs, Ray insisted on keeping apartments in Dallas so that he wouldn't have to commute fifty miles to and from Stovall, which the rest of the Lynn family later learned was a way for Ray to keep his extramarital affairs and teenage daughter secret. This became representative of Ray's regular personality shifts: he often berated his family members with extremely foul language but could switch instantly to his "work voice" when his phone rings. After September 11, Ray doubled down on his conservatism and began working to become a conservative talk radio host. He tested all his material on his family, earning the nickname "America's Prick" from his eldest daughter, Patty. While working on these attempts to become the next big conservative talk radio host, Ray suffered a major double stroke that confined him to a motorized wheelchair and robbed him of his suave voice. When Billy visits his family during the Victory Tour, Ray only grunts when he needs something and spends all of his time watching Fox News and chain smoking. He's petulant and ignores everyone in the family except for his grandson, Brian. Despite Ray’s support for the war, he doesn't treat Billy like a hero, and Billy realizes that nothing he does will allow him to connect with his father or make his father proud of him.