Bloodline: 5 Reasons Danny Rayburn Was The Worst (& 5 Reasons His Family Was)

The lives of the Florida Keys Rayburn siblings are shaken by the tension-filled return of their estranged brother, Danny (Ben Mendelsohn) in this thrilling, slow-burn mystery. Created by Glenn and Todd Kessler, Netflix’s Bloodline was nominated in the Emmy Awards for every season of its 3-year run and came to its climactic end in 2017.

The black sheep of the family with a crime-riddled past, Danny Rayburn can be seen as the villain of the story, but the show cleverly explores the rest of the family’s skewed views of morality. Are they truly just “good people who did a bad thing”? Here is a list of 5 reasons why Danny Rayburn is the worst, and 5 reasons why it’s actually his family that is to blame.

10 Danny: His Actions Led To Sarah’s Drowning

Danny’s painful past with his family stems from a tragedy that happened during his teenage years. He takes his little sister on the family boat by themselves for a fun day in the sun.

Sarah loses her prized seahorse necklace off of the boat and jumps in to save it, but a simple swim turns tragic when she gets stuck under the water and drowns before Danny is able to save her. It was a horrific accident, but Danny was the older brother, and he also made the choice for them to go out without an adult. It’s the unfortunate first in a string of bad decisions that ruin his life.

9 His Family: His Father Abused Him (And The Family Covered It Up)

After Sarah’s death, Robert Rayburn (Sam Shepard) beats his teenage son in a blind rage that leaves Danny badly injured and with a broken arm. Danny’s resulting shoulder injury continues to cause him problems throughout his life, and even decades later, he is prescribed medication to manage the pain.

Despite the severity of his abuse and his need for medical attention, the Rayburn family covers it up. His siblings lie to the police, and John (Kyle Chandler) even gives a recorded testimony that Danny was hit by a drunk driver.

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8 Danny: He Stole The Cooking School Money

The Rayburns make a lot of mistakes when it comes to Danny, but it can’t be said that they never try to help him. John Rayburn and his wife, Diana (Jacinda Barrett), offer to pay for Danny’s cooking school so that he can make something out of his life doing something that he enjoys.

They later find out that Danny only went to the first day of classes, and that he pocketed the rest of the money. Danny did attempt to continue his cooking career and opened a restaurant of his own, but like many of Danny’s endeavors, the business failed.

7 His Family: They Treated Danny Like An Outsider

Danny has spent years floating in and out of his family’s lives. He returns home to celebrate the 45th anniversary of his parent’s seaside inn, but it’s clear that his father and his siblings are just waiting for him to do something to mess up everyone’s fun.

They repeatedly doubt and degrade Danny behind his back, leave him out of family discussions, and even take a vote on whether he’s allowed to come back there to live. The only person that seems truly happy to see him is his mother, Sally (Sissy Spacek).

6 Danny: He Ran Drugs Out Of His Mother’s House

Sally Rayburn chose to cover up her husband’s abuse, but she has tried to make it up to her son with relentless trust and affection that he doesn’t get from the rest of the family. Unfortunately, Danny is Danny, and a lifetime of bad decisions make the good decisions that much harder, and bad options way easier to find.

His sick cycle continues when he gets involved with old friend with an equally checkered past, Eric O’Bannon (Jamie McShane). It comes out that not only was Danny involved in running drugs, but he was stashing them at the Rayburn family inn.

5 His Family: Kevin Slept With Chelsea

Other than Sally, the other person truly happy that Danny is back in town is Eric’s sister, Chelsea O’Bannon (Chloe Sevigny). They have a friends-with-benefits relationship, and though it’s casual, there are some implied feelings.

Their relationship isn’t a secret, but that doesn’t stop Danny’s brother, Kevin (Norbert Leo Butz). He gets drunk with Chelsea at a bar, and the two end up “accidentally” sleeping together. It’s a pretty serious violation of bro-code to sleep with a sibling’s steady hook-up and shows how little respect he has for Danny.

4 Danny: He Was A Deadbeat Dad

Danny’s relationship with his father is unhealthy and complicated, and he misses the mark with his own estranged son, Nolan (Owen Teague). Danny is not a present or a reliable dad.

He is a terrible example in general, and his own criminal past doesn’t help. He is there for only sporadic pieces of Nolan’s life. He does truly love Nolan and tries to improve their relationship, like when he brings him to the restaurant and teaches him how to cook, but something always happens that causes their relationship to dissolve again.

3 His Family: They Caused Danny’s Mental Trauma

Danny has experienced years of abuse – outright by his father, and more subtly from his siblings. He didn’t have a support system after the trauma of witnessing his sister’s death. He only had injuries from his father beating him, a family that lied to the police, and a lifetime of their judgment and rejection that likely led him down his troubled path.

He has nightmares and flashbacks that indicate he has PTSD, and he also hallucinates talking to his dead sister as a grown woman. His drug use likely exacerbates that, but that doesn’t change that his family contributed to, if not outright caused his mental trauma.

2 Danny: He Is Constantly Manipulative

Danny manipulates and blackmails his way through life. He is a great people-reader, and easily works out his family’s secrets without even trying. He takes advantage of his mother’s trust, he threatens to expose his sister Meg’s (Linda Cardellini) affair, and he purposely says uncomfortably sexual things to upset the power balance in conversations.

His worst moment is when he takes his niece on a boat ride and gives her a necklace that matches the one Sarah wore. It’s a calculated move to mess with his brother’s head, and it works. John and Diana take it as a direct threat.

1 His Family: They Killed Him (And Covered It Up)

In a painfully poetic move, Danny Rayburn dies by drowning at the hands of his brother, John, after a lifetime of guilt for his part in his sister’s accidental death. Rather than immediately give himself up, John enlists his siblings’ help to cover up his crime.

Throughout the rest of the series, he lies and withholds information from his family, and he abuses his power as sheriff’s deputy. The remaining Rayburn siblings try to justify their actions, but deep down, they know that they are now guilty of the same crime that they blamed Danny for his whole life.

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