Hear Bobby Axelrod say it: “Previously on Billions”
As we cannot wait for Billions Season 3 to arrive in a couple of days, we would like to share with you our recaps from Season 2 Finale as a refresher about where we left our characters. We will again have weekly Billions episode reviews Mondays (Damianista), Wednesdays (JaniaJania) and Fridays (Lady Trader) this season. Hope you come visit us, read our reviews and join the conversation on Fan Fun!
Damianista
We find Bobby “Fucking” Axelrod, who believes he kicked some major Rhoades ass, meditating for the first time this season. His peace is cut short by a knock on the door: Boyd has come to tell him windbreakers are coming for him today and he would be happy to hold his watch. Axe is determined to stay and fight this but it seems Hall is the first one to jump ship. Axe takes the E-ZPass off his car and takes off.
Chuck meets Dake in THE church. Dake is confident his office is capable of taking Axe at the closing bell today. Chuck asks if Dake could make sure there is no leak about his family’s involvement in Ice Juice IPO. Yes, some unimaginative types may call this a cover-up, but not Chuck! Dake is not giving this to Chuck and he also seems to ignore Chuck’s word of caution that if he goes after Axe on his own, he would better carry a good supply of body bags with him!
Minchak is not giving an easy time to Chuck, either. And I think she takes off those shoes to keep Chuck under her spell! She is not happy about finding Chuck’s DNA all over an operation Eastern is running. And she does not buy Chuck saying he is in the process of getting an assurance from Dake that Chuck Sr’s involvement in Ice Juice will never see the daylight, and his father is ready to take the hit if this fails. Minchak does not need Chuck to charm her, she just needs all guarantees in writing. There is no room for “might” in Foley’s world.
Axe arrives at Axe Capital like a man on the run. He does not need coffee only burn bins! He takes his passport and his phones from the safe and Deb will make sure the rest gets to be torched. They need shredders for paper files (we know from Klaxon how unsafe shredders may be!) and plasma torches for hard drives! All outside money will exit within 24 hours of an arrest so there should be a new CIO in place to manage the rest. Even though Axe is not ready for someone else to be the CIO, he knows Wags is right that what they do or do not do seconds after his arrest will make a difference of millions of dollars. Axe gives Wags a phone for the day’s communication and Taylor a homework with three questions one of which is the REAL question: Find the best way to liquidate all their positions quickly with minimum loss. Taylor is on it.
Axe has another question in mind: What will he say to his boys? Easy one for Wags:
“Tell them the truth. The government is a bunch of fucking liars.”
Read the rest of Damianista’s review here.
JaniaJania
We sit in the mud, my friend, and reach for the stars.
― Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons
Here we are, at the end of Season 2 of Billions, and what a ride it’s been. I know I’m not alone in wishing that these folks wrote and worked and filmed and screened all at the same time, so we wouldn’t have to suffer the excruciating dry months of waiting for the next season to start. In this season, the entire lot of them exceeded all expectations. The story was tight, the performances even tighter. It’s like they all came into their own skins this season and it was a treat to watch.
My review here won’t be a recap, because you’ve already read those. Instead I’ll focus on the father and son scenes central to Season 2, Episode 12, “Ball in Hand.” And I can’t leave the season without talking a bit about Bobby and Wendy. While most other connections between characters are clear, it seems there reigns a central mystery, still, between who Bobby and Wendy are to each other. This season, wonderfully, didn’t solve the mystery a bit, it only intensified it.
Fathers and Sons – Rhoades
Chuck puts his foot down with Wendy and is done with counseling, basically telling her if she wants to come home, she can. If she doesn’t, then all he knows is:
Life without you is a misery.
He drops the news of what he’s done to the biggest investors in his scheme, Ira and his father. Of course, they are shocked at the news and the humongous loss they’ve all suffered, all for the sake of getting Axe’s head on a platter. There have been law suits flying back and forth between Chuck and Axe all year, ever since the destruction of Axe Cap last season, so everyone knows Chuck has to stay clear of letting any of what is about to happen touch him. The long, sorted history of going after Axe as well as the conflict over Wendy, assures that Chuck cannot take any of the heat. He’s drafted the documents assuring that very thing.
Ira: You baited him.
Here’s that pesky problem of entrapment, which I alluded to in my last post. Baited, trapped…yet not entrapped, as Chuck later clarifies. Methinks we’re not done with this issue of semantics, a fine bone of contention, just yet, and, as we speak, they’re getting the brightest legal minds of NY to help them solve the issue, or at least invent the fiction around it convincingly, for Season 3. As for the money, Ira quitting his job, relying on Ice Juice to carry him through:
Chuck: You’ll get it back.
Ira: After he’s convicted, after another 4 to 7 years of dragging him thru court.
Chuck: When I’m governor…
Read the rest of JaniaJania’s review here.
