Previously on Billions…
Pete Decker is on the phone and apparently trying to make a ‘gold play’ to Bobby. If you have been paying attention you know Gold is not currently a good investment. It is quite interesting that Danny Margolis made contact with Bobby in the Pilot and here we have Decker with a play which is utterly ludicrous to even think Bobby would get involved. Hmmm…I make that two out of three.
Wags tries admirably to keep transport low key because some investors have had their feathers ruffled by Bobby and his beach house being all over the Post, but the King isn’t having it.
Over at Chuck’s office, Bryan is lecturing on noodles while they discuss how to bag Axe. Pete Decker’s name comes up again as the ‘in’ to getting at Axe. Chuck orders that all of Decker’s Analysts and Traders should be tracked and they jump on the first one to make a mistake.
“That Ponzi thing” is mentioned. We have no indication of what that is, but as Kate was just discussing “spraying shit all around” maybe we should take note of it.
Lara asks Bobby how much he likes the Building. “Good question” says he. He clearly likes it a lot except for the name on the front and is willing to do something about it.
While Bobby is bumping fists with “Birchy”, Tara is compromising herself by doing drugs. She then gets a call for a quote on Birch’s Arcadian Railroad deal which the Financial Journal plan to run a story on.
Chuck and Bryan are not happy at knowing nothing about this and also having to move investigation from Axe to Birch.
Orrin Bach (Bobby’s lawyer), Wags and Bobby are having a meeting about the file opened against Bobby by the US Attorney. Orrin’s advice to leveraging a settlement is that you have to act like you’d never settle.
It all kicks off at the charity do where Penn Jillette is encouraging everyone to give their money away. In the midst of all of this the Financial Journal post goes viral and Birch has the smile wiped off his face.
Wendy shows how to conduct a session without conducting a session as she gets Maria ready for her morning meeting with “the animals”. We see why she thinks she may have needed it. Victor the insecure covering with cocky and arrogant. Pouch the Punchbag going with the safe option and staying long. The others trying to hide. Maria shorts everyone’s ass in the end. Looks like Wendy’s non-session worked. Speaking of Maria, it seems her stock includes hospitals which are very easily linked to pharmaceuticals…we did all pick that up didn’t we?
Wags getting worked up is delicious. Keep them coming, Wags!
SEC compliance show up and take over Axe Capital. We see various Portfolio Managers and Analysts being interviewed and the majority flunk majorly.
Bill refuses to answer questions, answering only “lawyer”. Even when it is pointed out his boss said he should co-operate, he still simply says “lawyer”. Do some of them really think “Event Driven Strategy” is an impervious code the SEC can’t understand? Bill knows if he says nothing he does not incriminate himself.
Victor flunks as well, not because he answered their questions, but because of the one he himself asks the guy interviewing him which was “how much do you make?”
Wendy shows she’s no push over and compliance guy is not getting her files.
Then comes the bombshell from Axe – this was a ‘lifeboat drill’ not a real SEC raid which is just as well as “we’d have sunk”. Axe capital now have a compliance team there to protect them.
Victor seems to find the issue funny and asks “how are we supposed to make any money?”. A fair enough question you may say for a business, but it isn’t what he asks, it is how he asks and why he is asking that does it for him and sets Axe off. I am thinking the head of the compliance team probably mentioned Victor’s question to him and I doubt Axe would have liked it. Victor finds himself on the wrong side of (the) Axe.
Wendy comes in to do a few things (1) let Axe know she’s not happy at being left on the outside re the ‘lifeboat drill’; (2) she’s not taking his bullshit; and (3) Victor will look for revenge which is actually fairly obvious.
Lara makes a call about making a donation to “Ellis Eads Hall” and about naming rights.
Bobby is at Ellis Eads Hall and isn’t impressed with the performance of Sean Ayles, telling him “now give me the Gettysburg Address”. A nod to Homeland season 2 there from Billions? Regardless, Sean is not used to someone like Bobby. Bobby does with Sean what Wendy did with him a couple of scenes ago and cuts through the bullshit and gets right to the point. He’s willing to make a donation and pay the Eads to take their family name down from the front of the hall and put his up.
Tara comes home to a nice present. Hall is in her house with some blackmail material and simply tells her she is going to “watch, listen and report”.
Team Chuck is all over Birch and don’t like that they’re playing catch up. Chuck wants the reigns back in their hands. Chuck pays Mike Diamonda a visit to try and get it out of him who leaked the Birch information to him and to get him onside. Mike doesn’t yield to Chuck’s pressure.
We’re staying with Chuck who seems to have an attack of conscience while out with his kids as he sees a guy he has sentenced to 4 years in prison in line behind them, so he tries to pay for whatever Mr Kroll wants. Mr Kroll doesn’t take the “kindness” and lets Chuck know exactly what he thinks of him.
Bobby tasks Pouch with shorting Cross Co who have a big distribution contract with YumTime (episode 3 title). Pouch seems to know about Cross Co and tells Bobby he doesn’t see the short play. Bobby tells him “I don’t need you to see it, I need you to do it.”
Dr Mojo arrives at Victor’s house to ‘fix things’ and make sure Axe’s secret sauce remains secret. She points out all the ways he would make his own life more difficult by trying to go up against Axe. Wendy mentions Warren Jaffin the Analyst who made the mistake of getting on Axe’s wrong side and now writes a blog…don’t laugh! This dude could do some damage!
We are treated to a nice and insightful scene between Chuck and Wendy with Chuck still evidently hurting about his meeting with Mr Kroll. He notes something very important about his wife “You always make people feel like you’re on their side”.
Wags conducts a business meeting at a massage parlour where he attempts to keep Garth Sykes of Flagship on board with Axe Capital.
The FBI arrive in Chuck’s office to confirm some specifics about Birch and that the case against him is a slam dunk. Tara is lurking around longer than she should to hear and relays information to Hall.
Bryan is briefing everyone on the raid of Birch’s offices which will take place the next morning. As Chuck stands watching the interaction of the team, he notes the whiteboard on Birch behind Bryan and then catches sight of the whiteboard on Axe which has been moved over to the side. He has a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ‘rider less horse’ induced epiphany. He decides the time is ripe for some compromise and will settle with Birch to get back on Axe’s case.
Bobby interrupts a lunch meeting between Garth Sykes and a rival of Bobby’s who is trying to pinch Garth Sykes business from him.
Steven Birch arrives at Chuck’s office to be ‘fixed’ and apparently Chuck does indeed ‘fix’ him. I say apparently because I’m not entirely sure. Someone like Birch would need to have balls like Bobby to do the deals he’s apparently been doing, but he caves entirely too easily for my liking so I’m reserving judgement. Chuck just wants Birch out his office so he can get back to Axe which he duly does. Tara is again lurking around to relay the message all focus is back on Axe to Hall.
Axe takes up residence of Wendy’s couch to say thank you and sorry. She makes it clear that if he cuts her out again she is gone…we believe her!
This is how you rock a Metallica T-Shirt. Bobby and Lara show up for a meeting with the remaining members of the Eads family who have managed to squander the family wealth and land themselves in debt, something which Bobby the former caddy is very much aware of. He stalks the room, schooling all of them while doing so. It is fabulous and how the Eads family members hated having to take money, less than they showed up expecting, from a Metallica T-Shirt wearing insignificant.
