Previously on Billions: The Punch

Previously on Billions:

Bobby is swimming hard. Meanwhile Dean and Gordie are with friends and their friends’ dad. We see him clearly drinking alcohol and then driving the kids home. Bobby is clearly frustrated and looking for an out let. When he finds out Mr Layner drove the kids home after drinking, he heads off to confront Mr Layner and Mr Layner gets a good punch for putting Dean and Gordie in danger.

I am just going to stop here and highlight this and say thank you to the billions writers for making an issue out of it. I can’t tell you how many TV shows show characters drinking and driving for convenience to get the character somewhere. It infuriates me to see TV programmes being so blasé about it as though this is acceptable. Drink driving is not acceptable and being irresponsible with it on TV isn’t either.

That punch is about to land Bobby in trouble though.

Chuck has Ari Spyros to put up with. Ari plays the roll of ‘slime ball’ for this scene. He shows up and uses what he has over Chuck as well as the fact he thinks it is obvious Chuck’s recusal is just for show to get what he wants. What he wants is to be running point on the Axe case.

As soon as Ari leaves, Chuck gets on the phone to Dale for Martina Slovis’s contact info.

Axe has a mole problem and I can’t help but think that Axe is two steps ahead because I felt it was a strange move to trust Donnie and triple up his stack back in episode 3, Yumtime. His hesitation in the meeting with Axe and Wags about 200,000 shares in Rubinex was clear. If we saw it, Axe and Wags saw it too. We shall see!

There is some great banter between Terri and Dale while explaining to Donnie that he can feel bad if he likes as long as he keeps doing what he is doing.

Dale: “like me with double cheeseburgers.”

Terri: “No, but Dale, you need to stop. He needs needs to keep going.”

Bryan then explains exactly what they need from Donnie, to do a deal with Axe directly.

Donnie then pitches up at Bobby’s house to talk about the Kemlot deal. Axe seems to have told Donnie previously that he should pull the trigger at the open tomorrow. Axe when questioned about it now tells Donnie to wait.

Donnie is acting a little weird and I will be stunned if Axe didn’t pick up on it. Donnie is invited in for a drink and I am almost certain this was a fishing expedition by Axe.

They are discussing Pavlov’s study and it is revealed that Donnie was a psych/philosophy major, minor in economic theory.

It comes to light that the subject of this discussion is about the fact Axe punched Mr Layner and he seems to realise the bad influence this will likely have on his kids.

Donnie: “They didn’t see it.”

Axe: “They’ll hear about it.”

Donnie says his kids should be proud of him for standing tall for them. He also says “If I could be that for my kids….

To which Axe responds “You are and you will continue to be.”

The tense music combined with the delivery of the line from Damian and the fact they were just discussing a psych paper has me feeling as though this was a thinly veiled threat from Axe to Donnie.

Chuck is walking past Bryan’s office and we hear Bryan discussing with his team the ‘CI (Donnie)” who has been leveraged and is highly motivated. Clearly Donnie has something going on that means he doesn’t want to take the risk that Bill Stearn has.

Chuck tells his Secretary to get Connerty in with him this afternoon because he needs an update from him along with the rest of the team working the “Construction Bid Rigging RICO cases.” In other words, Chuck wants an excuse to find time alone with Bryan.

Orrin Bach is at the Axelrod house laying out what will happen if Axe is convicted of even simple misdemeanour assault. It is not good at all. Axe Capital will face existential threat. Bobby is pacing. Lara is unimpressed and expresses her frustration about Mr Layner driving while drunk. I suspect even though she is verbally directing her ire in that direction there is some saved for Bobby being so stupid.

They discuss tactics about how to get their side of the story out before the Layners get theirs out. Lara is convinced Lily will back her up. Bobby isn’t confident that she will.

Orrin brought a friend to this meeting, Chief Mueller, former Police Oficer of Southampton PD. He advises that the police have already come into possession of a video of Bobby punching Mr Layner. Bobby thinks that should actually help him. Why, I’m not sure as he should realise the bit where drink driving is mentioned would be cut. He is told the evidence is so damning that Southampton PD were planning on arresting him as early as tomorrow. However, Mueller has reached out. If Bobby can get proof of Layner’s drinking then the balloon will go out of any prosecution. Mueller is arranging a back door arrival at the station so Bobby can attend with Mueller and Orrin.

Wendy is meeting with the head hunter mentioned by her friend Billie. It seems she is now seriously considering leaving Axe Capital which is very interesting given what she said to Axe in “The Deal”.

There is a meeting at Axe Capital where Wags and Donnie are doing most of the motivational speaking. Axe is just thoroughly pissed off looking and dumps the trophy he got from the team for “knocking that fucker (Layner) on his ass” in the bin.

He goes straight to Wendy presumably to work off some of the stress clearly showing, but he gets nothing but a rebuke from her. She accuses him of fitting the profile of those who self-sabotage and he catches on to the fact she means the meeting with her husband. He puts her straight on the fact that it was “self-defence” and leaves her office probably more wound up than when he entered.

Lara is having a moan to her sister about the kids not being street smart. They call her to tell her that Instagram isn’t loading, but not when someone is driving drunk. Why are a 10 year old and a 12 year old on Instagram anyway? Stupidity in itself.

She worries that if their situation changed the boys wouldn’t be able to deal with it.

Chuck is getting the update from the construction cases team. It is interesting that the contractor from the New Jersey firm kept records on three different devices. Is this a subtle nod in some way to Axe and his three phones?

Chuck then finds his excuse to talk to Bryan. He wants to know about the informant in Axe Capital. Bryan tries to get him to back off but Chuck isn’t having it.

Bryan explains that Donnie laoded up way above his normal level on Rubinex, a Biochem company which then received FDA seal of approval. Donnie is able to sell at a “monster profit”. Donnie could not provide the research on the trade, no sign offs from compliance and they had data which proved Donnie had contact with insiders. I’m not convinced that the US Attorney’s office are ahead. Axe had to have known that Donnie loading up well above his normal level of comfort would attract unwanted attention. “3-Dimensional chess” I believe the quote is from the Pilot.

Lily, as Bobby predicted, is not going to help prove Bruce Layner was drink driving as it will affect her husband’s business and him not needing any press right now. Do you want to pick out the words she should not have said to Mrs TeamAxe?

Axe is viewing a copy of the video that has surfaced…minus the bit where he specifically mentions drink driving. It turns out this came from Mike Dimonda who is requesting comment and wants to run something right away. Bobby then thinks back to who was at the poolside and could have taken the video. He wants Sheryl to find the original video and pay what they need to get it.

Bobby arrives at Southampton Police Station with Orrin and Muller for his ‘back door” interview. Tommy is not going to “sweep” however. He will take Bobby’s statement, but if Mr Layner refuses to relent and the DA chooses to proceed, it will be out of Tommy’s hands.

Wendy brings up the breakdown of the settlement meeting between Axe and Chuck. Chuck fudges the issue and lies to Wendy…and she knows it. She lets it go for now and mentions that they have a dinner with the Gilberts. Chuck is creeped out by them.

Lara lays down the rules in the kitchen as Dean and Gordie kick up a fuss about their omelettes. They are little brats in this scene and it is good to see Lara not letting the away with it. It also gives light to the fact that a word is clearly needed with Bobby about food waste and the attitude of his sons stemming from his bad influence.

Lara decides they aren’t getting breakfast at all and takes them off to a beach. More protestations from the boys because the water is brown, but Lara tells them to get in anyway. She then teaches them about clamming. It is what she used to do when she was younger. They can eat what they catch before the tide goes out. Dean pulls a scandalised face when Lara tells him that is 4 hours, but gets to work regardless.

Raul Gomez hates “motherfucking rumblings.” Word has reached him about Bobby punching Layner. He doesn’t want to pull his money, but he will if Axe takes a conviction.

Sheryl arrives with news that Dimonda has vetted the story and it is ready to run. Bobby tells Sheryl to arrange a meeting with Dimonda.

Spyros shows up for his big hurrah at Chuck’s office only for Chuck to have a surprise waiting for him and to slap him back under whatever rock he crawled out from. That surprise is Martina Slovis who it turns out Spyros had raped. Spyros will do what he is told or Chuck and Martina will bring him down. It turns out that Chuck hadn’t even told Martina about Spyros or anything.

Axe is trying to get Dimonda to hold his story for a day, but he can still have the lead on it and a show of his own.

Wendy and Chuck are at their dinner date with the Gilberts. This provided some light comic relief. There is discussion about knowing each other’s passwords and Chuck hasn’t told Wendy his latest one.

Lara and Bobby have a discussion about toughening up the kids. Bobby is laid back about it whereas Lara wants to be proactive about it. Bobby thinks he has softened up considerably since he met Lara, but acknowledges “being thorny still gets him into trouble.” Bobby says he will support whatever Lara comes up with. Lara doesn’t seem impressed. I am inclined to agree with her. Why does she have to come up with it?

Chuck left a note for Wendy that he killed the alarm so she could sleep. He also wrote his password down. Think that is going to come back to haunt him. Wendy gets a text from Chase saying that he may have found something for her and can they meet after work.

Chuck stops by to advise Bryan on how to rough up his informant to get more out of him.

Wendy is having a one-to-one with Donnie, trying to understand why he is withdrawing. She is all over the reason he is holding back especially now he seems to be in Axe’s inner circle.

Wendy and Chase are at a bar and it seems like Chase has a job for Wendy if she wants it.

Bryan pushes Donnie as Chuck suggested and Donnie shows a rare bit of backbone.

Chuck was spying on this meeting and Bryan is none too happy when he realises it.

Chuck and Wendy lie to each other about where they have been and by the looks they throw the both know the other is lying.

Speaking of throwing, Lara throws to bags down at the feet of her sons who are sprawled out on the floor and couch playing on their I-pads. They are going on a campout with the Wesport Sound Rangers.

Sheryl brings good news that she has managed to get the original video of the Punch fiasco “within her budget for this kind of thing.”

Dean and Gordie are at camp. Dean manages to get his phone taken off of him, but Gordie manages to hide his away.

Orrin Bach, Axe and Lara are watching the original video of the Punch fiasco. Mueller arrives to tell Axe that this is now out of the system. He tells Bobby to stay off the radar. Yeah, ok.

Bryan arrives in Chuck’s office to remove himself from the case if Chuck refuses to leave him to handle it himself. Chuck delivers a speech which honestly left a bad taste in the mouth. I will think a lot less of Bryan if he falls into line with it.

Bryan meets Donnie who hands over a flash drive with unknown contents.

Gordie sends a message for super cool dad to come and rescue him and Dean which he does. Personally, I hope to see Lara kick Bobby’s butt for this. Another few days at camp would have done them good. Dean’s phone it seems has been left behind. I hope Bobby has never used it in an emergency…