Here are the top 10 moments in the “Billions” season 6 debut as Mike Prince assumes control of Axe Capital and Chuck tries to get his groove back…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It’s hard to imagine a show as charismatic as “Billions” moving forward without a juggernaut like Damian Lewis but that’s exactly what this series will attempt to do starting with season 6.
Lewis exited “Billions” after the season 5 finale with his character Bobby Axelrod on the run from law enforcement after he got busted by Chuck Rhoades for a crime that he just couldn’t escape this time. But rather than go to prison, Axe fled to Switzerland with a boat load of cash under the promise that he could never return to the United States again.
Of course, Lewis was also leaving the show to spend more time with his family following the tragic death of his wife, Helen McCrory, who passed away last year after a battle with cancer.
In his place steps Corey Stoll — one of the only actors capable of filling a void left by Damian Lewis — after playing Axe’s main rival throughout season 5. Now Mike Prince takes over Axe Capital where he will seek to get his new troops in line to make money while operating as a much different kind of boss than Bobby Axelrod.
For a show that loves references, this is like Van Halen losing David Lee Roth and replacing him with Sammy Hagar — and that move drove a lot of hardcore fans crazy while others loved the newer version of the band. Personally, I liked both but here’s hoping “Billions” doesn’t try to bring in Gary Cherone.
With that said, let’s get to our top 10 moments in the “Billions” season 6 debut titled “Cannonade”…
1) The Ultimate Peloton Workout
It’s been a rough year for Peloton bikes on television.
After some character ate it on that “Sex and the City” reboot while riding a Peloton bike, the company had to go as far as issue a press release to assure users that heart attacks aren’t a side produce of a sweat-inducing workout. The price of Peloton stocks plummeted as a result, which has to be one of the most ridiculous things in history considering IT’S A FUCKING TV SHOW.
That said, Peloton took one in the marbles again this week after Mike Prince watched a monitor that we later discovered was hooked up to Wags as he peddled himself into a heart attack.
Of course, Prince and his right hand mand Scooter had to first decide if they should actually alert Wags to his heart attack because they were secretly monitoring him and every other employee at Axe Cap (more on that later).
“Sex. He’s having sex. Could he just be having sex? It’s him we’re talking about. It’s probably sex”
~ Mike Prince
Thankfully, medics arrived in time and Wags was rushed into a local hospital for treatment.
2) One Ring to Rule Them All
After Wags returns to work following a mild heart attack, he’s ready to get back to work but first he has to think about a question he can’t quite answer.
Who exactly called the ambulance to save his life?
That’s when Wags remembers a meeting with Mike Prince from two weeks prior where he was first rallying the troops in the wake of his takeover of Axe Capital.
Prince hands out rings to the entire staff that will help them monitor things such as heartrate except for one minor detail — he’s going to be receiving all of that data so he can keep an eye on everybody’s health habits inside and outside the office.
While the health rings seem to go over well, Prince’s attempts to get the staff to open up to him with bracing honesty ends up like every meeting Tony Soprano ever had with the FBI — they ask and he tells them to go fuck themselves (in so many words).
Prince gets rebuffed rather handily by Taylor Mason as well after they are not all that interested in his promises of peace and tranquility just after betraying them and everybody else by making the backroom deal with Axe to take over his company.
3) Constitutionalist
After failing to put Axe in prison, Chuck Rhoades has retreated to a farm that he purchased in upstate New York, which is now serving as his office as he milks cows and plows his fields while attempting to get his head back on straight to go after criminals again.
But the peace and tranquility he’s been seeking is being interrupted — rather loudly — by cannon blasts twice a day.
It turns out his new neighbor Melville Revere — played by the immensely talented Michael McKean — is very proud of his family’s heritage including the property he owns that is surrounded by a fence built by one of his ancestors as they fought back against the charging Red Coats in the Revolutionary War. Thanks to the billions that he’s earned in business, Revere now celebrates his heritage by blasting actual cannons from that war twice a day with the sounds from those bombs bursting in air reverberating across the entire community.
Chuck attempts to ask him nicely to at least cut down on the number of times he fires the cannon per week but Melville has no interest in catering to anybody’s needs but his own. After all, he’s protected by the second amendment and perhaps more importantly, he’s not trying to be anybody’s good neighbor.
The look on Chuck’s face tells the whole story that he’s ready to turn Melville into cannon fodder.
4) The Artist Formerly Known As
Prince is dealing with a near revolt at what is now known as Mike Prince Capital as the troops are questioning his every move. Assassins like Victor and Bonnie want a general who will point them at a target and tell them to go kill but Prince is more interested in getting to know them as people while also asking for their opinions.
Axe never asked anybody for much of anything except to deliver fucking results by any means necessary.
So Prince turns to Wendy in hopes that he can salvage the team rather than demolishing the place down to the ground floor before rebuilding back up again.
Of course, Wendy isn’t feeling all that great right now after she watched Axe try and fail to take Prince down before ultimately being forced to leave the country and go into hiding. Not only does she have a disdain for Prince but she’s also not so certain that her methods are effective after everything that’s happened.
It also doesn’t help matters much that Prince controls the employment contracts of everybody working there, which means nobody can leave and then sign on with another firm without facing stiff penalties. That reminds Wendy of a certain musical genius carrying his same name, who used to write “slave” on his face at concerts because he was beholden to record companies controlling his songs.
Prince doesn’t want anyone at the firm formerly known as Axe Capital to feel like prisoners but he’s also not quite ready to let them all go out on their own yet either.
5) Grip Em and Rip Em
After Wags realizes how the medics arrived at his room to save him from the heart attack, he takes one look at the ring that Prince gave him a couple of weeks earlier and realizes that the new boss has been keeping tabs on him and everybody else in the office.
Wags reveals this unfortunate news to the staff, who are understandably upset.
Even Ben Kim and Tuck are angered (or the muted version of anger that these two exude) after feeling violated by Prince’s manipulation to keep an eye on them.
“It’s each for his own from here on out.”
~ Victor Mateo
Wendy even refuses to step in to calm down the troops while telling Prince that sometimes the team just needs to let it out and right now they are aiming all of their guns at him.
6) A Warning Shot
In an attempt to stop Melville Revere from firing off those cannons, Chuck pays a visit to the mayor of his new town except for one problem — this guy is more concerned about snipping and clipping his new fish bait than discussing the lunatic blasting Revolutionary War weapons every morning and night.
After being rebuffed by the mayor, Chuck goes across the street to a local pub where he finds a lot of the townsfolk sitting and having drinks. He buys everybody a round before probing them to discover how each of them really feels about Revere and his cannons.
It seems that Revere and his endless bank account swayed the town to let him fire off those cannons by providing for them whenever something is needed. A new firetruck? Melville foots the bill. The little league team needs uniforms? Melville buys them for the kids.
So that forces Chuck to start thinking outside the box if he’s going to take down Melville and his cannons.
Of course first, Chuck has to deal with Kate Sacker, who comes to pay him a visit after she’s been tasked with carrying out all of his duties back at the office while he’s been playing farmer out in the sticks. While all of the prosecutors working under the Attorney General are looking for his leadership, Chuck is still lost when it comes to figuring out his next move.
But as Vincent Hanna once said in “Heat,” — All I am is what I’m going after — and thanks to Melville Revere and his cannons, Chuck may have finally just found his new target.
7) A Pristine Reputation
In addition to the troops revolting against him, Prince is also dealing with some hesitant investors that he inherited from Axe that aren’t exactly putting full faith in him to deliver the same kind of results.
Scooter implores him to start putting out fires now before the blaze gets too big to control and he has a chance to make peace with one particular investor right now. It seems Melville Revere was a holdover from Axe Capital and he’s hoping Prince can use his influence with Chuck to get the New York Attorney General to back off from trying to take down his cannons.
So Prince pays Chuck a visit at his upstate farm where he attempts to remind Chuck that it might not be the best plan of action to go after somebody like Revere in court considering his money is being handled by the same firm that controls his father’s fortune.
Yes, Mike Prince holds the reins over Charles Rhoades Sr.’s money as well.
But as enticing as that offer might be, Chuck can’t cater to Revere’s massive ego or his even bigger cannon blasts that are literally shaking his porch while he’s sitting on it.
That’s when Prince realizes that Chuck’s disdain for those cannons is only deepened by the fact at Revere is using his money to gain influence in the community. Chuck doesn’t just hate the loud sounds that disturb his milk cow but he’s just truly come to hate the ultra-rich.
“It’s not Cincinnatus that you’re fashioning yourself after, I get that now. It’s more Manius Curius Dentatus. ‘I see no glory in having money myself but in commanding those that do.’”
~ Mike Prince
8) Wag the Dog
With investors about to jump ship and a team that’s ready to do the same, Prince begins to realize that he has to make some dramatic changes or Mike Prince Capital will be dead before it was ever really reborn.
After taking a deep dive on regulatory affairs with Spyros, which results in a probation period from the Securities Exchange Commission, Prince starts to understand the uphill battle he’s facing. So he first turns to Wendy for advice, who tells him that instead of playing the game the way that it’s been played, perhaps he should first destroy the system under which those rules were made in the first place.
Second, Prince has to get the team on his side and at first he feels like firing Wags will serve notice to the entire staff that he’s not fucking around. But after talking to Wags and seeing how he already knows every move the team will make like he’s Beth Harmon staring at a chess board, Prince decides on an alternative plan of attack.
Prince: “OK, we get the point. You know what moves this squad, what makes them rattle and hum.”
Wags: “That’s right and also, yes, I need this place. Like Gere needed OCS in ‘Gent’ but you fuckers need me, too.”
With that, Wags calls a team meeting where he lays into the employees like with the kind of vigor that hasn’t been seen since Bobby Knight was tossing chairs across a basketball floor in Indiana. Now the next move falls to Prince.
9) Chuck Gets His Groove Back
We all know Chuck Rhoades isn’t above bending the law to his will and that’s exactly what he does in order to make Melville Revere stop firing those cannons.
With no hope of traditional legal remedies, Chuck turns to the New York State Department of Environment Conservation for help. He convinces a scientist to plant some bog turtles near the stream that runs through his property and down towards the spread owned by Revere in return for some state funding for whatever projects he holds near and dear to his heart.
You see bog turtles are endangered and all that gunpowder and cannonball shrapnel being tossed into the water puts them at risk, which means Melville will be under a state order not to fire any more shots or he’ll face some serious consequences as a result.
Add to that, Chuck managed to get the entire town to sign a petition asking for the cannon fire to stop, which even the mayor can’t help but present to Revere while his precious Revolutionary War weapons are hauled off his property.
With the media watching, Chuck proclaims victory over a selfish billionaire thanks to the will of the people but he was only able to tackle this problem as a private citizen, not as the Attorney General of New York.
“Because while I might be able to tangle with and prevail against a billionaire as a private citizen with common sense, in the name of nature and the will of these fine people by my side, I certainly can’t as the Attorney General of the State of New York with the pathetic laws at my disposal.”
~ Chuck Rhoades
Judging by that declaration, Chuck is ready to challenge some of those laws and go after the ultra-wealthy with both barrels (no pun intended).
10) The Prince List
In a bold move to change the culture at Mike Prince Capital, Prince calls a meeting with both his employees and his investors. He asks if perhaps the problem festering at this company are the workers, who came up under Bobby Axelrod, which means they possess the moral compass of career criminals.
Then again, how can Prince blame them for fostering the very system that breeds this kind of greed and corruption, especially with investors who don’t care about where the money is coming from so long as it continues to add zeroes to their bank accounts.
Well, Mike Prince can no longer abide by that system.
Rather than just cut out the bruises, Prince decides to throw away the fruit by deciding that his firm will no longer deal with investors who are only driven by their bottom line. Investors who horde wealth while paying their employees a pittance. Investors who have become the cancer growing at the very heart of the financial system in the United States.
“Many of the wealthiest have misused their resources. Many have cut corners. We will not. In fact, we won’t take their money. I’m not firing them, my employees. I’m firing you, my investors.”
~ Mike Prince.
With that, Prince hands out checks to almost every investor left over from Axe Capital because they are morally bankrupt billionaires and he wants nothing to do with them. Well, Prince fires everybody except for one — The New York Firefighters Fund — and that’s the sole survivor who has made the exclusive club that he’s starting called “The Prince List.”
The Prince List will be comprised of investors who aren’t so money hungry and driven by profit that they can’t see the people they’re stepping on while climbing up the ladder to add yet another zero to their portfolios. These investors want to do what’s right and in turn, Prince will help them make a lot of money for it. Prince is betting on the billionaires coming on board by doing the right thing because he knows if there’s one thing the ultra-rich hate more than losing money, it’s being left out in the cold.
The team is shocked by this turn of events and even Victor and Bonnie can’t help but be impressed by the stones it takes to make such a move.
Of course as they leave the meeting, Scooter can only hope that Prince’s call for exclusivity will result in a wave of new investors — and even Prince can’t help but wonder the same thing.
“Billions” returns for a brand new episode next Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET on Showtime.
