In our ‘Billions’ recap of the top 10 moments from the most recent episode, Chuck and his father realized they’ve been bugged, Connerty goes safe cracking while Axe and Rebecca fend off another attack from Taylor…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
The penultimate episode of ‘Billions’ season 4 did not disappoint to set the stage for a final showdown between Chuck Rhoades and ‘Jock’ Jeffcoat as well as the ongoing war between Bobby Axelrod and his former prodigy Taylor Mason.
All of these battles have been simmering over the course of the past 10 episodes, but the latest offering titled ‘Lamster’ starts to bring it all into focus.
After discovering their houses have been bugged by the Federal government, Chuck has to put his plan to bring down Jock into action sooner than expected while he sends his father on the run.
Connerty breaks every moral code he has left by breaking into Chuck Sr.’s apartment to get a glimpse of the paperwork that was signed brokering a deal with the Secretary of the Treasury to help fund a pricy construction project.
And finally Axe and Rebecca once again face an onslaught from Taylor as they continue to batter Saler’s Department Store at every turn, which eventually causes friction between the two billionaire lovebirds.
With that said, let’s get to the top 10 moments from the latest episode of ‘Billions’ titled ‘Lamster’…
1 ) Bugged
“Mom is out of town. If you were on the floor — oh fuck it, I don’t even want to say it cause then I’ll have the goddamned image in my head”
~ Chuck
A frantic visit from his father late at night alerts Chuck to the reality that the government is onto them and placed bugs in both of their houses looking for dirt on this construction deal that’s being funded with help from the Secretary of the Treasury.
Chuck Sr. finds out thanks to a romp through his apartment with the girl he knocked up on the Native American reservation where his casino sits, which puts thoughts into his son’s head that he doesen’t even want to imagine.
Chuck sends his father on the run with instructions to check in every eight hours while he figures out a way to get that paperwork out of his safe that ties them back to Secretary Krakow and his assistance with a bank to help fund the construction project.
2 ) Confession
“Real criminals are different than you and me. Something about the mindset of someone who does those things. By the time I get them, they are long past wondering who they are. They already know. They just want to get away with it.”
~ Orrin Bach
Rather than give a song and dance to defend herself at the medical board hearing, Wendy decides to come clean and confess that she took information obtained from a session with Taylor Mason and then used it against them.
Wendy was already beginning to feel remorse over what she did but it seems Orrin’s speech about ‘real criminals’ may have gotten to her because she didn’t want to get away with it any longer.
Now she awaits word from the medical board where her license could be stripped away for the next three years.
3 ) It’s Not You, Bro
“Catching the bad guy is as me as it fucking gets. So yeah, I’m asking you, guilting you whatever it takes to get you to pull this”
~ Bryan Connerty
Bryan is desperate to get into Chuck Sr.’s safe so he can get his arms around this criminal conspiracy that he’s enacted with his son and he’s calling on his older brother Jackie to help him out.
The only problem is Jackie knows this isn’t the kind of person Bryan is much less who he wants to become by breaking the law even if it’s for a noble cause.
Bryan eventually convinces his brother to pull the job so he can get a look at this paperwork and hopefully cut Chuck off at the knees before he can take another swipe at ‘Jock’ Jeffcoat.
4 ) Radioactive
“Child slave labor — ‘Temple of Doom’ shit’
~ Wags
With Taylor taking over Kling — the appliance manufacturer that supplies Saler’s Department store — Axe and Rebecca are forced to make a lucrative offer to another company to take it over so they can then supply the necessary appliances to keep Saler’s alive.
Unfortunately, Taylor saw this coming and had their investigator do some digging to reveal this new company was involved in child slave labor, which means they are radioactive and can’t be purchased.
Rebecca gets so angry that she more or less demands Axe fix this by buying up another appliance company for around $6 billion that will repair the damage done by Taylor Mason. As much as Axe warned Rebecca about his ongoing war, Taylor has been setting traps and explosives to hurt Saler’s at every turn since the company changed hands.
Now it’s up to Axe to save the day or risk his relationship going radioactive just like the appliance company.
5 ) Carencia
“You can’t let him find his carencia. God, do they teach a man nothing about bullfighting anymore? Carencia — a place in the ring where the bull feels most safe, where he draws his full power. The whole afternoon the matador is trying to keep him away from there and if he lets up for one second and that bull finds his carencia, well it doesn’t matter what went before because a goring is coming next.”
~ Jock Jeffcoat
Chuck calls on his most trusted allies to begin looking into Jock Jeffcoat and potential election fraud after realizing that’s why the Attorney General was so concerned about his pilot block chain voting program. Connerty gets wind of it after following Chuck to the meeting and then seeing his cohorts fan out looking for information on those elections.
He tells Jock but he’s not concerned about answering Connery’s questions but rather ensuring that he knocks Chuck off his game before he has a chance to come after either of them.
Jock wants Connerty to find Chuck Sr. because that is the one pressure point that will do the most damage and he relates that strategy by educating him on a little bullfighting analogy that will help him to complete his task as commanded.
6 ) Intervention
“I am the sun that warms you and the air that you fucking breathe”
~ Axe
Axe walks into an ambush after everybody at Axe Capital teams up to try and stop him from selling out their lucrative positions in order to buy a company that will help get Rebecca Cantu’s department store out of trouble.
Axe ends up firing back at all of them and reminding his crew that they work for him, not the other way around.
Wags eventually turns to Wendy in an effort to talk Axe back from the ledge but even she’s not able to convince him to give up this revenge trip against Taylor and siding with Rebecca against harm to his own hedge fund.
When even Wendy can’t talk him down, she wonders if he’s taking her counseling all that seriously, especially in the wake of this medical hearing that will undoubtedly take away her license.
Wendy: “I guess I really have lost my touch”
Axe: “Well just because I’m not listening to you, doesn’t mean I don’t value you”
Wendy: “It really kinda does”
7 ) Smooth Operator
“You’re like that Sade song come to life Kate, — ‘Smooth Operator’.”
~ Chuck
In an effort to dig into Jock’s election rigging, Chuck calls on his former employee Kate Sacker to dig into the raw vote totals that could prove that the Attorney General has been up to no good. He even offers to coach her into how she can open an investigation that would never alert Jock to what she’s doing.
Unfortunately, Chuck doesn’t see what’s coming next as Kate then goes directly to Jock and tells him about the plan of attack in exchange for an advancement in her own career to head up the Civil Rights division of the Department of Justice.
Jock puts her to task alongside Connerty to bring down Chuck and if all of this goes well, she’ll be on her way to a new job, which will undoubtedly then set her up for a run at a higher elected office in the future.
As much as this may seem like Kate is betraying Chuck, there almost certainly has to be more to this plot that we haven’t seen unraveled just yet, especially considering her father is involved in a company that works with voting machines.
8 ) Let’s Make a Deal
“You cut a fucking deal with Taylor?”
~ Axe
In order to save Saler’s and stop Axe from funding a $6 billion buyout of an appliance company, Rebecca ends up cutting a deal with Taylor to end their war.
Taylor agrees to return Kling as the primary supplier too Saler’s Department Stores but in exchange Rebecca wants to strip them of a controlling interest and voting power over the company. In other words, Taylor’s investment will depend solely on the success of Saler’s, which means they can no longer attack the business or they will be doing harm to their own company at the same time.
It’s an ingenious plan that Taylor agrees to and they finally settle the war with Rebecca.
Sadly, Axe doesn’t take too kindly to this news after he did everything possible — including pissing off his entire team of employees — to help buy the rival company in order to save Saler’s.
9 ) Standoff
Jock: “Do you have any idea what it smells like in prison?”
Chuck Sr.: “Is it dick? I’m betting dick”
The best scene of the entire episode involves a standoff between Jock and Chuck Sr. after he’s finally captured on the run. Jock offers to let Chuck Sr. and his son go without being arrested so long as his progeny is broken — stripped of his office and his law license.
Chuck Sr. isn’t so easily threatened even if that means he has to find out what prisons smell like in order to protect his son from Jock’s wrath.
The tense back and forth eventually leads to Connerty telling Jock to bait Chuck Sr. by saying they’ve captured the ‘idiot’ who stands to lose the most in this land deal and he’s turned states evidence. The mention gets Chuck Sr. rattled but he soon realizes that this is nothing more than a ploy to get him to talk and he buttons up once again.
Connerty doesn’t know the identity of the person who Chuck Sr. referred to as the ‘idiot’ because the FBI tapes cut off due to attorney-client privilege during the conversation and it wouldn’t be legal to listen. Jock then reminds Connerty that what he says makes it legal so he orders him to get that tape and find out who Chuck Sr. and his son were talking about so they can finally use it against them.
10 ) Baby, Let’s Be Saboteurs
“The kind of destruction you’re considering, the collateral damage, the relationships that’ll be ruined or pushed to the brink. You ready for all that? Just to finally see the blood seeping out of Taylor’s armor?”
~ Wags
Victor Mateo comes to Axe with a new play — one involving Saler’s and the exorbitant amount of toxic debt that the company has incurred over the years.
It’s a play that will strike a deadly blow to Taylor but it sounds like it will also ruin Rebecca’s company and Wags does his best to warn Axe about the ramifications of what he’s about to do if he goes through with Victor’s plan.
It seems revenge against Taylor means more to Axe than his relationship with Rebecca, especially aftere she went behind his back to strike a deal with his sworn enemy.
And the excellent track that closed out this week’s episode was titled “Saboteurs” by Dave Hause.
It will all come to a head on the season finale of ‘Billions’ this Sunday night at 9pm ET on Showtime.
