In our recap of the top 10 moments in the latest episode of ‘Billions’, Chuck tries to help his father and his wife while butting heads with Jock Jeffcoat and Axe faces insurgency at Axe Cap while Taylor goes after Rebecca….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Chuck Rhoades thirst for vengeance against Jock Jeffcoat may have just cost him with both his wife and his father.
In the latest episode of ‘Billions’, Chuck has to find a way to get at Jock after he shuts down his father’s construction project while simultaneously attempting to alleviate the problems that Wendy is facing with the medical board after Taylor filed a complained against her.
Just when it looks like Chuck is going to get everything he wants, Jock pushes for one more concession and that’s one request too far.
Meanwhile, Axe is fighting fires on two fronts after Bonnie leads an insurgency at Axe Capital after finding out about a special legacy fund for top employees with returns triple that of the regular hedge fund. He also has to fight off an attempt from Taylor to topple Rebecca’s long term plans to rebuild Saler’s Department Stores after investing millions to take control of the company.
That fight leads to the return of a past character — Sanford Bensinger, who was instrumental in shutting down Axe’s attempt at owning an NFL team several seasons ago.
With that said, let’s get to our ‘Billions’ recap with the top 10 moments from the latest episode titled ‘American Champion’…
1 ) Hannibal the Cannibal
“You want me to be your Hannibal Lecter?”
~ Ari Gilbert
The doctor who got caught up in the war between Axe and Chuck before being sacrificed as the person sent to prison to save both of them becomes a crucial piece of the puzzle with Wendy’s upcoming medical board hearing.
Chuck goes to pay him a visit because Dr. Gilbert previously sat on that same medical board and he needs pressure points to go after the committee members in order to save Wendy from ever appearing in front of them.
The ‘Silence of the Lambs’ references continue throughout the conversation as Dr. Gilbert tries to play Chuck like a Tennessee senator desperate to keep her daughter from putting the lotion in the basket. Unfortunately he underestimates Chuck, who threatens to put his ex-wife in prison beside him while his children will end up living in a ‘fucking housing project’ if he tries to make this harder on Wendy.
2 ) Vibe
“Vibe…I fucking knew it”
~ Dollar Bill Stearn
Bonnie finds that more and more of her male co-workers are lingering these days after mentioning that she likes getting railed at her birthday party. Ari Spryos likes to bring her a coffee each morning and then watch her enjoy it. Then Dollar Bill comes calling after he picked up on a vibe when she held him after punching him in the face a week ago ahead of his boxing match.
She declines his offer for drinks until paying Wendy a visit for some counseling.
It’s there she admits she’s not trying to find a way to shut him down but instead discover how to actually go through with the date without fucking up the workplace.
In the midst of this meeting, Ben Kim arrives extremely angry after hearing about a ‘flagship’ fund for special employees at Axe Capital, who are put into a separate hedge fund with three times the returns as the regular fund. Ben tells Wendy and Bonnie, which then starts the chain of people discovering that this flagship fund actually exists.
As for Bonnie and Dollar Bill, they end up going on an axe throwing date where she’s able to find out even more information about this infamous ‘flagship’ fund.
3 ) They’re Greeeaaattt
“Frosted Flakes for me”
~ Taylor
It’s impossible to watch this scene inside the Kellogg’s store and not immediately get a craving for cereal.
Lauren sets up a meeting between Taylor and Sanford Bensinger’s son to make the connection in hopes that he will then introduce them to his father. It turns out Sanford’s son was drawn the place while nostalgically remembering his favorite flavor of cereal ‘Honey Smacks’ and how he was only allowed to have it once a week — and still feels a little guilty eating it to this day.
Taylor was a Frosted Flakes person but more importantly the meeting goes well and they get the meeting with Sanford Bensinger to sell him on teaming up together to take over controlling interest in Saler’s, thus taking it away from Rebecca and Axe.
One more note — the meeting ends with Lauren kissing Taylor, which then leads to an awkward encounter at work with Sara, who also clearly has eyes for her boss.
4 ) The Joker
“Oh I’m gonna find out anyway and when I do, I’m going to turn my focus from this business onto each of your personal holdings. And think about just how I can take them to zero. I’m gonna run you down into the dirt and I’m going to smile like the Joker while I do it”
~ Axe
Rebecca’s first day as CEO of Saler’s comes to an abrupt end after two board members resign after selling their shares.
When they don’t want to give up who they sold their shares to, Axe levies a heavy duty threat against both of them, which leads to the revelation that Taylor Mason bought them out and they are meeting with Sanford Bensinger to take total control of the company out from under Rebecca.
Unfortunately because of Axe’s past rocky relationship with Bensinger, he can’t just swoop in and save the day but he has another idea that might work even better.
It seems Bensinger is all about American business and he’s even have a ghost writer pen his biography that will be called ‘American Champion’ and that gives Axe the edge he needs to get back into the game with him.
5 ) Grandfatherly Advice
“If he’s still playing with it tomorrow, put all of your energies into the girl”
~ Chuck Rhoades Sr.
After visiting a hostile Jock Jeffcoat on his ranch in Texas, Chuck figures out a plan that will put him back at the negotiating table. He decides to coordinate with some mayors across several towns in the south where he plans to send a biohazard train from New York down through Texas carrying excrement with such a foul odor that a person with the strongest constitution will still blow chunks.
At dinner later that night, Chuck Sr. hands his grandson Kevin a slinky for a birthday present and then offers that wonderful piece of advice from above to Chuck and Wendy regarding their children.
In the end, Chuck is forced to get back to work after his father and Wendy turn the screws on him for not taking care of their needs fast enough.
6 ) Driving that Train
Set to the sounds of the Grateful Dead track ‘Casey Jones’, Chuck is able to accomplish what he wants with the New York shit train by re-routing it through Texas and then calling in a biohazard warning that forces the transit to stop in Jock’s backyard.
Jock and his wife nearly vomit over dinner at that foul smell, which forces a call to Bryan Connerty to get that train out of there.
That leads Connerty to find out about Chuck’s visit to Dr. Gilbert in jail, which is exactly what his former boss wanted all along.
Chuck knew that Dr. Gilbert wouldn’t help him but he knew by paying him a visit that Connerty would eventually find out about that and Wendy’s case going to the medical board. Now Chuck has his father and his wife as bargaining chips to get what he wants from Jock in exchange for moving that shit train away from his house.
7 ) Rambo
Tuk: Why is he our man?
Ben Kim: Because of what they thought about Rambo
Tuk: He’s got PTSD and he’s going to tear apart the entire office?
Ben Kim: No, they thought he was expendable. If he gets cut down, it’s only him we’ve lost.
Bonnie gets the rest of the Axe Cap troops on her side to demand entry into the flagship fund but they need somebody to lead them into war. So she calls on Spyros to do the dirty work for them but in reality he’s just being led to slaughter.
Axe shuts him down but the team is not giving up yet on the flagship fund. That’s when Axe realizes that this attack could have been a targeted morale bomb unleashed upon his employees.
After speaking to Wendy, Axe rushes downstairs to find out where the source of the flagship fund information started and it turns out it came from Mick Danzig, who heard it in passing from none other than Mafee during an intramural basketball game.
Sure enough, Mafee was planting a seed and Danzig let it sprout and grow in his head before spreading it around to the rest of the team. Axe ends up shutting it down with an explosive warning to everybody to never mention the flagship fund again.
“There’s no limit to what you can earn here so take responsibility and get back on it right fucking now.”
~ Axe
8 ) Selling America
“Bobby Axelrod actually gives a goddamn — enough to walk away. And you actually giving enough of a goddamn about him to risk me walking away. That’s the kind of strength and loyalty great brands are built on. I want that at the heart of this company.”
~ Sanford Bensinger
To get Sanford Bensinger on their side, Axe stops him from purchasing the Chrysler building, which he was buying so that a Chinese consortium wouldn’t get it instead. See, Sanford is all about presenting himself as the ‘American Champion’ and by keeping great American buildings in great American hands, he can paint himself as a savior.
Axe ends up buying the building instead, which finally leads to Sanford paying him a visit.
But instead of an all out war, Sanford hears the pitch about Saler’s from Rebecca and then Axe’s willingness to step down from the board of directors in order to clear the way for the ‘American Champion’ to save that brand as well. Rebecca refuses to let him step down and that’s ultimately what saves the day.
Bensinger sees the kind of devotion that Axe and Rebecca have for each other as much as they have a vision for this company. He decides to balk at Taylor’s offer and team up with Axe and Rebecca instead. Of course that doesn’t sit too well with Taylor when they hear that Bensinger has dumped them and gone with Axe instead.
9 ) Team Axe For Life
“Nah, I’m not gonna tell Taylor that”
~ Bonnie
Axe finally figures out that this insurgency about the flagship fund was about more than distracting his team — Taylor was trying to poach Bonnie from Axe Capital.
So Axe counters by putting her into the flagship fund and Bonnie repays the favor by taking a meeting with Taylor and just as they extend a job offer, she pulls out a phone with Axe on Facetime to politely decline.
Needless to say, Taylor is not happy and between this situation and what happened with Sanford Bensinger, they’ve just had a very bad day. The good news is Axe so passionately protecting Rebecca’s investment means that his interest goes beyond business because he’s emotionally invested in her. That gives Taylor an idea about how to topple their whole house of cards — and they plan on doing the same thing to Bensinger.
“Nope. He just added himself to my fucking list”
~ Taylor
Axe
Wendy
Rebecca
Bonnie
Bensinger #TeamTaylor #Billions #Showtime pic.twitter.com/NUpZ94OAXc— BILLIONS (@SHO_Billions) May 14, 2019
As for Bonnie, she ends up in the flagship fund at Dollar Bill’s expense and he’s convinced that she used him. Bonnie quickly turns the table by grabbing him, kissing him and the two of them fall into his minivan for a parking lot romp set to the sounds of Funkadelic’s ‘Funky Dollar Bill’.
10 ) The Right Stuff
“Another in a long line of Chuck Rhoades mistakes. One step closer to the fucking end”
~ Bryan Connerty
The shit train forces Connerty to go strike a deal with Chuck — they will lift the sanctions against his father’s construction site and take care of Wendy’s problem with the medical board in exchange for the train being moved and the pilot voting program going away.
When Chuck realizes that Jock desperately wants this mobile voting program killed more than anything else, he knows he finally has something that could get him over the U.S. Attorney General.
Chuck declines the deal and tells Connerty that maybe one day when he figures out why he turned him down is when he’ll be ready to be an ally again or at least a worthy fucking adversary.
The poking and prodding from Chuck gets under Connerty’s skin and he decides it’s time for a makeover but not the kind you get at a salon. Instead, he goes to visit Dr. Gus — the outlandish performance coach who replaced Wendy at Axe Cap when she quit back in season 2.
Dr. Gus may be boorish but he gets the job done and Connerty shows up at his office asking to be remade into a killer.
The episode closed with the track ‘Doctor, Doctor’ by UFO
‘Billions’ is off this week but returns next Sunday night to kick off the final three episodes of the season.
