Categories Billions Print Media Recap

From The Trader’s Desk: I Have Questions…

Billions Season 7 Episode 9 ‘Game Theory Optimal’

by Lady Trader | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | October 13, 2023

What you gonna do
Time’s caught up with you
Now you wait your turn
You know there’s no return
Hand of Doom – Black Sabbath

It’s Friday, so it’s time for “From the Trader’s Desk” to dive into Billions S7E9 “Game Theory Optimal.”

This was a great episode that had all the characteristics of what we love about Billions – drama, double crosses, and bold moves. I chose the lyrics from Black Sabbath’s “Hand of Doom” because as a viewer, I felt the impending doom of Wendy, Taylor, and Wags. Time caught up with our brave trio, but they have two aces in the hole that will hopefully help them save the day.

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Billions MVPs: Season 7 Episode 9, “Game Theory Optimal”

The Unbeatable, Unstoppable, Unparalleled MVPs 

by Staff | Fan Fun With Damian Lewis | October 11, 2023

Billions is back and so is our MVP series! We continue to award our Most Valuable Players for Billions season seven in our series compilation, the ‘Billions MVP Fanbook,’ which commemorates all those in honor of achievement for the utmost brazen, uber shameless, ultra scheming, unmatched bad asses from the episode – from sports references, music and tasty food to pop culture remarks, shocking twists and ultimate paybacks. In case you missed it, catch up with the MVPs of the season seven premiere Tower of London, episode two Original Sin, episode three Winston Dick Energy, episode four Hurricane Rosie, episode five The Gulag Archipelago, episode six The Man in the Olive Drab T-Shirt, episode seven DMV and episode eight The Owl.

Now let’s dive in. Here are the Billions MVP awards for Season 7, Episode 9, “Game Theory Optimal.”

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Billions Season 7, Episode 9 Recap: Character Assassination

Game Theory Optimal

by Kyle Fowle | Entertainment Weekly | October 8, 2023

Now this is what we’ve been waiting for. Billions hasn’t quite had its same mojo for awhile now, as it’s really been a few seasons since it last operated at a thrilling pace. This final season in particular has been rather sluggish and meandering, failing to create any real tension. But now that the end is in sight, things are ramping up. Finally, there seems to be real stakes here, and the twists and power plays are getting started.

This week’s episode begins with Chuck (Paul Giamatti) having dinner with the former police commissioner Richie Sansome. He’s picking his brain about the idea of fudging evidence and getting someone (Prince) locked up for the greater good, even if they don’t have all the solid evidence they need. Sansome says it happened a lot during his days as commissioner, but that he advises against it, that the “rails of justice” are there as guides for a reason, and that no charge really sticks unless you do the work and find the actual evidence.

Continue reading Billions Season 7, Episode 9 Recap: Character Assassination

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Next Time on Billions Season 7 Episode 10

Season 7, Episode 10: “Enemies List”

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | October 6, 2023

Prince makes big changes in the wake of betrayal. Chuck forges unlikely alliances as part of his mission to take down Prince. Wendy finds herself in an impossible position, while Axe and Taylor work to dismantle Prince’s sinister moves.

To view more sneak peek photos, please visit our Gallery here. Continue reading Next Time on Billions Season 7 Episode 10

Categories Billions Print Media Recap

Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 9: Game Theory Optimal

How Chuck Rhoades Turns Bubonic Plague Rat Shit to Gold

by Damianista | Fan Fun With Damian Lewis | October 6, 2023

First things first.  Apologies for not writing a recap for Season 7 Episode 8 The Owl. I was traveling in the UK last weekend to attend Damian Lewis’ music gigs in Brighton, Manchester and Leeds. And then I was in London catching Damian at a fantastic theatre event to mark the centenary celebration of Noel Coward’s first musical revue London Calling! So I missed Episode 8 and was not able to write an episode recap for the first time. That said – I watched the episode and my main take aways are as follows.

First, Chuck very rightly points out, a man with zero self-doubt should never hold a position of absolute power. Prince’s hawkish approach to nuclear conflict at The Owl is a bone-chilling sign to what kind of a president he would be.

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Billions Season 7, Episode 9 Recap: The Walls Close In

Game Theory Optimal

by Sean T. Collins | New York Times | October 6, 2023

Season 7, Episode 9: ‘Game Theory Optimal’

Think of this week’s episode of “Billions” as the Death Star trash compactor. In this memorable scene from “Star Wars,” our heroes, Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie, are stuck waist-deep in refuse as the walls of the compactor slowly close in on them. Shooting at those walls, climbing them, bracing them with metal beams — nothing works. It is simply a race against time: Either their robotic friends C-3PO and R2-D2 figure out how to shut down the space station’s trash compactor, or — well, as Han Solo puts it, “We’re all going to be a lot thinner.”

In this crackerjack episode, the role of the left wall is played by Chuck Rhoades. Chuck has a long, dark, drunken night of the soul at Patsy’s restaurant with Richie Sansome (Michael Rispoli), a former top brass in the N.Y.P.D. Half cop, half gangster (you can take the actor out of “The Sopranos,” but you can’t take “The Sopranos” out of the actor), Sansome advises Chuck on the logistics and ethics of framing a guilty man, primarily in the negative.

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Billions Season 7, Episode 9 Recap: Uneasy Alliance

Game Theory Optimal

by Sarene Leeds | Vulture | October 6, 2023

With “Game Theory Optimal,” Billions has entered its third and final act.

Although we’re still waiting for one key player to take his position — Axe — the Rebel Alliance/MPC Fifth Column can now claim Chuck Rhoades as one of its members. However, it’s hard to know what difference that will make now that Mike Prince has firmly entered Lex Luthor territory, obliterating traitors from the comforts of his lair/townhouse with the help of his dedicated hench-people.

Continue reading Billions Season 7, Episode 9 Recap: Uneasy Alliance

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Billions MVPs: Season 7 Episode 8, “The Owl”

The Unbeatable, Unstoppable, Unparalleled MVPs 

by Staff | Fan Fun With Damian Lewis | October 4, 2023

Billions is back and so is our MVP series! We continue to award our Most Valuable Players for Billions season seven in our series compilation, the ‘Billions MVP Fanbook,’ which commemorates all those in honor of achievement for the utmost brazen, uber shameless, ultra scheming, unmatched bad asses from the episode – from sports references, music and tasty food to pop culture remarks, shocking twists and ultimate paybacks. In case you missed it, catch up with the MVPs of the season seven premiere Tower of London, episode two Original Sin, episode three Winston Dick Energy, episode four Hurricane Rosie, episode five The Gulag Archipelagoepisode six The Man in the Olive Drab T-Shirt and episode seven DMV.

Now let’s dive in. Here are the Billions MVP awards for Season 7, Episode 8, “The Owl.”

Continue reading Billions MVPs: Season 7 Episode 8, “The Owl”

Categories Billions Print Media Recap

Billions Season 7, Episode 8 Recap: Into the Woods

The Owl

by Kyle Fowle | Entertainment Weekly | October 1, 2023

It should come as no surprise that Chuck Sr. is a man who ventures out into the woods at least once a year with a bunch of his rich male friends to “reconnect with nature” while drinking, wrestling, and frollicking naked amongst the trees. This year, his 52nd, he wants his son to join him. Chuck (Paul Giamatti), of course, is a man of substance, a man of the city, and has no interest in engaging with the traditions his father prefers.

Continue reading Billions Season 7, Episode 8 Recap: Into the Woods

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Next Time on Billions Season 7 Episode 9

Season 7, Episode 9: “Game Theory Optimal”

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | September 29, 2023

Chuck makes a daring and risky move to demonstrate his unwavering commitment to taking Prince down. Prince gets tipped off about potential mutiny among his ranks. Wendy is tempted by a new opportunity.

To view more sneak peek photos, please visit our Gallery here.

Continue reading Next Time on Billions Season 7 Episode 9

Categories Billions Print Media Recap

Billions Season 7, Episode 8 Recap: Going Nuclear

The Owl

by Sean T. Collins | New York Times | September 29, 2023

Season 7, Episode 8: ‘The Owl’

Mike Prince is trying to do the right thing. A man for whom his wife, Andy, cares deeply has had a mountain-climbing accident in the Himalayas. He is injured and alone, in the path of a storm, running out of food and stranded on the Chinese side of the mountains.

Mike has the resources to arrange a successful extraction, even under these physically and politically dangerous conditions. To rescue the man means risking an international incident and potentially ending his presidential campaign. Not to rescue him means the man will die, and Andy will lose someone who is more to her than a friend.

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Billions Season 7, Episode 8 Recap: Pissing in the Wind

The Owl

by Sarene Leeds | Vulture | September 29, 2023

Mike Prince is an unstoppable force. Now that he’s been newly minted as the preferred presidential candidate by a powerful political operative, it will take a lot more than a fledgling Fifth Column and a determined U.S. Attorney to take this guy down.

“The Owl” is the last, what I would call, “casual” episode. Its minimal plotlines set the stage for the chaos that will ensue over the final four episodes. That’s not a spoiler: remember that we’re still owed three more Axe episodes. And Axe + Billions = chaos.

Continue reading Billions Season 7, Episode 8 Recap: Pissing in the Wind