Examining the Season 5 Teaser Trailer, the Relationships, and More
by Damianista | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | February 10, 2020
They are shooting episode 5 or 6 of Billions Season 5 in New York, and our favorite show is returning to Showtime on May 3, 2020 at 9pm ET/PT. And now that they have dropped the official teaser for Season 5, I am in such a Billions state of mind that I just sat down and wrote about what to expect when we are expecting Billions Season 5!
Writing is such a fascinating beast. Billions writers have once again reset the story that allows them to go in billions of new directions in the new season. And while the teaser has given us a glimpse of some new story lines and new characters, speculation rocks until we have our favorite show back on our screens. So…
SHALL WE?
Axe and Chuck have seemingly won Season 4 by defeating the young rebels Taylor and Bryan, and eliminating the Russian oligarch Grigor Andolov and the Attorney General Jock Jeffcoat from their lives, respectively. But they also destroyed their own relationships with the women they loved during the process. I know these two love to say “worth it” but I doubt they can say it in this case.
When I wrote “What to Expect When We Are Expecting Billions Season 4” more than a year ago, I called it that Axe would get rid of Andolov and Chuck would get rid of Jeffcoat by the end of Season 4. But I was totally off expecting Axe and Taylor to team up and get rid of Andolov while Chuck and Bryan would join forces and dethrone Jeffcoat. As the two veteran players defeated the two big villains, they made sure they put their former proteges in their places!
Once the palace coup was complete, it did not take much time for Taylor and Bryan in Season 4 to realize that, to be able to keep their place in the world, they had to bend and play like how their mentors always did. And especially when the urge to protect themselves have got the better of them, they found in themselves the capacity to do things they never thought they ever would. Taylor trying to destroy Rebecca’s business to take down Axe who invested in his girlfriend’s Barbie dream house?!?! Bryan using his brother Jackie to open the safe in Chuck Senior’s apartment so he can get his hands on the documents the Rhoadeses signed with the Treasury Secretary Krakow?!?! As they got more and more overwhelmed, the two young people transformed into individuals we had difficulty recognizing as Bryan and Taylor.
And the biggest mistake both made was to underestimate their former mentors! Taylor thinking of a partnership with Rebecca would protect them from Axe’s rage hints that they still do not know the distance Axe would go to take down his enemies. In the same way, Bryan not realizing Chuck figured out he was onto something hints that Bryan has forgotten that Chuck is typically a few steps ahead of everyone in his calculations.
By the end of Season 4, both young rebels are defeated. Taylor is sitting in the State Attorney General’s office and Bryan is being questioned by the FBI.
Let us start with Taylor.
Axe visits Taylor at the State AG office to break the news that he wants them back at Axe Capital. Taylor, even with their small company, was able to win against Axe several times, cost him his relationship and so Axe wants them on his side. They do not have to be best friends, they do not even have to be friends, he only needs Taylor’s brain. Taylor can bring along their team and they will have a pre-set bonus so they will know where they will land from the get go. They will also have a signed document with Chuck with a timeline for the state AG to make whatever he has against Taylor disappear. Oh, and Chuck is not a friend. Just a useful tool. Ha!
But what Axe does not know is that minutes before he came to visit Taylor, Chuck made Taylor an offer!
Now, we have seen Axe and Chuck becoming BFFs and helping each other in Season 4 with things they would not have been able to accomplish as easily otherwise. Coming from two different worlds, Axe and Chuck have different kinds of resources and connections at their disposal that helped both feel stronger in their personal games as they played along. Just to give a few refreshers: Axe helped Chuck to relocate a charter school in Tribeca so Chuck could solve the problem of an ambassador who was in the chain of people that he needed to make happy to get a gun carry permit for one Mr. Brogan. Axe, with a little help from the Burke brothers, made sure there was not enough participation in upstate New York primaries so that Chuck could handily win the primary for the state AG seat. In return, once he became the State Attorney General, one of the first things Chuck did was to kick Andolov out of the country. And when Chuck needed help, it was Hall to go check whether the safe was played with in Chuck Senior’s apartment. And while Axe arranged the “Nigerian oil warrants” trap for Taylor, it was ultimately the State AG that had the power to bring Taylor in. In short, both Axe and Chuck have benefited from their unusual friendship.
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