Billions recap – Damian Lewis

Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 7: DMV

On September 24, 2023September 24, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Nothing Is What It Seems

by Damianista | Fan Fun With Damian Lewis | September 24, 2023

A road test. An amazing technology. An evening at the casino. This fun episode aptly called ‘DMV’ demonstrates once again that nothing is what it seems in Billions!

It is time for employee performance reviews at MPC but the employees are not comfortable about it thanks to the recent employee survey and feedback drama at the firm. Even though the boss recuses himself from rewarding and punishing anyone on the team, the employees are feeling uneasy with the composition of the review panel; e.g. Scooter, who is not in touch with them at all (they do not even invite him to the movie night because they know he would never show up!) is sitting on the review committee. They ask the panel to skip the review for a year…

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Billions Season 7, Episode 7 Recap: Morals vs. Business

On September 24, 2023September 25, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Prince Is Amassing Potential Enemies

by Kyle Fowle | Entertainment Weekly | September 24, 2023

This week’s Billions begins with a little bribery, but it’s not from the usual suspects of the business world. Instead, Chuck Sr. is attempting to bribe a driving instructor into giving Kevin a passing grade on his driving test, which he’s failed miserably. The bribe doesn’t go over well, as the instructor calls the cops, and before long Chuck and Wendy are wrapped up in sorting out the situation and getting Chuck Sr. off the hook with the law.

While there isn’t a ton of intrigue in the details of that plot, there’s some interesting character insight. Essentially, Chuck and Wendy realize that they’ve been fairly absent parents lately, which led to Kevin seeking out his grandpa to take him to his driving test. This realization ties in with Chuck’s journey so far this season, where despite his focus on taking down Prince he’s also trying to be a better man, to allow his moral compass to guide him. By the end of the episode he’s made amends with his son, and he may even have reconnected with Wendy in a way that will pay off against Prince later on this season.

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Billions Season 7, Episode 7 Recap: The Way of the Ocean

On September 22, 2023September 22, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Philip Gets a Hard Lesson From Coldblooded Sharks

by Sean T. Collins | New York Times | September 22, 2023

Season 7, Episode 7: ‘DMV’

Well, that was a nasty bit of business.

One of the best episodes of “Billions” in recent memory, “DMV” — named after the government agency turned into an unlikely bed of low-stakes graft and influence-peddling by the Rhoades family — shows the depths to which many of the show’s leading players will sink to get what they want. Even if their desires are relatively high-minded, the depths remain the same.

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Billions Season 7, Episode 7 Recap: Leave It To Senior

On September 22, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

It Wasn’t a Bribe, It Was a Gratuity!

by Sarene Leeds | Vulture | September 22, 2023

I’ve always believed in the “less is more” adage, and even though it took half a season, Billions finally got that memo this week. After last week’s plotline-packed extravaganza, co-creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien gave their audience a much-needed breather with the stripped-down “DMV.” By simplifying the narrative, the result was Billions’ strongest season seven episode yet.

As Mike Prince continues to propel himself onto the political stage, we’re now looking at a potential alliance between Chuck and Wendy. But more importantly, we’re seeing more cracks in Prince’s inner circle — namely, with the billionaire’s protégé (and Scooter’s nephew), Philip Charyn.

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Billions Season 7, Episode 6 Recap: Prince for President

On September 17, 2023September 18, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Price Struggles With Negative Feedback

by Kyle Fowle | Entertainment Weekly | September 17, 2023

At the start of this week’s episode, Damian Lewis is once again back for a brief appearance, as Axe needs a favor from Chuck (Paul Giamatti). They meet on the tarmac in Iceland in the middle of the night, because that’s where high-powered fugitives meet to make deals. Axe says that he needs Chuck to arrange safe passage to the United States for none other than Grigor Andolov (John Malkovich), the Russian oligarch that Chuck ran out of the country a few seasons ago. Axe and Grigor became buddies when they came together to help get military reinforcements to Ukraine, but now Grigor is seen as a traitor to his country and asks (or threatens) Axe to get him out of the country.

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Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 6: The Man in the Olive Drab T-Shirt

On September 15, 2023September 16, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Respecting Your Adversary

by Damianista | Fan Fun With Damian Lewis | September 15, 2023

In one of the best opening scenes in Billions, Robert and Charles, as they call each other, meet at an airport in Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands) in Iceland and set the tone for the episode. This one is all about respecting your adversary. As Grigor Andolov rightly points out one should have the greatest respect for their fiercest adversary, because that is the one who believes in your abilities the most. And the title of the episode is a clear tribute to President Zelensky and the people of Ukraine to whose resilience and determination Russian President Vladimir Putin has had zero respect whatsoever.

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Billions Season 7, Episode 6 Recap: From Russia With Love

On September 15, 2023September 20, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Chuck May Have a New Redheaded Ace Up His Sleeve

by Sean T. Collins | New York Times | September 15, 2023

Season 7, Episode 6: ‘The Man in the Olive Drab T-Shirt’

“The irresistible force meets the immovable object.” This quote should be familiar to Chuck Rhoades. As this week’s episode of “Billions” goes to great lengths to point out, Chuck is fan of professional wrestling. He would no doubt recall the wrestling commentator Gorilla Monsoon excitedly describing the clash between Hulk Hogan and his friend turned nemesis Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III with these exact words. Indeed, Chuck’s erstwhile ally, the Russian oligarch Grigor Andolov (John Malkovich), references the match by name during this very episode.

But the sentiment should be a familiar one to Chuck as well. There he is at the beginning of this week’s episode, on a remote airstrip in Iceland, staring down his old nemesis, the fugitive billionaire Bobby Axelrod. Generally speaking, when the irresistible force meets the immovable object, a clash occurs. This time, however, the meeting is agreed upon in advance and pursued with a level of politeness, even honor, of which I doubted either man was capable.

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Billions Season 7, Episode 6 Recap: Double Turn

On September 15, 2023September 16, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Axe: Hopefully Building Up to Something Colossal

by Sarene Leeds | Vulture | September 15, 2023

I’m conflicted over “The Man in the Olive Drab T-Shirt.” In many ways, it’s Billions’ best episode of the season yet because it brought back everything the show has been lacking since Axe skipped the country. But it’s also one of the series’ worst episodes on account of how much was crammed into a single hour of television. By overstuffing “The Man in the Olive Drab T-Shirt,” most of the important plot points were diluted.

This is a shame because the episode included a rare Axe appearance, the return of John Malkovich’s terrifying Russian oligarch Grigor Andolov, a fun Paul “Triple H” Levesque cameo, Chuck revisiting his childhood demons, Mike Prince pulling a Ross Perot, and Andy Prince revealing she’s the malevolent force behind her husband’s ambition.

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From The Trader’s Desk: Beware the Stealthy Assassin

On September 14, 2023September 28, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Billions Season 7 Episode 5 ‘The Gulag Archipelago’

by Lady Trader | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | September 15, 2023

How I lied, went to hide,
How I tried to get away from you, now,
Am I right, if I fight?
That I might just get away from you, now
Megalomania – Black Sabbath

Welcome to the condensed version of “From the Trader’s Desk”! I will be heading out of a business/mini vacation trip mid-week, so my thoughts are going to be quick and dirty as they say!

I chose lyrics from a song on Black Sabbath’s sixth studio album, Sabotage, since it seemed fitting. Taylor has decided to join the fight to stop Mike Prince, so they are right to fight!

I really want to focus on Taylor and their brilliant move in dinging the good ship Prince, so just a few thoughts first.

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Billions Season 7, Episode 5 Recap: Prince Starts to Lose Control

On September 11, 2023September 18, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Chuck Deals With PR Crisis; Prince Losing Control of Company

by Kyle Fowle | Entertainment Weekly | September 11, 2023

At the top of this week’s episode, Ira (Ben Shenkman) is in a panic. He’s in Chuck’s (Paul Giamatti) office talking about how he was mugged the night before, that someone ran off with his phone. He tells Chuck that he needs to get the phone back not only because there are work-related files on it, but because there’s also some NSFW videos involving him and his wife that he’d rather not see leaked. He describes the videos as “pretty vanilla,” but still, this is clearly a crisis.

So, Chuck leaps into action to help his friend out, and honestly the storyline is a nice change of pace from the usual Prince-focused stuff. Here, we get a rather self-contained, episodic story that only somewhat ties into Prince (Corey Stoll) and instead allows Giamatti to shine in a few scenes. Chuck first goes to the incoming NYPD Commissioner and asks him for a favor; he wants access to CCTV footage in order to track down the man who stole Ira’s phone. In order to convince the Commissioner to work with him, he lies about there being “issues of national security” on the phone.

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Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 5: The Gulag Archipelago

On September 9, 2023September 9, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Revisiting Past Mistakes

by Damianista | Fan Fun With Damian Lewis | September 9, 2023

The Gulag Archipelago, mentioned by Victor and that titles the episode, is a book written by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. I never read it but I am familiar with the author thanks to my Russian literature loving parents’ home library. Solzhenitsyn wrote to help raise global awareness about the political repression in the USSR. This particular book tells the story of a zek (a Gulag inmate) from his arrest to the show trial to being sent to a Gulag (labor camp in Siberia) to reflect on and learn from “his mistakes” based on interviews, reports, legal documents and Solzhenitsyn’s own experience as a zek. And as Solzhenitsyn revisits the ways things could have gone in his book, our characters deal with their past mistakes in their unique ways in the episode.

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Billions Season 7, Episode 5 Recap: A Plan Starts to Form

On September 8, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Half the Traders at Prince Cap Became Involved in a Plot Against Their Boss. They Just Didn’t Know It.

by Sean T. Collins | New York Times | September 8, 2023

Season 7, Episode 5: ‘The Gulag Archipelago’

Let’s do a little narrative reverse engineering, shall we?

Imagine, if you will, that you are a both a trader and a traitor — a high-powered executive at a major investment fund, looking to fatally undermine your own boss in order to stop him from becoming the president of the United States.

Your Plan A, recruiting your even more dangerous old boss to stop him, has failed. You’re tired of waiting around for your performance-coach colleague, the ringleader of your band of mutineers, to generate a Plan B. It becomes clear that coming up with Plan C is up to you.

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