Charles and Chuck Fathers-and-Sons Tour de Force
by Nicole Cliffe | Vulture | April 15, 2018

Source: Showtime
Hell of a Ride
Dust off your Harry Chapin albums, ditto Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill,” and get your dad feelings ready. This episode is the Charles and Chuck fathers-and-sons tour de force we’ve been waiting for. It’s done a LOT less hackily than these arcs often are (a well-timed flashforward helps set a good tone of ambiguity) and teaches us a whole lot about Chuck’s childhood, which … explains plenty. I was also glad to see Wendy get more work to do this week, she’d been a muted presence this season and Maggie Siff really got the opportunity to swing for the fences and put in a beautiful, moving performance.
Wendy usually spends way more time dealing with the strong negative emotions of others than she does with her own self-care, and here she must deal with the unexpected and tragic death of the man who Mad Men fans still think of as Bob Benson, but on Billions is Craig Heidecker, a cuter/nicer Elon Musk type and Wendy’s onetime lover during her separation from Chuck. His loss, in pursuit of space travel, guts Wendy, but also has a real impact on Taylor, who (sensibly) had placed a major bet against his chance of launching successfully. Obviously this cannot be the first time Taylor has realized that their work is not always aligned with the path of furthering human happiness and scientific advancement, but it definitely seems to be the first time they feel it with any acuity.