Chuck and Axe Make Their Next Move to Get Back to the Top
by Kyle Fowle | Entertainment Weekly | March 24, 2019
There’s always one question, above all else, that Chuck and Axe have to be asking themselves: who are they comfortable getting into bed with? It’s a question with a literal and figurative meaning. “Arousal Template,” perhaps more than any other episode, explores the way sex and power are intertwined, especially in this world of high finance and dirty politics. So, this episode isn’t just about Axe deciding whether to invest in a robotics company, or Chuck thinking about who he needs by his side for his next move on his way back to prominence, but also the ways that sexual relationships are all part of the cost-benefit analysis.
We’ll get to all the sex in a bit, but there are other things to cover first. Now that Axe has been warned by Grigor to lay off Taylor, he’s looking for ways to bleed the company dry in subtler ways. Or, so he says. Axe isn’t the most subtle guy, and when Taylor meets with a number of banks looking for money to use for the Quant program and is stonewalled by every single one, they all suspect that Axe is behind it. Sure enough, this is just the first stage of Axe’s plan. When he meets a very rich woman and fellow capitalist vulture named Rebecca at a robotics pitch, he begins to see another plan.
Continue reading Billions Season 4 Episode 2 Recap: Entertainment Weekly – March 24, 2019
