‘Billions’ Season 1 Finale Recap: A Wendy, Scorned
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Version 0 of 1. Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation” ends with Harry Caul, the surveillance agent played by Gene Hackman, blowing his saxophone amid the wreckage of his own guilt and paranoia. He’s made a vocation out of inserting himself into other people’s lives — he’s the best at it, in fact — but now, the wall he’d so carefully maintained between the personal and the professional has been irrevocably breached. He took action intended to prevent a tragedy, but wound up duped by more powerful forces, who had turned the tools of his trade against him. And now, he’s torn through the walls and floorboards of his own apartment, searching for a bug that may or may not exist. He’ll never know for sure. With typical boldness, the season finale of “Billions” pays homage to “The Conversation” by turning Axe Capital, that gleaming beacon of late capitalism run amok, into the ravaged bones and sinew of Harry Caul’s apartment. After this titanic struggle between Chuck Rhoades and Bobby Axelrod, all these men have to show for it is the scorched earth beneath their feet. In the pursuit of “justice” — a concept that, in this case, warrants the thickest scare quotes possible — Chuck has lost his marriage and family, and diminished his professional standing. For his arrogance, Bobby has lost his most important business partner, his reputation as a businessman and philanthropist, and the finely appointed interiors of his ill-gotten empire. Such are the games that men play. The first season of “Billions” has been a 12-round, bare-knuckled brawl fought by men with manicured hands. The source of their struggle could not be more caveman-basic: A woman, Wendy, they each claim to possess. But the means by which they’ve fought have been sophisticated beyond belief: Surveillance and counter-surveillance, informants and fake-informants, bribery, coercion, back-room deals, ethical dodges, and a series of personal betrayals they’ve each resolved to live with if it means getting the better of one other. They’ve had their chances to resolve the conflict and go their separate ways with minimal damage. But now they’re the North-Going Zax and the South-Going Zax, locked in an eternal dispute that would end if one of them merely stepped to the side. The show’s creators have channeled some of the popular anger over Wall Street abuses into the show. But “Billions” has played meaningfully and entertainingly with mankind’s more fundamental conflicts. It’s no mistake that the directors of “In the Company of Men” (Neil LaBute) and “Glengarry Glen Ross” (James Foley) were tapped to direct a few episodes between them: Those movies are about the business world as a mechanism for men to assert their power and do deliberate harm to one another, and so too is “Billions.” Money is the coal-fire that keeps its engine running. And though the show is averse to political statements, capitalism incentivizes our predatory side — as Bobby tells Bryan in a bid for his services, “everybody wants to be the lion” but few ever get the chance. After a season-long investigation fell apart last week, this week’s episode benefits from the pop of a second investigation that burns out rather than fades away. With his insider trading case in tatters, Chuck stumbles onto a police bribery ring with more tangible, immediate potential to put Bobby in jail for good. He brings Watley back to look into it on a “hunch,” and word gets back to Bobby quickly through his own sources. When Wendy, Chuck’s wife, discovers that he gleaned the information from private session notes on her computer, the whole thing blows up in his face, ending his investigation and his marriage. But the charge is serious enough to force the Axelrods into a contingency plan that would have them flee the country forever. Convicting someone on fiscal malfeasance is hard — or so the dearth of arrests after the 2008 market collapse would have us believe — but the money trail on police payoffs is easier to follow. The short-lived bribery plot serves mostly to clarify Wendy’s feelings about the two men fighting over and around her. Chuck has betrayed her twice: First by accessing the session notes on her laptop and then by fleeing to an S&M mistress without her consent. She was already giving him the benefit of enormous doubt on his “recusal” from the case against Bobby, and he’s made a fool of her for the last time. But as much as she feels rightly victimized by his duplicity, Chuck doesn’t let her perch on the moral high ground: Her job at Axe Capital is to “prop up” a criminal organization, to use the tools of psychology to empower traders to maximize profits off illegal information. He may have violated her trust and violated the terms of their marriage, but she is aiding and abetting scoundrels. Keeping her sessions confidential does not absolve her of association with their contents. As for Bobby, he’s broken Wendy’s trust, too, and with the same impulsive swagger that accounts for his gains and his losses. When Wendy strides into his office with a smile on her face, unaware of the bribery charge leveled against him, his dash to the wall safe for extortion materials is quicker than the flap of a hummingbird’s wings. It’s not just that he believes that she betrayed his trust — he anticipated that she would betray his trust, and gathered a series of incriminating photographs to protect himself. There are no lines he or Chuck will not cross. “Billions” ends with Wendy taking leave of this snake pit, and Bobby and Chuck losing a woman they both claimed, but could never fully possess under any circumstances. They are fools. And like fools, they vow to fight another day. Bulls and Bears • “When I walk out that door today, we are friends for life or you don’t exist to me ever again.” Not many Sept. 11 profiteers have the power to threaten investors out of fresh billions, but never underestimate the power of Bobby Axelrod in casual wear. • A season of smart music choices adds Courtney Barnett’s terrific single “Pedestrian at Best.” Played over a scene of Bobby blazing down the road, its chorus includes a defining line: “Give me all your money, and I’ll make some origami, honey.” • Bryan’s lost faith in Chuck’s leadership opens up the possibility of a turn to the dark side next season. Whether he can suppress his do-gooder instincts while working for Bobby’s people is another matter. • “When I pull a deal off the table, I leave Nagasaki behind.” Even sitting in the ruins of Axe Capital, Bobby vows to create more ruins. |