Chuck and Axe are both outplayed in the Billions season finale
"No Direction Home" sets up yet another new paradigm for season six.
TV Reviews Billions
“Time is a flat circle” is a famous line from another prestige cable drama (as everyone on Billions would know, because they all know every line from every movie and TV show ever made), but this Showtime series is where it truly applies. The plot spins like a ball bouncing around a roulette wheel, but so far the wheel shows no sign of slowing. The loser now will be later to win, to quote another song by the man who gave this episode its title and closing number.
“No Direction Home” begins with a fake-out. We assume Chuck has arrived at Axe Capital to arrest Axe, but the wheel keeps spinning through a series of flashbacks before landing back on this scene at episode’s end, by which time the players have literally switched seats. Having been tipped off to his impending arrest (and finally cleared from COVID-19 quarantine), Axe gathers his brain trust to game plan a worst case scenario. According to Warren, that would mean lengthy jail sentence for both Axe and Wags (as the bank’s CEO).
The Axelrod loyalists are convinced their roadrunner-in-chief will once again lead coyote Chuck Rhoades over a cliff, but while Axe still has plenty of bluster, he doesn’t have much of a plan. Wags all but assures him that he’ll flip if that’s what it takes to stay out of jail, which is not the sort of reassurance Axe might hope for from his right-hand man. It’s also the worst possible timing as far as his blossoming romance with Wendy, although I’m not convinced there will ever be a good time for that.
Axe puts on a good show. He stages a press conference across the street from Chuck’s office, baiting him to come down and spar in front of the cameras. He crashes Wags’ meeting with Chuck to discuss the terms of his cooperation, giving Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti at least one classic Billions standoff this season and a chance to debate which of them is the Ali in this Ali-Frazier bout. Axe’s faceoff with Taylor is less satisfying, mostly because their relationship hasn’t made sense in a while and Taylor was only a bit player in Chuck’s plot with Prince. Taylor has their own one-on-one with Rian, a character the writers never quite got their arms around this season, with predictably ambiguous results.
Still, it appears Axe is prepared to surrender, at least in a legal sense. Arrest warrant finally in hand, Chuck and his team arrive at the helipad in time for a gunfight-at-the-OK-corral style meet-up with most of Team Axe, save their fearless leader, due to arrive by chopper any minute. Except when the chopper arrives Axe isn’t on it, and another series of flashbacks reveals why. Axe has sold the bank, Axe Cap, and Mason Carbon to Mike Prince for two billion dollars, the kind of walking around money he’ll need when the feds seize his assets. That is, if Axe decides to run.
As it turns out, Prince doesn’t need to see Axe in prison. The thrill of victory is enough, and taking everything from him for pennies on the dollar is the cherry on top. Deciding he’ll live to fight another day, Axe slips his Justice Department tail and breaks the glass on the third plane he keeps in case of emergency. By episode’s end he’s alone in Switzerland, having failed to convince Wendy to join him in exile.
Prince, meanwhile, takes over Axe’s former throne. Despite a pair of defectors in Dollar Bill and Mafee, most of the team remains in place. Wags, who escaped arrest by producing an unsigned contract and claiming that he’d only been asked to serve as bank CEO and had yet to accept, is forced to share the consiglieri position with Scooter, which should provide some amusement in season six.
Yes, this has all been a setup for another reshuffling of the deck and a further postponement of the final confrontation between Chuck Rhoades and Bobby Axelrod. On the one hand, this is standard Showtime procedure, a delaying tactic necessary to keep churning out more seasons of Billions. On the other hand, as long as the machinations are still fun to watch, why not keep the wheel spinning? “No Direction Home” doesn’t pull the rug out from under us as neatly as season two’s “Golden Frog Time,” but it gets the job done.
Stray observations
- Damian Lewis appeared to be back full-time in this episode after telecommuting for the past couple of weeks (presumably because he shot scenes overseas following the untimely death of his wife Helen McCrory). It remains to be seen whether Axe will be sidelined for any significant amount of time next season.
- Chuck doesn’t get the big win he’d hoped for, but at least he overhears Senior telling his daughter that her brother is a great man (if not always a good one). That must count for something.
27 Comments
So other news sites are reporting that Damian Lewis is no longer a regular after this episode which is a pretty significant shake-up.I’ve enjoyed having this show back the past few weeks. A fine piece of soap opera action. Looking forward to season Six in January.
Yeah, Deadline said that he’s gone. He’s not even going to recur, but might make a single appearance next season. It’s probable that Scott wrote the review before the news broke. Corey Stoll is going to be the co-lead with Giamatti next season.https://deadline.com/2021/10/damian-lewis-leaves-billions-showtime-brian-koppelman-1234848911/
That sucks. Corey Stoll doesn’t have Lewis’s charisma.
Wow, I guess we can bet on S6 being the last then, huh?Then again, this is Showtime.
Based on other Showtime shows, it will only last seven more seasons after Damian Lewis leaves.
I’m not even sure Showtime can milk this series for more than 1 or 2 more seasons. Prince isn’t Axe, hasn’t shown anything that would indicate he’d be remotely as interesting a villain, and of course the entire show was built on Bobby Axelrod.Homeland, at least, was built on Carrie and Saul. Damien’s Brody just stole the show for the few seasons he was on.And I love Chuck, but he can’t carry a series without a worthy adversary.
The Times has some comments from Lewis: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/03/arts/television/damian-lewis-billions-finale.htmlOf course, this isn’t the first time he’s left a Showtime series in the middle of its run.
Last time though he left two seasons after he should’ve which is still very Showtime. Now his leaving feels premature but it’s certainly understandable after what he’s been through.
that explains the coming in season 6 scenes which didn’t show him a single time
Meh, I was underwhelmed by the finale. We got another silly cartoonish sniping session with Axe vs Chuck one on one, and Prince’s heel turn seemed completely out of character for everything we’ve seen out of him.Its almost like Damien sprung his departure on the writers suddenly and they needed to set up a new adversary ASAP. His apparent imminent surrender (before Prince showed up) was also remarkably quick and out of character for Axe.The problem is, Corey Stoll’s Prince isn’t anywheres near as interesting or charismatic as Lewis’ Axe. And Prince is a complete fool if he thinks that Wendy and Wags aren’t going to try and stab him in the back at every turn.This show is making a lot less sense lately. I’m not sure how it can survive without Bobby Axelrod front and center.
While his contract was for five season, it definitely looks like they pivoted during the break.
It’s clear with the bulk of his scenes being filmed in England (the real background to Axelrod’s Covid quarantine that dragged on for the second half season) that he hasn’t been fully available for the show since his wife passed, and that’s honestly pretty understandable, all things considered.
The upside to Prince is… Axe had already crossed the moral horizon a couple of times— whether that was Sandicot, or stealing from police pensions. It had become kinda hard to draw the real moral equivalency between Chuck and Axe that the show requires as part of its core thesis.
It will be interesting to see if they can tell a story about whether it’s inevitable to be a monster if you’re placed in a position with that much money and those concerns. He looks a lot like S1 Bobby, with a slightly scuffed ‘I’m A Nice Guy’ act.
Agree with your thoughts on Prince. Axe will be missed and it may not work but with everyone else staying there’s enough here where it can still be great. Will be up to the writers as usual.
Rather than ending the episode with Dylan, I think Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife” would have been more appropriate because, if the shark weren’t already there waiting to be jumped over, it’s waiting just off-screen.This show specializes in absurdities, but episodes like this take that tradition and dance on it gleefully. The two most absurd (for me) are the idea that Prince, who five minutes ago was the most-hated man in America, is now the (very) white knight who’s going to save capitalism from that terrible Axelrod? And that a guy who’s supposed to be as smart as he would let Wags be anywhere in the same time zone as his company is just ludicrous.Wags didn’t realize/remember he hadn’t signed his contract? That stretches almost as much credibility as Rian being intimately familiar with “Minority Report.” (And, by the way, may I mention that Eva Victor continues to be the worst actor on American television? Somehow even worse than even the “Supergirl” cast.)If Lewis is indeed leaving (and it makes sense he would; he’s got enough to deal with), the show — bad as it is now — will suffer. I like Stoll a lot, but his character is too ill-defined to go up against Giamatti. The perfect solution might be for him to fuck up badly, get thrown into prison by Chuck, and have the remaining episodes be Chuck’s BDSM sessions.
The implication — explicit, on-screen— was that Wags *had* signed the contract— but the witness would have been Bobby Axelrod, who was now conveniently unable to be questioned. So Wags just printed up a fresh, unsigned copy of his contract and dared them to prove otherwise.
I don’t think Wags printed it up. He was delivered everything. Axe knew it would save him and saved his buddy.
The entire premise seemed awfully stupid. It’s a bank I’m sure you have to file signed papers with regulators plus any paperwork at all that he had signed as CEO among the many deals they made setting up the bank would be proof that would make him the legal CEO. Also what was the point of the bag of gold?
The show is a comedy. It is cartoon. I like it. I love Paul, but I can imagine he is very bored with one note Chuck and what happened to the bondage?? Wendy!!!
If Lewis is indeed leaving (and it makes sense he would; he’s got enough to deal with)
According to reports he told them a few seasons ago he was leaving, so it wasn’t sudden and it didn’t have anything to do with his wife’s passing.
I’ll miss Damian Lewis; the show worked because of his performance. Hard to imagine Stoll will be able to capture that same energy, and now some plot points will surely be left dangling (although I doubt they expected him to leave at this point when they wrote these episodes). Overall, though, it was an enjoyable finale. I always have liked this show, and look forward to Season 6.
I’m mostly shocked that Wendy remembered she has kids.
Hahaha the thread can now end. Freaking nailed it 😂
Axe doesn’t appear to remember he has kids, though! Not even a mention of them as he fled!
I’m sorry, but the show has no reason to keep going with the confirmation that Lewis is now off the show. I give absolutely zero fucks about Prince. They should have ended it on a satisfying conclusion for Axe and Chuck instead of… whatever it is now.
It’s Showtime. They are literally incapable of ending a show when it should end.
The brief promo after the episode aired promising a January airdate for Season 6 showed a lot, but no Axe. WTF?
I think Lewis did a great job on this show and I always enjoyed watching Axe because of him. But the actual back and forth between Axe and Chuck has been stale for a while now. Frankly, Chuck is stale. Paul Giamatti is great but Chuck is a garbage (absolute trash) human being and I can’t see why anyone would root for or give two shits about him besting a billionaire using unscrupulous means anymore.People here are complaining about Corey Stoll replacing Lewis. I don’t see an issue there. Prince is a fresh character and Stoll is a good actor. I personally think it’ll be fun to watch him take over Axe Capital and deal with his team. The problem is it just won’t be interesting watching Giamatti give his usual pompous monologues again while once again failing to do anything meaningful while facing off against a different billionaire.
You are right, Chuck is stale. He always thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room and seems to get away with too much and still tries to uphold justice.