Wednesday, June 10, 2020

What I’m Watching: Billions


Billions: Season 5, Episode 6 “The Nordic Model” (B)

This episode was a return to this show’s caper-centric nature, with no fewer than three big reveals about how the devious characters on this show executed their latest feats. The biggest and most significant was Axe dealing with the paintings that Chuck was fully aware were replicas rather than the real thing, having the replicas flown in by helicopter before he turned his apartment into a museum so that Chuck would no longer have the authority to try to authenticate them. He wasn’t shy about admitting his cleverness, and Chuck was audacious in coming over claiming to be looking for his child’s toy and then purposely spilling wine on what he knew to be an original and nearly priceless painting. Taylor imitating Oscar’s voice and mannerisms to do his pitch was unexpected, and after a brief setback, they got back ahead, determined to win in exactly the way that Oscar warned would eventually blow back on their newest ally. I was least impressed by and interested in the pranking of Ari since I find him to be a relatively worthless character, and it seems that they were trying to boost his ego just as much as they were making fun of him. Axe seeing Tanner’s sketch of Wendy has gotten him obsessed, and it’s not going to be good for any of them that he’s clearly so jealous. Chuck played a dangerous game by threatening what mattered most to Cat, but he made the right choice to keep his promise and got rewarded in quite a memorable way.

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