TV Review: BILLIONS: Season 4, Episode 1: Chucky Rhoades’s Greatest Game [Showtime]

Billions Chucky Rhoades’s Greatest Game Review

Showtime‘s Billions: Season 4, Episode 1: Chucky Rhoades’s Greatest Game is the beginning of warfare between two hedge funds, Axe Capital and Taylor Mason Capital, replacing the conflict between Axe Capital and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which dominated the first three seasons of the series.

The hunt for new clients, sources of funding, and personnel by Head of Taylor Mason Capital Taylor Mason (Asia Kate Dillon) and Head of Axe Capital Robert “Bobby” Axelrod (Damian Lewis) is the nucleus of most of the conflict in the episode. It’s asymmetric warfare in this case, waged by the leadership of Axe Capital against Taylor Mason and ‘their’ fledgling hedge fund.

Regarding that warfare, spies, and duplicity, doesn’t Bobby Axelrod realize that by hiring Mick Danzig (Nathan Darrow) out of the blue, he is signaling to Taylor that ‘their’ hiring manager is compromised? This is a silly mistake on the part of Axelrod and Axe Capital In-house Performance Coach Wendy Rhoades (Maggie Siff). Wendy should stop him, save him from himself. That is one of her jobs. Axelrod’s decision is emotional. She should be thinking clearly in that key moment i.e. they have a person working for them inside Taylor’s organization, hamstringing it’s hiring. That person is invaluable to Axe Capital and should not be discarded for any single hire. Apparently, Axelrod and Wendy both think otherwise, that its worth burning their mole to hire out from under Taylor one person. This decision makes no sense in the short or long run, especially when one considers the internal intelligence the hiring manager is also providing, but this gargantuan, inexplicable, and completely misguided decision is what the viewer is left with in the episode.

The Mick Danzig hiring meeting in Chucky Rhoades’s Greatest Game that precipitates the aforementioned idiotic decision by Axe Capital’s leadership team is edifying. Taylor Mason Capital COO Sara Hammon (Samantha Mathis)’s background is partially revealed during the hiring meeting. The hiring meeting is also humorous, due to the loose tongue of one of Taylor Mason Capital’s employees. Dudley Mafee (Dan Soder) has the unfortunate trait of telling the truth in most given situations, something Don Corleone (referenced by Mafee in the episode) would be extremely cross about in his signature silent manner. To Mafee’s credit (and to the sustainability of his employment), he also is able to immediately recognize when he makes a mistake and self-correct.

Chucky Rhoades’s Greatest Game features an escalation in the tactics used within the underbelly of Billions‘ financial world. Now that Russian oligarch Grigor Andolov (John Malkovich) and his world-wide colleagues are seeping into the TV series, so are their modus operandi and their violence. The drugging and kidnapping of Axe Capital COO Mike ‘Wags’ Wagner (David Costabile) is an illustration of this. Nothing violent happens to Wags but the very fact that he is kidnapped to enhance an opponent’s bargaining position says something about the people that Axe’s now finds himself in bed with and whose business he seeks.

Four people do what it takes to win during Chucky Rhoades’s Greatest Game: former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Charles “Chuck” Rhoades Jr. (Paul Giamatti), Bobby Axelrod, Farhad (Amir Arison), and Taylor Mason. Chuck makes the second biggest personal journey in the episode but Taylor’s trek is the longest and the one fraught with personal hurdles to surmount. Taylor does something in the episode against the core of ‘their’ being but for the good of ‘their’ company. When Taylor dons the wig and dress to appeal to the strict male sentiments of a particularly flush perspective client, it grinds against ‘their’ nature yet ‘they’ rise to the occasion while besting ‘their’ prospect’s backward thinking with a rejoinder that shows off ‘their’ intelligence and confidence in ‘their’ business prowess.

The exchange in question:

Farhad says “Falcons mate for life as humans do. Sometimes. They are much more consistent than we are because they know who they are. The males go out and hunt and bring back food and the females stay in the nest, defending it, tending to the young. As nature dictates.”

Taylor replies “Yes that kind of bifurcation of roles makes sense when your dealing with a single meal at a time but when the hunt will provide for generations, one would do well to go with whoever can get the best kill.”

Regardless of Taylor’s success or failure in her business bid, this back and forth, talking about two separate topics that are paralleled to each other, is an example of good screen-writing, separating Billions from many dramas currently on television, especially those that have more flash but little-to-none of this substance.

Chuck Rhoades’ power-broker odyssey within Chucky Rhoades’s Greatest Game is where the majority of humor in the episode resides. It is a montage of scenes where Chuck initially fails, learns the terrain and its players, puts the pieces together like a master Tetris player, and then succeeds in his mission. It’s amusing watching Chuck not be the Top Dog anymore, finding his way in a new role without power, title, and minions. In effect, a mini-origin story plays out with Chuck Rhoades in this episode, one in which he evolves into someone far less powerful but no less ambitious.

Leave your thoughts on this Billions Chucky Rhoades’s Greatest Game review and this episode of Billions below in the comments section. Readers seeking more TV show reviews can visit our TV Show Review Page, our TV Show Review Twitter Page, and our TV Show Review Facebook Page. Want up-to-the-minute notification? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr.