#jock jeffcoat

[nothingunrealistic]

[hanklovesconnorloveshank]

Clancy Brown in season 4 of Billions (2019)

[magicalquote]

Waylon 'Jock' Jeffcoat: A man looking out for his own interest is a man who can be counted on.

[retentivet]

“Where I come from, the dogs don't stop yapping, you don't just muzzle 'em. You hit 'em with a shock collar until they quiet up nice.🐾”

Clancy Brown as US Attorney General Waylon “Jock” Jeffcoat in Billion’s S3 E3 “A Generation Too Late”, 2018

updated 6/27/2023

[televisionpromos]

Billions Season 4 Trailer - Billions Season 4 premieres Sunday March 17th on Showtime. When everyone is out for revenge, no one is safe. This is never more true than in season four of BILLIONS. Bobby Axelrod (Lewis) and Chuck Rhoades (Giamatti), former enemies, and Wendy Rhoades (Maggie Siff), the chief counselor to each, have come together to form an uneasy but highly effective alliance, aimed at the eradication of all their rivals, including Grigor Andolov (guest star John Malkovich), Taylor Mason (Asia Kate Dillon), Brian Connerty (Toby Leonard Moore) and Waylon "Jock" Jeffcoat (guest star Clancy Brown). Ambition and betrayal have long been at the heart of BILLIONS, and this season all the characters find out exactly how high a price they'll have to pay to satisfy those needs. 

[downloadarmy]

Billions Season4 Episode8

Axe helps Rebecca with a business venture. Chuck faces off with US Attorney General Jock Jeffcoat. Taylor ignites a public battle with Axe. Wendy suffers a blow that could jeopardize her career. Axe Capital and Taylor Mason Capital compete in an unlikely arena.

[schraubd]

Billions Thoughts

Jill and I finished watching all three seasons of Billions (meaning that our insatiable lust for good television to binge must look elsewhere for fulfillment). That means you get my scattered thoughts on the matter. Mild spoilers below. * * * * Wow, Damian Lewis is great in this -- way better than he was in Homeland! * Wow, Maggie Siff is great in this -- just like she is in everything (Rachel Menken for the win)! * What makes Billions a great show, in my view, is its almost Walzerian treatment of power. Rhodes and Axe have genuine, real power in completely different arenas, and the show takes care to show that each possesses tools and resources at their disposal that the other can't access. Axe's immense wealth can't buy him things like search warrants or prison threats. In other arenas, Rhodes' governmental power can't buy cooperation or incentives that Axe's money can. A lazier show than Billions would suggest that Axe could simply bribe the right people and become akin to his own government, or would be purely a tale of an unstoppable government official smashing through private sector business. Billions doesn't go either way, sitting in a well-crafted equilibrium. * The least-likely Showtime shows do a really good job of dealing with non-normative sexuality. House of Lies was great in dealing with a gender fluid teenager. Billions handles both the Rhodes' BDSM activity and Taylor's non-binary status very well. Who'd have guessed? * I will say that they do go a little heavy on the whole "can a robot learn to love" thing with Taylor. But there are points where Taylor indicates that the whole emotionless android thing is a front, which is easier to swallow. * I actually buy the idea that Taylor's gender non-binary status would rapidly cease to be a "thing" in a place like Axe Capital so long as they bring in the green. But it does strike me as a little hard to swallow that their rise up the ranks that quickly wouldn't breed more noticeable resentment (beyond Dollar Bill being upset at losing his poker table spot). * In a show where virtually all the characters are terrible, Lara is the worst. I mean, obviously that's not exactly true -- Spyros is the worst. But at least Spyros brings out some great facial expressions of undisguised loathing from Dollar Bill (those scenes are some of my favorites). Lara doesn't have that redeeming factor. I'm also not quite sure why their marriage completely disintegrated, seemingly on a dime. You'd think Malin Akerman would know how to be a Trophy Wife at this point. * I did appreciate that, at least prior to their marriage's dissolution, Axe was portrayed as entirely sexually faithful to his wife. Again, a lazier show would have simply assumed that the ungodly-rich billionaire would be stepping out with supermodels left, right, and center. * One of the few "good" characters is Mafee. Sadly, I don't like his chances of surviving Season 4's inevitable Axe/Taylor crossfire unscathed. Poor Mafee. * I like Wags in spite of myself. Your mileage may vary. But watching him swell with pride the first time Taylor curses was hilarious. * One character I'm definitely not sold on is Andolov. It's not just because I find him a bit crude and overdrawn. It's because one of Billions' great virtues is that it has thus far avoided the cheap play of assuming the ultra-rich can and will simply murder their way through problems without consequence or remorse. The whole point is that people like Axe have so many resources available to them that they don't need to resort to violence to get their way. And what's more, while the ability to refrain from violence is itself a function of their power, it's also crucial to their self-image: they are not mobsters or street thugs, they just move dollars and cents around. Andolov seems likely to move the show in a more hackneyed direction. * On the other hand, three years ago I would have said Jock Jeffcoat was a crude and overdrawn stereotype. Sigh. * You might have noticed I haven't said anything about the other members of Team Government. Well, let's see: Decker is well-acted but a cipher, I've completely lost track of what's motivating Connerty, Dake has no interesting characteristics at all, and Lonnie actually interests me as someone who isn't really willing to "play the game" but consequently had to be steam-rollered for the show's core thesis to make sense (hence why he's no longer in the show). via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/2zeaeb6

[estoyalmando]

La cuarta temporada de 'Billions' llega la madrugada del 17 al 18 de marzo a EE UU y de forma simultánea a Movistar Series

La cuarta temporada de ‘Billions’ llega la madrugada del 17 al 18 de marzo a EE UU y de forma simultánea a Movistar Series

Cuando todo el mundo busca venganza, nadie está a salvo. Los dos grandes sabuesos de Wall Street han dejado a un lado sus diferencias. Junto a Wendy como su principal aliada y consejera, Chuck y Axe preparan planes juntos frente a todo pronóstico. Y su objetivo está muy claro: acabar con todos sus rivales, incluyendo a Grigor Andolov, Brian Connerty, Waylon ‘Jock’ Jeffcoat y, por supuesto, Taylor…

[ronnykblair]

Finance TV Shows in 2019: The Full Round-Up

A few short years ago, the landscape of ��finance tv shows” consisted of a bottomless black hole.

That black hole resembled the exit opportunities available to mid-level investment bankers, but was even less entertaining.

There were plenty of shows about dragons, drug dealers, and advertising agencies, but nothing about hedge fund managers, traders, or private equity titans.

But the TV landscape changes quickly, and in the past year alone, there have been at least three new or continuing shows set in the finance industry.

Those shows are Billions (Showtime), Succession (HBO), and Black Monday (Showtime), and I liked all of them, to varying degrees.

Here’s my mini-review for each one – but first, a word about the challenges that all finance TV shows face:

Finance TV Shows: Got Emotional Stakes?

Back when we were thinking about producing Season 2 of Cost of Capital, I met with a writer who had worked on Law & Order to brainstorm story ideas.

He explained why the producers on that show often avoided financial stories:

“You’re doing something challenging here. On Law & Order, they tried to avoid stories with purely financial goals/desires because it was too difficult to establish the emotional stakes. And it’s hard to make people on either side of a conflict about money sympathetic.”

Most books, shows, and movies attempt to solve this problem with one of the following:

Make the protagonist a “fish out of water” who comes from modest means and is trying to break into the world of finance (e.g., the original Wall Street).

Make the story about oddballs and quirky characters who have their own problems and who then try to take down the system (e.g., The Big Short).

Take a character from privilege/wealth, remove the character’s advantages, put him in a different setting, and see what happens (e.g., Trading Places).

Or, go the “drugs and hookers” route and film a bunch of crazy people stealing money and doing cocaine all the time (e.g., The Wolf of Wall Street and Boiler Room).

These techniques help, but if a show or movie is overly reliant on them, they can come across as clichés.

In light of these challenges, I judge finance TV shows based on:

Characters: Do I care about the characters? Are there stakes beyond “make more money”? If the characters are not likable, are they at least interesting (ex: Tony Soprano)?

Story: Is the story surprising but logical? If the story is strictly “logical,” it’s often boring, and if it’s too “surprising,” it often has glaring plot holes that take you out of the world. The best stories surprise you initially but are obvious in hindsight.

Learning: Do I learn something new about the finance industry by watching? Or does the show at least present well-worn themes through a new lens?

And now to the mini-reviews:

Finance TV Shows: Billions (Seasons 1 – 3)

I reviewed Season 1 of Billions a few years ago, and I’m happy to say that the show has improved a lot since then.

If you haven’t seen it, Billions is about a hedge find titan, Bobby Axelrod (played by Damian Lewis), and an up-and-coming U.S. Attorney, Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti), who goes after him for insider trading.

Of course, the U.S. Attorney’s wife also happens to be a “performance coach” at Axelrod’s hedge fund (Axe Capital), which creates the initial conflict.

Season 1 of the show was OK, but came up short in the “Characters” department.

Chuck Rhoades is a spoiled rich kid who irks everyone he meets, and Bobby Axelrod is a billionaire who made his fortune through shady-to-illegal activities.

Not only were they both unsympathetic, but they also weren’t that interesting.

Season 2 and 3 improved upon this premise by fleshing out the main characters and also by introducing an up-and-comer in the hedge fund world (Taylor Mason) who has a talent for investing but a naivete about the business.

I won’t spoil story details here, but by the end of Season 2, one character makes a “sacrifice” that makes him/her more sympathetic and adds depth by forcing him/her to make a tough choice.

By the end of Season 3, another character makes a major decision about how to deal with an “enemy” that shows this character is flawed, but still has some redemptive qualities.

Meanwhile, the series resists the urge to play out the same situations and conflicts over and over again – unlike police or medical procedurals.

Instead, character relationships keep shifting as allies become enemies and frenemies become friends… or regress to enemies.

That said, Billions still does a few things that drive me crazy:

Dialogue filled with elaborate metaphors, as if people constantly reference Greek mythology or Yankees infielders from the 1978 World Series when speaking to friends.

Stories that require a high suspension of disbelief (think: “Look at this clever strategy I just used to win – but I had to know in advance that Events A, B, and C would happen for it to work”). They’re surprising, but the logic is sometimes questionable.

Stereotypical characters and social commentary. The Attorney General, “Jock” Jeffcoat, is particularly bad on this count. A gun-toting conservative from Texas who uses dead coyotes to make points to his subordinates… right.

Season 4 starts on March 17th, and I’m looking forward to it.

I might even make a drinking game out of it and take a shot every time a character makes an obscure cultural reference.

Finance TV Shows: Succession (Season 1)

Succession came out of nowhere and truly surprised me.

You could describe it as “Game of Thrones meets modern corporate America.”

The series is about the Roy family, owners of a global media conglomerate (Waystar Royco) who fight for control of the company when the founder and family patriarch, Logan Roy, runs into health issues.

The Roys are inspired by real-life media-conglomerate families like the Murdochs, Redstones, Hearsts, and Maxwells.

Logan Roy is a cutthroat and competent executive, while his kids are… not so competent.

One is a “former” drug addict, one has the attention span of a 5-year-old on a sugar high, one is a consultant to “professional liars” (i.e., politicians), and one lives as a man-child on a ranch in New Mexico and dreams of starting a podcast on Napoleonic history.

The finance industry comes into the story in a big way because a private equity firm gets involved with the succession struggle and attempts to make a power grab, starting with the acquisition of a minority stake in Waystar Royco.

Amid this struggle, there are affairs, backstabbing, secret plotting, and even a Bernie Sanders-like politician who goes after the Logan family.

When I heard the premise for Succession, I was extremely skeptical.

“Oh, great,” I thought, “yet another show about unlikeable people betraying each other. After The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones, do we need more of this?”

But the answer turned out to be “yes” because I ended up really, really liking the show.

It works because it’s funny; it’s more of a black comedy than a pure drama, with equal parts satire and serious conflict.

Also, even though the characters are initially unlikable, they become more likable and interesting over time as the show demonstrates that wealth and power do not resolve fundamental human issues.

Watching the episodes, Tolstoy’s famous line from Anna Karenina came to mind:

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Despite their wealth, the Roys are just another unhappy family – and each episode reveals a new dysfunction that makes them unhappy in a different way.

On the negative side, I’d point to:

Story Leaps – There were a few corporate maneuvers (think: hidden loans, giant scandals covered up over decades, etc.) that tugged my “suspension of disbelief” strings.

Dreariness – The comedic aspects did not come through quite as strongly in the first few episodes, and I kept thinking, “OK, can we please get one sympathetic character… just one, please.”

But, overall, I was pleasantly surprised, and I’m looking forward to Season 2.

Finance TV Shows: Black Monday (Season 1 in progress)

Black Monday, a new Showtime series that’s in the middle of its first season as I write this, officially takes us from “black comedy” to straight “comedy.”

This one stars Don Cheadle as Maurice Monroe, or “Mo the Marauder,” who heads a prop trading firm called “The Jammer Group” in the 1980s.

The series follows the traders at this firm, who were somehow responsible for Black Monday in October 1987, when stock markets around the world crashed by 20%+ in a single day.

Along with Don Cheadle are Andrew Rannells as Blair Pfaff, a fresh grad from Wharton who has developed an amazing trading algorithm and is leveraging it to win job offers, and Regina Hall as Dawn Darcy, the top trader at the Jammer Group.

Black Monday is a fun, completely over-the-top portrayal of the 1980s on Wall Street.

If The Wolf of Wall Street were made into a TV series, it would resemble this show.

It’s not at all surprising that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg directed the pilot, as it’s a tonal match for many of their films.

If you’re easily offended by sexist, boorish, and completely ridiculous behavior and comments, you should not watch this show; it’s set 30 years before the #MeToo movement, and it feels more like 300 years before.

You’re unlikely to learn much about finance by watching this one, but you will learn about the atmosphere of the industry in the 1980s.

That said, I still enjoyed the six episodes of Black Monday I’ve seen so far.

In a comedy, you can get away with almost anything as long as the audience laughs, which explains this show’s appeal.

There doesn’t appear to be much substance at first, but that changes a few episodes in as the series begins to address issues like the glass ceiling, the underrepresentation of women, and the computerized and automated trading that would eventually disrupt the whole industry.

My favorite quote is spoken by Maurice to Blair, as he explains why the fresh grad lost $50,000 trading on his first day:

“Your little algorithm doesn’t work so well against real traders, huh? Pro-tip kid – computers, don’t make trades, okay? Men do.”

If only he could steal a DeLorean time machine from another 1980s movie and see what trading is like today.

Finance TV Shows: Top-Tier Television?

It’s difficult to compare these shows because they’re all quite different, despite sharing topics and themes.

And, not to be a TV snob, but I wouldn’t consider any of them to be “top-tier series” – i.e., do not go in expecting The Wire, Breaking Bad, The Leftovers, etc.

But they’re all enjoyable shows that improve from start to finish.

If you want an authentic flavor of the hedge fund world and you don’t mind ridiculous dialogue, check out Billions.

If you want a black comedy about a dysfunctional family that’s entertaining but sometimes a bit too dreary, check out Succession.

And if you fantasize about doing cocaine at the office and buying expensive cars, start binging Black Monday.

Finance TV shows have come a long way, and they’re not nearly as bleak as exit opportunities for mid-level bankers anymore.

I’d say they’re almost up to the standard of Associate exit opportunities, and with time, they might even reach the Analyst level.

The post Finance TV Shows in 2019: The Full Round-Up appeared first on Mergers & Inquisitions.

from ronnykblair digest https://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/finance-tv-shows/

[erikmalpicaflores]

Erik Malpica Flores vio: Apúntate, o vete a la mierda: Tráiler de la 4ª temporada de ‘Billions’

Showtime ha lanzado el tráiler oficial de la cuarta temporada de ‘Billions’, la estupenda y exitosa serie de televisión creada por Brian Koppelman, David Levien y Andrew Ross Sorkin sobre la política del poder y la doble cara del ansiado sueño americano.

Cuando todos buscan venganza, nadie está a salvo. Esto nunca ha sido tan cierto como en esta nueva temporada en la que los antiguos enemigos Bobby Axelrod (Damien Lewis) y Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti), y la consejera principal de ambos, Wendy Rhoades (Maggie Siff), se han unido para formar una alianza, incómoda pero altamente efectiva, con el propósito de erradicar a sus respectivos rivales: Taylor Mason (Asia Kate Dillon) y Grigor Andolov (John Malkovich) por un lado, Brian Connerty (Toby Leonard Moore) y Waylon ‘Jock’ Jeffcoat (Clancy Brown) por el otro.

Malin Akerman, David Costabile, Condola Rashad, Kelly AuCoin y Jeffrey DeMunn también repiten al frente de un reparto al que ahora se incorporan nombres como los de Samantha Mathis, Kevin Pollak, Jade Eshete o Nina Arianda, entre otros.

Su estreno se anuncia para el próximo 17 de marzo de 2019, tanto en Estados Unidos como en España (cortesía una vez más de Movistar+).

Clic aquí para verlo en YouTube.

Este y otros tráilers los podréis encontrar en nuestro canal de Dailymotion, o en la sección de Tráilers y vídeos de películas de la web.

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[erickmalpicaflores]

Erik Malpica Flores Erik Malpica Flores recommends: Showtime Announces Premiere Date for Season 4

Today Showtime announced that the fourth season of BILLIONS will premiere on Sunday, March 17 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.

According to the cable channel: “When everyone is out for revenge, no one is safe. This is never more true than in season four of BILLIONS. Bobby Axelrod (Lewis) and Chuck Rhoades (Giamatti), former enemies, and Wendy Rhoades (Maggie Siff), the chief counselor to each, have come together to form an uneasy but highly effective alliance, aimed at the eradication of all their rivals, including Grigor Andolov (guest star John Malkovich), Taylor Mason (Asia Kate Dillon), Brian Connerty (Toby Leonard Moore) and Waylon “Jock” Jeffcoat (guest star Clancy Brown). Ambition and betrayal have long been at the heart of BILLIONS, and this season all the characters find out exactly how high a price they’ll have to pay to satisfy those needs.”

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[nothingunrealistic]

review roundup: billions 7x08 “the owl”

what a waste of my time! what did reviewers think?

New York Times: ‘Billions’ Season 7, Episode 8 Recap: Going Nuclear

Mike Prince is trying to do the right thing. A man for whom his wife, Andy, cares deeply has had a mountain-climbing accident in the Himalayas. He is injured and alone, in the path of a storm, running out of food and stranded on the Chinese side of the mountains. Mike has the resources to arrange a successful extraction, even under these physically and politically dangerous conditions. To rescue the man means risking an international incident and potentially ending his presidential campaign. Not to rescue him means the man will die, and Andy will lose someone who is more to her than a friend.

fascinated by the vagueness of the description of andy’s relationship to derek here.

In this secluded environment — clearly modeled after the Bohemian Grove, right down to the choice of its avian mascot — the nearly all-male elite can mix, mingle, urinate in the open air, go streaking through the snow, participate in tests of strength with offensive names and generally enjoy the rights and privileges of being right and privileged.

get their asses!

Known to friends and foes alike as “Fourth,” Pike is there to decide which of these self-conceptualized common-sense mavericks deserves his backing. He gets his answer in the most horrifying sequence this show has seen since Bobby Axelrod paid a doctor to let a patient die.

i can imagine there were more horrifying sequences, but i can’t think of any right now. (though who knows what the last four episodes might hold? we already know a fresh angle on the printer throwing scene is in there…)

Watching this room full of rich men discuss the incineration of millions as if they’re swapping fantasy football strategies is repulsive; there’s no other way to put it. It’s everything wrong with how decisions are made in this country, as wealthy people in no danger of facing consequences for their actions debate idly which lives are and aren’t worthless when stacked against the overriding importance of their own comfort and ambitions.

i love it when sean goes off like this. it’s a breath of fresh air next to sarene’s “prince is trump, no further questions your honor” analysis and kyle’s “i don’t think michael prince is a dangerous fascist” t-shirt.

Chuck’s quest to stop Prince from reaching the White House — like the parallel sabotage campaign led by Wendy, Wags and Taylor — is predicated on the idea that no man this free of self-doubt belongs anywhere near power, let alone the kind of power present in the nuclear football.

TAYLOR MENTIONED.jpg

Chuck leaves, visibly shaken. If self-styled guardians of the soul of the nation like Fourth don’t understand that they’re selling that soul by backing Prince, what hope does he have? Which raises another question: Is “Billions” the most chilling show on television right now? And I’m not talking about the wintry setting of this week’s episode. Like virtually every episode since Prince’s presidential ambitions became clear, “The Owl” casts an unflinching eye on the danger posed to American democracy by megalomaniacal strongmen, by the ultra-rich, and especially by the people who are both. In a sense, this is covered ground for the show. Chuck already took on billionaire overreach when he battled Bobby Axelrod for five seasons. His conflicts with the pointedly unnamed presidential administration in power in the show’s universe from 2017 to 2021, represented by odious officials like Attorney General Jock Jeffcoat and Todd Krakow, made a clear argument that authoritarianism, corruption and reactionary politics are correlated phenomena. But since Axe never got directly involved in politics, and since the former president was never depicted as an on-screen character, “Billions” has never had such an opportunity to explore all these issues up close by embodying them in one man. And in an episode that depicts the threat he presents in the starkest, most existential terms imaginable, it’s worth noting what that one man actually does.

📣📣📣

To its credit, “Billions” has long presented sexual fetishism and kink not as a source of comedy (OK, not only as a source of comedy), let alone as a marker of deep psychological dysfunction. It has always been presented more as just a part of the sex lives of countless basically normal people (OK, normal by “Billions” standards). It picks up this torch again in a subplot involving Wags’s discovery that he has a certain scatological fetish that initially sends his wife, Chelz (Caroline Day), fleeing from the room. (“Stop saying words out of your mouth!” she stammers in one of the best lines of the night.) When Wendy explains to Chelz that the fetish represents Wags’s desire to be loved unconditionally, despite even the most repugnant parts of himself, Chelz is into it — but for Wags, the explanation kills the mood, like a magician revealing how the trick is done. And I call shenanigans! Figuring out why you’re into the weird stuff you’re into makes it more fun, not less.

a few counterpoints:

from 4x02 onward, billions kind of has treated chuck’s masochism as a marker of psychological dysfunction (overton window speech notwithstanding) and his loss of interest in it over the past two seasons as a sign of positive personal growth.

how much credit does billions deserve for portraying kink positively in the sex lives of certain characters if simultaneously it’s shitting on certain other characters for having (or even wanting) sex lives at all?

are we sure wags and chelz are married? i think that would come up if it had happened. (i know the audio description for this episode refers to her as his wife, but it’s been wrong before.)

in wags’s case, i can believe that having his kink explained would cause him to lose interest. remember how he promised wendy he wasn’t seeing dr. mayer by saying “i prefer those depths unplunged”? this man does NOT want to know himself.

Vulture: Billions Recap: Pissing in the Wind

another four-star rating. who is making you do this, sarene?

“The Owl” is the last, what I would call, “casual” episode. Its minimal plotlines set the stage for the chaos that will ensue over the final four episodes. That’s not a spoiler: remember that we’re still owed three more Axe episodes. And Axe + Billions = chaos.

it can be a spoiler if i bring the plot summaries of the last four episodes into it! but yes, i agree, we’re finally at the stage where things really get wild, even if there wasn’t a proper midseason turning point. watch out for those tempo changes, man, ‘cause when we go into the second bridge last third of the season, this shit takes off.

Before Prince can start communing with nature and the political elite, though, he must solve a problem for his wife, Andy. Apparently, a “friend” of hers was climbing a mountain on the Nepal/China border before tackling Mount Everest, and now he’s injured and trapped on the Chinese side. Oh, and he’s more than just a “friend.”

again with the vagueness! won’t anyone be forthright and say that andy fucked this guy? or at the very least that she slept with him?

As soon as Fourth talks about listening to “new voices” who can lead the country to even more greatness and he dismisses Governor Dunlop’s viewpoints on nuclear weapons usage as “sensible,” it’s game over. Prince almost doesn’t even need to say out loud that he would, without hesitation, bomb a hostile country with plans to launch an attack. But he does. Because Mike Prince feels fine with the end of the world as we know it. In his mind, that’s a better decision than leading with hesitation, which he claims would be Governor Dunlop’s approach. While most gasp in horror, Fourth is impressed, calling Prince’s viewpoint “a nuance few are brave enough to voice” and the embodiment of America’s core value, “strength of nation.” This is how the 2016 election happened, folks…

*long and loud sigh*

From where Fourth stands, Chuck is small potatoes, and Mike Prince is the man who can Make America Great Again.

*longer and louder sigh*

People sure do weird things when they’re given a lot of power. And in case you really weren’t sure that Mike Prince is the latest Billions character to sell his soul to the devil, the episode’s final images should clear things right up. The Owl retreat concludes with the male attendees, wearing dark, hooded cloaks (better dark than white, I guess) and carrying torches, setting a giant wooded owl statue aflame to the haunting tune of Bob Dylan’s “Blind Willie McTell.” Good grief, this country is bizarre.

can you please not jump on the “WOAH THEY WERE TOTALLY DOING A SATANIC ILLUMINATI RITUAL TO MOLOCH AT THE END THERE” train? i’ve already seen enough of that on twitter.

I deliberately refuse to discuss the Wags-Chels subplot for two reasons: (1) It felt like a leftover storyline from another season that the writers wanted to squeeze in before Billions concluded. (2) I. Hate. That. Baby. Shower. Game. With. Every. Fiber. Of. My. Being.

this is how i first found out that that was a real baby shower game. i hate it here. and yes, it felt like something that belonged into an earlier season, when neither wendy nor wags had anything better to do — such as, say, working on that plan to topple their would-be authoritarian boss when he happened to be three hundred miles away for two days — than analyzing wags’s new weird kink.

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis (Damianista): Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 8: The Owl

damianista did not do a recap of this episode.

Entertainment Weekly: Billions recap: Into the woods

It's only when Michael Prince (Corey Stoll) decides he needs to attend the retreat that Chuck thinks twice about going.

incorrect! chuck goes because he knows dunlop and fourth will be there and wants to encourage him to endorse her rather than prince, but he has no idea prince will be attending until he arrives and sees prince there.

Complicating all of this, Andy (Piper Perabo) needs a favor. A friend of hers has disappeared while mountain climbing, and they can't use a beacon to coordinate a rescue because the man took an alternate route and crossed into China. Doing so would alert the Chinese government and he'd be held hostage. So Andy asks for Prince to coordinate a private, secret rescue using his connections. Prince does so despite the fact that if they get caught, his campaign is over, and despite his complicated feelings about the man being rescued, who's one of Andy's romantic connections in their open marriage.

“one of andy’s romantic connections” is the most explicit anyone’s gotten so far! congratulations!

All of this represents a shift in Prince's persona. He's becoming harsher, more cynical, and completely focused on his need for power. He's finally turning into the man everyone's been worried about.

he’s BEEN that man, kyle. that’s the point.

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis (Gingersnap): The Unbeatable, Unstoppable, Unparalleled MVPs from Billions Season 7 Episode 8, “The Owl”

Gingersnap Supreme Sleazeball Swerdlow Sayings in a Scene…AGAIN – He’s back! Slimeball doc is back, this time wearing a prison-orange, head-to-toe, Karl Kani tracksuit to The Owl’s winter conclave. […] And it doesn’t stop there – the Doc simulates ghastly hip thrusts when groaning the word “uh!” as he names off kinky sexual acts like postillionage and croissant (too many urban dictionary definitions to count),

maybe you would have found the right urban dictionary definition if you’d looked up cuissade, which is what he actually said and was spelled clearly in the captions. (and neither of those things are particularly kinky unless you’re incredibly straight.)

Benedict Arnold Citation– Griffin Dunne, who played George Pike, IV aka “Fourth” in this episode. Dunne also played Dr. Alcon Parfit in Succession. Only traitors act in both Billions and Succession and I find it deplorable when one is defecting across enemy lines, but he wasn’t the first defector.

🙄🙄🙄

Damianista […] Greatest Entrance – Governor Nancy Dunlop The badass Montana governor shows up at The Owl with these words to the old, rich, white men that I am talking about above. “Hey boys! Are you cold? Some of you seem cold. I saw a few of you answering the call in the trees back there. They were definitely cold.”

yes, of course. what could be greater and more badass than walking up to a group of people and going “haha small penis.”

Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship – Wendy and Andy While their relationship did not start off on the right foot, it seems Wendy and Andy bond over Andy’s grief when it is not the Tiger Team but the Chinese officials who are able to reach Derek first! I think Andy deep down knows why the best rescue team in the world has not been able to do it and I suspect she may join the opposition against Prince presidency in the weeks to come!

what do you mean “deep down.” she knows why the team couldn’t get derek out and she said it out loud to prince’s face.

Lady Trader […] The “Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket” Award: Did Mike Prince really just pull all of his money, both personal and the funds, out of every international investment? What a very foolish and short-sighted thing to so. The losses his would take would be tremendous, not to mention how he would move the markets on certain investments, and would never be able to get “market prices.” What a moron.

[midsommar imdb parents guide “a man is constantly seen vaping” tumblr post voice] oh if that’s all

The “Vision I Never Want to See” Award: The thought of those old, wrinkly men playing naked Twister just brought up my breakfast! Gross!

disrespectful to old men who fuck each other. apologize now.

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis (Lady Trader): From the Trader’s Desk

lady trader also did not do a recap of this episode.

[sachintrivedig]

Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) has only begun his investigation, and Waylon ‘Jock’ Jeffcoat (Clancy Brown) already knows he may be the target.

[magicalquote]

Waylon 'Jock' Jeffcoat: Men need targets. Keep things neat. Sometimes men become targets.

[retentivet]

Clancy Brown as US Attorney General Waylon “Jock” Jeffcoat in Billion’s Season 3 premiere “Tie Goes the Runner” 

[ianbagleyinfo]

Billions: ‘Billions’ Season 3, Episode 10: Defcon 6

Ian Bagley's New Blog Post

“Billions” is centered on the contrast between Bobby Axelrod and Chuck Rhoades. But in Attorney General Jock Jeffcoat, Chuck has met an even better match.

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