No More Axe Cap: Billions S5 Ep 10 Has Axe Firing Everyone

As Billions opened its 5th season’s second half with a bang, a bigger bombshell awaits fans in Episode 10.

The cat-and-mouse game of the financial market between Chuck and Axe seem never-ending. The battle is almost reaching its peak as we only have two more episodes left in the season.

Episode 10, ‘Liberty’ full-throttles into a pandemic world but makes it a bit difficult to place it in time.

It opens with three (really long) minutes of Chuck Rhoades making breakfast for his daughter. He is in his usual formal Avatar and has spent the night with a colleague working. But when it’s morning time, he gets ready to cook omelets for his loved one.

We also see how Axe Cap is managing. Video conferencing, masked meetings, and more, with Axe quarantined in his house as he contracted the virus.

After this, the show drops one of its few bombshells that hits closer to reality than probably anything else in the show.

Since business is dwindling, Axe decides Axe Cap needs restructuring. As masked employees attend the meeting from the office, Axe declares he’s firing everyone.

Well, not everyone. Axe Cap is no more, but it is splitting into Axe Bank and Axe Asset Management Division. One of the people who can be rehired is Taylor’s ex-girlfriend and Mase Carbon’s investor-relations guru, Lauren.

Axe tells Lauren to choose between staying at Mase Carbon (which is also barely hanging, but all thanks to Chuck and Axe) or joining Axe Bank. Lauren later dumps Taylor when he fires her from the job.

Wendy, Chuck’s ex-wife, who works at Mase Carb, is another employee who faces a dilemma. Chuck gives her a difficult choice – either pay a lump-sum divorce settlement or bring him Axe Bank/Mason Carbon’s balance sheets.

The ‘letting go’ of Axe Cap employees has opened a new chapter in the lead characters’ web of lies. First with Axe having more significant control over Mason Carbon and, of course, Axe Bank. And second, Chuck making things more difficult for Wendy.

Episode 9 saw the trio Taylor, Prince, and Chuck form an alliance, and Lauren’s breakup with Taylor might just as well be another step they have to take to win.

Many more things happened – Chuck’s Jeffersonian Dinner where the big people discuss putting money in the cannabis business as it might soon be legalized, only for Axe to put in his money. Axe sends his new ally Charles Sr., and he brings the same news back.

Now we don’t know if Axe has fallen into the trap, or is he setting his trap – Knowing fully well that the ‘Dinner’ was all but a way to get him to put his money on the market?

When we think it might make sense and someone actually is overtaking another, Billions, with showrunners Brian Koppelman, David Levien, and Andrew Ross Sorkin, prove us otherwise.

Billions airs every Sunday on Showtime at 9 PM ET/PT.

About Billions

Billions is an American drama created by Brian Koppelman, David Levien, and Andrew Ross Sorkin. The series is set in financial centres based in America.

The series follows hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis), as he accumulates wealth and power in the world of high finance. The series premiered on Showtime on January 17, 2016.

Source: Billions