‘Billions’ Recap Reality Index: Season 4, Episode 10 (“New Year’s Day”)

The recap is back! Welcome back to the Billions Recap Reality Index, where every week we tally a list of events from each episode that we found to be either too real to fail or as fake as a toxic asset’s triple A rating, scored on our completely subjective point system.

This week we provide you with due diligence on Billions Season 4, Episode 10: “New Year’s Day.”

When we last saw Axe, he and Rebecca were hard at work bringing Saler’s department store back to its original glory. Meanwhile, Wendy was under fire facing a medical board review jeopardizing her license, revenge from Taylor for Wendy’s treachery. Over at the US Attorney’s office Connerty had a wire on Chuck and Chuck Sr. and was hot on their trail as they lined up financing for Chuck Sr’s business with help from the Treasury Secretary. This week, we see Axe Capital kick off the New Year much how you’d expect, with Axe forcing employees back to the office from their island vacations to make him money. Wendy spends the day prepping for her medical board review, Chuck meets with the Treasury Secretary Krakow, and newly rehired Victor Mateo sees about making some Picassos disappear. Never a dull moment! Let’s get to the numbers.

REALER THAN FUND EMPLOYEES COMING IN ON A DAY OFF FOR OFFICE FACE TIME

• Two Axe Capital employees ask each other where they were vacationing before getting called into the office. Turks and St. Barths. 100% where you holiday.
  PLUS 1
• Taylor and Lauren are awkward about trying to keep their hookup a secret at work which as always just makes it extremely obvious to everyone in the office that they hooked up.
  PLUS 1
• Taylor Mason Capital brings in Lonnie to help prep Taylor for the medical board hearing. Hedge funds have made a habit of hiring former government officials for advisory work. John Paulson famously hired Alan Greenspan after making a killing in subprime.
  PLUS 1
• Axe is mad when Picasso’s are delivered to him because of the tax liability #HedgeFundManagerProblem
  PLUS 1
• Axe realizes Taylor’s play is for Kling, the appliance provider for Saler’s and their crown jewel, similar to the situation with Kenmore and troubled retailer Sears in real life.
  PLUS 1
• “I did not come to work for a hedge fund manager tagging the IR girls.” Sara dropping one of the best lines of the season.
  PLUS 2
• Axe got fucked by a Swiss banker who bailed on hiding the art Axe bought sounds 100% like a UBS situation. UBS even sponsors Art Basel which is like the icing on the cake.
  PLUS 1
• Wags rocks a Patek (before it was stolen).
  PLUS 1
• Wags getting his watch stolen by a hook up is bananas, as well as increasingly common; the NY Post constantly has stories about this.
  PLUS 1
• Wendy gets Wags a professional cuddler. These really do exist, and are yet again another NY Post special.
  PLUS 1
• Wendy calls Axe out for essentially forcing office face time on Axe Capital employees when they should be enjoying the vacation day. This happens constantly.
  PLUS 1
• Connerty is Irish and has a brother who constantly gets into fights in bars. Par for the course among Irishmen.
  PLUS 1

TOTAL POINTS FOR REAL:PLUS 13

FAKER THAN THE US TREASURY SECRETARY NEGOTIATING FINANCING DEALS FOR THE NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL’S FAMILY

• Wags wouldn’t be on vacation in Miami after getting a fat bonus, he’d be somewhere much more exotic, and overseas.
  MINUS 2
• Why would Taylor use Kling’s for a reverse merger? They could just choke out Saler’s and get a sweeter deal with another retailer, like Kenmore did with Amazon.
  MINUS 1
• Bonnie saying she’s going on the road to bring in fresh capital because Axe Capital doesn’t have an IR person explains why there are no IR people ever around but no fund with the monster AUM of Axe Capital would have zero IR personnel.
  MINUS 1
• The increasingly hands on role Treasury Secretary Krakow is taking in lining up financing for the NY AG’s father gets crazier and crazier.
  MINUS 3
• Axe was already pushing the envelope bringing Victor Mateo back in the fold, but bringing Danny Margolis back into the picture to help with his tax avoidance is absolutely reckless and asking for trouble after all the hell Axe Capital has barely survived.
  MINUS 2

TOTAL POINTS FOR FAKE: MINUS 9

OVERALL SCORE FOR BILLIONS SEASON 4 EPISODE 10 (“AMERICAN CHAMPION”): PLUS 4

OVERALL SCORE FOR BILLIONS SEASON 4: PLUS 57

Plus 4, a decent finish! It wasn’t as strong as previous weeks, but continues this season’s trend of staying in the black. Sara calling out Taylor for tagging IR girls was classic and could be one of the best quips this season. The situation with Treasury Secretary Krakow and Chuck Sr is starting to get a bit too bonkers, though, with a paper trail now in place that Connerty is clearly going to get his Irish AF brother to hunt down.

With only two episodes left to go for the season, the big question is will Billions be able to keep this amazing bull run going or will the storyline with Connerty chasing down Krakow and the Rhodes family derail the firm grip on reality the show has maintained all season? Stick with us when we recap Episode 11 next time.

Comfortably Smug is a government relations professional with a focus on the financial services industry. He can be found on Twitter with his musings on all things finance and politics at @ComfortablySmug.

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