Billions recap: Chuck is back in New York to wage war on the city's most wealthy

As this week's episode of Billions kicks off, Mike Prince (Corey Stoll) finds himself between a rock and a hard place. Quite literally, actually, as he's doing a little rock climbing and struggling to find his grip. His buddies are roasting him, saying that his hands have gotten soft ever since he found himself in the upper echelon of society. After the climb, Prince asks the climbing coach out on a date. They seem to know each other. "We're not going to do that," she says with a sigh. Later, we learn this is Prince's wife, that they're separated, and that he desperately wants her back. That's important to remember.

Spending time with his wife gives Prince an idea. She's a professional climber and coach, and she's heading up a team making an Olympics bid, sponsored by the Rask Sportswear company. Prince decides to look into Rask Sportswear and finds some horrendous human rights violations when it comes to the creation of their products. Naturally, he wants to make an example of Rask and show that Mike Prince Capital is committed to weeding out the dirty players in the market, his stated mission from the season premiere.

So, Prince gets the dirty details about Rask out there and then shorts the company's stock. He's raking in a ton of money as athletes boycott the brand and Rask's stock plummets. Wags (David Costabile) has also organized a buyout, which only makes the firm more money. But there's a problem. Wags is old friends with the CEO, Stewie Rask (Peter Zizzo), and negotiated in the buyout that Stewie stay on in a lead position for 10 years, which means the stock will rebound. It's an attempt to keep everyone happy; Wags is trying to make Prince money while also making sure his friend isn't ruined.

Naturally, Prince is livid, and this becomes a do-or-die moment for Wags. To prove his loyalty to the new boss, he reveals a long-hidden secret: that Rask has financial ties to North Korea. That's it for the company. The stock plummets again, and Prince gets his win — but not without some fallout. Prince's wife, Andy (Piper Perabo), is pissed that he'd go after the one company she has a sponsorship with. She sees this as him trying to take control of her life, and while Prince says that's not the case, it's tough to understand his true motivations here.

In fact, while Taylor (Asia Kate Dillon) believes Prince is acting based on his own ethics, Wendy (Maggie Siff) is more skeptical. She sees Prince interacting with his estranged wife, and she's not convinced that he isn't making moves based on getting her back. In essence, no one in the former Axe Cap has a read on Prince just yet. He's trying to bring the Olympics to New York and has a very altruistic plan for how that can help the most vulnerable people in the city, but how much of that is just what he's supposed to say to sound like one of the "good billionaires"? Only time will tell.

Elsewhere in the episode, Chuck (Paul Giamatti) has come back from his sabbatical on the farm, hungry to start a new war with some of New York's wealthiest citizens. He believes he's found some clarity of purpose, eager to take on the imbalance of power throughout the city. His latest mission involves taking on the Tenants and Management Board by rallying workers within the Doorman and Custodial Union to demand higher wages and hazard back pay for all the work they did during the pandemic while the rich were holed up in their vacation homes.

Chuck's gamble pays off. He takes on Bud Lazzara (Wayne Duvall), the head honcho of all the rich residents in a swanky downtown apartment building. He catches Lazzara on tape trying to bribe the union leader, and uses that video to get what he wants: a five-percent raise for the workers, and more importantly, Lazzara's understanding that Chuck is a formidable force in this city. In essence: sure, Chuck is on the side of the workers, but he's also playing some sort of self-serving long game here. He wants to use Lazzara at some point in the future, and this move helps him get some leverage.

After the season premiere hit the reset button and set the tone for the season, "Lyin' Eyes" does a great job of laying down some character-driven work. The plotting is fun, but what's really intriguing is how much we don't know about what Prince and Chuck have planned in the long term. Both of them are only showing so many of the cards they're holding, which makes it all the more exciting to think about what they might have in store.

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