‘Billions’ Season 5: Was miracle drug Vigilantrix a rip-off from ‘Mad Men’ or just a stupid plot device?
‘Billions’ has introduced several bizarre concepts on the show but none of them beat the Vigilantrix trick. In the midseason finale — Episode 7 titled 'The Limitless S**t' — the miracle drug is introduced to give total mental clarity and increase human productivity by leaps and bounds. Literally, every member of Axe Cap and Taylor Mason Carbon pop a few and what follows is some intense and insane moves.
Surprisingly, Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) approves it without a flinch. However, his plans take a twist of fate and eventually backfire. Before the entire team stumbles down, Taylor Mason (Asia Kate Dillon) knocks some sense into Axe and calls off the drug-driven move to make more money.
While the plot twist may be intriguing, not all fans enjoyed it. Some feel it was a "stupid" move by the makers. "I love that a smart guy like Bobby Axelrod just decides to pop a pill that clearly has not been vetted by the FDA or probably had been through all the clinical trials even though many drug companies are just as corrupt as Axe Cap. Of course, it's a wonderful mid-season finale bookend to a show that has been absolutely stupid for the past year and a half," one Reddit fan posted.
"I love how the guy that gave Axe the pills and nearly cost Axe $3 billion suffers no repercussions and at the end of the episode is put back in charge of the bank project, because he obviously shows such good judgement," another fan wrote.
What's more, one even went on to slam the entire season. "This season has no focus. So what did the writers do? They took Vigilantrix. Now they believe they are hyper-focused. Super aware. The best season they've written. Stellar character development. Mind-blowing plot twists. Christ, didn't you know Sacker could speak fluent Italian? We're multi-lingual in here, people!" one fan wrote, adding, "And it's all delusion. David Costabile knew this was happening and wrote the show as a big metaphor for what has been happening in the studio this season. This is his hint to the viewers of how lost and misguided the writers have become."
Shedding light on a loophole, one pointed out, "You know what just doesn't make sense to me? Before Axe took the pill, Victor comes up to him and explains how he sees everything. At this point, Axe was sober and confirmed that Victor was right about what Axe was thinking. So how is it that Victor was somehow a genius for those few minutes?"
Moreover, many feel it is a rip-off from 'Mad Men'. "It seemed like a complete copy of that Mad Men episode where the doctor comes and injects them all with a 'vitamin supplement' (amphetamines/speed) and they basically all waste 24 hours thinking they are working on something brilliant and it all turns out to be garbage," one fan wrote and another said, "Yeah only in mad men it actually made sense, they were facing a Chevy deadline and don is spiralling bc of Sylvia. They popped these pills like the kids in project x were popping, just for the fuck of it. Also, OP made a great point that somehow axe still fell for this even when he was sober and Victor was the only one taking it."
If that was not enough, one went on to compare writers of the two shows. "And the Mad Men scenario was actually based on fact. Google 'Dr Feelgood'.
Mad Men is a hundred times better written than Billions." Well, not all ‘Billions’ fans will agree to that statement — especially the ones who have been waiting for the eighth episode with bated breath. Don't you think so?
If you're still missing the show, binge-watch the previous seasons on Hotstar or Showtime App.