'Billions' Season 5 Episode 8 Review: Axe low blows Prince to go 1-0 in battle
This review contains spoilers for 'Billions' Season 5 Episode 8: 'Copenhagen'
'Billions' didn't skip a beat on its return. It's all there — The bitter rivalry between Axe (Damian Lewis) and Mike Prince (Corey Stoll), Chuck Rhoades' (Paul Giamatti) efforts to save his father's life, Taylor Mason (Asia Kate Dillon) upping the ante and climbing the success ladder while also getting enough time for introspection, and then the crackling, yet fluctuating chemistry between Wendy (Maggie Siff) and Nico Tanner (Frank Grillo).
Last we saw, and this was just before the world, and Hollywood shut down for a good few months following the outbreak of the coronavirus, Axe wanted to vanquish Prince in 'The Limitless Sh*t' and while it might not have been the hard-hitting midseason finale we hoped for, it packed a punch.
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The present sees Wags (David Costabile) search for any weaknesses that Axe Cap's arch-nemesis might have and while he thinks he has a lead, it fizzles out. However, Axe catches a tell and uses it to win the first round. It's not a TKO, but definitely, a low blow as he shatters Prince's Denmark ambassador plan. It all starts with Wags finding out that Prince has a penchant for sports betting and uses runners to ensure there's no paper trail.
Axe and Wags think they have their man by the jugular, but Prince wiggles out with a smooth bluff only to prompt his competition to dig deeper into his past. It is revealed that he stole his best friend's idea and took the credit for it making gazillions in the process while the poor bud, who had issues with drugs spiralled out before eventually kicking the bucket in a road accident. Axe meets up with the mother and convinces her to tarnish Prince's image on television. Ingenious low blow.
Touching on the other plot points, its a blast from the past for a clean-shaven Rhoades as his college-aged act of rigging the Yale Student Council election threatens to not just pummel his reputation to the ground, but also hamper any chances of him finding a way out to save his father Rhoades Sr.'s life. Wendy's relationship with Tanner hits a roadblock when the latter realizes what he's missing in life when he interacts with Axe Cap's employees.
In all, it's a decent start that focuses on the no-holds-barred, all-out war between Axe and Prince, but subtly also brings in the fact that Rhoades has still not let his old adversary out of his radar. There's enough to watch although 'Copenhagen' slows down in the middle and adds in some plots that could be disposed of. It does appear that 'Billions' Season 5 will focus on the latest rivalry and that just might continue to be the central theme of this instalment.
'Billions' Season 5 airs Sunday nights at 9 pm ET/PT on Showtime.