Showtime's 'Billions' Season 5 Episode 9 review: Buck up Axe, there's a storm brewing
Spoilers for 'Billions' Season 5 Episode 9 'Implosion'
In the final seconds of 'Billions' ninth episode, 'Implosion' there's a team-up, and not so much an unlikely alliance. This one's a betrayal, stab in the back while you're waiting to see what the enemy has in store for you. For Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis), what's incoming is a drone attack that he's expecting, and a sniper he knows is planted and waiting for the right time to take his shot.
What he's oblivious is, is the plan that's hatched in his own camp to poison his wine. Strangely, an eccentric war scenario is what comes to mind when Mike Prince (Corey Stoll), Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti), and Taylor (Asia Kate Dillon) collectively gather under one roof with one common goal — Decimate Axe. 'Implosion' does what it suggests, and somehow, the title appeals pretty much appeals to Nico Tanner (Frank Grillo) and Wendy Rhoades (Maggie Siff) as their relationship is pretty much ka-put.
RELATED ARTICLES
'Billions' Season 5 Episode 8: Paul Giamatti's dramatic weight loss surprises fans
We don't know whether this is the last we see of Grillo's Tanner, but he's done a mighty neat job on the show. In his own rage, he gave Axe his best work ever — a splotch of colors ruined by a big spill of black that was the result of some blind anger and raw emotion towards his owner after he messes with Tanner's business.
There's another win for Axe: A distraught Wendy. Throughout season 5, there have been subtle hints of Axe making moves presumably to fill the void Lara left, but this might just be what he needs to make any potential relationship with her work.
It all seemed like a lost battle for Chuck as Axe made sure he got his bank. He tried to use his dying father, Charles Rhoades Sr. as the trustee of the bank who would act as an insider to make sure he could nail his archnemesis, but it fizzles out when Axe helps the old man and himself when he finds a suitable kidney donor. Prince comes up with the plan of using the one thing Axe is: Emotional. Taylor Mason Carbon takes a massive hit when Axe puts the business in crossfire to just stick it to Axe. A furious Taylor decides to turn against the employer by siding with Chuck and Prince, something we had a hunch about.
The episode is a slow burner, with Axe's pizza storyline taking a good few minutes to act as one of the plot points. However, safe to say, this was the much-needed episode 'Billions' needed after what was an impressive start to the second half of the financial thriller. If there is a giveaway, it would be the fact that the trio, or Prince to be more precise, figured out the man Axe is. How they plan to exact vengeance and how Wendy would be the bargaining chip here remains to be seen.
'Billions' Season 5 airs Sundays at 9 pm ET/PT on Showtime.
