'Billions' Season 6 Episode 3 Review: Battle royale for New York as Chuck, Mike gear up
Contains spoilers for 'Billions' Season 6 Episode 3 'STD'
'Billions' Season 6 was supposed to be about the new rivalry between Mike Prince (Corey Stoll) and Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti). It took its time (well, two episodes actually), and the third episode finally sees the two engage in a battle that promises deception, intrigue, and definitely enough pop culture references that makes the season a lot more interesting — a challenge they have without Damian Lewis in the fold.
The episode starts off with Prince's big vision — make the 2028 New York Olympics the best ever and rather memorable. However, it isn't without the share of issues. Todd Krakow (Danny Strong), the treasury man is back with his wisecracks but is a key player in the land acquisition for the games. Prince makes a power play and ties up with Krakow and Rhoades' billionaire friend, Bud Lazara (Wayne Duvall). However, he is met with stiff resistance from two old Axe Cap employees — Dollar Bill Stern and Mafee.
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The episode has enough internal battles that MPC faces, notably from Ben Kim, who cannot stand to see his former pals in trouble once Prince and Co decide to sink their deal that interferes with their Olympics plan. Eventually, it takes Taylor and Wendy to not just bail the duo out of the bad deal. Quite simply, the entire chapter builds to a face-off between Mike and Chuck. With some help from the new Mayor, he gets leverage over Krakow and Prince finds a new partner.
What makes 'STD' rather brilliant is the fact that they found the perfect way to connect the two key characters. It is easy to see where this is going — Prince has to prove himself to be a worthy adversary for Chuck. What better way than make him ambitious enough so as to make Chuck ran hellfire down his latest challenge. 'Billions' continues to chug in a merry way. It does enough to hold the attention but has slowed the pace down a little.
'Billlions' airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on Showtime.