‘Billions’ Recap Reality Index: Season 3, Episode 6 (“The Third Ortolan”)

The recap is back! Welcome back to the Billions, where every week we tally a list of events from each episode of Billions that we found to be either too real to fail or as fake as a toxic asset’s triple A rating, scored on our completely subjective point system.

This week we provide you with due diligence on the sixth episode of Season 3, “The Third Ortolan.”

Folks, buckle up your seatbelts because this week on Billions, we start seeing the chickens begin to come home and roost for some folks as sins of the past continue to be uncovered by Connerty.

When we last saw Axe and the gang, Taylor got to head out west to Silicon Valley and mix business with pleasure, while Axe had to stay back and try to get the matter of evidence of his lab created Ice Juice pathogen back under control. But it would be for naught, as the wily Chuck Rhodes one ups him yet again, securing the sample from Axe’s mad doctor. But will it be enough to finally put the top dog of Axe Capital behind bars once and for all, and more importantly will it be enough for Chuck to keep himself out of prison? Will Wendy be headed there as well once Connerty’s crusade comes to an end? Let’s take a look at the numbers and find out!

THE BILLIONS RECAP REALITY INDEX

REALER THAN A QUANT LIKE TAYLOR BEING ENAMORED BY A FLOWER WHOSE PETALS ARE CLUSTERED ACCORDING TO THE FIBONNACI SEQUENCE

• Dollar Bill asks Taylor if the long distance thing works. Taylor’s reply of, “If we were in the same place but each drawn to work with ninety percent of our time it would be awkward, or make it seem like our feelings didn’t matter, this is better.” That could be the realest shit I ever heard. The couple that workaholics together, stays together.
  PLUS 1
• Taylor has started building a quant army within Axe Capital, and of course the quant is an Indian kid.
  PLUS 1

• Chuck grabs a bite to eat with Blackjack Foley at the Spotted Pig. Nice touch.
  PLUS 1
• Spyros notes Axe’s suit is bespoke, the side adjusters in lieu of a belt are a solid tell.
  PLUS 1
• Spyros telling Chuck that he isn’t some cuckoo bird, he’s a golden eagle now, is perfect. Once you start making that buyside money after toiling for years at a government job, you aren’t going to just throw it all away.
  PLUS 1
• Everything is falling apart for Axe’s case and meanwhile Lara is….. shopping and working on redecorating. Playing that separated hedge fund wife role perfectly.
  PLUS 1
• Wylie Dufresne cameo. They’re really stacking the season with restaurateurs.
  PLUS 1
• Wendy remarks to Blackjack Foley that coming up in Albany politics, he definitely has seen it all. 100%. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
  PLUS 1

TOTAL POINTS FOR REAL: PLUS 8

FAKER THAN A US ATTORNEY PAYING AN EX CON TO PLANT EVIDENCE AT THE HOME OF A DEFENDANT

• Do not adjust your television sets, you are seeing just fine. That is in fact Chuck Rhodes, a US Attorney, handing an envelope full of cash and promising visas to the family back in Congo of a recently freed from prison ex con.
  WTF MINUS 2
• Remember a few episodes ago when it was such a big deal for Axe, who is supposedly barred from trading, to visit the offices of Axe Capital that his head of compliance was recording everything that happened on video as proof there was no wrong doing? Now everyone is fine with Axe camping out and even having bouncers to keep compliance people away?
  MINUS 1
• Why is Axelrod holding this meeting about bribing witnesses and destroying evidence at the offices of Axe Capital instead of at his home? Why the hell would he want his ostensibly shadowy fixers to be in plain view of every employee of the fund? Very odd.
  MINUS 1

• The judge tells Connerty he has one week to produce evidence implicating Axelrod or the case will be tossed. This whole premise is insane. The defense can file a motion to dismiss based on a deficiency in the indictment e.g. it doesn’t state a crime or it doesn’t establish jurisdiction, they can not just file a motion to dismiss based on insufficient evidence.
  MINUS 3
• While speaking with Taylor, Wendy mentions that if Axe goes to jail, things will change, but the capital will still need to be managed, etc. To be clear, if Axe goes to jail, there will be no capital to manage, there will be no investors, there will only be a pile of redemption requests and every employee at Axe Capital rushing for the exits. It’s why there is no Galleon Group any more.
  MINUS 1
• Chuck puts the slide down on the table, the key piece of evidence against Axe, and fuck it, let’s just be totally bonkers.
  MINUS 1

TOTAL POINTS FOR FAKE: MINUS 9

OVERALL SCORE FOR “THE THIRD OTOLAN”: MINUS 1

OVERALL SCORE FOR BILLIONS SEASON 3: PLUS 30

WOW! The first time we end up in negative territory this season! TO BE VERY CLEAR, this is to say, some plot points and events were a bit far fetched! Is the show still good? Yes! Is season three amazing and appointment television at this point? Absolutely. We knew there would have to be a reckoning for all of the various skeletons in the characters closets, all of their scheming and machinations have slowly snowballed for half a season and at last the avalanche arrived. So while we did end up this week at MINUS 1, we maintain a conviction buy rating on Billions; if anything, now is a perfect buy opportunity at a better value with the story taking off like a runaway train.

So where do we go next week? Will the greatest crossover team since the Avengers– Axelrod, Wendy, and Chuck, figure a way to outsmart Connerty and avoid jail time? Will the father/son relationship between Chuck and Charles continue to be in better shape than the father son relationship between Chuck and Connerty? Will Taylor leave it all behind and move to the valley as the newest big name angel investor? Stick with the recap when we return with next week’s episode of Billions.

Comfortably Smug is a government relations professional with a focus on the financial services industry. He can be found on Twitter with his musings on all things finance and politics at @ComfortablySmug

Watch Billions Season 3 Episode 6 ("The Third Otolan") on Showtime Anytime