#BILLIONS SEASON 5 EPISODE 8 MUSIC FULL#

Taylor Mason Carbon exists, but just barely, thanks to the machinations of both Axe and Chuck. Let’s see, what else has changed? Axe Capital is no more, splitting into Axe Bank and Axe Asset Management Division.

That’s Billions for you - it always keeps you second-guessing. But I have to wonder if Senior (still the trustee of Axe’s new bank) is playing a double agent, crashing his son’s dinner at the quarantined billionaire’s behest and feeding Chuck’s intricately crafted intel back to Axe. Hell, even Chuck was ready to accept this turn of events. One thing I’m curious about, though: Is Senior truly on Team Axe now? I’d totally believe it, given how Axe saved his life. We get the sense that the ruse was a success, even though Axe has figured out that Chuck and Prince are working together, so it’s still anybody’s game with two episodes left in the season. Meanwhile, Chuck and Prince take center stage at a Jeffersonian Dinner (yep, it’s a thing, and there are indeed rules) where they lead federal and New York State officials - attending via WebEx, because, COVID - in a spirited discussion over the legalization of marijuana.Īnd I mean “center stage” in the literal sense because the whole evening was an elaborate setup to trick the one person who wasn’t even there - Bobby Axelrod. However, Taylor’s role remains subdued, albeit critical: They put the idea of cornering the cannabis market into Axe’s head. The triple alliance of Chuck Rhoades, Mike Prince, and Taylor Mason, established in last week’s episode, appears intact. On the flip side, including COVID in the storyline makes Damian Lewis’s overseas location more plausible: Why is Axe only showing up via Zoom, FaceTime, or ye olde telephone call in this episode? Because he tested positive for COVID (catching the virus from his pilot because, rich guy) the day before he was supposed to get vaccinated and has to quarantine, of course! He’s also the kind of guy who has the resources to vaccinate his employees behind closed doors before the trials are even complete. My theory is that Axe is the kind of guy who would force everyone back into the office well before most companies did the same.

#BILLIONS SEASON 5 EPISODE 8 MUSIC FULL#

However, the distribution of vaccines and a full-on return to the office (featuring masks and strategically placed hand sanitizer) would suggest a full year has gone by between last week’s episode and this one - but if that’s the case, then, what? Did the plotlines somehow enter stasis during Billions’ unspecified lockdown period? Namely, the timeline has become a little murky: We can assume that some months have passed between “Implosion” and “Liberty” because (a) COVID has hit, (b) the Axe Cap offices closed down, and (c) Senior has recovered from his kidney transplant. Because it’s had to adapt its pre-pandemic scripts, we’re dealing with a few square-peg-in-round-hole situations.

The Billions universe now exists in a post-COVID world, and through no fault of its own, the show is stumbling a bit. It’s for this reason that I’m glad things aren’t entirely clear on the scheming end in “Liberty.” As if, gasp, the writers - showrunners Brian Koppelman and David Levien teamed up with Emily Hornsby for this particular episode - wanted us to remain somewhat in the dark. We’ve come to the point in the season where I think I know what the long game is, but given my history covering Billions, I could still be way off.

Billions season 5 episode 8 music