Grigor, as anyone who watches Showtime's 'Billions' knows is the Russian oligarch played so well by John Malkovich that if he were to show up at the White House the Democrats would have him arrested.
Grigor and his whole family is being run out of the country, albeit with a red carpet leading from the limo on the tarmac to the private jet on the runway. But that's the ending. Let's start st the beginning.
The episode opens with Bobby Axelrod receiving some very key news about an impending natural gas explosion that is going to rip through Louisiana and upset all the natural gas holdings he has.
Why an impending disaster like this warrants the strategy to dump all the holdings Axe Capital has in that sector is a mystery to a market novice like myself. If the supply of natural gas is going to suddenly be in short supply, won't the functioning facilities that are intact be producing gas that can command a higher price? No matter. Bobby's got the info. Now he wants out of the sector before everyone else knows about it.
Just as the market bell announces the opening and the Axe traders are set to unload, the unthinkable happens. All of Axe Capital's computers go down. The mobile phones have received malware as well because they were last connected to the network. They are electronically blown out of the water and resemble a football player who is being carted off the field. They have no way to play.
Axe and Wags ride to the rescue because Bobby has kept a satchel full of burner phones for just such an occurrence. Also, Axe, Wags and Dollar Bill are the only traders old enough to know how to make verbal orders. All the rest of the current staff were born sometime before 'Beverly Hills 90210' went into reruns.
At the end of the frantic sequence, Axe Capital has managed to unload 90% of their toxic holdings as they declare a victory. True financial disaster was greatly mitigated. The ship will still float.
Grigor is felt to be behind the power outage. He told Axe not to fuckkkk with Taylor Mason and his new firm. Total proof of Grigor's involvement is obtained when Hall the spymaster comes into Bobby's office and shows off the Russian designed device that was somehow plugged into an outlet that started to whole chain of outages. Fucking Grigor.
Meanwhile, on the Charles Rhoades front and his campaign for New York Attorney General, Chuck is getting blackmailed by a dying Black Jack Foley who threatens to expose the sexual satisfaction he receives through S&M with his wife if he doesn't quit the race. Black Jack has liver cancer all over his body and is not expected to see Christmas. Unless there is a miracle of remission, David Strathairn, who deliciously plays the power broker, will also be leaning the cast as well.
Chuck, at his expected capitulation speech at Fraunces Tavern pockets the prepared text and launches into a Churchill quote, and eloquently tells the assembled that he and his consenting wife Wendy practice Sadomasochism. A gasp falls over the assembled. Chuck doesn't stop there. He tells the crowd of all the implements used. He all but reads the bar codes off the packaging. He completely turns disaster into victory through oratory. He becomes his own version of Winston Churchill.
However, this all leaves Mrs. Churchill, Wendy, extremely angry. (We hear the word 'motherfucker' and something about how many dicks can she be hit with? Whew!) What Shakespearean character she turns into will remain to be seen. If Glenda Jackson can play the male role of Lear, who knows who Wendy will become. She might just stay a female and be Lady Macbeth. Either way, Chuck is in trouble with a woman scorned.
The timeline is fuzzy here. Chuck seems to be announcing he's staying in the race while votes are still being cast in the primary. And of course, 30 days after what becomes his primary victory, he's been elected the Attorney General.
In New York, a primary is usually in September, and the general election is of course in November. Longer than a 30 day timeline. But this might have been a special election since the sitting Attorney General has resigned to take a job in Washington. No matter. Chuck is the Attorney General-elect.
None of this should surprise anyone who has been following New York politics. Anthony Weiner, the emailing former Congressman who would send underage girls an image of his wiener, almost got elected Mayor of New York City, even after revelations of his emailing proclivities. They finally did corral him and send him to prison, and he is just getting out, but has to register as a Class A sex offender.
It will be wonderful if future episodes see the Attorney General take on Governor Cuomo and give him friction over congestion pricing and the ban of single-use plastic bags—and even the proposed legalization of marijuana—but this is doubtful. No doubt Chuck's perch will be to compete with the United States Attorney for the Southern District, Bryan Connerty, for financial fraud cases.
Viewers should remember that in the prior episode Axe and Chuck have raised their glasses of what should be 18-year-old Scotch and pledged to support and help each other. Bedfellows are always strange bedfellows.
Can Chuck repay a favor for Bobby, who at the show's opening has engineered a way to keep voters away from the polls by offering so many of them expense paid junkets to Atlantic City that a street in Brooklyn is packed with a line of touring buses that has turned the candy store/bodega boarding point into the Port Authority.
In addition to that, Bobby has also arranged that a vast fleet of school buses will be unable to roll because their engines have all been sabotaged, thereby causing parents to have to get their kids to school themselves. This hopefully keeps them away from the polling places because they've suddenly been forced to provide a day of round-trip transportation. Never mind it is more than likely that the polling place is the school where their kids go. This is television.
So, given the newly formed alliance of Axe and Chuck, can Chuck do something to Grigor for Axe? Of course he can. This is television.
As the Attorney-General-elect of New York it seems Chuck can freeze all of Grigor's assets that are with Taylor Mason, and also give Grigor 12 hours to leave the country with his family. He gives Grigor the bad news in a face-to-face meeting with a lot of sofas to sit on.
These appear to be extraordinary powers for a state Attorney General. It is hard to remove a cab driver this fast who is in the country illegally who has been caught fleecing people at Kennedy airport for a living, but hey, this is television. Given the magnitude of these powers, it is unlikely Chuck is ever going to get involved with the banning of single-use plastic bags, congestion pricing and the legalization of marijuana. He's above it.
Grigor makes an attempt to sweet talk Chuck into a vacation of sorts that he will accompany him on in the time between now and the swearing in. Grigor implies there are pleasure places all over the world that Grigor can introduce Chuck to. Chuck swallows hard at this prospect. It is tempting, but no, he won't be 'Lestat and Louis' with Grigor. (You're on your own looking that one up.)
Thus, we get Grigor and his family walking the red carpet from the limo on the tarmac to the jet waiting to take them back to motherland, Russia.
Suddenly, there is a car approaching the red carpet. Is this a scene from 'Casablanca?' Is another pair of strange bedfellows suddenly going to join hands and walk into the fog? Well no.
Bobby Axelrod emerges from the newly arrived vehicle and confronts Grigor with an 'I am powerful' speech. Bobby does throw out an olive branch and tells Grigor that as soon as his plane lands in Russia the assets, the billions with Taylor Mason, will be unfrozen.
Grigor acknowledges that at least that is something. He's going to get back his own 'fuckking money.' They basically depart, telling each other that they will probably not bother to bother the other one so long as Bobby stays out of Russia, and Grigor stays out of the U.S. So we will have to wait and see if Grigor crawls back into any further scripts. After all, the Mueller report said there was no Russian collusion.
Is this the end of Grigor?
http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment