We've Gotta Stop That Man

If you think the legal system in the United States has been "weaponized' to be a freight train aimed at trying to keep Donald J. Trump from getting his name on the Republican ballot next November, you haven't been watching the most cunning septet on the face of earth trying to keep billionaire Michael Thomas Aquinas Prince from being an Independent nominee for president and getting his "first strike" hot-button finger on the "Go" command for firing nuclear weapons. With Prince as president, the first mushroom cloud is his.

As I've already written, I've been storing aired episodes of Billions on my DVR to help me prolong the last season since sports is at a fair low point, at least in New York. It's sort of my 18 week, 17 game NFL season. I have bye weeks.

So, there shouldn't be any spoilers here when I reveal that cabal inside  Mike Prince Capital (MPC) in the form of Wendy, Wags and Taylor are trying to bring to the stage that show-stopping number, "We've Gotta Stop That Man."

You might say Wendy, Wags and Taylor are the founding trio of those who are trying to derail Mike Prince and his bid for the presidency. In the 9th episode Chuck Rhoades, U.S. Attorney for the Southern district of New York,  makes it know he wants in as well.

For Chuck, there's a bit of a credibility problem because he'd be joining the type of people he's usually trying to get dirt on for shady trading. He needs to assure them he's in it to win it.

The opening montage of scenes for the episodes shows the outside of landmark New York City  restaurants where the movers and shakers drink and sup. We see the front of Peter Lugers, Sparks Steak House, Keen's Chop House, and Patsy's, to name a few.

It's inside an empty Patsy's that Chuck meets with the NYC police commissioner for tips on how to derail someone without getting arrested themselves.. Mike Rispoli is beautifully casted as the NYC police commissioner, who offers streetwise advice that it never goes well when you're trying to frame someone. He shows off, and impresses Chuck with his Catholic school Latin when he tells Chuck, anima in pericolo, meaning putting the inner self in danger. Bottom line: don't do it Chuck.

And just to show that two shakers and movers can get a restaurant to themselves, although not the corner Sinatra hung out in, they prepare to smoke postprandial cigars. Indoors. We don't see them light up, however. (My guess is Jilly's is not around anymore.)

Chuck is determined to help the inside Mike Price cabal of Wendy, Taylor and Wags, but needs to prove he won't, in his prosecutorial role, use anything against them. They are skeptical his intentions are pure ,anti-ballistic Prince.

Chuck mystifies his father and his counsel Ira by sitting at his office desk and speaking to a camera, creating a video that is a confession of all the dirty tricks, law-bending, against the law maneuvers he's done over the years to get convictions. 

It's not very reassuring to the public, we the audience, that a U.S. Attorney plays dirty. But really, only a newborn would think the world is on the level. Chuck's motive for this taped confession?

He approaches the cabal and tells them that if anything he learns from them that might be used against them, just release the only copy, encrypted flash drive and lead him away in handcuffs to jail. This convinces them of Chuck's pure passion to take down Prince that they let him join in their reindeer games.

Any casual viewer of Billions is aware that every episode is a lesson in back-stabbing machinations. Mike Prince didn't get where he is by playing nice in the sandbox. In a tense scene in Mike's townhouse (from the outside the National Arts Club across from Gramercy Park) Mike has called the cabal before him to mete out his justice, for he knows there is a plot against him. The Gramercy Park Massacre.

Wags is demoted, as is Taylor and Wendy. They stay on board, but in tightly held NDA jobs. Bonuses will not be paid, and their funds in Prince Capital are frozen. Mike has maneuvered Wendy into being a CEO of a mental health startup that he knows to be valued on bad, fraudulent financials. He's boxed Wendy in. If she makes a move against him he drops the dime on her and tells the Feds Wendy is head of  mental health provider that is fraudulent billing the government for in person visits when all they are doing is counting online AI run encounters. It's Club Fed for Wendy if this gets out. She's screwed.

Meanwhile, Ira, Chuck's counsel has joined the mutineers, and Taylor has made a personal visit to Bobby Axelrod, ensconced in this baronial castle in England, Haddon Hall, to enlist him to the cause. There is no one who dislikes Mike Prince more than Bobby Axelrod.

Bobby is aware of the vise Prince has put Wendy in, and is thinking, thinking, how to extricate her from his clutches. Chuck is beseeching him to come up with something. Bobby owes Chuck a favor for something did for the Russian oligarch.

Wheels are turning, and Ira, Chuck and Bobby come up with a plan to turn a Chinese national loose, a son of a major donor for Prince who went overboard cheating people through bitcoin and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that Chuck got convicted and incarcerated, much to Mike's dismay.

A prisoner swap is proposed to the Chinese. Son of so-and-so gets released, and Derek, the mountain climbing boyfriend of Mike's ex-wife Andy, that got plucked off the mountain on the Chinese side when Mike left him out to dry gets, to come home to the U.S.A., specifically to Bobby's place in New York since he has flown over from London for a Mike Prince takedown.

Mike is being feted at the Metropolitan Opera house with a fund raising concert with U2 providing the music. This is a pure New York A-lister event. A prelude to Mike sealing up his lead in the pols, and his expected anointing on being called Mr. President.

But who should come out of the black tie crowd as Mike and his entourage make their way to the entrance but Bobby Axelrod, attired as only Axe can be attired wearing a rock concert T-shirt under a black leather jacket, with Derek in tow in black tie. 

Bobby takes great delight in introducing Derek to Prince as his Plus-One for the evening, and reminds Mike who Derek is. Mike gets a little nervous.

Derek says a few remarks about the people he met in a Chinese prison and how his girlfriend Andy has shared so many intimacies about her time with Prince. Derek leans into Mike's ear and whispers an unheard monologue of what we can only surmise are things about Mike's either sexual inadequacies, or his kinky delights. Maybe both. No matter. He's got Mike's attention. Deus ex machina

Bobby then, in his best lemon soaked, Steve McQueen grimace, gets in Mike's face and lays out the terms of the détente. Bottom line, all things being held over Wendy go away.

Mike knows he's toast if Derek gets out there with the media and agrees through his silence that Wendy will not be held as a financial and legal hostage.

As the parties part, Mike tells his lieutenants to convert all the firm's positions to cash. He's not going to leave himself exposed for the Magnificent' Seven's guns.

There will be more.

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com