Billions

Previously on "Billions"...

An investigation has begun into your office,

and the man leading the investigation... Oliver Dake.

The payment that your wife received from Axelrod,

it may not be a bribe,

but, dang, if it doesn't look like one.

Well, Lawrence Boyd pissed right in my face.

He didn't show. What the hell do we do now?

Bobby Axelrod could run through the Serengeti

and not break a sweat.

You do what you do just as well as him.

Maybe better.

You can't allow yourself to get drawn in

to an unwinnable fight.

Victory will be swift.

That will save us ten million on this trade.

This is why I need to keep you.

I'd believe the same thing were I you.

- Whoa! - You've been served.

- With a lawsuit? - One hundred and twenty seven of them.

Wendy was at Krakow Capital earlier today.

You have an amazing level of insight

- into how we hedgies think. - Yes.

I don't mean Axe Capital. I mean Bobby himself.

- He was looking to hire you? - Yeah.

That motherfucker is just trying to poach my most valued...

I'm not your anything.

We handle ourselves and Chuck gives someone Head of Crim.

Or we cooperate with Dake and try our luck

starting over with Chuck's replacement.

You know what Rhoades is.

You know he should be out of the job.

That was the attorney general.

She's summoned me to Washington,

where she will greet me warmly,

and then she'll fire me.

There was a moment in time

when the only two people who knew what it was to fly

were the Wright Brothers.

And we are like them in a way.

Although we have to stay airborne

a lot longer than nine seconds,

we and have to go into much thinner air when we do.

But how do you do it, Todd?

How do you stay aloft?

One of the nine poets, Pindar, said it best.

Become who you are by learning who you are.

You wouldn't know Pindar from Pantera,

yet you act like you read the Harvard shelf

with your morning oatmeal.

Who wrote this shit for you?

Lawrence Boyd, I respect you

more than anyone in this game.

But the idea that Todd Krakow or anyone else but you here

is a thought leader just because they've got

a few dollars in their pocket is laughable!

Let me respond.

It's a sad fact of the business today.

Hedge funds like Axelrod's, they're out of ideas,

so they cut corners

and go looking for that black edge.

But I'm good enough

that I didn't have to get close to the line.

Really?

What about the $45 million in fines

you paid to the U. K.?

That...

No one understands those laws.

Larry, you ever found yourself afoul of British law?

No, some of us have never run afoul of any international laws.

Larry, you have teams of lawyers at Spartan-Ives

and locals in those countries who ensure

you don't get screwed the way I did.

Oh, okay, okay, okay, I'm only the referee here,

not taking sides, but you overstepped.

Apologies.

And let that be the first apology,

not the last, to this audience,

who have paid three grand for the privilege

of hearing your barbaric yawp.

- Axe, Axe, Axe. - Here's a thought.

If any of you want to continue the conversation,

I'll be over by the bar with my team.

Sure... hit, run, and hide, huh?

You been showing the SEC the same moves for years.

But, eventually, they catch you.

Krakow, whatever cocktail party tutor

you used to prep you for this panel

owes you a goddamn refund.

Well, that was stimulating.

Okay, okay, let's move on.

Tag, Global warming...

I called the car around so you can go.

Why would I leave now?

That's what you get for trying to steal my fucking employees.

Don't blame me for your fuck-up.

Word of advice, Axe...

you don't want to lose a valuable asset,

don't let her walk out the door, huh?

Here comes Boyd.

Sorry about your panel.

Sorry. The only reason you put Ric Flair in the ring

is to get that heat from the crowd.

I didn't pick that panel by accident.

I knew you'd incinerate it.

You just made sure Spartan-Ives

is all the Street's talking about for the rest of the month.

They'll be killing themselves they weren't in the room.

And the only way they get in there next year

is by making you their prime.

I'm the bull, you're the red sash every time.

Hey, Chuck. Come in.

I drove by Katz's on the way here.

Oh. You're killing me, man.

No? Well, I'm going in.

Uh-huh.

Oh.

- Mmm! - Mmm.

Talk to me.

Well, it's thorny. So many old cases aggregated.

Taken all together, it looks like

a pattern of overreach, misconduct.

That's why the papers think it's such a good story.

And there's the Axelrod case.

- We never even brought charges. - That's good.

You're protected by qualified immunity.

Chances are, we get it thrown out of court.

That will depend on the judge. We gotta find a very...

Chuck, I'm gonna make this go away.

That's why you came to me instead of going

with whatever lawyer Justice gave you.

Justice isn't defending me.

Whoa.

They only do that when, uh...

Well, they never really do that.

No.

Well, I'm not billing you.

Oh, come on. You gotta bill me, Ira.

It's $1,400 an hour.

Half price. Friends and family.

Why aren't they defending you?

The Attorney General's called me down to Washington.

She's gonna fire me.

Shit. Dake.

Oh, it's a lot of things over years.

But the stain of this investigation

has hobbled me politically.

I got no back channel out of this.

You gotta prove your loyalty, then, show her you're a soldier.

Yeah. I thought about that.

A new case the administration smiles on.

Let the General take the credit, sure,

but there's just no fucking time.

The A. G.'s got a lot of enemies, Chuck.

Take out an enemy... a big, hard-to-kill one.

It's tough to fire you then.

Finding the right target might be enough.

One so... gaudy,

so outlandishly difficult to bring down

that my replacement would certainly fail.

How much time do you have?

Three days.

Do you know what this is about?

Starting immediately, you have a new mandate.

Find me a case that's screaming for justice.

One that no one else would have the courage to take on...

even if... no, especially if

it seems impossible to win.

Where do we begin?

I want to kick into the C-suites...

those Teflon corporations

that defraud the American people on a grand scale.

No one was ever prosecuted for the financial crisis, no.

When we went after Wall Street, we got what we could get...

rogue traders, chip shots.

That ends today.

Anything else you can say that would narrow the target?

You want us to get back up on Axe Capital?

- Um, we know that they're... - No, no.

Steer wide around Axe Capital for now.

That's not gonna help.

Help what?

Be creative.

I look forward to your ideas, and I want them in 24 hours.

Why's he want an impossible case?

It's hinky.

I'm gonna steer wide around all of it.

Hey, Axe, you know what today is?

It's fuck Todd Krakow in the ear day.

Why do you think I'd want to do that?

That panel was Godzilla versus Mothra.

Do you have a plan?

Or are we just gonna jump him and break his kneecaps

when he gets out of his McLaren?

Okay, so Krakow's been running his mouth about China, right?

I... You can tell the way he talks.

- The way he talks? - Yeah.

Last year, he said, "watching factories grow."

It made me wonder, "How's he seeing this?"

Really, Mafee? You expect me to believe