Axe is waiting in the back of Boyd’s Limo, Boyd having paid the $5 mil bail. Axe tells Boyd that Rhoades will flip one of his men and Boyd replies that he already has. Axe tells him to let Hall do the necessary.
Ira is meeting with Chuck, who does not want to tell Wendy how bad matters are in relation to the lawsuits. Ira suggests Chuck sells the house, but Chuck is not for it.
Boyd has a night time rendezvous with Hall, who makes the arrangements for bribing the witness who is co-operating with Chuck. It isn’t pretty.
Chuck wants Boyd’s people in and Bryan points out there will be no negotiating if jail time is on the table. Chuck is taking the hard line and wants to risk putting it in front of a jury. Bryan says that the jury is liable to slip into a coma while trying to understand what treasury bid rigging even means. Chuck tells Bryan
“It is your job to keep them entertained.”
They enter the meeting room to find Boyd’s legal representatives lined up. Boyd is not present, Spartan Ives will pay a small fine, but there will be no personal admission of guilt by Boyd. This scene reminded me of “The Deal” from season 1.
Wendy comes home to talk with Chuck, who she is very pleased with as Kevin told her that Chuck stood up for her. She lets Chuck know how much it means to her and the kids. She stays for a drink with Chuck and agrees to stay for dinner. Chuck takes a call from Ira while Wendy is there. She does not miss his hesitancy to speak in front of her. They have a moment, but it is gone as quick as it arrived.
Wendy arrives at Ira’s to find out how bad things are with Chuck. Ira says “He is being crushed.” and he lets out about the lawsuits.
Wendy is meeting Axe while Eva has a skating lesson. Wendy is as direct as she says she will be, she wants 20% increase on comp and 2% stake in the Company. Axe agrees to the comp, but not the Company bit as he owns Axe Capital outright. She then brings out the big one, she wants Axe to drop the lawsuits against Chuck. Axe agrees…entirely too easily and Wendy realises why…he manipulated this scenario and it is what he wanted. Oh, the look, she gives him here. If she did not understand who he was by the end of S1, she does now. Chuck’s situation ensures she can’t tell Axe to shove the job, but she does tell him her office is off limits to him. This is not a good way for her to be returning and I think it is bad for Axe.
Axe phones Lara to tell her they are going out for dinner, just the two of them. He must drop the return of Wendy news somehow.
Chuck Senior’s spy brings him news that Axe’s people are making visits to Sandicot.
Axe is wining and dining Mrs Axelrod, or translated, manipulating her as he does everyone else. Lara does not take the return of Wendy well, particularly as she thought this was about Axe apologising to her and she realises he has already made the decision on Wendy.
Chuck Senior sets about scuppering the Sandicot deal for Axe.
Orrin advises Axe against writing up a contract for Wendy and of telling Dake that he won’t be testifying. Axe is not interested in putting Wendy in jail. Sometimes, I wonder why Axe bothers with a lawyer at all. $1,000 an hour just to ignore his advice.
There is a noticeable tension as Wendy signs her contract and she rightly asks Axe “is the show over?” because Axe deliberately makes a show of telling to drop the lawsuits against Chuck, something he already did when he and Orrin were alone. Wendy sees right through him. Good!
Lonnie has Dake all over him and finds he is not going to be able to avoid this meeting.
Bryan is heading out to jury selection. Chuck quotes Houdini and Bryan asks him if Houdini had any other advice like
“How to get out of a straightjacket under water?”
Bryan is not happy with Chuck and tells him they need to discuss his future there. Bryan meant afterwards, but Chuck decides to do it now. He tells Bryan
“I hired you for your fury. A lot of people around here including me and Sacher were born with a place at the table, but you came to the job knowing what it means to be an outsider and with the desperate fury of one, but you are still letting that fury use you instead of using it.”
Chuck suggests he re-direct it from Chuck to elsewhere, where it should be, so that it is a weapon instead of a liability.
Lonnie tells Chuck it is his turn to see Dake. Chuck tells Lonnie “You have been loyal and gone beyond trying to protect me. You should co-operate.” Lifeboat drill, anyone?
Bobby is meeting Nick whose land is where the Casino might be. Bobby tries to convince Nick that he should take the $1.5 mil and offers to hike it up to $2 mil. Nick, however, knows Axe needs the Casino open asap as he bought the town’s debt and gets the price hiked up to $5 mil plus the Indian four Bobby has his eyes on.
Bryan looks nervous at first as it is jury picking time. Wags comes into the Court room and sits down at the back. Bryan has some questions for the jurors. It does not seem to be going well at first, but Bryan has a strategy and proceeds to show Boyd how screwed he will be if this jury are left to judge him.
I quite like the potential juror who hit out with a fabulous line when asked to recognise that a witness hates the defendant, replies
“I assume everyone hates this man on sight, but it won’t colour my opinion”.
Boyd gets twitchy as he thinks the jurors will “Do me like Louis 16” and orders his lawyer to start dealing. His lawyer thinks they can win and he does not need to do this. Boyd cannot tolerate the risk of 10 years in federal prison.
Boyd is ready to settle, admission of guilt, 5-year probation and a $60 million fine. Chuck decides they are not going to settle because the crime of rigging treasury bids is so unpalatable to him and does not take the deal.
Lonnie is threatened with being disbarred by Dake.
The AG is on the phone for Chuck, who leverages her into letting him off the hook if he accepts the deal on the table from Boyd. This was a very well written scene which used words as weapons and threats.
Lonnie is no Dollar Bill and is beginning to talk (on recording) about Chuck not being recused and his involvement in other matters Chuck asked him to do. Before Lonnie can finish, Dake is called off by the AG and he is not happy about it.
Axe takes the call from Wags telling him Boyd has pled guilty.
Dake arrives to tell Chuck he is going back to Washington, but Dake lets him know why he enjoys his job so much and he will be waiting.
Bryan takes a call from Orrin who is congratulating him on his win. Bryan says that “Sometimes when you look across the Goban, there is a total lack of Kiai”. Orrin has no idea what that means. Orrin says that Bryan is closer than ever to his goal. Bryan asks “Which one?” Orrin replies “That is what you should spend the next few weeks figuring out.”
Lara makes it clear to Bobby that their rift is down to him making decisions and then informing her after the fact. She says she will never be ok with him and Wendy talking. Bobby then makes out that he will ensure he and Wendy do not speak and he will not personally have any sessions with her. Mr Axelrod manipulating his wife again.
Chuck, Chuck Senior and Ira are having a drink to celebrate. Ira tells Chuck about Axe dropping the lawsuits. Chuck recognises that Axe is not scared of him and there is something else going on.
Axe gets the news that Sandicot is not getting the gaming licence.
Chuck is not happy with Wendy going back to Axe Capital. He makes it clear that it may work for her, but is a deal breaker for them. It doesn’t look good for Wendy and Chuck in this moment.
Wendy told chuck she wanted the job back, and Siff confirmed it. She said among other things she wants to “be near axe”…so we will see where this goes lol
Their relationship is interesting to say the least.
So glad you copied over the little pep talk Chuck gave to Bryan. It counts for a lot, I think, on how Chuck sees Bryan, how Bryan sees himself, etc. Love this theme of the class differences, and I hope they keep running with it as well as they have been.
I thought it was important to highlight it and I mentioned on your blog I agreed with your take on it. I have a feeling Chuck might regret the bit about turning that fury into a weapon.
It’s half-season and the two men ended up in very different positions. Chuck is happy professionally (kept his job) and unhappy personally (“deal breaker”) where as Axe is happy personally (it seems his manipulation of Lara has worked, at least for now…) and is unhappy professionally (Sandicot). Can’t wait to see where they will take us next… in a couple of hours!
I loved the conversation between Chuck and Bryan. The way the class differences play a role in show is very compelling. And Bryan is certainly becoming his own man – loved the way he showed Boyd how the jurors could do him like Louis XVI! 😀 Now that Chuck is in the clear, it seems he will confront Bryan about the conversation he had with Dake — the video Chuck Sr sent Chuck earlier. Bryan is the character to watch this season, he is at a crossroads and it seems he is closer to Orrin Bach, his original mentor, than he is to Chuck. And it seems Bach is slowly but surely priming him, huh, for a major decision 🙂
Good catch about personal / professional aspects of their lives. Whereas Wendy is happy in neither right now, but she did say being happy was not necessarily the most important thing to her.
Well,you know me, I could go on and on about Bryan, but he does appear to have a more personal relationship with Orrin than Chuck. It is interesting that even though he knows Orrin is on the other side, he still clearly trust him enough to ask his advice.