The Unbeatable, Unstoppable, Unparalleled MVPs from Billions Season 7 Episode 11, “Axe Global”

Billions is back and so is our MVP series! We continue to award our Most Valuable Players for Billions season seven in our series compilation, the ‘Billions MVP Fanbook,’ which commemorates all those in honor of achievement for the utmost brazen, uber shameless, ultra scheming, unmatched bad asses from the episode – from sports references, music and tasty food to pop culture remarks, shocking twists and ultimate paybacks. In case you missed it, catch up with the MVPs of the season seven premiere Tower of London, episode two Original Sin, episode three Winston Dick Energy, episode four Hurricane Rosie, episode five The Gulag Archipelago, episode six The Man in the Olive Drab T-Shirt, episode seven DMV, episode eight The Owl, episode nine Game Theory Optimal and episode ten Enemies List.

Now let’s dive in. Here are the Billions MVP awards for Season 7, Episode 11, “Axe Global.”

Gingersnap

Wolf of Wall Street Award – Axe. It’s back to business with Financial District’s newly returned resident to those famous 8 city blocks because Axe is back and he has a new Manhattan office to prove it, complete with former Axe Cappers Mafee, Taylor and Helena!

Axe’s new logo is prominently displayed on the building’s facade – the old Axe Capital logo was rectangular and the new Axe Global logo is circular to indicate his company reaches around the world – GLOBAL.

The Wolf arrives at his office wearing a heavy metal t-shirt, this time Guns N’ Roses (classic bullet logo on Greatest Hits album) as David Bowie’s It’s Hard to be a Saint in the City plays.

Fitting since Damian is a huge Bowie fan and he is one of Damian’s musical influences, which can be heard in Damian’s new song (yet to be released) titled Traffic Jam. You can hear Damian sing “sitting in my tin can,” a nod to Bowie’s Space Oddity, in the video below from his UK Tour in Brighton.

Moreover, Damian’s Thin Red Duke Ltd that licenses his Mission Creep music to his record label Decca Records/UMO is a play on The Thin White Duke, a Bowie persona.

A-Number 1 Alpha Line – Axe. Axe unexpectedly finds Prince in the conference room of his new office and delivers the best line.

Axe proclaims, “Mike. You should have told me you were coming so I could’ve had a strong, fresh-brewed cup of get the fuck out waiting for you.”

Disappearing Act Prize – During Scooter and Philip’s conversation about Prince being a better hedge fund manager than a potential POTUS, I noticed Scooter had different body language and worrisome eyes. I sense he is on the edge of a disappearing act, like that magic trick we’ve all seen. The one where a magician (Prince) puts his assistant (Scooter) in a cabinet. He closes the cabinet, waves his Leonard Bernstein’s baton (wand), then opens the cabinet to reveal the assistant is gone. The assistant then emerges from some other location. Now you see me, now you don’t. Is Scooter ready to access the trap door? Does he escape before the wheels fall off the bus? I think Philip’s second-guessing is giving Scooter pause. I don’t think Scooter would join Team Axe/Wendy/Chuck, but I wouldn’t put it past him to steal back his Leonard Bernstein baton from Prince and head to the New York Philharmonic because we all know there is no White House around the corner. May his conducting dreams come true.

Monsters Inc. Medal – Chuck. Chuck explains to Governor Nancy Dunlop that Axe is a self-aware monster but Prince is a monster who hides behind a good guy guise. They are both monsters, but one is more like Sully while the other is more like Randall. Axe could be scary because he’s a big titan like Sully, but deep down he’s just a fluffy hard-working soul who can be soothed with a belly rub. Whereas weaselly Randall is a power hungry evil and benevolent creature who is not good for the people he plans to rule over.

Football Replay Trophy – Prince. His telestrator was a whiteboard and his on-screen video annotations were made with dry-erase markers. He’s all, “ha-ha, I won because I figured out a scheme against me and now I’m going to school you on it with this instant replay.” What a dick.

Idiot football, our favorite. #Billions pic.twitter.com/qdnEHaRGkv

— BILLIONS (@SHO_Billions) October 22, 2023

Food for Thought:

• Mafee had the fattest marijuana joint I’ve ever seen!
• A Whiter Shade of Pale plays during a Price scene at the end of the episode. Lyrics: “I was feeling kinda seasick; that her face, at first just ghostly, turned a whiter shade of pale; and although my eyes were open, they might have just as well’ve been closed.” A storm is a coming ya’all!

Damianista

Prom Queen – Nancy Dunlop

Governor Dunlop tells Chuck that two billionaires want to take her to the prom but neither has jazzed her up about the after party. And while it seems like she has chosen the prince as her prom date, I think she will leave him at the door and go with the king! 😀

Most Appetizing Food – Rao’s Veal Parm

A NYC institution that has been serving southern Italian food since 1896 in its original place, Rao’s serves dinner only to the  movers and shakers of the city. You can get a table only if you are a  regular or if you are a guest of a regular. The restaurant arguably serves the best veal in NYC, and knowing that I will never be able to  get a table at Rao’s makes the veal parm even more appetizing 🙂

Prominent Invader of Personal Space – Prince

I am sick and tired of giving this award again and again to Prince but the man does not know where to stop. He has all private conversations recorded in the office which I believe is illegal. Because he wants to know what every employee is thinking he has hired an AI team conducting AI scrapes every week. I am positive he would try to get chips into his  employees’ brains. And now he has every employee physically tracked. I do not believe a word he says when Prince tells Kate he does not know whom they follow but he only sees results.

Ultimate Top Dog – Axe

Prince’s firm belief in his infallibility is his Achilles heel. And the extremely clever way Axe uses this in his conversation(s) with Prince makes him the  ultimate top dog.

Axe gives Prince every opportunity to get high and feel superior to Axe so that when Dunlop appears in the peace talks to announce her support for Prince, Prince’s God Complex is at its peak. Prince does not even stop and think for a second that this could actually be what Axe and Chuck have been plotting to take him down! And Axe calling Prince “another run-of-the-mill usurper scrapping for turf in this room” just before Dunlop shows up is very calculated to make Prince feel even greater than the very great man he believes he is.

And the Camp David thing? Remember Axe sending Rebecca away to play Extreme Sandbox as he took care of her company? And I think as Prince is playing in his sandbox at Camp David, Axe and company will pull the carpet from under his feet! Yes, there is a reason Mike is a prince and Axe is the king 🙂

True Coffee Aficionado – Spyros

Spyros may not be a Wilbury but he is a true coffee aficionado. His words about Starbucks and his facial expression when he says it make me giggle!

“Should you wind up in said Starbucks, you had better be  praising Mike Prince for the chance to quaff their barely  potable breakfast blend.”

If you are a Starbucks fan, Spyros would never go out with you 😀

And I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Stephen Kunken, for helping me in choosing a fancy espresso machine for my husband as a special anniversary gift! I only asked Stephen for ideas but I never expected him to get out of his way to connect me with an amazing vendor, help me choose a machine, a grinder and what have you. Stephen is a great human being and a Wilbury, too!

Lady Trader

The Carnac the Magnificent Award: Last week in my “From the Trader’s Desk”, I wrote about the downsides of Prince going to all cash: “I also don’t think your clients will be willing to pay a 2/20 fee for cash positions.” Was I psychic when I heard Axe use the same phrase? No, we are just two traders who know what clients will and will not tolerate.

The Gipper Award: Mike Prince seems to be getting into the POTUS spirit by saying he wants “peace through strength”, but perhaps he should be living by another quote: “Trust, but verify”.

The Barista of the Month Award: It’s so nice to see that Axe has such lovely manners and offers his guest a hot beverage:

“Mike. You should have told me you were coming so I could’ve had a strong, fresh-brewed cup of get the fuck out waiting for you.”

The Memory Lane Award, Part 2: I had already given this award to the writers for the beautiful tribute montage to the restaurants,  past and present, featured in Billions, but I had to give a second one.  When Kate meets Amanda in the old subway platform it brought back personal memories for me. The scene is set in the old South Ferry station on the 1 line of the NYC subway system. It was very distinctive as the train could not come all the way into the station, the platform was curved, and when the train stopped, a little grate jutted from the platform to the subway car door to make up for the gap between the train and the platform. The chains you see in the scene were to make sure riders did not get close to that gap and fall in! I rode that line for years when I worked at One New York Plaza, which is a stone’s throw from the station, getting to and from Penn Station. That platform has been closed for several years and a much nicer, more modern one opened close by right after Hurricane Sandy. Only a true New Yorker would recognize that underground meeting place!

TheTailThatWagsTheDog

Line of the Night – Something we can all agree on – “Mike. You should have told me you were coming so I could’ve had a strong, fresh-brewed cup of get the fuck out waiting for you.”

Overrated Award – Mafee – I like him as a person, but he is no Victor or Bonnie. He is more Tuk than Dollar Bill – and yet he keeps getting asked back. Must be nice.

Speaking of Which – Why didn’t Dollar Bill and Mafee have a moment when Bill came in to hear the pitch from Taylor – missed opportunity there.

80’s Movie Reference Award – Lethal Weapon – when Taylor chides Dollar Bill for sounding like an old, retired geezer, they call him Murtaugh, after Danny Glover’s iconic character

What will the movie reference be for the last episode? I’m going with Princess Bride – have fun storming the castle!!

Change of Heart – I thought Scooter didn’t want Phillip to have anything to do with the business, and now he’s ok with Phillip running the whole thing? That’s a big change of heart there.

Best Song Reference – “Thick As a Brick” by Jethro Tull – I would think my heavy-metal loving partners would’ve jumped at this, seeing as how Jethro Tull won the first ever Grammy for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental.  🙂

One Last Spyros Moment – Season 7 has been a refreshing change back to what I love about the show with the three-dimensional chess games – but one thing it has sorely missed was a healthy dose of cringe-worthy scenes with Spyros – this episode finally brought that back, along with a very appropriate comment on Starbucks.

Final Thoughts on Prince and the Revolution – Count me as believing Sacker, Torres, Phillip and Dunlop are all part of the Revolution.