Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 9: Game Theory Optimal

First things first.  Apologies for not writing a recap for Season 7 Episode 8 The Owl. I was traveling in the UK last weekend to attend Damian Lewis’ music gigs in Brighton, Manchester and Leeds. And then I was in London catching Damian at a fantastic theatre event to mark the centenary celebration of Noel Coward’s first musical revue London Calling. So I missed Episode 8 and was not able to write an episode recap for the first time. That said – I watched the episode and my main take aways are as follows.

First, Chuck very rightly points out, a man with zero self-doubt should never hold a position of absolute power. Prince’s hawkish approach to nuclear conflict at The Owl is a bone-chilling sign to what kind of a president he would be.

Second, Andy knows Prince better than anyone and that the rescue mission could go wrong only if Prince wanted it to go wrong. “You wanted him off the mountain” he says. “And he’s off the damn mountain.” I would not be surprised if we saw Andy standing with the opposition against Prince in the weeks to come.

Finally, I have no idea if The Owl has been inspired by a bizarre old and rich white men in the woods kind of gathering in real life but it gives an accurate portrayal of what is wrong in American politics today: old and rich white men have disproportionate power in decision-making.

Now on to Game Theory Optimal: As someone who teaches game theory for a living, I HEART the title. It is a poker term. a player attempts to play perfect poker so that their moves cannot be exploited by their opponents. Game theory optimal incorporates mixed strategies where a player incorporates bluffs and semi-bluffs in their value bets to have a balanced game. The strategy ultimately dictates that the player makes the  decision to maximize their utility. And the title is very fitting for this episode in which all our characters attempt to play their perfect game! The episode has some of the best writing this season, and gradually moves the plot to the climax  of the last couple of episodes. I know we are in for a thrill ride!

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The Unbeatable, Unstoppable, Unparalleled MVPs from Billions Season 7 Episode 8, “The Owl”

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 and episode seven DMV.

Now let’s dive in. Here are the Billions MVP awards for Season 7, Episode 8, “The Owl.”

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“From the Trader’s Desk”: Breakout the Tux, it’s Casino Night! Billions S7E7 “DMV”

You see life through distorted eyes
You know you have to learn
The execution of your mind
You really have to turn
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath – Black Sabbath

After a brief hiatus, the Trader’s Desk is back, and we are diving into Billions S7E7 “DMV”!

I chose the above lyrics from Black Sabbath because oh my, did Philip see Prince in a new light this week. And I think he learned something about himself as well.

I am going to break this week’s post into three parts: the driving test incident, Prince being a pure tyrant and possibly turning another employee against him, and Casino Night, which was my favorite part of the episode.

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The Unbeatable, Unstoppable, Unparalleled MVPs from Billions Season 7 Episode 7, “DMV”

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 and episode six The Man in the Olive Drab T-Shirt.

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

Continue reading “The Unbeatable, Unstoppable, Unparalleled MVPs from Billions Season 7 Episode 7, “DMV””

Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 7: DMV

A road test. An amazing technology. An evening at the casino. This fun episode aptly called DMV demonstrates once again that nothing is what it seems in Billions!

It is time for employee performance reviews at MPC but the employees  are not comfortable about it thanks to the recent employee survey and feedback drama at the firm. Even though the boss recuses himself from rewarding and punishing anyone on the team, the employees are feeling uneasy with the composition of the review panel; e.g.  Scooter, who is not in touch with them at all (they do not even invite him to the movie night because they know he would never show up!) is sitting on the  review committee. They ask the panel to skip the review for a year… Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 7: DMV”