Billions Season 1 Episode 4

Short Squeeze was already the best, most fully-formed episode inBillionsshort life yet.

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And I love it.

He comes across some deer and in an incoherent rage, fires the gun at them.

After the police have arrived to take him away, Axe bails him out and brings him to work.

Hes doing much better at work now, thanks to Wendys sage guidance.

Still, Mick doesnt feel anything anymore.

Maybe a twinge when hes down but nothing when hes up.

The he describes how it felt to see those deer.

I see them out there, he says.

Eating everything we planted, like its a fucking salad bar for them.

He wants the financial freedom to do whatever he wants like Axe does.

He wants the fuck you money.

Now that Pete Decker is in the clutches on the U.S.

Attorneys office, he is able to describe to Chuck and company what being Bobby Axelrod is like.

When youre at his level, hes more of a nation-state than a person, he says.

He doesnt need to call meetings.

Everywhere he goes, they form around him.

At least it should be the experience of a lifetime.

Axe attempts a bold financial play before he leaves: shorting his stock of a company called CrossCo.

stock stock, betting against Axe and inflating the CrossCo.

stock in the process.

*

*Lol wut am I even writing?

But Im still Earthbound.

How do you do it, man?

To which Hettfield responds.

I play, man.

A bit heavy-handed, sure.

Without the Mick and the deer scene in the beginning it would be laughable.

With it, it makes perfect sense.

Its true that all that money has turned Axe into the center of the universe.

Axes short play eventually works out thanks to his insider knowledge that YumTime will be dumping CrossCo.

People will think Axe is out of the game.

To which Axe just silently leaves the office.

ToBillions credit, Short Squeeze doesnt portray money as a burden.

Being outrageously, disgustingly wealthy is still preferable to being broke.

But the objective truth is that money is just money and stuff if just stuff.

Or maybe they dont.

Maybe its all an act.

Rating:

4 out of 5