The BEST episodes of Billions
Every episode of Billions ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Billions!
U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades goes after hedge fund king, Bobby "Axe" Axelrod in a battle between two powerful New York figures.
#1 - Chucky Rhoades's Greatest Game
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/17/2019
Season 4 begins with Axe closing ranks, determined to destroy Taylor. No longer U.S. Attorney, Chuck struggles to regain power. Taylor does what it takes to keep their new company afloat.
#2 - Golden Frog Time
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/30/2017
Chuck finds he has much at stake in the success of a new business venture; Senior, too, is heavily invested. Meanwhile, Axe takes out a massive short and takes steps to insure its failure. Wendy wrestles with a familiar and uncomfortable position: caught between Axe and Chuck.
#3 - Ball in Hand
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 5/7/2017
Axe receives news from an unexpected source that he's in the crosshairs of law enforcement. While Axe moves quickly to safeguard his livelihood, Chuck arranges the last pieces of his long game in order to secure victory. Lara marshals her resources to protect what’s hers. Wendy and Chuck make a momentous decision about the state of their marriage. Season finale.
#4 - Currency
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/19/2017
Chuck, Connerty and Sacker must rely on an anxious insider who's willing to wear a wire. Meanwhile, Axe's numbers take a big hit, leaving him to scout ideas for a quick play with a huge payoff. Wendy rediscovers her passion for her former job at Axe Capital through an old colleague. The reality of Lara's business starts to affect her marriage.
#5 - All the Wilburys
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/13/2018
Axe tries for a fresh start at Axe Capital. Chuck asserts his political autonomy—and wrestles with whether to honor his word to a friend. Taylor asks for more independence at Axe Capital. Lara and Axe negotiate a new arrangement regarding Lara's money. Connerty adjusts to an uncomfortable situation.
#6 - Elmsley Count
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 6/10/2018
Axe dominates a capital raise event, but is soon challenged by an unexpected competitor. Chuck looks to strike the ultimate blow on an enemy. Wendy reckons with past decisions, and chooses a side. Connerty confronts Sacker about Chuck's activities. Taylor takes a big position.
#7 - Short Squeeze
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/7/2016
Axe takes a spontaneous trip to see Metallica with his childhood friends and meets a woman who makes him face the limits of his own freedom. He also must fend off a short squeeze - an attack on one of his important holdings - led by Chuck's father. Back in New York, Chuck learns about the inner workings of Axe Capital, but he must also take action against his father for stock manipulation. Plus, Axe reckons with a betrayal and upon his return makes a momentous decision about the direction of his firm.
#8 - Indian Four
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/26/2017
Axe negotiates with a reluctant seller, who is key to the success of Axe’s municipal bond play. Wendy makes a professional decision that adds further conflict to her relationship with Chuck. As attempts to reach a deal with a high profile defendant fail, Chuck’s office faces the uncertainty of jury selection. Tensions between Lara and Axe escalate.
#9 - Victory Lap
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 4/2/2017
Axe assembles a war room in the Hamptons following a disastrous setback in Sandicot for Axe Capital. The fate of the town hangs in the balance while Axe seeks counsel on how to best recoup his losses. Meanwhile, Chuck capitalizes on a high-profile victory, but alienates Wendy in the process, causing the couple to change the status of their separation.
#10 - The Good Life
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/14/2016
Axe orders his traders to unload their positions, and he unceremoniously disappears from Axe Capital, plunging the firm into chaos. As Axe questions his life choices and plans a trip on his new yacht, Wags and Wendy struggle to maintain order and morale. In response to Axe’s disappearance, Chuck intensifies his investigation, which leads him to a farm in Iowa, where he discovers a key witness to a questionable trade. Armed with the damning evidence, Chuck sends the FBI into Axe Capital to make a surprising arrest.
#11 - Dead Cat Bounce
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 2/26/2017
Axe publicly spars with a rival hedge fund manager and with the help of a talented intern initiates a new financial play to hurt the competition. Chuck deploys his team to quickly find a high-profile case that might save his sinking status. Wendy navigates a minefield of questioning that could result in disaster for Chuck.
#12 - The Kingmaker
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 4/9/2017
Axe investigates who was behind the breakdown in his Sandicot dealings but faces formidable opposition. Chuck digs up dirt on a political rival. Lara makes a PR trip to Sandicot to ease tensions between the town and the Axelrods. Wendy helps Taylor solve a problem at Axe Capital. Chuck and Senior curry favor with a powerful ally.
#13 - Boasts and Rails
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 3/13/2016
Axe receives a tip about a mole inside his company, throwing the US Attorney's case into jeopardy. Connerty faces a moral dilemma in how to respond, leading to conflict with Chuck, who finds himself reconsidering his position as both he and Wendy look toward a future without Axe Capital looming between them. As the investigation begins to encroach on Lara's private life, a secret from Axe's past surfaces, threatening everything he has built.
#14 - Risk Management
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/19/2017
In the aftermath of their Season One confrontation, U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades and hedge fund king Bobby Axelrod are digging out of the wreckage. Chuck faces scrutiny from within his office and from the Attorney General. Axe refortifies Axe Capital, and weighs his options for retaliation. The fund wrestles with a precarious economic landscape that threatens the very existence of Axe Cap. Wendy entertains an offer from a rival hedge fund manager. Lara intervenes in an emergency at her children’s school.
#15 - Naming Rights
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/24/2016
Axe installs rigorous compliance measures to gird the company against the investigation by Chuck and the US Attorney’s office. When Wendy questions Axe’s methods, he compels her to prove her loyalty to the firm. Chuck’s investigation is temporarily derailed when he has to divert resources to a case against an Axe rival, billionaire Steven Birch. Axe’s black bag man and fixer, Hall, develops a mole inside the US Attorney’s office, while Axe makes an aggressive move under the guise of a charitable contribution to the symphony in order to settle an old score.
#16 - The Oath
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/12/2017
Under pressure to make progress, Chuck develops a new strategy. Wendy helps a tech billionaire assess a candidate for a special project. Axe considers pledging half his net worth to charity. Lara's new business faces a rival. Meanwhile, Axe and Chuck find themselves together in a room for the first time since their face off.
#17 - Pilot
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/17/2016
Chuck Rhoades, the powerful U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is tipped to a case of insider trading with links to Axe Capital and the billionaire hedge fund king Bobby “Axe” Axelrod. This sets Chuck on a collision course with one of the most powerful men on Wall Street. While it could be a career-defining case for Chuck, he must tread carefully, because his wife, Wendy Rhoades, is the in-house performance coach at Axe Capital and Axe’s key confidante. But a costly purchase by Axe gives Chuck the opening he needs, setting off a cat and mouse game where the stakes are high and intensely personal.
#18 - Quality of Life
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/27/2016
The death of a member of the Axe Capital family forces both Axe and Wendy to do some soul searching, while creating a devastating setback for Chuck. Much to the dismay of the Southern District, they take another loss when an insider trading case is dismissed by a corrupt judge. In a brilliant counter move, Chuck enlists Lonnie Watley to expose the judge, while greasing the rails for a future move. Axe takes his revenge on some of his defecting employees.
#19 - The Conversation
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 4/10/2016
Axe learns that Chuck has new evidence against him that could land him in prison. As Lara makes plans for the Axelrod family to flee the country, Axe accuses Wendy of leaking the info to Chuck. A defiant Wendy realizes how far Chuck has gone in his pursuit of Axe and threatens to expose him. Having sacrificed so much to this case - including possibly his marriage - Chuck finds Axe for an explosive confrontation.
#20 - The Punch
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 3/6/2016
The pressure from the US Attorney starts to affect Axe, who gets into a physical altercation with an acquaintance over an incident involving his kids. Chuck continues to conceal his involvement with the case while using the past to get the upper hand. Wendy meets with an attractive headhunter to consider a career change - and more than just job opportunities arise. And the case against Axe Capital gains a powerful weapon when Connerty turns a member of Axe's inner circle into an informant.
#21 - Where the Fuck is Donnie?
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/20/2016
The repercussions of the revelations come home to roost with public demonstrations, inside insurrection, and fleeing investors. A sudden and mysterious disappearance sends both Axe and Chuck spinning. Connerty, Chuck and the FBI go into manhunt mode. Meanwhile, Lara has to contend with the brotherhood of firefighters who are furious about Axe's behavior—and in an effort to circle the wagons, makes a painful sacrifice.
#22 - Magical Thinking
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/3/2016
Axe loses hundreds of millions of dollars on a bad trade and turns to Wendy for help. Chuck sets out on an odyssey to secure powerful allies in the fight against Axe. Lu balks at Lara's suggestion she become the new chef at Axe Capital -- and takes her sister back to the old neighborhood to remind her of their roots. Meanwhile, Sacker and Connerty close down the Axe Capital investigation just as Chuck finds evidence -- right in his own home -- that could salvage the case.
#23 - The Deal
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/21/2016
Axe plans a scorched-earth defense against the public attack on his company - threatening his relationship with Wendy in the process. Chuck's interrogation of Dollar Bill does not go as planned, and political pressure mounts for him to recuse himself in the face of a protracted legal battle. Wendy, caught in the middle, engages in deft shuttle diplomacy to facilitate a deal in the best interests of both men. But everything hinges on a face-to-face meeting between Chuck and Axe to finalize the agreement.
#24 - YumTime
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/31/2016
Chuck discovers that while he pursued Steven Birch, the rival Eastern District has made inroads in the Axe case and that he needs to get it back. Chuck horse-trades to regain control of a key witness, Pete Decker, a hedge fund manager with ties to Axelrod. At the same time, Axe makes an activist play for YumTime, a family owned bakery corporation. This move reverberates back to Chuck by way of a very personal connection between his father and YumTime. Wendy is thrown into a moral dilemma when she discovers via a confidential session that one of the few female Portfolio Managers at Axe Capital is going to have her career sabotaged. And Lara Axelrod tries to protect Axe’s reputation from a potentially damaging “tell all” book.
#25 - With or Without You
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 4/23/2017
Axe deals with a major family disturbance involving Lara and the kids. Chuck considers the potential pitfalls of his personal life while being vetted for political advancement. Wendy tries to right a wrong she committed against Axe. At an impromptu dinner Chuck and Wendy open up to each other.