Billions on Showtime, Season 5 Episode 11: Victory Smoke

Checkmate?

by Damianista | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | September 26, 2021

WOW. Is this it? Is this checkmate?

I don’t think a scene-by-scene recap like I always do will not do justice to this utterly crazy episode. That is why I have decided to talk about how Chuck has made sure that Axe gets caught in the trap he set up for him along with the personal costs of doing that for everyone involved.

So shall we?

Meet Dawn Winslow – woman of the hour.

A former music producer, Winslow is currently the CEO of Fine Young Cannabis (FYC) – the company Prince seems to be targeting. CEO Winslow refuses to speak to anyone from Axe Bank, including the boss, because she is in an exclusive negotiation period with Prince. And Hall, who has been listening to Prince and his daughters, brings the news that Prince plans to use his daughters, the next generation, to lock FYC: a smart marketing strategy where CEO Winslow will get to be a mentor for the next generation of women in the cannabis business.

While Victor sees the only way for Axe Bank to take FYC money is to outbid Prince, Axe is against overpaying. He knows that Winslow will want to look around for one last time before she locks it and Wags has to make sure that, at that very moment, it is Axe that Winslow is looking at.

And she is.

Axe first impresses Winslow with a rare find: Wu Tang’s single copy album “Once Upon A Time in Shaolin” then he promises her company something Prince cannot: tv ads targeting the company’s most coveted customers. Winslow is intrigued but she does not want to change suitors at the last minute.

Billion dollar question remains: why is Prince going after this particular cannabis company?

The answer seems to be obvious for Axe & Co. FYC is the market leader in cannabis industry with a $1.6B revenue only last year. However, there is one piece of information that Team Axe misses: Prince is pursuing FYC because what the company is selling is illegal. UGH.

It turns out Dawn Winslow has a leak that neither Dollar Bill nor Victor nor Hall have been able to see yet: Kate has reviewed all legal cannabis companies, and singled out Winslow as a CEO running a criminal enterprise. So they decided Prince should target this one so aggressively that Axe will do anything to take it from him. Smart. Sneaky. Sinister.

And since Axe has tasked everyone with looking into Prince and his intentions, Team Axe not has not looked into Winslow’s business closely. They are probably supposed to do it during the due diligence process.

So, with this outrageous private information in hand, Chuck, who has set up the stage for Axe’s fall, is fine-tuning every move, tying every loose end, making sure every piece falls in line, and waiting patiently to collect the fruits of his labor.

Chuck uses Wendy to manipulate Axe.

Read the rest of the original article at our sister site Fan Fun with Damian Lewis here