The 31 Most Shocking TV Moments of 2021

Axe: Forever Our Billions King

by EW Staff | Entertainment Weekly | December 16, 2021

From surprise exits to surprise appearances and every dick pic in between, 2021 delivered its fair share of television shocks. (We still haven’t wrapped our heads around everything that happened in Squid Game.) Below, we’ve rounded up the 31 moments that we haven’t stopped thinking about since they first made our jaws drop.

Damian Lewis Leaves Billions

Since day one of Billions, the ferocious rivalry of Damian Lewis’ swaggering, fast-talking billionaire Bobby “Axe” Axelrod and Paul Giamatti’s power-hungry, grudge-holding U.S. attorney Chuck Rhoades has been the driving force of the series. Yes, they were briefly allies, but Billions was always at its best when those two guys were in a room going at each other. And the masterful season 5 finale, “No Direction Home,” brought back memories of the old days, with a few blistering interactions between Axe and Chuck. But it turned out to be a setup for the reveal that this would be the end of Lewis’ time as a series regular. With Chuck closing in and Michael Prince (Corey Stoll) betraying him, Axe accepted defeat and fled to Switzerland to avoid arrest. While Prince might now be taking over his business, Axe will forever be our Billions king. —Derek Lawrence

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