Billions recap: Chuck and Prince shake-up their teams and look to the future

"Rock of Eye" is a bit of a subdued episode, a midseason settling of the tides after the tsunami that started the season. These episodes are necessary. After some significant moves have been made by both Mike Prince (Corey Stoll) and Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti), it's time for both us and the characters to take stock of where they are and what comes next. Luckily, Billions is still entertaining even when it's operating at a slightly lower frequency.

"Beginnings and endings" seems to be the theme of the episode from the jump. Prince hires a new employee, plucking him from his job as a teacher at a charter school, his new career just beginning. Chuck Sr. is moving in with his son after getting kicked out by his wife for flirtatious texts with another woman, a move that Chuck Jr. certainly hopes is short lived. There's Wendy, who's trying to "begin again" with a Buddhist practice to try and make herself live a "less transactional" life. And then there's the end of the quarter and the beginning of new opportunities at Mike Prince Capital, as Prince promises/threatens to change everyone's portfolio based on their performance.

Let's start at Mike Prince Capital, where a new hire has everyone talking. He's a young kid, very promising, and a lot of the firm's OGs want to know where they stand. How much change is Prince going to make at quarter's end? There's an added wrinkle here too, as the kid, Philip, is Scooter's nephew. Scooter actually isn't too pleased about him working for Prince; he thinks his nephew has the potential to do something bigger, better, more substantial, and his own story about being a young man who wanted to be a conductor in a grand music hall is our first glimpse into the fact that Scooter has some reservations about how he's made his money.

On top of this personnel shakeup, Prince has a bit of a PR crisis to deal with. His daughter Gail confronted Governor Sweeney at a Knicks game, chastising him for "ruining the city" by attempting to bring in the Olympics. If this was anyone else Prince could just decry the outburst and smooth things over with Sweeney, but he doesn't want to publicly accost his daughter considering that his relationship with her is already strained.

Instead, he calls a family meeting. He does everything he can to make both of his daughters nostalgic, cooking their favorite food and putting on music that would remind them of childhood. They know he's pandering, but that's part of his charm. Still, Gail refuses to apologize, saying that they were brought up to speak their minds, and that Prince should be happy they learned that from him.

After sleeping on it though, Gail comes to think that she should apologize to Sweeney, that she's part of the family and shouldn't be inadvertently sabotaging her father. She goes to her father's office and starts coming up with an apology as Prince dials Sweeney, but then Prince slams the phone down. He realizes she was right all along, that he can't raise her to speak out and then ask her to backtrack when it's convenient for him. When Gail says she's surprised that Sweeney was so upset anyways, that a man with so much power could also be that vain and not able to take any criticism, Prince gets an idea.

He brings Sweeney to the site where the Olympic stadium will be built should plans go ahead and shows him a big neon sign that reads "Robert B. Sweeney Stadium." Prince successfully plays to the Governor's vanity and gets him back on his side for the Olympics bid.

Also in this episode, Chuck goes toe-to-toe with a lawyer in a case about some seafood that was labeled wrong and still sold to consumers. The details of the case make no difference, because this is all really about two things. Firstly, it's about how Chuck's ego once again gets the better of him. He hasn't been in a courtroom for awhile, but thinks since he's the Attorney General he can just step back in like it's nothing. He gets slapped around and loses the case. Secondly, it's about how Chuck uses that loss to help himself. He asks the defending lawyer to come back to government practice and side with him against the "real villains," looking to fill Kate's role. She accepts, and Chuck once again has a full team ready to take on Prince and the rest of the billionaire class.

Like I said above, a lot of what happens in this episode isn't all that consequential in terms of the larger story. Prince does shift some portfolios around, and Bonnie storms out in protest, but otherwise he keeps the team together and working towards a common goal, and Chuck manages to find someone to hopefully fill the shoes left behind by Kate. It's not the most compelling or propulsive episode of Billions, but it still gets the job done.

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