Warning: This text incorporates spoilers for the ultimate episode of Billions.
The long-running Showtime sequence Billions got here to an finish Sunday with just about an general consensus that the finale was, nicely, cash.
The present, initially based mostly round a shady hedge fund king and the federal government prosecutors standing in his manner, wrapped up a seven-season run that included one of many present’s authentic leads, Damian Lewis (Bobby Axelrod), leaving for a season to be along with his ailing spouse who handed away in April 2021. However this ultimate chapter introduced collectively all the present’s stars for what performed out like one huge completely happy occasion — for a lot of the characters, anyway.
Right here’s a take a look at how Billions lastly cashed out.
What the creators wished to do
That huge completely happy ending was by design in keeping with the present’s creators, Brian Koppelman, David Levien and Andrew Ross Sorkin, who spoke to Variety about specializing in the followers of the present for this final hoorah.
“We decided early on that we had been going to make this season of the present for true Billions followers — for the individuals who watch every episode greater than as soon as, who catch our references, who discover each tune,” Koppelman stated. “We wished to make the ultimate season that we wished to see as Billions obsessives. Seeing you all get the little strains and jokes and the moments and feeling the emotional resonances is extremely satisfying.”
Koppelman also spoke to USA Today about making it for the “superfans” and including that they “discovered the last word touchdown spot for all these characters.”
How the finale performed out
Earlier than Lewis took his aforementioned hiatus from the present for Season 6, it was Corey Stoll’s Mike Prince who helped make Axelrod’s downfall full in Season 5 to ensure that Prince to step in because the present’s new foremost villain.
Upon Lewis’s return for Season 7, Axelrod teamed up with his former nemesis and the present’s foremost protagonist — if you happen to can name him that — in Paul Giamatti’s Chuck Rhodes to convey down Prince collectively.
And it was Sunday’s finale episode when all of that lastly got here to a head. The plan to convey down Prince, who had additionally turn out to be a doubtlessly harmful presidential candidate, was to take down his inventory portfolio whereas he was in the course of a gathering with the present president at Camp David and with out his cellphone, which was locked up.
After a meltdown from Prince and a vow to at some point return for a “second act” — sequence spinoff maybe? — just about all the present’s foremost gamers fell into a pleasant place. Axelrod regained the spot on his previous throne because the boss and was able to “make some … cash.”
Chuck not solely introduced down his newest enemy and vowed to return to his roots, he additionally shared a stunning second out to dinner along with his ex-wife Wendy, performed by Maggie Siff, and their two youngsters.
For extra on how issues went for a few of the present’s different fashionable characters like Asia Kate Dillon’s Taylor Mason, Dola Rashad’s Kate Sacker and David Costabile’s Mike “Wags” Wagner, click here.
Important response
Right here’s what Brian Lowry of CNN needed to say about how the present ended:
“Billions efficiently landed the airplane (OK, personal jet) with its sequence finale, in a satisfying end that reassembled the important thing gamers and even gave them time to take particular person bows. For a present with a lot chew and venom, it was oddly sentimental in typically the very best of how…
“Billions signed off to the aptly chosen strains of Steve Miller Band’s ‘Take the Cash and Run,’ the present might take pleasure in having risen to the event, providing those that gave seven seasons’ value of time to the Showtime sequence a nifty return on their funding.”
Viewer response
Whereas the occasional viewer reaction on social media seemed a little put off by such a cheerful ending, the overwhelming consensus was that the finale episode had been issues like “perfect,” “dope” and “no joke.”
The Billions sequence finale was all the things a sequence finale must be. Succession is sweet, however has nothing on Billions.
— 😺 (@_itsalliecat) October 30, 2023
Simply completed the sequence finale of #Billions
Salute to the forged, writers, and present runners. What a experience. Thanks 🙏🏾— D_Rob_18 (@jerseydrummer05) October 29, 2023
The Billions sequence finale was a masterpiece. I beloved watching that present and know for a truth I’ll rewatch it time and again, and that ending will solely reinforce why I’ll rewatch.
— Justin Dinsmore (@JDINS8) October 30, 2023
