wolfgang-walter-0-924384

You want deep dives into the psyche of the characters? You've come to the wrong place, my friend. A procedural is a procedural is a procedural. If you watch a Dick-Wolf-show you get what you expect: a crime, an investigation, a solution. But: in the last episodes FBI has grown more and more formulaic and didactic. After the first 3 minutes, you see Jubal yelling and his crew telling, some running until the catching. B o r i n g... This episode however has some interesting twists and it keeps you on the edge of your seat, excuse me: in the depth of your sofa from start to finish. Well done and: more of this please, Mr. Wolf.

I liked the episode because, again, it changed the tone in contrast to the last one. After the usual scheming in and out of the office, we see how some of the characters cope with their losses and anxieties.

We are invited to see into the abyss of Axe and Chuck, with very different and very interesting consequences. Basically, Axe becomes younger and playful while Chuck becomes sad and bleak. Even the other characters get their time off from the cliché. Lara loosens up at a girls' night with her sister. Bryan and Sacker may become a real couple. Wendy shows her strengths as a therapist.

There are several showings of self-reflectiveness and savvy of the writers. When Chuck explains to a colleague that only amateurs use the word 'guarantee' in a scheme. The aborted sex-on-the-boss's-desk scene, the whole session of Axe with Wendy, the session with Chuck with his paid dominatrix or the introduction of a trading concept with a friendly face by Kathryn Erbe's character.

'Cartoonish' was the verdict on how this show depicts its characters by many viewers, but, for better or worse, this episode took a different turn. The label 'cartoonish' for this show gets crashed like a useless object in Axe's temple of profit.

The leading men see themselves as heading to a better life. At the beginning of the episode, for Chuck 'Eldorado' is near. Axe thinks that buying that Kemlot shares will get him, you know, to the mythical Camelot.

Even, when defeat is near, Axe and Chuck resort to cajoling metaphors. Axe fantasizes about giving his deserting traders the 'Misery' treatment while Chuck wants to imitate Wall Street's risk management by collateralising.

But the reality is different and grim.

Pressure is building at the Rhoades' and the Axelrod's marriage. The fallout from Bobby's 9/11 misdeeds poisons Lara's relationship with friends and family. And the lies on recusing himself from the case is eroding Wendy's patience with Chuck.

Meanwhile Donnie, the double agent, is going awol, looking for inner peace and catching a deadly virus. The case against Axe which seemed rock-solid two episodes ago is tanking as is Axe's counter strategy.

Both Axe and Chuck have their backs against the walls, and this is a good sign for the last quarter of the season.

Squash is a game of two players who hit a ball against a wall. The very, very conscious choice of title can be read as a metaphorical recap of the plot.

Chuck makes his deputy Brian leak a document which is harmful to Axe. Notwithstanding all the talking, charming, eating and the both have together, Brian is just another wall for Chuck, which he has to hit to get to Axe.

On the other side of the game, Axe has done the same. He has sent a loyal underling, Donnie, on a mission to fool the attorney's office. This defensive boast may be considered to be the shot that has been answered by the offensive boast placed by Chuck using Brian as a wall.

We see some rails in the episode, too, mainly performed by the two couples, but the indirect hits are the more impressive.

Both Chuck and Axe show a ruthlessness in this episode that seems as if they have taken off not only their gloves but also masks.

Why I don't like the episode? The 9/11 story line could have been easily foreseen, whereas the twist with Donnie is as surprising as it is disappointing from the perspective of suspense. The whole episode lacked the ambiguity which has surrounded Axe, Chuck, and the whole season up to this point. Is 'Billions' finally going from gray to black-and-white?

Important talks, it seems, have to take place in restaurants. If not, they're are up to nothing.

After delivering the episode title's punch (at a private BBQ, not a restaurant), Axe sits with a reporter who is about to air the phone video on the physical exchange. The place is, of course, Axe's favorite Italian. First, they listen to a Mafia-like singer, and you may think Francis Ford Coppola co-wrote this scene. Then, Axe offers the reporter a job opportunity, and the video is gone.

First, the meeting with several guys from the FBI and the attorney's office is virtually useless to get an informant to deliver incriminating quotes from Axe. But later, the intimidation in a shady restaurant, which is a personal pick by Chuck for this kind of pep talk, proves to be effective. At least, the informant handing over data says so.

After an evening with befriended couple in, again, an Italian restaurant (but high-priced), the Rhoades learn a lot about love and togetherness, the takeaway insight being: Share your password. And, afterwards, Wendy is disgusted with Chuck and gets her mojo back.

Otherwise, the episode is in the typical 'retarding momentum' phase after the climax of Ep. 6. Some action is going back and forth, but there's only minor development as in the segment on the informant or when Chuck gets this sleazy SEC guy off his back.

Lying is at the centre of some of the relationships: whistle-blower to his boss, reporter to public, U.S. attorney to his deputy, and, of course, Chuck to Wendy.

Also, we learn some new things about the main characters:

• Axe can be subdued, despite all the efforts of his side-kick Wags and despite having been awarded the Oscar for best performance of a slap at a BBQ.

• Chuck is a motivational speaker of sorts. A variation of the Keating manoeuvre (http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0004782/? ref_=tt_cl_t1) does the trick (not on but at the desk).

• Wendy has moments in which she doesn't know all the answers.

• Lara used to soften up Axe, shies from intimidating a female friend and, as a consequence of this, tries to rough up her sons.

Anger is the central motivation that a pollster identifies in the American voters. But the reason for this anger is given in a too simplistic way. Russia (really?) manipulates in some way the oil prize to save their own economy, and this wreaks havoc on the gas costs in the USA. And, as in a time machine, we are catapulted back to the 1970s with queues lining up at the gas stations and people showing their rage while waiting.

But the anger of the American people in 2016 is different. It has amassed in the last couple of decades not by outside influences but through the deterioration of political discourse up to the point of a noisy minority constantly on the edge of high treason. It is about being lied to, being betrayed, the political class being totally unresponsive.

This rage is portrayed in the episode, and its face is the ex-reporter Lucas Goodwin, who was recently released from prison. The look of anger is the powerlessness of the ordinary man.

While the episode didn't get the anger thing right, it is correct on race relations in the political context. In the same way, as black lives don't matter, black voters are only relevant in the scheming of white politicians. White people use the situation of the African- Americans to unfold their political strategies, nothing else.