Billions - Season 4, Episode 09: American Champion
Trailer
Season 4 presents a new series of powerful dramas, with Chuck struggling to regain power, wanting to recover everything. Taylor tries to keep the new company afloat, but may face many challenges. On the other hand, Chuck sets out a new plan to take over a new position, and Wendy asks Chuck to make a change as soon as possible, and Alex tries to eliminate Taylor and his company.
"American Champion" is about as rote as this show gets, which means it still offers up its share of entertaining moments amid some stale and underwhelming storytelling.
"American Champion" is the kind of episode that pulls the heated relationships at the season's core to the front and center, moving the battle forward in a way that feels meaningful and exciting.
As always, the plot (here devised by the writer Adam R. Perlman and put into action by the director Naomi Geraghty) is crisp, clever and layered like a cake.
"American Champion" was particularly rewarding to Billions fanatics with an encyclopedic memory of the show's previous guest stars, who were phased out after their particular plot-line was replaced by another.
Putting his ego over his family is a classic Chuck move, but since none of the maneuvers he executes in "American Champion" had a chance in hell of panning out anyway, the viewer's enjoyment lies in watching Chuck dig himself into a hole.