I liked it. I didn't understand the wife and Axe in the pool. Because she came there he trusted her? He had dude bring her? Was her getting naked meaning he trusted her? None of that made sense. The final meeting was cool but pitiful. Dude played Axe like a damn harmonica. Weak. But when axe got mad lol from that lil bait, hilarious.
Great episode. Really clearly drawn lines between the two leads. They're are so much the same man, yet driven by different ideologies. That showdown at the end between Axe and Chuck...
brilliantly edited. Nice slow build and so well-acted I couldn't tell who got the better of it: Axe for throwing a $1.9 billion check in the face of a United States Attorney, or Chuck for goading him into it.
I'm with Axe. I wouldn't have signed that shit, either, the way those motherfuckers came in sneering.
It's great storytelling that I don't know how it's going to play out. The scene at the end where Axe leaves his driver at the side of the road and goes speeding down the highway with the top down signals an ego rife for a fall. But Chuck faux re-cusing himself is going to bring him a whole set of problems.
top down, blasting rock, and speeding - thats not ego, thats saying fuck-it, I had nothing before and I can go back to it.
nah man, that was nothing but a photo op for leverage against Rhodes. I have a feeling he or the office might be getting a picture of that encounter in his mailbox at some point
the reason for the meeting in hot tub was primarily a trust exercise, Maggie Siff has to trust Axe to meet him under those circumstances, 2nd its the best way to have a conversation without fear of bugs, wiretapping, or a cellphone recording the conversation, and maybe it becomes a photo op to fuck Rhodes later.
Remember the 3 nuclear options Axe's shadow man gave him, frame Rhodes' wife for embezzlement, or set it up as an affair between her and Axe or Axe's number 1 man.
As for the final scenes - Rhodes fucked up.
Axe was saying all episode he wouldn't sign a deal to limit his fund or admit guilt... EVERYONE wore him down over the course of the ep to eventually accepting limiting his fund but before the meeting he said he couldn't admit any guilt...
keep in mind Maggie Siff had told Rhodes 4 very real things:
- Axe plays by rules you don't know
- the only deal that Axe could never accept is to be shut out of trading...
- Axe is excellent at making people act out of character, go off plan, and make mistakes
- he will drag you down with him
In the meeting Axe in addition to the other concessions, he concedes and agrees to admitting guilt, but because of insecurity Rhodes had to rub it in, Axe then shows him how futile and meaningless the agreement really is.
Rhodes then
goes off plan - and changes the terms of the agreement to barring Axe from securities trading - already knowing its the one thing Axe wouldn't agree to.
Rhodes fucks up further by recusing himself and creating a backdoor into the case and royally fucks up by lying to his wife about the meeting.
Rhodes has clay feet and doesn't realize how exposed he is by his father - his wife almost saved him in last nights episode...
politicians come and go... money men stay
.. Tara from SOA already has i think
