Billions: One Quote From Each Main Character That Sums Up Their Personality
Currently in its sixth season, Showtime's hit financial drama Billions continues to be a major boon for the network. A large part of the show's success is the brilliantly written characters, many of which are often forced to hide their true colors in order to gain a leg up on their cutthroat competition. Other times, they let their guard down in extremely candid moments that reveal who they really are.
Whether it's Bobby, Lara, Chuck, Wendy, Wags, or the rest of the main characters in Billions, no one is immune from expressing their genuine feelings in ways that reinforce their inherent nature at some point in the show.
Bobby "Axe" Axelrod (Damian Lewis) is a highly ambitious and unscrupulous venture capitalist and CEO of the Axe Capital hedge fund, who will stop at nothing to ensure his own personal success. Publicly, he fronts as a philanthropist, but privately, he engages in illegal insider trading to reap financial gain on the stellar Showtime drama.
The quote perfectly illustrates Axe's winning mentality and his philosophical mantra as a man under no illusions about what he does best. Axelrod most certainly lies to everyone else, but remaining true to himself is his number one priority.
When the show first begins, Lara Axelrod (Malin Akerman) is presented as a humble nurse from a blue-collar background. Upon tasting the glitzy life as Bobby's wife, she slowly peels back the veneer of wealthy perks and voices how disillusioned she's become.
By the time Lara splits from Axe and gains half of his assets, her entire viewpoint on wealth and its so-called benefits are completely shattered and replaced with a far more cynical one.
As someone who uses power and influence as the most valuable form of currency, quotable New York AG, Chuck Rhoades Jr. (Paul Giamatti), knows that greater connections often mean greater success. However, living in the shadow of his more successful father and higher-earning wife, Chuck also knows exactly what it means to be on the short end of the stick.
The profundity of the quote also resonates considering the Ice Juice debacle that left Chuck nearly bankrupt, which actually gave him the freedom to double down in his attack on Axe.
As a highly successful, ambitious, and self-determined psychiatrist, Wendy Rhoades (Maggie Siff) often keeps her eye on the bigger picture. As such, she uses her vocational skills to get inside the head of her husband, Chuck, articulating his own lofty desires in ways he cannot.
Indeed, Wendy knows that Chuck will never be satisfied unless he becomes the one pulling the strings like a puppeteer rather than being controlled like a puppet himself, articulating his psychological state like the shrewd psychoanalyst she's paid to be.
Taylor Mason (Asia Kate Dillon) is often portrayed as the smartest and wittiest character on the popular Showtime series who represents the vast potential of future generations. Comfortable in their skin, the brilliant non-binary CIO suffers no fools and is willing to stand up to anybody to prove it.
The rousing quote not only proves how perceptive and self-empowered Taylor is, but it also shows their willingness to stick up for themselves and confront others when necessary. Taylor will not be cowed by anyone, which is how she becomes the CEO of Taylor Mason Capital later on.
For much of the show, Bryan Connerty (Toby Leonard Moore) is a conscionable and morally sound character trying to do right by Chuck and the law. However, once he gets does jail time for illegal witness tampering, he begins to understand how additive breaking the law can become.
The quote underscores Bryan's arc as a man once dedicated to always doing the right thing before becoming a corrupted agent of Rhoades who can't break the bad habit of litigating innocent people to gain or retain their own political power.
As the foul-mouthed comic relief on the show, most of Mike "Wags" Wagner's (David Costabile) quips are too profane to print. The wild cocaine and sex-addicted COO of Axe Capital is a hedonistic libertine who makes one outlandish statement after another.
The quote perfectly echoes Wags' lewd and fun-loving attitude and celebratory nature after he and Axe score a major financial coup. Strippers, coke, sushi ... just a typical Wednesday for Wags on the show.
As the cold, callous, and ultra-wealthy father of Chuck Jr., Chuck Rhoades Sr. (Jeffrey DeMunn) is often shown to be an abusive philanderer on the Showtime original series, one who brazenly left his wife to marry and have a child with another.
The quote encapsulates Chuck Sr.'s disdain for remaining romantically faithful to one person, which is certainly supported by his multiple marriages and inability to commit. In Chuck's eyes, capitalism equates to polyamory and is the only credo to abide by.
As Axe Capital's portfolio manager who pulls strings behind the scenes, Dollar Bill also shows little sentimentality towards his own family, prompting a secret life with another family altogether. In a brazen admission likening himself to the villain of The Usual Suspects, who murdered his own family to show how much he did not care about them, Bill shows his true colors.
Indeed, Bill would rather sacrifice his own family than have them used as leverage against him to be coerced and blackmailed out of a fortune, which is accurately articulated in the mic-dropping one-liner.