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2 • May 3 - 9, 2020 • Brainerd Dispatch By Dana Simpson TV Media F asten your seatbelts for anoth- er year of dollars and deceit. "Billions," Showtime's most pro- vocative corporate drama, returns for its fifth season on Sunday, May 3, and fans of the show can't wait to see more of their favorite fic- tional billionaires as they scheme and slither their way to the top of the Wall Street food chain. The Season 5 trailer, which was released earlier this year, introduces viewers to a whole new set of power dynamics and betrayal, making it evi- dent that the fifth year of this captivating show is amping up the drama from the get-go. The 12-epi- sode season will be released in two parts this year, due to film- ing complications caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The first seven episodes will air starting this week, and the show will take a break mid-June at a natural point in the story arc. At this stage, there is no way to know when the second part of the sea- son will air, but the much-antici- pated remaining episodes will be filmed and re- leased as soon as the production process is safe to resume. In the meantime, Part 1 of the season continues to follow dueling New York City high- society members Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti, "Sideways," 2004) and Bobby "Axe" Axelrod (Damian Lewis, "Band of Brothers") as they try to take each other down in a grueling game of cat and mouse. Providing more twists and turns than a Shakespearean production, Chuck and Axe have been on a collision course with one another since 2016. From Chuck getting a tip about insider trading and Axe's subsequent disappearance in Sea- son 1 to the two men going head to head in court in Season 3, it ap- pears the billionaires will squabble over just about anything from money and business to women and politics. Just when it seemed they would band together to form an alliance — especially with Axe's focus now more clearly aimed at the de- struction of Taylor (Asia Kate Dil- lon, "Orange Is the New Black") and her company — Chuck and Axe are once again pitted against each other as Season 5 will feature a new player, Michael Prince (Co- rey Stoll, "House of Cards"), who joins their high-stakes — and, quite honestly, exhausting — game. At the end of Season 4, "Bil- lions" co-creator David Levien told Entertainment Weekly a bit about the fate of Chuck and Axe: "When we thought of bringing them together, we didn't know ex- actly when they would start to be at odds again," Levien said. "We just knew two men with these qualities, this alpha dog mentality, that a peace and alliance could never last forever." With the arrival of this new threat to Axe and his company, Axe Capital (AxeCap for short), Chuck appears to have a plan in the works — because when does he not? — but all the alliances that have been crafted over the past four years are likely to fall apart as companies lose money, employees and power. Now, a newcomer to the feud (and the se- ries), Chuck's friend, Prof. Cathe- rine "Cat" Brant (Julianna Margu- lies, "The Good Wife"), expresses her concern that his quest for dominance has gotten out of hand. Amid triple crosses, double agents and a single common goal, things begin to get "tribal," and every player involved in this cor- porate chess game will quickly be- gin to realize who is the king and who is a pawn. It's not just the kings at play in the business game, either. Taylor, who has been fighting to keep her firm together and pull away from Axe, will have to make some seri- ous adjustments as she is forced back to work at AxeCap, while Wendy (Maggie Siff, "Sons of An- archy"), who had just spent the day at a closed-course recreational demolition site with Rebecca (Nina Arianda, "Goliath") venting her frustrations and "moving earth," can't avoid her problems forever as she anxiously awaits the medical board's decision on her case. Throughout all of this, Rebecca finds herself a pawn in Axe's game as she is blindsided in the board- room and realizes that he pur- posefully orchestrated her demoli- tion day with Wendy to suit his needs so that he could broker a deal and liquidate Saler's Depart- ment Stores — a company Rebec- ca was very fond of — behind her back. As Rebecca shares her feel- ings with Axe and leaves the of- fice, she has Axe (and viewers) wondering whether she will be back for another round. To top off all of the excitement, with rumors of Wendy branching out on her own, creating new con- nections and inciting some tension between her and Chuck, some fans of the show are wondering if Axe will finally make a romantic move on Wendy — did anyone else catch that slow rise in sexual tension? And, although Chuck al- ways seems to have a plan in mo- tion, could Season 5 find him final- ly losing steam? Will this new bil- lionaire, Prince, overshadow one of the leading men for good? So many questions, and the only way to find out what really happens is to tune in. After all, things on Wall Street really can change in a New York minute. The first seven episodes of "Bil- lions" Season 5 kick off Sunday, May 3, on Showtime. 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