Naming Rights

**Naming Rights** is the name of the second episode of the Season 1 of *Billions*. The episode was written by Brian Koppelman and David Levien and directed by Neil Burger.

## Plot Summary

Axe installs rigorous compliance measures to gird the company against the US Attorney's office investigation. When Wendy questions Axe's methods, he compels her to prove her loyalty. Chuck's probe is temporarily derailed when he has to divert resources to a case against an Axe rival, billionaire Steven Birch. Hall, Axe's fixer, develops a mole inside the US Attorney's office, while Axe makes an aggressive move under the guise of a charitable contribution in order to settle an old score.

## Plot

Wags reports to Axe that the beach mansion news has turned off one of their investors, a Garth Sykes from Kentucky, who runs Flagship — a pension fund for teachers — totaling $1.5 billion. Sykes is considering to move the money elsewhere. Axe is worried about a domino effect and tells Wags to keep him in. Wags believes the key to keeping everyone in is through a low profile. Axe unfortunately is anything but low profile, as he leaves the office in a helicopter.

Meanwhile, Tara Mohr, one of employees of the US Attorney's office, informs her bosses that The Financial Journal is about to post a story online about Steven Birch and his trade on Arcadian Railroad. Chuck and Bryan find it hard to believe that reporters could decipher this before the authorities, but they can't ignore the information.

Axe, Wags, and Lara meetup at a charity event being held in Ellis Eads Hall. Seeing Axe's distaste, Lara presses Axe on the matter, whereupon he reveals that he likes the building just fine, but the name bothers him a lot.
Penn Jillette serves as the entertainment and entices the crowd to donate for charity. Jillette starts by asking the top bill donors, those willing to give $1 million to the charity, to stand up. Bobby Axelrod and Steven Birch both rise from their seats and receive applause. The enjoyment is short lived for Steven though, as an alert about The Financial Journal story begins to spread, and he leaves the event abruptly.

Axe Capital holds an internal meeting to determine their next play. Maria Saldana, inspired by her pep-talk with Wendy, shares her confidence in their hospital positions and receives praise from Axe. Donnie Caan though has nothing to contribute and apologizes to Axe for having no leads. Before the meeting develops further, the S.E.C interrupts proceedings and demands to interview all employees as well as have complete access of records. Axe later reveals that this was a fire drill for the team and Axe informs them they have a lot of shaping up to do if they want to avoid the same fate as Steven Birch.

The team is upset over the deception that the S.E.C intruders are actually Axe Capital's new compliance department. In particular, Victor Mateo questions the choice of this new addition to the company, but Axe reveals Victor performed especially poorly on the drill and decides to make an example of him and fires Victor on the spot. In private, Axe tells Wags to inform the investors about everything that happened today. Wags affirms that he will make sure Garth Sykes, in particular, is aware of the new "responsible" Bobby Axelrod.

Wendy informs Axe that based on her sessions with Victor, firing him, especially in such a humiliating way publicly, will come back to bite him. She is also upset that Axe did not inform her about the drill. Axe confesses to his mistake in not informing Wendy of the drill and that Victor's firing was spur of the moment. Axe asks Wendy to fix the matter with Victor.

Axe meets up with Sean Ayles to discuss his issue with the Ellis Eads Hall, which is simply just the buildings name. As curator of the building, Sean reveals he is very interested in Axe's $100 million donation offer as they are in need of renovations, but that since the Eads family owns the naming rights to the building in perpetuity, he cannot give him what he wants. Axe though mentions that he is aware the Eads family is in financial troubles and that he expects Sean to convince them to accept his offer of $25 million for the naming rights if he expects to have the $100 million.

Tara Mohr returns to her apartment to find Hall waiting there. Hall reveals that the last woman Tara brought over had planted a video camera that filmed everything the duo did. Tara mocks Hall for assuming her sexuality is something he can hang over her head, but Hall fast forwards the tape to show Tara snorting cocaine off the other womans body. Stating that Tara's hair sample, which he possesses, will test positive for the drug he blackmails her into being his eyes and ears at the Attorney General’s offices.

Kate confirms that Steven Birch and his team are panicking over the story that’s been posted. Chuck takes this as a sign that they are indeed guilty and decides to press forward. He is still bothered by how The Financial Journal got the scoop before them, and so he waits outside Mike Dimonda's apartment and grills him about the source. Dimonda states he didn't write the story, but when Chuck calls him out on the bluff, Dimonda refuses to yield and Chuck informs him that he if wants to play in the "big leagues,” he should side with him.

While waiting in line at a food truck with his children, Chuck runs into one of his old cases, a Mr. Kroll. Feeling guilty, Chuck decides to anonymously pay for the food vendor, but Mr. Kroll throws the food and money back at Chuck. Chuck stands behind the fact the Kroll was guilty of mail fraud, but Kroll says he only did it cause he was desperate after his wife died and that the time for sympathy was during sentencing, not at this food truck line.

Pouch is given a short position by Axelrod on Cross-Co, a trucking company that handles distributing for YumTime, a major bakery. Pouch questions the play as Cross-Co is strong, but Axe demands him to do it, and he agrees to oblige. Axe's next meeting is with Wags, who admits failure in that he was unable to make headway with Garth Sykes and that the best play now is for Axe to have a one on one with the man himself.

Wendy visits Viktor to try and nurse his wounds, but Viktor is still furious over what Axe did to him. While Viktor wants to stand up for himself, Wendy advises him to stand down and handle the firing "like a gentleman." She recounts the story of another former employee of Axe Capital that got fired; Warren Jaffin. Warren was unhappy with his bonus and Axe fired him as a result. After acquiring a new job at a major bank, Axe learned that Warren had badmouthed him during the job interview. Axe used his influence and the major bank rescinded their offer to Warren. Moreover, Axe called every financial institution to effectively blackball Warren. Wendy ends the story to say that the best Warren could do after all that was to run his own blog, and Viktor gets the message.

Terri McCue informs Chuck the fruits of her investigation work. Pierre Bernard, a longtime employee of Arcadian Railroad who was furious about not getting the CEO position, held a meeting with Birch and that a mere 30 minutes after that meeting, Birch committed the insider trade. Chuck is pleased to hear that the case will be an easy win, but he and everyone else misses Tara eavesdropping on the meeting. Afterwards, Chuck tells Bryan they will settle with Birch rather then aim for a conviction. Bryan is dismayed, but Chuck justifies it by saying it is more important that they wrap this matter up quickly so they can return their focus on Axelrod.

At a restaurant, Axe runs into Ken and Garth having a dinner date. Axe proceeds to insult Ken for attempting to poach Garth from him, much to Garth's amusement. Ken says his fund, Vista Verde, is reliable and risk-averse, but Axe mocks Ken. For Axe, the bottom line is that he's up 32% year-to-date while Ken is only up a mere 2%. Garth takes Bobby aside and informs him that the job is about both results and optics. Bobby may have the results, but the optics favor Ken. Bobby requests that Garth give him time to see how things are changing and that he is still a good person to be in bed with, and Garth agrees to do so.

In a meeting between the Attorney General's office and Steven Birch, Chuck and Bryan offer a plea deal while Tara continues to eavesdrop and informs Hall. The meeting ends with Birch accepting the plea deal; he agrees to pay $386 million in fines and to close his hedge fund, permitting only a family office.

Axe and Lara return to Ellis Eads Hall to meet with the Eads family in a meeting hosted by Sean Ayles. While the youngest member of the Eads family extends his gratitude, Axe rebuffs him and focuses on a different family member, Chad Eads. Axe recounts how they met earlier in life at a country club called The Spoon where Axe use to be a caddy during middle school. Axe shares that he worked there during the summers and use to make only $16 during each round of golf, which would typically involve four hours of misery, and thus only give him enough time to do two rounds a day, amounting to $32. After all the math is done, Axe admits the best he could do in a summer was $1024. Lara informs the Eads family that Axe would "stretch" that money till the next summer.

One day Ellis Eads, Chad's grandfather, chooses Axe to be his caddy. When Ellis requests Axe's opinion on putt three, Axe informs him that its a "left-to-right leaker" as he had seen golfers struggle on that course all the time. When Ellis took the shot and missed it by a foot, Chad chose to mock his grandfather and questioned the old mans eyesight. Ellis decided to save face by placing blame on Axe. Ellis saw to it that Axe was fired from the country club.

Axe reveals that the whole reason they are here is because of that moment and that because of how badly he needed that $16, and how little his grandfather cared at the time, he will now do the same to them. Axe offers them the $25 million, minus the $16 million, leaving the family members with only $9 million to split among themselves.

The Eads family is in a frenzy, but Axe knows they have no other play because, as he tells them, the family has amounted to nothing and isn't capable of producing anything of value, unlike Axe who has actually done something with his life. Realizing they do indeed have no other option, the Eads family capitulates and leave the meeting silently with Bobby's check. Lara and Axe then watch as the Eads family name is removed from the building. Sean says it will forever bear the Axelrod name now, but Axe jokes it'll only stay there till the next guy tears it off.

## Cast

### Starring

* Paul Giamatti as Chuck Rhoades
* Damian Lewis as Bobby Axelrod
* Maggie Siff as Wendy Rhoades
* Malin Åkerman as Lara Axelrod
* Toby Leonard Moore as Bryan Connerty
* David Costabile as Mike Wagner
* Condola Rashad as Kate Sacker

### Guest Starring

* Terry Kinney as Hall
* Susan Misner as Terri McCue
* Glenn Fleshler as Orrin Bach
* Jerry O'Connell as Steven Birch
* David Cromer as Donnie Caan
* Annapurna Sriram as Tara Mohr
* Kate Arrington as Saldana
* Louis Cancelmi as Victor
* Dennis Boutsikaris as Kenneth Malverne
* Jack Gilpin as Sean Ayles
* John Ellison Conlee as Garth
* Neal Huff as Bert Kroll
* Penn Jillette as *Himself*

## Crew

* Created & Written by & Executive Producers: Brian Koppelman 6 David Levien
* Created by & Executive Producer: Andrew Ross Sorkin
* Casting by: Allison Estrin
* Music by: Eskmo
* Edited by: Marnee Meyer
* Production Designer: Michael Shaw
* Director of Photography: Jake Polonsky
* Consulting Producer: Peter K. Blake
* Co-Producer: Wes Jones
* Producers: Perri Kipperman & Heidi Schreck
* Co-Executive Producers: Willie Reale & Amy Kaufman
* Executive Producer & Directed by: Neil Burger

## Trivia

* At the fundraiser dinner, Penn Jillette, one half of the magic duo Penn & Teller, is seen doing a fire-eating act. This is not a trick of the camera or special effect. Penn often performs this feat on stage, explaining to the audience exactly how it is accomplished.
* Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) mentions 'The Gettysburg Address'; this is an episode title of a *Homeland* episode also starring Lewis.
* Despite the fact that **Naming Rights** begins right when Pilot ends, it seems Wags was able to grow a full goatee inside of 24 hours.

## Quotes

* Mike 'Wags' Wagner: We have to be more-pure than the Virgin Mary before her first period.