Characters / Billions Main Characters

Billions Character Index
Main Characters | Axe Capital | Taylor Mason Capital | Department of Justice | Recurring Characters

Axe

Robert "Axe" Axelrod

"What's the point of having 'fuck you' money if you never say 'fuck you?'"

Played By: Damian Lewis

"What have I done wrong? Really? Except make money. Succeed. All these rules and regulations - arbitrary."

Bobby is a billionaire hedge-fund owner, but has humble beginnings. Born in Yonkers to a blue-collar family, he enjoys the good life his money now gives him, along with doing whatever he can to keep said money.

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• Anti-Hero: He's a white collar criminal, an economic terrorist, and a person who casually destroys people's dreams and livelihoods if they get in his way for any reason. But he shows genuine respect for his family and a few select employees of Axe Capital, and has moments of regret over how he treats others. However, over time he discards his family, increasingly ignores his better angels, and will betray even the people closest to him if it means prevailing against his enemies. By the end of Season 4 he openly admits to Taylor that he sees them, Chuck, and presumably everyone else as tools to help himself advance.
• Anti-Villain: He's ruthless and has no qualms about breaking the SEC's laws to make money, but his attitude is a result of a rough childhood in a working class community and he has several Pet the Dog moments that prove he's not completely heartless.
• Arch-Enemy: His two biggest being Chuck and Taylor.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Exhibits a photographic memory that aids him greatly when he's charged with assaulting a man in his backyard, and recalls a girl nearby whose iPhone video of the encounter will show that the man had been driving drunk with Bobby's kids in the car.
  • Bobby hears news of an earthquake in Mozambique and knows that Axe Capital's investment will be negatively affected when the resulting tsunami eventually hits Brazil. Subverted in that Bobby has been forced to give up his trading license, so he is unable to do anything about it.
  • His photographic memory is used speculatively in "Flaw in the Death Star" when Bobby "rewinds" his perception of Dr. Gilbert, the doctor who he talked out of saving Donnie Cahn's life and who he used to create the Ice Juice toxin. Bobby uses his memory to run through scenarios of what Gilbert may or may not have done with the toxin slide with Bobby's fingerprints on it.
• Badass Boast: "When I pull a deal off the table, I leave Nagasaki behind."
• Because I'm Good At It: Axe has several chances to turn away from trading, but he never takes that path because he doesn't see anything fundamentally wrong in what he does and because seeking edges and making even more money really is the passion of his life.
• Berserk Button: Several:
  • Being one-upped by anyone, but particularly Chuck.
  • Being betrayed by anyone, but particularly Taylor and Rebecca.
  • Being reminded of his terrible childhood in Yonkers or the abusive asshole of a father who eventually walked out on him. Axe can't bring himself to have dinner with the current occupants of his childhood home because of the memories associated with the place, and eventually buys the house himself (moving the family to a more affluent neighborhood) so that it can be never inhabited again. In the same episode, Axe learns that his mother recently got in touch with his father and gave him her Lexus SUV (which was originally a gift from Axe). Axe threatens to cut off his mother if she ever speaks to his father again and has the Lexus crushed into a cube, which is delivered to his father's house.
  • But most of all, never ever betray or threaten Wendy.
  Axe: Threatening her is a bigger mistake than threatening me.
• Broken Ace: Axe is an undisputed master of the financial world, but he is also a deeply insecure man. His father leaving at age 12 deeply traumatized him, so much so that anybody who betrays or turns against him causes him to go off the deep end. Axe leaves a series of increasingly angry voicemail messages to Lara when she leaves him with his kids, devotes his firm's resources to screwing over Taylor when they leave to start their own fund, and destroys his relationship with Rebecca because she went over his head to find a diplomatic solution with Taylor.
• Deadpan Snarker: Pretty much his default mode of communication.
• Disappeared Dad: Bobby's father walked out on him when he was 12. He himself gradually spends less and less time with his own two sons after he and Lara divorce, apparently not even saying goodbye to them when he agrees to let the three of them move to California.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Not one for half-measures. His boast about Nagasaki is barely hyperbolic. When someone crosses his path in an antagonistic way, Axe's goal in response is nothing short of total annihilation, and more often than not, he achieves it against small to medium targets. And absolutely no one is exempt from this — Rebecca finds this out the hard way.
  Wendy: He registers all threats as existential.
• Domestic Abuse: Was raised in an abusive household, and often engaged his father in fights so that he wouldn't beat his mother (and not always succeeding). Axe feeling powerless as a child, and resolving to put himself in a position where he would never be powerless again, made him the man he is today.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: When Taylor identifies as non-binary, Bobby doesn't even bat an eyelid, and makes it very clear to everyone that the only thing he cares about is whether Taylor will be an asset to the company or not. He also goes out of his way to correct others when they don't use Taylor's preferred pronouns.
• Everyone Has Standards: He refuses to let Dollar Bill intentionally contaminate the entire country's chicken supply just so Axe Capital could ensure would get a huge payout for their position in the industry.
• Fiction 500: Besides his titular "billions" in income and assets, Bobby also has the pull to fuck with currency in Nigeria, tweak entire banking systems in Europe, and literally buy the Chrysler Building. According to Todd Krakow, Bobby's net worth is somewhere in the vicinity of $12 billion.
• Graceful Loser: After spending the entire fifth season trying to one-up Mike Prince, Axe is forced to sell his company to Prince when Prince outmaneuvers him in the Fine Young Cannabis scheme. Axe takes the loss well all things considered, commenting wistfully that this is the first time he has ever seriously been defeated.
• Green-Eyed Monster: There is definite sexual tension between him and Wendy, and when she begins seeing Nico Tanner he uses the surveillance camera to the front door of Nico's apartment to monitor how long they spend time together.
• Heel Realization: Seems to have one in the season two finale when he visits the 9/11 memorial and laments to Wendy that he feels every decision he's made since that day has been the wrong one. He also feels guilty about exploiting Donnie's final weeks to undermine Rhoades. It seems to have been temporary, though: at the start of Season 3 he's back to his defiant, self-righteous self, but then it comes back when he beats the indictment but doesn't feel happy. Subverted in the Season 4 finale when he tells Rebecca that he knew full well that he was sacrificing their future together by liquidating Saler's from under her and chose to do it anyway because his desire for revenge against Taylor was stronger than his feelings for Rebecca.
• He's Back!: "Tower of London" marks his return to the show after a season's absence.
• Hidden Depths: Seems to be genuinely concerned about Donnie, and genuinely sad when he dies.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: According to Wendy, Bobby has trouble seeing anyone as an intellectual equal. He can put on a good show, but he doesn't truly have many friends. Taylor is the first person he thinks could be an equal and that's why he takes them under his wing.
• It's All About Me: His family were the only people he had genuine affection for, but he essentially abandons them after his divorce from Lara. By the end of Season 4, Axe all but explicitly states to Taylor that he's come to see anyone and everyone else as tools he can use for his own self-advancement.
• Karma Houdini: After all of his underhanded schemes throughout the first five seasons, and despite having been caught dead to rights in the Fine Young Cannabis debacle, Axe manages to spirit himself out of the country to Switzerland (a country with no extradition treaties for certain financial crimes) and denies Chuck the satisfaction of bringing him in.
• Kubrick Stare: His eyebrows speak for themselves.
• Manipulative Bastard: When three of his protégés leave to start their own fund, he tricks them into bankrupting themselves, then offers to keep them afloat as a vassal fund that's totally dependent on him. They take the deal.
• Never My Fault: Subverted. While he is mad at Chuck for the Ice Juice play that resulted in his indictment, he does admit that him allowing his emotions to cloud his judgement also played a role.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Bobby's play with the Churchill books gives Chuck the idea employing the Batman Gambit with Ice Juice.
• Nice to the Waiter: Likely due to his working-class background, Bobby is normally friendly and cordial with blue-collar workers and service staff.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Lara finds out from Wendy that Bobby lied to her and leaves him without warning in Season 2, Wendy remarks that it's the first time she's ever seen him afraid. He's so rattled that he turns up outside Wendy's house with his personal fixer to demand an explanation and genuinely frightens her with how erratic and dangerous he is at that moment.
• Papa Wolf: Never threaten his kids. He tends to go ballistic. Not even Grigor Andolov, who Bobby's mysterious fixer openly fears, gets away with it.
  Grigor: I'm a fucking businessman. And a real sweetheart. I'm Casper the Friendly Ghost.
  Bobby: Me, too. And if you mention my kids like that again you’ll find out how fucking friendly.
  • Also, never compromise the safety of his kids as he punched an associate for driving drunk with Gordie and Dean in his car.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Wendy Rhoades, one of the very few people to know and trust him before 9/11, who knows precisely how he made his money, and is incredibly loyal to him. Bobby relies on her heavily, enough that he can request an all-night intensive therapy session and she'll drop everything. The idea of her betraying him causes him to lose his cool in a way few others can cause. Eight months after she quits, he still refers to her office as "hers", and engineers a class-action lawsuit against Chuck so that he can drop it as a condition of Wendy coming back. And when Spyros backstabs Wendy by turning evidence of her Ice Juice short over to Connerty, Axe is livid and becomes willing to partner with Chuck to protect her. This goes out the door in "Liberty", though Axe and Wendy ultimately decide not to go through with a relationship when Axe is forced to flee the country.
• Properly Paranoid: He's very good at reading people who is up to no good against him. After making an enemy of Grigor Andolov, Axe buffs up his personal security considerably.
• Put on a Bus: Is forced to permanently flee to Switzerland at the end of Season 5. He comes back at the beginning of season 7.
• Refusal of the Call: Axe initially turns down pleas from Wendy, Wags, and Taylor to help them sabotage Prince's presidential campaign, but inevitably participates in the scheme.
• Renowned Selective Mentor: For most of Axe Capital, he's firmly in Bad Boss territory, having a "sink-or-swim" attitude. With Taylor, however, he sees someone incredibly similar to himself, and decides to mentor them.
• Revenge: It takes two seasons, but in the series finale he has his revenge on Mike Prince. Axe is stronger than ever, whereas Prince has lost the overwhelming majority of his fortune and his chances of becoming president.
• Revenge Before Reason: Wendy identifies Bobby's overwhelming desire to always get back at his enemies as his biggest flaw, and the thing that most often gets him into trouble. Bobby seeing an opportunity to screw over Chuck just for the sake of it was what led to his arrest in the Ice Juice scandal. During his war with Taylor in Season 4, Axe begins making decisions that might inconvenience Taylor's business, but puts Axe Capital at such a disadvantage that even loyalists like Wags and Dollar Bill question his judgment. And when Rebecca makes an altruistic deal with Taylor without Bobby's knowledge, he reacts by liquidating Saler's right from under her and knowingly destroying their relationship in the process.
• Saw Star Wars 27 Times: Rocky, seven times. It comes up rarely and his actual fountain of references is The Godfather, which implies this trope for that other saga too.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: As he so eloquently puts it, "What's the point of having 'fuck you' money, if you never say fuck you?"
• Seduction-Proof Marriage: Played straight in season one, where despite attraction to a beautiful singer, Bobby turns her down, saying he's married and "it's real". Deconstructed in season two, where when Lara leaves and his fear of losing her causes him to veer into paranoia, he leaves her multiple voicemails claiming that he was completely faithful to her, but he shouldn't have been, and it wasn't worth it.
• Slasher Smile: Has a rather menacing and unsettling grin.
• The Social Darwinist: Generally, Axe feels that someone with his intelligence and skills should be allowed to make as much money as they want and most of the SEC's laws are arbitrary and designed to keep people like him from succeeding. However, he does show a few moral restraints and doesn't approve of outright immoral tactics like stealing.
• Sole Survivor: Part of Bobby's public image is that he's a benevolent philanthropist with survivor's guilt for being the only guy in his company to survive the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. In actuality, Bobby had been fired from the firm and was at his lawyer's office finalizing the severance package paperwork. He made a fortune short selling aviation stock right after witnessing the first plane hitting the North Tower.
• Stalker with a Crush: Bobby is incredibly possessive of the two most important women in his life. He had people follow and keep tabs on Lara in season two. He's escalated to having cameras installed outside Tanner's loft to spy on when and how long Wendy goes to see him.
• Taking You with Me: Is fond of answering seemingly unassailable threats with this one of his own, quickly digging up dirt from his adversaries.
• The Unfettered: His defining trait, when he sees an angle, he goes all-in. Best exemplified by the origin of his fortune, short selling aviation stock during 9/11, while his then-co-workers were dying in the World Trade Center. He will use anything and anyone to make sure his own plans succeed.
• Villain with Good Publicity: At the start of Season 7, Axe is able to move around Europe freely for aiding the Ukrainian war effort.
• We Used to Be Friends: According to Wendy, Bobby actually liked Chuck when she first started dating him and the two bonded over how smarter they were than everyone else. Then when Chuck accepted a job at the U.S. Attorney's office and started going after white-collar criminals, their relationship deteriorated. Bobby and Chuck then rekindle their friendship when they both reach low points in their lives and plot together against their enemies.

Chuck

Charles "Chuck" Rhoades Jr.

"A good matador doesn't kill a fresh bull. You wait until he's been stuck a few times."

Played By: Paul Giamatti

"Hey, you're a smart man. So you know when I bring an action, it's not some county or even state — it's the United States versus. Now don't give me a reason."

Chuck Rhoades is the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the most prestigious law gig in the U.S, specializing in prosecuting high profile Wall Street and white-collar crime. Married to Wendy, with two kids, he's got his sights set on bringing down Bobby Axelrod. Is elected attorney general of New York State after being fired as U.S. Attorney.

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• Aggressive Submissive: Chuck likes talking trash and winning arguments, but Wendy's the one in charge in the bedroom.
• Ambition Is Evil: The Governorship of New York is the only thing in his mind that can come near taking Axelrod down in the first three seasons, and Chuck's political course is as shady and paved with misconduct as the rest of his corrupt career. Later averted when Chuck puts his gubernatorial ambitions aside once Wendy convinces him that he's running to satisfy Foley and Chuck Senior's aspirations for him, not his own.
  • Chuck later puts his marriage with Wendy on the line when Foley tries to blackmail him with his S&M lifestyle on the eve of the state attorney general election, outing the couple as sadomasochists to the world against Wendy's pleas just so he can win office.
• Ancestral Name: The "Jr." in his name is not a clear enough indication that he's named after his father Charles.
• Anti-Villain: You can sympathize with his goal to take down Axe, but in the process Chuck corrupts a legal high office and commits a series of criminal frauds that should lead to disbarment and indictment several times over.
• Badass Bureaucrat: Being the head of the Southern District of New York makes him one of the most powerful lawmen in the country, and he consistently uses his federal power to crush most of the adversaries who cross his path.
• Berserk Button: He won't stand for anyone accusing him of not being his own man and just answering to his wife or father.
• Blue Blood: Comes from a very wealthy New York family, but disagrees with how his father utilizes his wealth to control others. Ironically, Wendy is better off financially than he is.
• Brains and Bondage: Chuck and his wife are into the BDSM lifestyle.
• Breaking Speech: Rhoades lives by this trope. No episode is complete without a long, pointed monologue, usually involving a personal anecdote. (Mercifully, this situation abates somewhat in season 3.)
  • Chuck notably tries this when Prince begins lobbying members of the state legislature to remove him as attorney general in reaction to foiling the Olympic bid, giving a rousing speech about public service, equality, the fight for justice, and ridding the system of corruption. He gives such a good performance that even Prince is impressed. It doesn't work and Chuck loses office anyway.
• Broken Ace: A hotshot U.S. Attorney with an impressive 81-0 record in court. But he has multiple personality issues (perhaps most notably his obsessive jealousy of the bond his wife shares with Axe) and it turns out he only picks sure-win cases.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Waffles between doing this and being The Dutiful Son.
• The Chessmaster: He's always running some gambit or another. Wendy defines him as the best at breaking down a strategy. At times, Chuck verges on Magnificent Bastard (case in point, what he does to Judge Wilcox), but is a little too vengeful and obsessed with beating Bobby to truly succeed.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Takes advantage of Wendy's position at Axe Capital and looks into her confidential files to gather incriminating information on Bobby. Also talks his father and his best friend into making disastrous investments that decimate their fortunes in order to entrap Bobby. Wendy also gets caught up in this scheme, though Chuck initially doesn't know it. He badly overreaches himself when he tries to do it to Jock Jeffcoat.
  • Chuck does this twice to Wendy in Season 4 — first when he tells the press about his BDSM lifestyle with Wendy without her consent in order to win the election, and then when he passes up an offer by Connerty to help Wendy out with the medical board when she is in danger of losing her license just to spite Connerty and Jeffcoat (and lying to her about it afterward). Not surprisingly, Wendy divorces him.
• The Comically Serious: He'll give long detailed speeches to people doing even the tiniest things such as not cleaning after their dog or cheating on a game of chess.
• Cornered Rattlesnake: Chuck often finds himself fighting for survival as a consequence of his perilous schemes, and rising to the occassion.
  You know, the only enemy more dangerous than a man with unlimited resources... is one with nothing to lose. And that is what you are looking at right here.
• Corrupt Bureaucrat: He's very competent, too bad he begins to use and taint the Attorney's office to advance and protect his own schemes and ambition.
• The Dutiful Son: As the object of all of his father's thwarted ambitions.
• Exact Words: A masterful rules lawyer, Chuck utilizes this trope quite often, adhering to the letter of the law (or a given proposition or deal) when it suits him.
• Fan Disservice: Whenever he’s the submissive during his and Wendy’s BDSM sessions.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His obsession with nailing Axe has taken a toll on his personal and professional life, but he refuses to relent.
  • In a more broader sense, his ego. A lot of his desire to indict Axe stems from Chuck trying to prove that Axe can't outsmart him and he is truly the more intelligent of the two. After Season 5, his outrage at having been outsmarted by Michael Prince and forever losing the opportunity to put Axe in prison leads to Chuck fixating on Prince as his new arch nemesis.
• Good Parents: Wants to be the exact opposite of his own father, and seems to be succeeding. Whatever his other flaws, Chuck is a really good father, splitting childcare duties with Wendy, reassuring his kids during the separation, and always making sure to keep his work life separate from his kids.
• Green-Eyed Monster: It's all but stated that his obsession with bringing down Axelrod has less to due with any of the latter's alleged law breaking and more to do with his jealousy over the bond Wendy has with him.
• Hypocrite:
  • Best summed up by Bryan in "Victory Lap", when he points out that for all of Chuck's talk about the importance of duty to the law and how nobody should be above it, he has no problem breaking the law and abusing his position of U.S. Attorney to suit his own ends.
  • In addition, he frequently mistrusts his wife and calls her a criminal for working at Axe Capital (where she isn't directly party to wrongdoing), yet he breaks the law and betrays Wendy numerous times, and becomes just as ruthless as the man he despises.
  • Season 6 sees him crusading against New York's billionaires and publicly criticizing them for their fortunes and privilege even though he himself is a Blue Blood who lives an opulent and privileged life thanks to the vast wealth of his father and ex-wife.
• It's All About Me: When Chuck sees that Bobby influenced the medical board's decision to spare Wendy's license by giving them a $25 million donation, he blames Bobby for his marriage being busted (again) and decides to secretly conspire against him with Taylor. He sidesteps the fact that he had spent all of the season leading up to this violating Wendy's trust and putting his needs ahead of her own.
• It's Personal:
  • His prosecution of Axelrod does have legal foundations and boundaries at first, but it soons spirals out of control and becomes an obsession.
  • As does his vendetta against Prince, which bites him in the ass when Prince uses this behavior to persuade the state legislature to remove Chuck as attorney general.
• Knight Templar: He's perfectly fine with breaking all kinds of laws and moral codes in his crusade against Axelrod.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Conspires with Bobby to thwart Connerty's prosecution of the Ice Juice case after he turns up evidence against Wendy, then unceremoniously fires Connerty from the Southern District. Connerty turns around and conspires with Jeffcoat to thwart Chuck's case against Jeffcoat and his brother for money laundering, which ends with Chuck getting fired as U.S. Attorney and Connerty getting Chuck's job on an interim basis.
• Morality Pet: Ira seems to be this to Chuck. Chuck still screws over Ira in the Ice Juice affair but it is the one thing that Chuck actually feels guilty about. When Ira turns the tables on Chuck and sides with Axelrod, Chuck uncharacteristically accepts that he deserved that and does not hold a grudge. When Chuck later discovers that Ira's marriage and finances are in serious trouble, he pulls out all the stops to help Ira while making sure that Ira never knows about the help.
• Moral Myopia: Chuck frequently pulls the same kind of maneuvers and schemes that Axe does. The only difference is that Chuck works for the government so, in his mind, he's the one who is "right".
  Chuck: I work for the public good.
  Wendy: No, you work for the good of Chuck Rhoades. Maybe sometimes they intersect.
• My God, What Have I Done?: It's clear at the start of Season 3 that he feels terrible for his antics. He even gets Wendy to describe a fantasy cheating scenario as part of a kink session, knowing she really did sleep with someone else, and his expression makes it clear he feels like he deserves it.
• Outgambitted:
  • His plot against Jeffcoat gets negated when a coalition of former allies turn against him.
  • In Season 5, he manages to trick Axe into breaking federal drug laws and has him to dead to rights, but he doesn't get to arrest him because Michael Prince, whom had been working with Chuck on the scheme, secretly tipped off Axe and used the situation to purchase Axe's company in exchange for helping him escape to Switzerland. Chuck, furious that he'll now never get the satisfaction of putting Axe behind bars, turns his attention to Prince instead.
  • He rides so high from the success of foiling Prince's Olympic bid that he doesn't see Prince lobbying for his removal as attorney general by lobbying the state legislature until it's almost too late. Chuck goes from being victorious against Prince to out of a job. Again.
• The Paragon Always Rebels: When Chuck decides to start approaching the job in shades of gray, he takes the rest of Southern down with him.
• Post-Stress Overeating: Ice cream in season one, poutine and deli sandwiches in season two.

• Sharp-Dressed Man: Always dresses in suits, even at home, and not as a manifestation of a natural refinement but because his insecurities make him feel he has something to prove. This is a major contrast with Axelrod, who is almost always in casual wear.
• Take a Third Option:
  • By the middle of Season 3, Chuck is faced with two choices: either let Connerty send him to prison for his role in the Ice Juice affair in exchange for Wendy getting off (albeit with her medical license revoked), or plant a slide of the Ice Juice contaminant in Bobby's apartment to deflect suspicion off of him and Wendy. Instead of taking either option, Chuck hands the slide over to Bobby and forms an alliance with him to thwart Connerty.
  • In Season 4, Black Jack Foley attempts to force Chuck to withdraw from the state attorney general's race by threatening to expose Chuck's sadomasochism. Instead of either withdrawing or allowing Black Jack to use his leverage, Chuck calls a press conference where he openly admits to his sadomasochism; his honesty about it helps him win the primary.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: By season two, he is so obsessed with catching Axe that he is willing to bankrupt his best friend and father to do so.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Becomes a prominent point during the Rhoades's marriage counseling in Season 2, with Chuck throwing out What Does She See in Him? as the reason why he always dresses in suits, even for casual dinners: he wants to at least look like someone Wendy would be with.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Axe, of all people, when he first started dating Wendy. As recounted by Wendy later on, Chuck initially had no problem with Axe's business or lifestyle, and they actually bonded over how smarter they were than everyone else. However, this changed once Chuck accepted a job at the U.S. Attorney's office. Bobby and Chuck then rekindle their friendship when they both reach low points in their lives and plot together against their enemies, though this alliance barely lasts a season.
• Worth It: Used as a Badass Boast when he puts Axe in jail, reasoning that even if it becomes a Pyrrhic Victory that also brings Chuck down in the process, it would still be worth it.

Wendy

Wendy Rhoades

"I built this company just as much as you did. Cut me out again, and I'm gone."

Played By: Maggie Siff

"My files are confidential, and you're not seeing them. You can call the Attorney General if you want - tell her I said hi, we had dinner last month - otherwise, fuck off."

Wendy is both the wife of Chuck Rhoades and the in-house performance coach and therapist at Axe Capital. In addition, she and Bobby have an unspecified relationship that goes back to 2001.

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• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: When not around Bobby or Chuck, Wendy seems to have cultivated this persona.
• Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: In "Sic Transit Imperium", after finding out Bobby has claimed their no-sessions policy was his idea - and not a boundary Wendy set - she tells a smug, patronizing Lara about the lie. Later, she regrets the selfish action, but notes that it felt really good getting one over on Lara.
• Beware the Nice Ones: If you piss Wendy off, kiss your ass goodbye.
• Big Brother Mentor: To Taylor, who seems to connect with Wendy as one of the only other non-male finance bro types around Axe Cap. This ends when Taylor spins off their own hedge fund and gives Wendy a "Reason You Suck" Speech, after which she encourages Bobby to "fuck them over."
• Brainy Brunette: Probably the brainiest around.
• Brains and Bondage: Has a doctorate. Likes BDSM and serves as a dominant.
• Co-Dragons: Often shares the role with Wags when discussing strategic actions and problems faced by Axelrod.
• Conflicting Loyalty: In season one, a major plotline was where her loyalties really lay - with her husband and the State Attorney's office, or with Bobby, her patients, and her place of work.
• The Consigliere: To Bobby, Chuck, Wags, and Taylor, counseling each of them, somewhat shielded from the murkier side of what they do.
• Deadpan Snarker: One of the few to keep up with Bobby and Wags.
• Dominatrix: Serves as one to Chuck.
• Face–Heel Turn: When she destroys Taylor's relationship with their father.
• False Friend: After Taylor offers emotional support to Wendy following Chuck's press conference, Wendy and Axe hatch a plan where Axe uses a government contact to hold up the invention they are working on with their father in bureaucratic red tape — effectively giving Taylor a Sadistic Choice between protecting the interests of their father (with whom they have a strained relationship) or protecting their fund. Wendy's role in this is to win the confidence of both Taylor and Mafee and milk enough information out of them to make the scheme successful. It works.
• Family Versus Career: Her father-in-law seems to think she needs to choose between Chuck and her children, or her career, and would like to stress how important her image as a wife and mother is if Chuck becomes governor. Even Chuck is displeased with how seriously she takes her career and that she earns more money than he does.
• The Fashionista: Has a killer, high-end wardrobe, including her dominatrix outfits.
• The Heart: To most of Axe Cap, reminding them that there's a human cost to what they do. Becomes subverted by Season 4 when she acquiesces to Axe's harsh treatment of his employees (like Rudy's firing) and uses Taylor's old therapy notes to sabotage them. However, being given a "Reason You Suck" Speech by Mafee causes her to feel guilty to the point where she confesses her misdeeds to the medical board even though will likely mean her license being revoked.
• Heel Realization: Being hit with the "Reason You Suck" Speech by Mafee seems to cut her deep, later causing her to have an emotional breakdown. When she faces the medical board, she quickly confesses to her actions towards Taylor and accepts the likely revocation of her license.
• Hypocrite: Wendy rightfully chews out Chuck in Season 1 for using her confidential therapy notes to target Bobby. Then in Season 4, Wendy uses her old therapy notes with Taylor to hatch a plan that will drive a wedge between them and their father Douglas in order to sabotage an invention they are working on. It may not be as illegal as when Chuck did it, but it's no less unethical for Wendy.
• Iron Lady: She can dominate both Axe and Chuck, and at the same time.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: At the start of "Not You, Mr. Dake," Chuck and Bobby debate whether they really want Wendy involved in their plot to frame a third party for the Ice Juice poisoning. Cue Wendy walking into the room and simply asking, "So, who's going to be our patsy?"
• Lady Macbeth: Evolves into one in Season 3. After laying into both Bobby and Chuck for getting her roped into Connerty's Ice Juice investigation, she goes along with their subsequent plan to frame Dr. Gilbert and exploits Mafee's crush on her in order to make him corroborate her cover story. Then, after Chuck Senior and Black Jack Foley invade her and Chuck's sex dungeon as a power play, she helps convince Chuck to turn against their political aspirations for him while using Hall to make her own move against Senior. Finally, she encourages Bobby to "fuck [Taylor] over" when they stab him the back to start their own hedge fund.
  Bobby: Different from "look inward."
  Wendy: Yeah, well ''I'm'' different.
• Like Brother and Sister: With Wags. They'll go to the ends of the Earth for eachother, but there's no romance involved.
• Maybe Ever After: With Bobby and Chuck. She ends the series single, and makes a point of promising to maintain her close friendship with Bobby, while also happily going for dinner with Chuck and their kids. She's on good terms with them both, but it's not definite whether either friendship will become romantic (again).
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Always on the brink of it thanks to her supportive, indispensable work at Axe capital enforcing its cutthroat practices, she crosses the line when she uses Taylor's medical confidentiality against them, which gets Wendy in hot water with the medical board.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When she hears about the Ice Juice situation - with the best of intentions - she goes to Chuck and admits Axe Cap is going to short the stock. She tells him to sell his shares in the company, she knows it's going to tank. Chuck, being ten steps ahead of her, digs in, getting into an argument with her and claiming she underestimates him. In retaliation, Wendy buys a big share of the short... which is going to reflect really badly when the government goes after Axe Cap for the fraud, and potentially land her in jail.
• Only Sane Woman: Provides counsel for the staff at Axe Cap, both on and off the clock.
• Platonic Life-Partners: She's known Bobby for over fifteen years, considering they were friends - and possibly already business partners - when 9/11 happened. She's the first person he runs to when he feels uncertain, and relies heavily on her for advice. Chuck thinks she's been cheating on him with Bobby, they're so close. After she leaves Axe Capital, he spends a lot of time and effort (which everyone picks up on) trying to "win her back". This trope leaves the building in episode 10 of season 5.
• Pragmatic Hero: Not only does she use Hall to help her bring Charles Sr. to heel, she actually tells him, "It's good to have you back." For Wendy, of all people, to embrace Hall's way of doing business is chilling.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In "The Third Ortolan", after Connerty finds out about her Ice Juice short, she quite rightfully rips into both Chuck and Axe for letting their mutual obsession with beating each other draw in their friends and loved ones and put them in the crossfire.
• The Shrink: In-house therapist for Axe Capital in season one, strikes out on her own in season two, back at Axe Cap by 2.08.
• Silk Hiding Steel: She's very cool, mannered and graceful, but has an iron will and immense ambition.
• Team Mom: To Axe Capital, frequently having to yank the juvenile traders and their egos back in line.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: As a result of finding herself in Connerty's crosshairs.
• True Blue Femininity: Her defining color (mirroring Bobby and not her husband), is blue.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In Season 2, Wendy is brought in by Craig Heidecker to evaluate a female astronaut who he is considering to man his privately-funded rocket launch to Mars. At episode's end, Wendy advises Heidecker to nix the astronaut from the mission. Wendy goes on to have a one-night stand with Heidecker, who replaces the female astronaut on the rocket launch — that ends in disaster when the rocket explodes after liftoff, killing Heidecker.

Taylor

Taylor Mason

"You worry about my soul, and I'll just keep doing my job."

Played By: Asia Kate Dillon

"Hello. I'm Taylor. My pronouns are 'they,' theirs,' and 'them.'"

An intern at Axe Capital who is gender non-binary. They spot things that no one but Bobby ever thinks to look for, so Bobby takes them under his wing. Goes on to found their own hedge fund, Taylor Mason Capital, which ends up becoming a subsidiary of Axe Cap called Taylor Mason Carbon.

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• All of the Other Reindeer: Taylor's past experiences of playing poker at university have left them with painful memories due to other students treating them as an outsider, but they generally get treated quite well at Axe Cap. However, they are fully aware that this is only because Bobby has openly taken an interest in them, rather than because the people at Axe Cap are nicer or more open-minded than people anywhere else.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Is able to deduct Rudy's duplicity because he's singing "Nessun Dorma", which is about somebody hiding something.
• Became Their Own Antithesis:
  • They were previously involved in Occupy Wall Street, but now works for one of Wall Street's biggest hedge funds because their vocation (analyzing data) gives them their sense of purpose. Explored further when they are given the task of firing someone from Axe Capital, which gets personal for Taylor since their mathematician father being laid off from his job led to a bad home life.
  • Goes back the other way after leaving Axe Cap and starting their own fund, as they try to garner support by claiming their former ruthlessness was the result of the toxic culture at Axe Cap, and they have no intention of engaging in such morally dubious behaviour in their own company. This being Billions, that kind of promise doesn't last long.
• Big Sister Mentor: Seems to view Wendy as theirs, in regards to their personal conduct (as opposed to Bobby as a business mentor). Taylor looks to Wendy for support and counsel, and when taking over as CIO, wants Wendy's approval first and foremost. Which makes Wendy's deep betrayal all the more horrific.
• Brutal Honesty: While courteous, Taylor is perfectly blunt about calling out any behaviour that doesn't make sense. They also refuse Wendy's advice to tell Mafee that he's doing a good job, as they know that he isn't, and believe lying makes everything more complicated.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Taylor, of all people, describes the fund's performance in graphically sexual terms.
  Taylor: As our friend Wags would say, it's up like his morning wood.
• Did Not Get The Guy: Oscar agrees to invest money in Taylor's hedge fund after the indirect role they played in Bobby shafting him, but makes it clear to them that the two no longer have a relationship.
• Cynicism Catalyst: Taylor initially wanted to call a truce between themselves and Bobby, but the successful sabotage of their invention (along with their relationship with Douglas) makes them colder and more willing to take the vindictive route with Bobby.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: Any of Taylor's interactions with Andolov give off this vibe; even Axe is scared of the man, and Taylor doesn't have anywhere near his experience or resources, leaving Taylor with little more than gumption to bring to bear against someone who has already offered to have them assassinated.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: A variation; after betraying Bobby and leaving Axe Cap, Taylor specifically mentions the public and private humiliations as reasons for their actions, but claims they interpreted them as warning signs of an incoming attack that Taylor wished to pre-empt, rather than the reason in themselves.
• Et Tu, Brute?: In response to mistreatment by Bobby, they go behind his back to get enough seed money from Grigor Andolov to start their own breakaway hedge fund, costing the firm Grigor's investment and recruiting Mafee in the process. Bobby and Wendy are both furious when they find out about it.
• Father, I Want to Marry My Brother: When Taylor's father appears, he mentions in passing to Mafee that a six-year-old Taylor once said they wanted to marry him, and he's not quite sure what to make of that. Taylor (having approached unseen) says it was nothing more than affection, and an indicator of how few children their own age they knew.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: In matters where Axe uses people they are close to, Taylor will choose their friends. They suspect that Axe and Wendy are somehow planning on emotionally manipulating Mafee in order to beat the Ice Juice charges. They show up in Wendy's office and make it clear they object to whatever Axe and Wendy are planning. It's both this incident and Bobby's backstabbing of Oscar that makes Taylor decide to start a hedge fund outside of Axe Capital, which costs the firm Mafee and several investors, including Andolov.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Intern to analyst to lead trader to CIO all in under a year. Later breaks away from Axe Capital to start their own hedge fund.
• Good with Numbers: Makes precise economic calculations in a split second.
• Hates Being Touched:
  • Visibly struggles to maintain their composure when touched unexpectedly, and while they do respond to a fist-bump correctly, it is clearly with some distaste.
  • That said, after falling for Oskar, they are perfectly proactive in instigating a sexual relationship, and don't appear to have any trouble with intimate contact on their own terms.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: A trait they share with Bobby, with the added difficulty of being far more socially awkward than he is. Their extremely keen perception causes him to take an interest in them and convince them to take a full-time position so he can be their mentor.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Bryan tries to warn them that Axe will make them do this, but by this point Taylor has (after some initial struggles) accepted the shady trader lifestyle, and values the purity and focus of doing a good job over more moral considerations.
• Living Lie Detector: Downplayed. They are the best poker player in the company, though that's as much to do with their enormous skill for calculating numbers and observing patterns of behavior as for reading faces. More noticeably, when Dollar Bill (who has both prejudice and his own self-advancement as reasons to want Taylor to fail) attempts to give them a large cash bonus and some advice on how to survive in their legally dubious line of work, Taylor states, with a little surprise, that he's not lying.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Bobby's dickish behavior after he beats the Ice Juice charges — namely his decision to end Taylor's quant experiment and use their knowledge to screw over their boyfriend — drives Taylor to leave Axe Capital and start a new hedge fund with Mafee, taking Grigor's investment with them.
• Mysterious Past: Downplayed; they twice refer to having had over 900 hours of therapy, but do not elaborate on the circumstances and reasons. Even mentioning this at all is simply to inform their new therapists that they shouldn't waste time on the more basic forms.
• The Mole: Agrees to become this for Chuck when he turns against Bobby at the end of Season 4, returning to Axe Capital while secretly working with Chuck behind the scenes to bring Bobby down. Unbeknownst to Chuck, however, Taylor plans to play both sides until they destroy each other and they are allowed to go on their merry way.
• Nerves of Steel: Barely shaken when Connerty ambushes them at a coffee shop and later their apartment building. Instead, they school him on the dichotomy of right and wrong, stock market, and movie references.
• Not So Stoic: Their normally perfect composure cracks when touched (though they regain control quickly) and they also give a striking smile at the end of Season 2 when Dollar Bill accepts their being made CIO as a good call and pledges his full support. Grigor being forced to withdraw his money and protection from Mase Cap causes them to stress-vomit.
• Odd Friendship: With Mafee, whom you'd expect to be a typical macho trader. Mafee actually takes Taylor seriously, and gives them full credit for their ideas in front of Axe even when they were just a lowly intern under his supervision. When Mafee's performance falls, Taylor sees Wendy to ask for advice about how to make him feel better (which Wendy says would seem like a practical joke coming from anybody else at the firm) and buys him an autographed wrestling poster. Taylor also correctly deduces that Axe and Wendy are using Mafee to get out of the Ice Juice case, and they personally try to get Wendy to back off. By the end of Season 3, they both leave Axe Capital and start their own hedge fund.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Taylor seems positively smitten by Oskar Langsraat. The sight of them smitten by anyone raises the "Holy Shit!" Quotient, but when it's a VC (a profession Taylor dismisses as "hedge funders who have read the Tibetan Book of the Dead"), well... That's some serious OOC.
  • Another example is after Bobby screws Oscar and his VC fund out of a huge deal by using knowledge gleaned from Taylor, they show up in Wendy's office visibly upset for the first time, and wordlessly ask Wendy for a hug.
• Papa Wolf: In so far as the term applies to non-binary characters. They exhibit this where Mafee is concerned, as despite being significantly younger and less experienced, their intelligence and analytical ability are such that they end up in the protective role.
• Pet the Dog: Allows Rudy to stay at Axe Capital despite his lagging performance, since he is committed to the firm and popular in the office. They fire a more deserving brown-noser instead.
  • After Chuck publicly admits to being a masochist, and draws attention to Wendy's role as his dominatrix after she has specifically told him she didn't want him to, Taylor calls Wendy and offers support, despite their animosity. The next episode reveals that Taylor has also been actively defending Wendy online against people mocking her. While Wendy's wounded pride causes her to interpret it as Taylor not seeing her as a threat anymore, Axe recognises the strength of character it shows from Taylor.
  • Even after Wendy betrays Taylor's trust by attacking their relationship with their father, Taylor eventually agrees not to testify against Wendy before the medical board and declines to celebrate when Wendy confesses to her misconduct, stating simply that she did the right thing.
• Playing Both Sides: How they intend play both Bobby and Chuck after they find themselves forced to return to Axe Capital as Chuck's mole.
• Precision F-Strike: Taylor's level of cursing is noticeably lower than many of their fellow traders, meaning that it is used for sincere emphasis when it does happen.
• Properly Paranoid: A requirement to stay alive when you are at war with Bobby Axelrod.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: When Wags sees them dressed in a wig and traditionally feminine garb to court investment from some Middle-Eastern players, he stutters a few times over how beautiful they looked.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Delivers subdued versions of this to Bobby and Wendy at the end of Season 3. Bobby makes a euphemism comparing Taylor's new position to the "death zone" of Mount Everest, to which they reply, "Young lungs." Wendy lashes out at Taylor for betraying Bobby, claiming that "lasting relationships, true loyalty, real trust" are the most valuable commodities in their business; Taylor replies that money can buy all those things, and that the people who taught them that are Bobby and Wendy themselves.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift:
  • Taylor's Badass Longcoat in season 3 indicates that they have grown and matured.
  • It also seems to be an indicator of mood: they wear their shorter, more casual jacket when feeling more open or vulnerable (e.g., with Oskar), and the long coat when kicking ass.
• The Social Darwinist: Acknowledges that it is "offensive" to think of innocent, working-class people losing everything while the company makes money off asset-stripping a poor town, but considers it even more offensive for a town to systematically mismanage itself for years and expect a bailout at the expense of those who have invested their own hard-earned money into it. They justify the asset-stripping with the knowledge that the town will either find the strength to rally and recover, or won't and fade away, but either outcome will be entirely natural in their eyes.
  • On the flip-side, their analysis of who to fire does take other factors into account beyond simple performance, and they believe in giving hard workers of lower competence a chance to prove themselves.
• The Spock: Nearly unflappable, except when you touch them.
• Spock Speak: Practically all the time, especially when they talk business. They also disapprove of Axe and Wags' "jailhouse movie" references. However, they can also drop a Precision F-Strike.
• Start My Own:
  • Leaves Axe Capital to start their own fund, leading to a season-long conflict with Axe.
  • At the end of the series they decide to leave the newly reconstituted Axe Global to engage in philanthropy full-time, this time with Axe's blessing and support.
• Stress Vomit: The loss of Andolov's protection and money (and subsequent lack of interest from other investors) provoke this reaction.

Wags

Mike "Wags" Wagner

"Your feelings aren't a fucking priority."

Played By: David Costabile

"You are here to keep the Visigoths outside the city walls. Not to impugn the judgment of the Caesar."

Wags is Bobby's right hand man and the COO of Axe Capital. He seems like just a party guy in season one, but in season two, Wags's personal life takes a hit, and he goes off the rails. He has more Hidden Depths than you might expect, but don't tell him that.

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• Asshole Victim: Let's face it, if the Yosemite Sam tattoo and blackout incident had happened to anyone besides Wags, we'd find it horrible instead of funny. Wags has been careening toward something like this all series.
• Authority in Name Only: This almost dooms him in season 5 when he takes the position of president of Axe Bank purely for the title and lets Bobby make all the decisions. When the situation blows up, Wags is informed that he is liable for everyting despite his claims of just being a figurehead. He is saved when Bobby destroys the only copy of the contract, allowing Wags to claim that he did not sign the contract yet and thus never legally became president of the bank.
• Batman Gambit: He drags Mafee to a pitch meeting with a new brokerage firm (i.e., a rival to Spartan-Ives), knowing that:
  • The account reps think he's a careless drunk (and thus an easy sale);
  • Mafee will try to get him to stop drinking, thus selling the careless-drunk idea, and
  • His account rep at Spartan-Ives frequents the club where they're meeting, and will see them there. Then he uses the meeting to extort a huge price cut from Spartan-Ives. Kinda brilliant.
• Broken Pedestal: Experienced this when he bumped into his old mentor on the street only to discover the man has early onset Alzheimer’s and doesn’t even recognize him, losing his job and his family along with his memories.
• Butt-Monkey: Seems to have slid into this in season two.
• Characterization Marches On: A minor example: he is clean shaved in the pilot, he only starts sporting his devilish goatee in the second episode.
• Co-Dragons: With Wendy for Axe. They serve as his two primary advisors and the two people he trusts above all others.
• The Consigliere: Given Axe's love of The Godfather, Wags has been stated to be Axe's Tom Hagen more than once.
• The Creon: A loyal number two with no desire or ambition to supplant Bobby.
• Deadpan Snarker: Constantly making snarky comments and jokes at others' expense
• Doesn't Know Their Own Child: The one kid of Wags' that he seems to be sure of is his eldest son George. When George shows up at the end of "Beg, Bribe, Bully", Wags assumes it's because he's interested in finance and hedge funds, but George is really a born-again Christian, come to try and save Wags.
• The Dragon: Wags is usually Bobby's first and last line of defense whenever a threat appears.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: According to Dr. Gus, virtually the entire firm hates Wags' guts for being Bobby's drill sergeant. It says a lot considering Bobby himself is pretty drill-sergeanty to them.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Beyond their working relationship, Bobby and him go way back and are perhaps the only genuine friends they respectively have in the business.
• Hidden Depths: Underneath the profane party-guy, Wags has some depth. He deeply respects the art of sushi-making (including nearly beating another guy up for disrespecting his favorite sushi chef) and while he's the resident drill sergeant and somewhat of a chauvinist, he treats Taylor and Wendy with complete respect, knowing they both have strengths and value he does not.
  • In "The Chris Rock Test", Wags discovered he has failed the titular test when he sees his previously-unknown daughter working as a stripper, and addicted to drugs. Wags immediately tanks the business deal he's there to close and packs his daughter up for a hotel room and rehab.
• Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis: His arc in Season 5. Realizing that his absent parenting has left him with no meaningful ties to any offspring who can follow in his footsteps (with his daughter being a drug-addicted stripper and his son being a Christian missionary), Wags prowls a dating app looking for a woman who can bear him a child he can raise as an heir. His search leads him to a blonde girl who is old enough to be his daughter.
• I Owe You My Life: Metaphorically speaking. Wags feels he owes everything to Bobby after Bobby urged him to leave his former job at Lehman Brothers before the bank collapsed.
• Large Ham: Very loud and aggressive when dealing with subordinates and such, he's usually more restrained among equals.
• Life of the Party: Takes the traders out for body sushi, orders $15,000 bottles of scotch, and has an IV drip hangover cure on speed dial.
• Like Brother and Sister: With Wendy. They'll go to the ends of the Earth for eachother.
• Living Lie Detector: Bobby calls Wags his "personal bullshit detector".
• Odd Friendship: With Wendy, who he calls his "trench buddy", as they are the two highest-ranking employees at Axe Capital and must lead the firm when Bobby is arrested. In season three, Wendy spills to Wags her fears about the Chuck vs. Axe battle, and in season four, Wags takes her to Bar Boulud after the medical board hearing to get drunk and feel better.
• Number Two: To Bobby.
• Papa Wolf: Of a sort to the people at Axe Capital. When Wags takes Taylor to a Turkish bathhouse to talk business, one of the other patrons — who is clearly beefier than both of them and sports tattoos implying he's in The Mafiya — starts giving Taylor grief. Wags sticks up for them by getting into the guy's face and basically telling him to step off.
• Parental Obliviousness / Parental Neglect: We find out in season 5 that Wags is not only a father, he's got a lot of children. He just hasn't really cared to get to know any of his kids. He finds out in "The Chris Rock Test" that one of his daughters has fallen on hard times and become a stripper, and the Gordie-Axe relationship in "Beg, Bribe, Bully" inspires Wags to get in touch with nearly all of his kids. Finding out that the one kid willing to talk to him is on a Jesus kick causes him to desperately seek a new mate on a dating app who might produce him a child that he will raise right.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Beware if and when he starts constructing a very formal, ornate phrase. He will drop an amusingly offensive and crude bomb in the middle of it without missing a beat or changing his tone.
• Start My Own: Ends the series leaving Axe Global to start his own fund in Miami, which will presumably be the plot of the planned Billions: Miami spinoff.
• Work Hard, Play Hard: Wags is a party animal, but he usually doesn't let his excesses interfere with his professionalism.
• Undying Loyalty: Demonstrates this to Axe repeatedly over the course of the series. Almost becomes subverted at the end of Season 5, when Wags tells Axe that while he still wants to remain loyal, he does not want to go to jail over the Fine Young Cannabis fiasco. He still doesn't betray Axe despite pressure from Chuck, however.

Rhoades, Sr.

Charles Rhoades, Sr

"Nobody gets to fuck 'em all."

Played By: Jeffrey DeMunn

Charles Rhoades Senior is a New York blue blood with a thwarted political career and a lot of connections. He wants nothing more than for his son to succeed in life.

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• Age-Gap Romance: In Season 4, Senior begins a relationship with a Native American woman named Roxanne, who is old enough to be his granddaughter, which eventually produces Chuck's (who is middle-aged) baby sister. Season 5 opens with Senior and Roxanne's wedding, after Senior has divorced Chuck's mother.
• Ambition Is Evil: By proxy in the present day, no deed is dishonest enough if it takes Chuck a step closer to get into high office.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Senior has spent all of Chuck's life pushing his son to seek higher political office, often with opportunistic gambits. He didn't count on Chuck talking him into dumping all of his money into a disastrously bad investment as part of his own opportunistic gambit against Axe.
• Blue Blood: "Indian Four" reveals he went to Yale and was a Whiffenpoof, which places him as quite high on the social ladder. His varying connections at the highest levels of power cement it.
• Crosses the Line Twice: His speech to Taiga about marriage.
  Senior: You give a marriage seven years before you even entertain the notion of a divorce. From the day the Dorsey Brothers showed that Presley boy swiveling his hips, there’s been a slow but steady erosion of the family. Well, here is how you keep one going: you find a group of friends better than you, find one worse, bitch about them to each other, and then when you’re all bitched out, run ten miles a day. Take your birth control pills and flush ‘em, and make that kid your project together. And if Ira doesn’t know how to fuck you, you teach him. I’m not done. One more thing. Give yourself the lime test. You stick your finger in lime juice and put it up inside and if it stings, get yourself cleaned out. Do not bring the clap home to your husband-it’s uncivil.
• Domestic Abuse: Chuck relates how Senior systematically used wanton violence once or twice every year against his wife just to make a point.
• Evil Is Petty: Jumped aboard his son's "destroy Bobby Axelrod" campaign largely because Bobby meddled in Senior's relationship with his mistress and beat him on a trucking deal.
  • When Chuck tricked him into making a bad investment that ended up destroying his fortune, Senior presented him with photographic proof that Wendy had cheated on him. He even told Chuck to open the envelope in front of him, just so he could see his reaction.
• Evil Mentor: Always willing to counsel his son towards amoral, self-serving actions.
• Jerkass: A reprehensible individual. His offensive demeanor and lack of good taste sometimes can come off as hilarious, nevertheless.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Senior is poised to bring Chuck down with him when Connerty learns of their involvement in the Ice Juice affair. However, Chuck and Foley threaten to withdraw the casino project from Kingsford, which would put Senior further in the red. Senior ends up denying Chuck's involvement in Ice Juice.
• Manipulative Bastard: Especially with Chuck. Senior has spent Chuck's entire life trying to revive his political career vicariously through his son, often by manipulating Chuck and other people. Then, when Chuck backstabs him in the Ice Juice scandal, Senior devotes his effort to manipulating against Chuck.
• May–December Romance: Senior begins a relationship with a Native American girl named Roxanne, who is old enough to be his granddaughter, and has a baby with her. They marry in Season 5 after Senior secures a quickie divorce from Chuck's mother.
• My Beloved Smother: It doesn't matter that he's Chuck's father; the dynamic works the same way.
• Old Money
• Opportunistic Bastard: If given the chance to advance his son's career and/or rescue his own damaged reputation, Rhoades Senior will not only jump, he'll succeed. The crowner might be finding out about Bobby's plan on buying Sandicot and convincing the casino to build elsewhere, ensuring that not only does his son come out clean, Bobby's $5 million down and looking at a full quarter loss. This has the bonus effect of turning public opinion in Chuck's favor in the one area of New York state that Chuck wasn't polling well in.
• Pet the Dog: He seems genuinely affectionate towards his mistress Roxanne and quickly takes a protective stance towards her and their baby when their hotel room is raided by the FBI. He also balks when Chuck dismissively refers to her as his "consort." They marry at the start of Season 5 after Senior divorces from Chuck's mother.
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Most of his jaw-dropping rudeness comes from not giving a damn anymore.
• Stage Dad: Basically the political patriarch equivalent of this, hatching schemes to advance his son's career after his own aspirations have been thwarted. Chuck eventually realizes that his longtime ambition to be elected governor is something his dad wanted, not himself.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Had this mentality with his wife and wishes that Wendy would step aside and not interfere with Chuck's career and ambitions.
• Surpassed the Teacher: First when Chuck uses Senior to entrap Axe in the Ice Juice gambit, which turns Senior against his son. Then when Chuck forces Senior to not implicate him by holding the Kingsford casino hostage, Senior complies and seems to gain a begrudging respect for Chuck's manipulative abilities. After the Ice Juice case is dismissed, father and son seem to bury the hatchet.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Senior doesn't disown Chuck for purposefully making him collateral damage in the Ice Juice scheme, but he still makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with him. They eventually get better, though.
• Vicariously Ambitious: Perhaps his most defining characteristic is finding ways to push Chuck towards higher office, after seeing his own political ambitions thwarted.

Bryan

Bryan Connerty

"There's the way things look and the way things are."

Played by: Toby Leonard Moore

Bryan is Chuck's right hand man, a prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's office. He is ambitious, but will not let his ambition get in the way of his sense of what is right. Becomes the U.S. Attorney for the SDNY after Chuck is fired.

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• Became Their Own Antithesis: Begins a crusade to bring down Chuck for breaking the law and disgracing the Southern District, only to get busted for breaking the law and disgracing the Southern District.
• Being Good Sucks: Bryan has a genuinely close friendship with his mentor Chuck Rhoades and helps him pursue Bobby Axelrod, only to gradually realize that Chuck is just as corrupt as Bobby and actually set Bobby up in the Ice Juice case. Then, with coaxing from Wendy, Chuck and Bobby form a temporary alliance and manage to destroy said case. Then Connerty is sent back to the SDNY, where Chuck viciously fires him in front of the entire office. Poor, poor Bryan.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': As soon as he starts breaking the rules, Chuck entraps him and destroys his career.
• Chick Magnet: Sleeps with both Agent McCue and Kate Sacker in Season one. The two hit on him. Flirts with a flight attendant in season two and is later revealed to be sleeping with her. He's dating her (while supporting her law school career) in season three.
• Demoted to Extra: Has a major downgrade from series regular in Season 4 to one scene in Season 5 after being sent to prison.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • Gets back at Chuck at the first opportunity and gets rewarded by Jeffcoat with Rhoades' former job for it.
  • Does it again in a more literal manner in Season 5. Bryan has Jackie approach Chuck telling him that he had a message to give in exchange for a transfer to a better prison. When Chuck visits Bryan in jail, Bryan punches him in the face without saying anything.
• Earn Your Happy Ending:
  • The conclusion to Bryan's arc in Season 3. He tries to build a case against Chuck and Wendy, only for them to successfully team up with Axelrod to thwart the prosecution. Then Bryan is sent back to Southern and is fired by Chuck in the most humiliating fashion. But when Chuck tries to go after Jeffcoat on money laundering, Bryan colludes with Jeffcoat to thwart Chuck and have him fired. Jeffcoat rewards Bryan with the position of Interim U.S. Attorney.
  • After having been disgraced, disbarred, and forced to start over as a chef, Bryan ends the series getting his law license back with Chuck and Kate's help.
• Good Is Dumb: One of the most moral in the series, but quick on the uptake this guy is not. He's usually the one who needs something explained to him.
• Good Is Not Soft: Bryan gets much more ruthless in season three, getting into a fistfight with a couple Inwood gangsters for making him look foolish in front of Dake. He's also turned his focus onto bringing down the real corruption in the SDNY: Chuck Rhoades.
• He Who Fights Monsters: After spending three seasons being one of the few ethically upright characters on the show, Bryan becomes so obsessed with sending the Rhoades family to prison that he goes along with Jeffcoat's political agenda and enlists his criminal older brother to break into Chuck Senior's safe.
• Hero Antagonist: By Season 3, he's the only legal officer with a working moral compass, to the point that Axelrod and Rhoades have to team up against him to cover their own asses.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: His only scene in Season 5 has him serving time in prison. Come Season 7 he's a chef at a Teppanyaki restaurant in Queens, although things change for the better when he gets his law license back.
• Jurisdiction Friction: Played with Chuck as attorney general of New York, as sometimes it is invoked as a step or feign of some Batman Gambit or another, at both ends.
• Just Following Orders: How he justifies compliance with Jeffcoat's iffy dictations. He's called out on it automatically by Sacker.
• Knight Templar: Grows into one in Season 4 as he becomes increasingly obsessed with bringing down Chuck following his election as state attorney general.
• Large and in Charge: He becomes U.S. Attorney and is one of the few people almost as tall as A.G. Jeffcoat.
• Nice Guy: Bryan has morals, and has turned down promotions and job offers from Bach and Axe numerous times. Plus, he's just plain honest.
• "Not So Different" Remark: When attempting to recruit Bryan, Axe appeals to their shared backgrounds of being lower-class boys in a white-collar world, and that someone with Chuck's privilege and complacency can never understand Bryan's drive and determination.
• Number Two: To Chuck. At first.
• Oh, Crap!: His reaction upon hearing Chuck and Co. address him directly as the "idiot" on the unredacted audiotape, with Chuck stating that he could only be listening to this privileged conversation illegally and that he is moments away from being arrested.
• Only Sane Man: Occasionally this to the team at the Southern District, questioning Chuck's labyrinthine plans.
• Penny Among Diamonds: Unlike the other attorneys, he comes from a working class background. Notably, he's an alumnus of Fordham University instead of an Ivy League institution like his more privileged colleagues.
• Put on a Prison Bus: As a result of his actions in Season 4.
• Rage Against the Mentor: Upon learning about Chuck's involvement in the Ice Juice sabotage from Ira, Bryan decides enough is enough and that Chuck needs to answer for his actions just as much as Axe does.
• Smart People Play Chess: He's an amateur go player, but Chuck, who was a competitive chess player in his youth, is better at it than him, even though it's not really Chuck's game.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: From Season 3 onwards, he has Chuck in his sights permanently, and with good reason, as the Rhoades are quite the corrupt family.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: On account of being played by Toby Leonard Moore with his soft-spoken charm.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: In the Season 3 finale, he finally succeeds in taking down Chuck by colluding with Jeffcoat to thwart yet another of Chuck's gambits, and gets rewarded with the job of Interim U.S. Attorney for his troubles.
• Token Good Teammate: Is by far the most honest member of the Southern Distract and refuses to compromise his principles like his colleagues. Once he learns the true extent of Chuck's law breaking, he decides to pursue him as well as Axelrod.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Becomes more arrogant and abrasive in Season 4 as he becomes increasingly obsessed with bringing down Chuck, and becomes more willing to disregard his ideals (like colluding with Jeffcoat and breaking the law as Chuck would do) to do so.

Kate

Kate Sacker

"I will use all at my disposal to win."

Played By: Condola Rashad

"Guys who sit in Chuck's chair become mayor, governor. We have to be beyond reproach."

A deputy prosecutor of Chuck's, who is from a wealthy background. Chuck has become somewhat of a mentor to her.

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• Ambition Is Evil: Even more so than Chuck. Kate is a gradually unfettered careerist who plans on one day becoming President. It's implied that Chuck renouncing his bid to become governor plays a big role in Kate jumping ship and backstabbing him. When Mike Prince offers her an office and resources for her planned run for Congress — all things Chuck has refused to give to her — she agrees to join Michael Prince Capital as his legal counsel. Ultimately this is subverted. Kate is very ambitious, but she has limits for what she will do to achieve her goals. As a result she sides with Wendy Rhoades in taking down Prince.
• Bastard Understudy: Much more willing than Bryan to get her hands dirty, and she's learning from one of the best in Chuck Rhoades.
• Black Boss Lady: She becomes head of criminal law at the U.S. Attorney's office. After joining Chuck's staff at the New York Attorney General's office, she makes plans to run for Congress.
• Blue Blood: Her father is a wealthy lawyer, and Kate graduated from an Ivy League law school. She also owns her own Manhattan home and has a trust fund.
• Cassandra Truth: Warns Chuck, Connerty, and her dad against shady actions that can get them in trouble. And is perfectly willing to backstab each of them when they don't listen.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Betrays Chuck to Connerty and Jeffcoat in Season 3. Betrays Connerty and Jeffcoat to Chuck in Season 4. Then betrays her own father to Chuck in Season 5 when he becomes a partner in Axe's banking venture. And it finally comes full circle when she ditches Chuck and joins Prince's team in Season 6.
• Corrupt the Cutie:
  • Starts as a young, smooth but principled public servant, just to follow Rhoades way down in the hole.
  Connerty: I used to admire your political fluidity. I thought it was sophistication. Now I realize you're just completely bankrupt.
  • However, Kate gradually becomes a subversion of the trope. She is unwilling to help Connerty kowtow to Jeffcoat's political agenda for the sake of taking down Chuck, and repeatedly (and unsuccessfully) warns Connerty against breaking the law to that same end. It turns out that while Kate is a ruthless careerist, she's a ruthless careerist who still has standards.
• Deadpan Snarker: The resident snarker of Southern district.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Conspires with Connerty, Dake, and Epstein to betray Chuck to Jeffcoat. Then conspires with Chuck to take down Connerty and Jeffcoat. And while she loves her father, not even he is safe after he goes into business with Axe on his banking venture.
• Everyone Has Standards: While Kate is a calculating careerist who is (mostly) willing to let Chuck get away with breaking the law, she does it with higher ideals in mind. Unlike Connerty, she is not willing to go along with Jeffcoat's far-right agenda and commit brazen acts such as breaking and entering or violating attorney-client privilege just to undermine Chuck.
• Ignored Epiphany: Learns from Connerty about Chuck's shady dealings with Boyd, but ultimately doctors legal notes to support Chuck's rationale for releasing Boyd from prison. Subverted in Season 5 where she makes clear she will tolerate Chuck's shenanigans, but only to a point.
• Irony: Kate's first scene in the pilot, as seen in her picture caption, is to admonish one of her co-workers to be on the ethical up-and-up so that that reflects well on Chuck in his future career. By Season 3, Kate actively aids and abets Chuck's dirty dealings in the Axelrod case, which as Bryan warns could scandalize and destroy the Southern District. She also ends up helping backstab Chuck, costing him his job.
  • Kate and Connerty end up switching places in Season 4, with Connerty going off the deep end in his quest to bring down Chuck and Kate constantly warning him to follow the law.
• Office Romance: With Connerty, but it fizzles out.
• Only Sane Employee: While she is not afraid to get her hands dirty in order to further her career, she has her limits and is able to spot when her bosses are Jumping Off the Slippery Slope. If they ignore her warnings, she has no qualms about turning on them and finding someone saner to follow. In Season 5, Chuck has specifically tasked her with telling him when he is going too far. When she colorfully informs him that he is about to "take off his pants and throw them in the fire", he immediately backs down from his newest scheme.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Her rather adorable eyes convey innocence and integrity. Too bad she started working under Rhoades and that's all she wrote...

Lara

Lara Axelrod

...

Played By: Malin Åkerman

Lara is Bobby's wife, a former ER nurse at New York Presbyterian. Like Bobby, she is a blue-collar girl at heart, with a large extended family and a take-no-prisoners attitude.

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• Alpha Bitch: She bullies and threatens her own friends and isn't shy about openly insulting people she dislikes.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Lara seems friendly and sweet, right up until you stand in the way of her or her husband.
• Boyish Short Hair: In season one.
• Demoted to Extra: From series regular and major behind-the-scenes player to supporting character after separating from Bobby. She only appears once in Season 4.
• Gold Digger: Subverted. When accused of this by a former boyfriend, she points out that she started dating Bobby before he became wealthy. Additionally, when they separate after his indictment, it has more to do with her being fed up with the lies and schemes rather then the threat of losing their fortune.
• The Lad Ette: Will try to drink you under the table and likes to hang out in bars.
• Lady Macbeth: After Sandicot loses the gaming license and Axe Capital is about to take a huge loss, the team comes up with a plan to save their quarter performance, namely by forcing the town to pay the firm back which will bankrupt it. Bobby is morally conflicted about this since he knows how hard it is growing up poor and doesn't want to screw the townspeople over. Lara ultimately convinces him to do it by telling him the town can find their way out like they did growing up.
• Mama Bear: Is just as protective of her kids as Bobby. When she decides that the school nurse isn't up to her standards, she immediately forces the principal to fire and replace the woman to ensure that her kids aren't in danger while attending class.
• Put on a Bus: Bobby eventually allows her and the kids to move to California.
• Rich Bitch: Surprisingly, she subverts it. Her bitchiness has nothing to do with her money, and everything to do with her tough, working-class background.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Bobby has lied to her and effectively gaslighted her into staying with him, the truth about Ice Juice comes out, and the feds are gunning for Axe Cap and Bobby. Lara clears out their savings and starts shopping around for divorce lawyers. In addition, she doesn't pick Bobby up from jail, telling their kids that Bobby's a fraud and they're better off forgetting about him.

Prince

Michael Thomas Aquinas Prince

"There’s a price to every battle. A gladiator’s willingness to pay is what defines him."

Played by: Corey Stoll

"Perfect people don’t exist. But flawed people, who have taken a walk through their own wounded psyche, reforged themselves and come out stronger? We’re the great hope for the species."

An Indiana-based business tycoon who butts heads with Axe in Season 5. Becomes Chuck's new nemesis after he takes over Axe's company and Axe goes into exile.

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• Affably Evil: Played with. While the affability is not an act, Wendy realizes that Prince's nice nature is a subconscious facade masking a narcissistic personality who is deeply unsuited for the presidency.
• All-Loving Hero: Subverted. Prince sees himself as an altruist, but it becomes clear he is a narcissist who is using his supposed atruism as an outlet. When he decides to run for president, he says that American politics took a wrong turn when politicians decided to accept the feedback of regular people.
• At Least I Admit It: The reason Axe seems to hate him more than any other competitor is his constant attempts to claim the moral high ground, while Axe publicly calls himself "a carnivorous fucking monster" and never pretends to be otherwise. However, it's not clear whether Prince is truly and nobly trying to overcome his own monstrous side (which he freely admits he has) or if he's just too weak to admit it to himself. Wendy ultimately realizes he's the latter.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Well, sorta. He is season 5's main antagonist, beats Axe and takes over his company, but he's (initially) a better man than Axe is, so "bad guy" is up for debate.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Wendy points out that Prince constantly lies to himself to feel like a saint.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Becomes a big plot point of Season 7. Prince likes to make a big show about how he's a do-gooder who is no longer the self-centered man he once was but, as Wendy points out, he still is that guy and he's lying to himself to claim otherwise. Wendy realizes that Prince's self-denial actually makes him more dangerous than Axe ever was, because the smug superiority this has instilled in Prince has left him with one hell of a God Complex and would make him extremely dangerous as president. The facade breaks when Prince reacts violently when he discovers her betrayal.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: For all his mealy-mouthed talk of behaving altruistically, Prince has a nasty habit of betraying people. He effectively cheated his old business partner out millions of dollars, eventually leading to his business partner's death. Then he betrays Chuck by leaking information about Axe's impending arrest in the Fine Young Cannabis scandal, giving Axe an opportunity to flee to Switzerland while Prince takes over Axe's company.
• Consummate Liar:
  • Possibly. In the middle of Season 5, he and Taylor decide to stay jointly invested in a solar-panel manufacturing company that is going to experience some short-term losses due to having to find a new tin supply and both Taylor and Wendy, after some initial suspicion, leave the meeting convinced that he is being honest with them. Axe is convinced he manipulated them, but if that's true, it would mean Prince successfully lied to Wendy's face while she was actively looking for falsehood, which is not something we've seen anyone else do.
  • Wendy realizes that Prince is indeed a liar, but that he is mainly lying to himself about what a great altruist he is when in fact he is the same class of Wall Street predator as Axe.
• Dark Secret: Prince's partner, David Fells, owned shares in their first company together but had problems with drugs and alcohol. Prince offered $200,000 to David in return for control of the company on the condition that he sober up, with the promise that would start another company after David recovered. The catch was that Prince was aware that the company they already controlled was about to be purchased by Microsoft, meaning that that $200,000 was a fraction of what David could have made. Prince's betrayal caused David's substance abuse to escalate, leading to his death in a car crash a month later.
• The Dreaded: Axe quickly admits that Prince is too big to get back at directly over the Vanity Fair stunt, calling him a "grizzly bear, Kodiak Island-sized". Sure enough, it is Prince who comes out on top when he successfully conspires against Axe and ends up taking over Axe Capital.
• Establishing Character Moment: In his first episode he tells Axe how important it is to work as part of a team... right before he manages to weasel his way into taking over the cover of the Vanity Fair issue at Axe's expense.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: This is ultimately what causes his downfall. He continuously lies to himself, saying that what he is doing is for the greater good, but he drags people like Philip and Kate into it with him. Unlike Prince the latter two actually have a conscience and Prince's dirty dealings start to weigh on them. As a result, they end up siding with Wendy and Wags, who are working with Axe. Prince ends up losing most of his fortune and his presidential race is over.
• Fatal Flaw: His narcissism. He believes he is always right, he believes that he knows what is best for everybody and because of this he completely fails to see why key figures working for him would not be okay with many of his immoral dealings. Wendy is the first to get it, then Wags, then Taylor. By the time Philip joins up Prince is done for.
• Graceful Loser: Zigzagged. After Axe wins the Yonkers deal, Prince calls him to let him know that he's withdrawing and won't fight him anymore on this, with a "well played" tone of voice. However, after Axe responds in a decidedly ungracious manner, Prince then passive-aggressively brings up how he didn't stand a chance against Axe in Yonkers... because Axe grew up there, which anyone can see from looking at him, triggering all of Axe's insecurities about coming from the "dipshit town".
• God Complex: Wendy sees this quality in him (even name-dropping the term) and recognizes how dangerous it would make him if he were elected president, so she turns to Axe because he is the only person who can stop him.
• The Juggernaut: This is how Wendy comes to see him. She points out in the season-opener of season 7 that Prince is a man who has accomplished literally everything he has set out to do. She fears that if he became president that nobody and nothing would stop him from doing horrific things purely because he would think they're righteous. Wags points out that bureaucrats stop presidents from doing things like that, but Wendy retorts that bureaucrats can't stop Prince.
• Narcissist: Prince is fully aware that he has these tendencies, and makes many self-condemning comments about this aspect of himself, both in public and private conversations. However, these conversations always seem to spend a lot of time on how awesome and celebrated he was at high-school basketball, and how altruistic and self-improving he is now, and he often seems to not be fully aware that he's doing it. It's intially not clear whether he is genuinely trying to be better and unconsciously backsliding, or if he is still an unrepentant narcissist who's found a different way of getting the adulation he craves. His planned presidential campaign causes Wendy to decide he's the latter.
• Never My Fault: His traders make a mistake on a deal because he won't allow them to make deals above $500 million. They have an opportunity to win, but because of the limit they can't follow through. Prince blames them instead of accepting it's his fault.
• Not So Above It All: Makes a big show of appearing altruistic, but Axe points out that he still named a major financial conference ("The Mike") after himself. Wendy eventually arrives at the same conclusion, which factors into her decision to approach Axe in exile in the hopes of bringing Prince down before he runs for president.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: We rarely see Prince openly angry, but he gets his jabs in through soft-spoken targetting of his enemies' personal insecurities, while being friendly and affable to everyone else.
• President Evil: Wendy is convinced that Prince would inevitably become this when (not if) he were elected president, and Prince lends her credence by suggesting that politicians shouldn't have to listen to regular people and quoting Hitler's 1929 Munich speech.
• Trumplica: A peculiar case, in that Trump is repeatedly implied (although not outright stated) to exist in this universe. While Prince lacks the bigotry and personal repugnance of Trump, he does possess grandiose narcissism, elitist attitudes and anti-democratic tendencies that he hides behind a goody-two-shoes veneer.
• Villainous Breakdown: Prince's first scene in the final season has him grabbing a keyboard and shattering the glass wall to Wendy's office upon discovering that she is sabotaging his campaign. It gets worse in the finale as he realizes how many people have turned on him.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Just as good at this as Axe in Season 5, successfully gazumping him with Chief Longriver, but narrowly losing the Yonkers deal, as he doesn't have Axe's roots in the neighbourhood ... although it is later implied that he may have let Axe win that one.

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