Creating the perfect TENSION
Inspired by Billions Season 7, Episode 10
That feeling you get when something you don’t want to happen is about to happen. Or something you really want to happen isn’t happening quite yet but you feel it just might. The tiny and often strong struggle between what you want or expect, and what is.
TENSION.
Like when Taylor Mason and Bobby Axelrod start looking for ways to save Wendy out of Mental and you don’t know what they will find. Or when Chuck Junior and his allies are plotting, looking hard to find any point of weakness to bring down Mike Prince. Will they find it? Will they find something Mike Prince hasn’t thought about?
We know that if they find it, things could escalate very quickly for Prince and possibly kill either his presidential ambitions or his wealth — or both. As each scene unfolds, you wonder will they find it, and if they do find it, what is it? We also know, deep down, that whatever it is must be totally unexpected — either so small that Prince overlooked it, or so entrenched a weakness that he can’t help falling into the trap (we know, for instance, that Prince’s ego is so big that he easily gets into contests just to win — so they could set a trap for his ego).
Each play in Season 7, particularly in episodes 9 and 10, is so highly intelligent that you wonder what game is being played at that moment. And the makers of Billions have created the constant expectation that there will always be a counter-play that raises the stakes of the game; so you can imagine how much episodes 9 and 10 keep you at the edge wondering, what’s the play, and, once you’ve seen the play, what’s the counter-play!?
Episode 9 ends when we finally understand that Prince has tied Wendy. Then in episode 10, we realize, holy shit — Prince has fixed Wendy. Is there a way out? And does that way out for Wendy unleash all the energies and strategies of Prince’s enemies all at once because there’s suddenly no constraint? If that happens, does that kill Mike Prince?
There are currently 2 centers of tension — Wendy and Prince. Whoever wins first destroys the other. Wendy doesn’t have to work much — everyone is suddenly working for her (in any case, she seems to be out of moves herself); Prince, on the other hand, has to work A LOT. While he has outplayed everyone every step of the way and ultimately created this new checkmate (with Wendy as the pawn), he has placed himself in a very, very precarious position — his place is so fragile that one wrong move on his part could definitely be the end of Mike Prince; OR simply one win on the part of his enemies.
Will they find it?
That’s how to create the perfect tension.
