Boardwalk Empire 1x07

The pace remains slow in Boardwalk Empire, and the audience is kindly requested to remain patient while the plot slowly unravels. Alas, the scenes and characters that pass by are not always that interesting to wait for them to pay off. In this episode we learn something about Nucky’s childhood and his abusive father. Perhaps this is meant to provide some depth to his character and provide a motivation how he became a power player in Atlantic City. His affair with Margaret has hit an impasse. She sits pretty, not knowing how to engage him when they are not in bed together. She sure isn’t like Lucy, who complains she feels empty without Nucky inside her. Nor does she want to be like Annabelle, another concubine on Mistress Row, who advises her to let him keep his secrets to himself, but plucks her own man’s pants for financial security. Margaret would rather that Nucky confide in him. Meanwhile, Van Alden interrogates an eye witness of the Jimmy’s heist gone wrong; while Jimmy’s wife Angela is getting romantic with his mother Gillian.

For his part, Lucky Luciano sends one of his henchmen to Chalky White so as to cut out Nucky as middleman. But Chalky suspects Nucky is testing his loyalty and refuses the offer. Then Luciano and his henchman visit the D’Alessio brothers, who are trying to get a foothold in the bootlegging trade with Mickey Doyle. Instead of nicking cash from Nucky’s runners, Luciano suggests they rob Nucky’s casino together with half going to Rothstein in New York for the privilege. Over in Chicago, Capone has spotted the thug, Liam, who slashed Pearl’s face before she killed herself. Jimmy meets another war veteran, Richard Harrow, who lost half his face. The poetic irony is doubtless not lost on Jimmy. He takes Harrow to the Four Deuces, treats him on Bourbon shots and prostitutes. Harrow was a sniper whit such an accurate shot, he killed a German with a single shot just an inch under his eye. Later Jimmy confronts Liam, tells him a harrowing story about a German soldier caught in barbed wire between the trenches. Being alive sure was worse than being dead, Jimmy muses, but he promises he won’t kill Liam – he just doesn’t ever want to see him again. He walks away. A shot is fired that kills Liam with a single shot just an inch under his eye. I don’t have to tell you that Harrow is packing up his riffle across the street. The famous toccata con fuga on the soundtrack alludes to The Phantom of the Opera, while the scene switches to Lucy watching Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by herself.