Boardwalk Empire 1x08

The Cricket is pleased to say that all the patient waiting is starting to pay off. This was by far the best episode since the pilot, with just enough intrigue, action and drama to make watching the rest worth my while. Nucky Thompson heads to Chicago for the Republican Convention and even manages to tip the hotel manager enough to get the Presidential Suite, while presumed-Republican candidate General Leonard Wood gets shoved off to the Ambassador’s Suite! Nucky explains that Wood is “a war hero, a former chief-of-staff, and a practical shoehorn for the Republican presidential nomination,” while he on the other hand is a “magnificent tipper.” What a character! Then Nucky meets that backstabbing, double-dealing Senator Edge, who is hoping to win the vice-presidential nomination and asks him to attend a party in his stead hosted by Harry Daugherty, the campaign manager of Warren Harding. (If you know you’re U.S. history, you’ll know that Harding will be elected President.) When Nucky realizes Harding is having an affair with a woman who had his baby, he offers to help keep her out of the picture in Atlantic City until the elections are over. In return he demands that Senator Edge be blocked from the vice-presidential nomination. Nucky sits down with Torrio in the Four Deuces to talk business, speaks with some Ohio Judge who assures him to trust Daugherty, and meets Jimmy who’s looking mighty fine in his new suit. Nucky barely gives Jimmy a second glance, but merely chides him for not looking after his wife and kid.

Jimmy’s wife Angela has not been receiving any money from her estranged husband, but she refuses to find a job – despite Gillian’s reproach. She is hoping to find an art dealer in New York willing to sell her paintings in his gallery. We soon learn that Jimmy has been sending Angela money from Chicago, but that that self-righteous flagellant Agent Van Alden has been intercepting his letters hoping to find any evidence of Jimmy’s involvement in the death of five men. Van Alden’s wife Rose begs him for a surgery she believes would cure her infertility. He consoles her he will look into his finances, but in the end writes her she should trust in god’s plan – and turns Jimmy’s money over to Angela. Meanwhile in Atlantic City, Sheriff Eli Thompson takes over some of his brother’s responsibilities. Sitting in Nucky’s office, he’s waiting for all the people who usually show up asking favors, handing bribes, or bringing collection money. But no one appears, except Ward Boss O’Neill who excuses himself from the week’s collection at the casino. Eli decides to pick up the money himself – unwittingly walking into the D’Alessio brother’s hold up at the casino. Eli gets shot in the stomach and is taken to a hospital.

For her part, Margaret is enjoying some time with her new friend Annabel, when a drunk Lucy throws a scene for being replaced as Nucky’s mistress – and suddenly without money. After trying to calm her down, Margaret slaps Lucy in the face, tells her the next slap won’t be half as pleasant, and walks off. When Nucky is informed of the shooting, he calls Margaret, tells her to move into the Ritz with her children, and asks her to safeguard the ledger he keeps in his office desk. He will return on the next train from Chicago. At night he asks Jimmy to return to Atlantic City, realizing that he’s held under siege, though not yet knowing by whom. Jimmy reminds him that just a few hours ago he paid him barely half a glance. But Nucky cautions him that the Italian mobsters won’t let an Irishman get too far. He offers Jimmy a share in profits and assures him he will take care of Van Alden. Margaret resisted the urge to open the ledger all night, but the next morning she flips it open – finding full evidence of all Nucky’s illegal trades. See, things are seriously starting to heat up! Just a few more episodes, but I have enough faith to believe the show is going to get more interesting from here on.