Boardwalk Empire 1x11

Jimmy gets a call from his mother Gillian that his father, the Commodore, is dying. On his deathbed, the Commodore proudly brags he built Atlantic City and tells Jimmy that the wrong man is running town. After eating a biscuit, Jimmy doesn’t feel well, washes his face in the bathroom, and throws up. Gillian later reminisces about how she first met the Commodore, through Nucky, and how Nucky always took good care of them. Jimmy cannot shake off the thought that Nucky was no more than a pimp who brought young girls to the Commodore. He was fifty four, she was thirteen. That night, when visiting the Commodore again, a doctor runs some tests. Richard Harrow stops by after doing some reconnaissance about the D’Alessios, suggesting he kills the brothers’ mother, sisters, and one brother who is working in Philadelphia as a dentist, to give the dagos a warning. The doctor interrupts them, confiding to Jimmy that the test results show that somebody has been poisoning the Commodore with arsenic. Jimmy remembers the biscuit that made him vomit, and tactfully asks his mother a few questions. But she has no idea what he is talking about. He shows her the “Paris Green” arsenic he found in the kitchen closet.

For his part, Agent Van Alden discusses to botched transfer of witness Winslow with his assistant Sebso over dinner in a Chinese restaurant. Van Alden drills him about his chop stick skills, his reasons for joining the Bureau, and the incident. Van Alden knows Sebso is lying. How could Winslow approach him unexpectedly and hit him on the forehead with a rock, while he was supposedly about to urinate? Sebso feels the pressure and calls Nucky in a panic. Nucky advices him to divert Van Alden’s attention, perhaps wrap up a bootlegging operation, and even hands him a tip about a possible location in the woods. At the riverside in the woods, Van Alden and Sebso find a makeshift congregation witnessing a baptism. Van Alden gets evangelically inspired, calling Sebso a Jew bound for eternal damnation. But they find no illegal distillery. Later Sebso applies for a transfer to Detroit to get from under Van Alden’s scrutiny. Van Alden criticizes him for his expensive new shoes. “Temptation knows no rank.” Then they return to the site of the riverside congregation. Van Alden forces Sebso to accept a baptism and a forcefully tense scene ensues in which Van Alden’s evangelism turns diabolical. He drowns Sebso.

Meanwhile, Margaret is starting to resent her affair with Nucky, how he takes advantage of her political acumen, disagreeing with his illegal business, worrying that Van Alden is right about the death of her husband, and wondering when she will be replaced by another mistress. They have a confrontation in which he accuses her of using Lysol as a contraceptive, and she accuses him of getting her husband killed. When Eli catches wind of the row, he throws Nucky a tantrum how she is a liability of his own creation. The Democrats are very close to winning the elections, the D’Alessio brothers are coming after them, Eli’s life is on the line, and meanwhile Nucky prances about town with his mistress, getting ass-kisses by everyone who’s after his money. Nucky compares Eli to Hardeen, “if he wasn’t Houdini’s brother, nobody would give a fuck.” Nucky later informs his Republican friends that Eli has resigned and promotes Deputy Halloran to Sheriff. When Nucky arrives at Margaret’s apartment, he discovers she has left with the children. At the same time, Angela prepares to leave for Paris with Mary Dittrich and little Tommy. She packs a small suitcase and leaves a note for Jimmy. Then, when she arrives at the photo shop, the Dittrichs have both left without her. Then there’s Arnold Rothstein, who is about to be indicted for fixing the World Series. His lawyer suggests he comes to Chicago if he knows anyone powerful enough who is willing to do him a favor.