Boardwalk Empire 1x12

The last episode this season of this grand series naturally goes out in style. That murderously hypocritical evangelic Agent Nelson Van Alden resigns from the Bureau. He is addressing a group of candidates for his replacement, warning them that they will be “bribed, coerced and tempted on a daily basis.” “Bring on the dancing girls,” one of the agents jokes. Van Alden hits him in his face. His partner Agent Sebso, he says, died in the line of duty from a heart attack, and, he continues, “I will not have his memory sullied by infantile humor.” Van Alden returns to his wife and informs her they will be moving to Schenectady, where he is going to work with his uncle in the feed business. When Rose protests he is doing God’s work as prohibition agent, he asks for God’s to give him a sign to stay in Atlantic City. He returns to clean out his office. Lucy stops in to say that he made her pregnant. A sign from God if there ever was one. For his part, Nucky Thompson is nervous the Democrats are going to win the mayoral election and tells his ward bosses to do whatever it takes to win votes.

Since leaving Nucky, Margaret is staying at the house of presidential candidate Warren Harding’s mistress Nan Britton. She is baking a barmbrack cake, an Irish Halloween tradition, hiding inside it a ring, a coin and a rag to foretell the future. When she and Nan attend the All Hallows Eve service at the cemetery, Margaret spots the grave of Nucky’s wife and son. She is touched and visits Nucky to hear more about his son’s death. A beautifully moving scene ensues between the two, in which he confides about the time, seven years ago, when he was too busy being treasurer that he failed to notice his wife kept caring for their baby even after he had died days ago. Just a few weeks after burying the baby, the mother committed suicide. Nucky continues that the time with Margaret and her children were the happiest days of his life. In tears she asks him how he can do what he does, despite the kindness in his heart. “We all have to decide for ourselves how much sin we can live with,” he replies. After giving her the cold shoulder, Jimmy is trying to make amends with Angela, though she tried to run away to Paris with Mary. She admits that she and Tommy are terrified of him, because Jimmy screams in his sleep – he is having nightmares about the trenches. She was lonely when he was away, and sure he would never come back. And who has been poisoning the Commodore? He has been digesting small doses of arsenic in his food for quite some time. He has been complaining about his stomach since Christmas. The new sheriff, Halloran, asks the maid why she did it. Looking angrily at the Commodore, she says, “’Cause if I used the shotgun I’da had to clean the mess up myself.” Nucky intervenes to prevent her arrest, hands her some money and tells her to go as far away from Atlantic City as possible.

Over in New York, Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky suggest to Arnold Rothstein he cuts a deal with Nucky and get rid of the D’Alessio brothers, rather than bailing off to Scotland. John Torrio is new in Chicago, but he could reach out to Nucky to dodge the imminent World Series indictment. Pay close attention, this is historic, a deal between the most dangerous and powerful gangsters of the country – and it is not the brainchild of savvy businessman Rothstein himself, but of his henchmen Lucky and Lansky. Torrio arranges a meeting, without telling Nucky of its nature. Jimmy and Nucky arrive to find Torrio and Capone, as well as Rothstein and Lucky. Nucky and Jimmy are caught off guard and none too please. Rothstein tried to get Nucky killed and take over his illegal liquor trade. Jimmy is unsurprised Rothstein would want to bury the hatchet considering the World Series scandal. Nucky offers to quash the indictment in return for one million dollars and the location of the remaining D’Alessio brothers. Rothstein agrees to end all hostilities between them.

Nucky recognizes an opportunity, calling a press conference addressing all the media about the vicious criminal that sprung up in reaction to the Eighteenth Amendment. He informs them that the woodside massacre was an act of gang warfare committed by Hans Schroeder and the D’Alessio brothers. He compliments his brother Eli, the former sheriff, for his tireless efforts uncovering the crime. Vote Republican, he urges the audience, to keep Atlantic City safe. And God Bless America. Meanwhile, Jimmy, Capone and Richard Harrow brutally murder the D’Alessio brothers in grandiosely operatic style. Harding gets elected to the presidency, Nucky’s candidate Bader wins the ticket, Eli is reappointed as sheriff, Rothstein escapes indictment, and Margaret gets the rag from the barmbrack. She decides to give Nucky another chance. Plots and conspiracies already start brewing, though, as the newly invigorated Commodore fumes about Nucky, wishing Jimmy will take back Atlantic City, with Eli’s help.

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.

Boardwalk Empire 1x10

Another very good episode in which several of the plot lines start to converge in interesting ways. Richard Harrow has a dream in which he walks the beach with one of the prostitutes of the Four Deuces, his face still unscarred. Then he wakes up from little Emily’s screams, who found him sleeping on the couch without his mask. Everyone’s already on edge, with Nucky narrowly escaping an assassination attempt, and Margaret slowly realizing the humiliating situation she got herself into. Nucky snaps at Harrow for frightening the kids with his horrifying face. He later does explain to Margaret that Harrow is a war hero and is there for their protection. “Success breeds enemies,” he adds, “which you’ll discover soon enough after women win the vote.” As for politics, the ratification for the women’s suffrage that Nucky is alluding to is now in the hands of Tennessee. It’s interesting how Nucky presents his position as progressive – as his only interest is getting more votes come election time. When she is reading to her children from The Wizard of Oz, Margaret invites Harrow to join them – allowing him to compare himself with the Tin Woodsman, which eases the children’s fear of him. Later still, Harrow admits to her that he, too, is troubled by his own face, but can hardly remember what he looked like before his face got disfigured. When the good news about the ratification has been announced, Nucky and Margaret have a glass of champagne, and he asks her if she could speak on behalf of his mayoral candidate Bader at the League of Women’s Voter meeting. She sees through his opportunism, yet she is still drawn to him. She agrees and gives a rousing speech to great applause.

That weasel Agent Sebso plays the innocent victim while Van Alden and Superintendent Elliot interrogate him about the death of Winslow, their only witness implicating Jimmy and Nucky in the massacre in the woods. Elliot exonerates him on account of self-defense in the line of duty, but directs his anger on Van Alden for bungling the case from the start. Hoping that she will be his last chance for a lead in the Schroeder case, Van Alden visits Margaret and confronts her that she is consorting with the murderer of her husband, the father of her children. She catches on to his fiendish obsession with her and tells him to leave, but before he does the hypocrite preaches her about the fires of hell awaiting her. At night, that evangelical prohibitionist walks into a speakeasy, downs two shots of whiskey, sits down with Nucky’s former mistress Lucy, and ends up sleeping with her like a possessed animal. For his part, Jimmy tries making amends with Angela, expressing his admiration for her Impressionist paintings. But things run afoul again when little Tommy blurts out, as they are passing the photo shop on the boardwalk, that they are going to see “Mommy’s kissing friend.” Jimmy has been accusing Angela of having an affair with Robert Dittrich for awhile now. In anger he tears up the studio and throws Robert through the glass door, beating him to a pulp outside. When Angela comes to Mary to apologize, Mary suggests they run off to Paris together, leaving their men behind. In Chicago, Al Capone learns to cast his childish pranks, not because lazy-eye Torrio berates his behavior, but rather at a bar mitzvah. It noticeably changes him. Ready to take on responsibility, he offers to work at Torrio’s brewery and arrange distribution.

Doyle and two D’Alessio brothers visit Rothstein again in New York. These dago hoodlums are such idiots, it’s laughable. Rothstein tries to convey his business acumen, and one of the brother quips, “like the World Series.” After an awkward pause, he adds, “you put the fix in.” Rothstein is seething at their sheer and utter incompetence for botching the plot to kill Nucky. Doyle later approaches Nucky, apologizing and offering to switch sides, telling everything he knows about Rothstein and the D’Alessio brothers. He relates that the D’Alessios have been behind the lynching of Chalky White’s driver, the mugging of ward boss O’Neill, the casino heist that nearly cost Eli’s life, in addition to the foiled attempt at Nucky’s life. They concoct a plan to lure Rothstein’s henchman Lansky over to Chalky’s with as many of the dago brothers as possible. When Nucky and Jimmy arrive, Chalky and Doyle have already tied up Lucien and Matteo D’Alessio, as well as Lansky. While Lansky is trying to reach some kind of accommodation, Lucien tells Jimmy, Nucky and Chalky to go fuck each other. Jimmy grabs his gun. “Oh, oh, fuckin’ tough guy,” Lucien balks, “you’re gonna shoot me for mouthing off.” “I wasn’t going to,” Jimmy replies with a smile, “but you kinda talked me into it,” and shoots him in the forehead. Matteo tells Chalky the his brothers are going to kill him, “like they did that other goon.” Chalky strangles him with his bare hands. “You can go now,” Nucky informs Lansky as he unties him, “and please tell Mr. Rothstein what you saw here tonight.”

Boardwalk Empire 1x09

Nucky’s brother Eli confirms that the dago D’Alessio brothers were behind the casino stick-up in which he got shot in the stomach. Making matters worse, Democratic candidate for the upcoming mayoral election, Fletcher, is promising to clean Atlantic City from the current corruption. For her part, Margaret gets a taste of the influence she has gained as Nucky’s mistress. Her former employer, Madame Jeunet at La Belle Femme, begs her for help as the payoff money for running her shop has doubled. When she brings it up at home, Nucky snaps it’s not a suitable topic of conversation. Not much later, Nucky asks her to help him convincing the women of the Temperance League to vote Republican when and if they get the suffrage. She spots an opportunity to turn that around and get him to cut Madame Jeunet’s costs. It is a pleasure seeing Margaret grow into her position of power, but let’s not forget she is having an affair with the man who had her husband killed.

Jimmy returns to Atlantic City, but no one has received his telegrams announcing his arrival. Nucky asks him to take care of the D’Alessio brothers. Jimmy deliberately asks him if he wants him to kill them, confronting him with the fact that he’s a murderer and should not be entertaining foolish notions otherwise. When Jimmy returns home, Angela is having a little party with the Dittrichs, who run the photo shop on the boardwalk. By the awkward glances and startled silence, Jimmy realizes things had gotten a little intimate. Angela never received his telegram either. His jealous anger is a tad hypocritical, though, seeing that he had an affair with Pearl at the brothel in Chicago (even considered running away with her to California), but worse still, he turns abusive. She eventually seems to cave in, but it still feels like rape to these eyes.

Nelson Van Alden is livid when he finds out his mumbling junior partner, Agent Sebso, ignored the Jimmy’s telegrams and shoved them in the drawer. Sebso tells him Supervisor Elliot has made it clear enough he believes their being obsessive about Jimmy Darmody, Nucky Thompson and the Hans Schroeder case. Meanwhile, Jimmy has his mother help him trap Lucky Luciano, catching him in her bed. Walking down the stairs with a gun in his side, Lucky blurts out Rothstein cut the D’Alessio brothers in. And that’s when Agents Van Alden and Sebso arrest Jimmy. Suddenly Supervisor Elliot is all congratulatory. Jimmy obviously denies knowing anything about the heist in the woods with Capone. But then he spots Billy Winslow, who identified him on the scene. When Nucky visits him in jail, Jimmy tells him about the deal of the D’Alessio brothers with Rothstein, and about Winslow. Nucky promises to take care of things but cannot bail him out. “Five counts of murder. There is no bail.” Nucky then visits the Commodore, who is nearing his death, but refuses to see a doctor. Even his dog is sick. He suggests to Nucky they better replace Mayor Bacharach and Eli, too.

In New York City, Arnold Rothstein meets up with the two eldest D’Alessio brothers and Mickey Doyle. He offers them a partnership importing the best Scotch from Britain. Atlantic City is a perfect site, both for smuggling the liquor in and for distributing it to the eastern seaboard. First thing that needs to happen, though, is getting rid of the person running the city. Supposedly to protect their only witness in the Schroeder case, Sebso suggests transferring Winslow to Manhattan, but kills him along the way as a favor to Nucky. To make it look like self-defense, he smashes his own head with a rock. (At least, I suspect Sesbo is in cahoots with Nucky, for why else is he sabotaging the case?) Walking on the boardwalk with Margaret after an evening out with his preferred mayoral replacement, Nucky nearly gets shot by the youngest D’Alessio brother. Now things have heated up!

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.

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.

Boardwalk Empire 1x06

This episode is very much about the women – and about family life. Now that Nucky Thompson has shown his interest and has offered to provide for her, Margaret asks for advice from Mrs. McGarry of the Temperance League what she should do. Mrs. McGarry tells her she should do what she sees fit, but gives her a pamphlet on birth-control, entitled “Family Limitations.” Nucky’s mistress Lucy is already feeling the competition and tries to mark her territory. When Lucy tries to humiliate her, Margaret insinuates that perhaps Nucky is interested in more than just sex. “Maybe your cunny isn’t quite the draw you think it is,” she tells Lucy. Nucky offers Margaret a new house to move into with her children, but it doesn’t take long for her to realize she has moved to “Mistress Row,” and is nothing more than a concubine like the other girls in the street. She also learns quickly that Nucky at the drop of a hat breaks his promises, cancels their plans and has her wait all evening by the phone.

Lucky Luciano, sent to kill Jimmy Darmody, has by now commenced an affair with Gillian, still thinking she’s Jimmy’s wife. He tells her she’s the first broad in years to put lead in his pencil. (He’s had gonorrhea, see.) It’s only when Rothstein asks him over the phone if he has found Jimmy, that Luciano learns Gillian is Jimmy’s mother. Over in Chicago, Torrio wants out of Greektown so as not to further aggravate Sheridan. When Capone protests, Torrio rebuffs him with a curt, “You drive my car.” Then Jimmy suggests that retreating will give the wrong message. At Jimmy’s counsel, Torrio arranges a meeting with Sheridan. The air is tense, but they come to an agreement to cease the hostility and let bygones be bygones. As they are leaving, Torrio visits the men’s room, while Jimmy and Capone grab their guns and assassinate Sheridan and his crew. For his part, Agent Van Alden after reading up on Margaret’s immigration papers and learning she had a miscarriage on board from Ireland, flagellates himself with his belt while staring at a picture of her at sixteen.

Boardwalk Empire 1x05

Prohibition or no, people will drink. Nucky Thompson is making his fortune on that truth. The Temperance League, however, is seeing numbers dwindling and have little means to change anything. Then Margaret Schroeder speaks up. She noticed men shipping barrels of beer off a truck behind her home that morning. Perhaps Mr. Thompson could be of help, he’s been of great assistance to her since her husband died (or, rather, got killed as scapegoat for Jimmy’s shootout), she might try and arrange a meeting. Once in Nucky’s office, she realizes her folly: asking a man who’s making a living off the illegal liquor trade to shut down some contraband beer operation. He promises her to take care of it before the tide goes out, and emphasizes he isn’t doing this as a personal favor to her. “Yes, I realize that,” she replies. That night, another shipment is loaded into the garage behind her home. So, Margaret turns to Agent Van Alden, who informs her he doesn’t have the means or personnel to enforce the law. But when she tells him ward boss James Neary owns the garage, it’s a whole other ballgame.

Van Alden busts the St. Patrick’s Eve Celtic Dinner with the press and the women of the Temperance League watching everything outside. Although Nucky spots Margaret among the chanting crowd, he is only drawn more to her for standing up against him. At night, while Van Alden’s men destroy the beer barrels, Nucky knocks impatiently on Margaret’s door. He needs to be with her and they kiss passionately. If she is his angelic conscience, then he must be her repressed desire for danger. (Your Cricket can’t seem to find their mutual attraction very compelling, though. The “opposites attract” trope feels rather trite.) Meanwhile in Chicago, Jimmy’s precious Pearl shoots herself with his gun – seeing no other way out after her face got cut up badly. Jimmy hits Chinatown to forget his miseries in an opium den. Over in New York, Rothstein is afraid of getting caught for fixing the 1919 World Series (i.e., the Black Sox Scandal).

Boardwalk Empire 1x04

In Chicago, young Al Capone walks into the Four Deuces brothel and shoots a blank in Jimmy Darmody’s ear, who’s lying in bed with a lovely lass named Pearl. After Capone leaves, laughing out loud, Jimmy and Pearl already talk about leaving for California together. Jimmy then joins Capone to Chicago’s Greek Town, where some speakeasy owner is informed that he is are in John Torrio’s territory now, not Sheridan’s. Capone beats up the man to bring home his point. Jimmy is visibly disturbed and tries telling Capone that violence is not only unnecessary but not gentler persuasion might be more effective. Later, at the Four Deuces, Jimmy explains that “You don’t invade a country all at once. You take it over one piece at a time.” When Sheridan drops in to express his annoyance that those Brooklynites Torrio and Capone are trying to take over Greek Town, Jimmy suggests there is room enough for all of them, but Capone insists on fifty percent of Sheridan’s take. When the latter agrees to an accommodation, Capone is convinced his bullying has worked. Jimmy tells him that’s one way of reading the situation. Later still, one of Sheridan’s goons takes Pearl to her room, sleeps with her, and then carves his knife across her face. To facilitates his exit, his buddies start shooting downstairs, while Pearl screams in pain.

Back in Atlantic City Nucky Thompson wants his sheriff brother to step up the murder investigation of Chalky White’s driver Kendall. With the upcoming elections, Nucky wants to be sure he can count on the black vote. So, brown-shirt Eli Thompson raids a Ku-Klux Klan meeting and arrest the Grand Cyclops Joseph Dinler for Kendall’s lynching. “Being a member is not against the law!” one member exclaims. “No, but stringing up darkies is,” Eli replies. Then Chalky White interrogates Dinler, building up the suspense to terrorize his into a confession. But even when he cuts off one of his fingers Dinler sticks to his story that he has no knowledge of the lynching. For his part, Lucky Luciano is looking for Jimmy, but only finds his rather assertive mother Gillian (sassy Gretchen Mol) opening the door, perhaps thinking she’s Jimmy’s wife. “I am looking for James,” he says telling her he’s a friend. “His friends call him Jimmy,” she replies. When she tells him Jimmy isn’t in, Luciano asks, “So where can I find him?” “Have you tried looking up your ass?” she retorts. Luciano follows Gillian around for days, attending her burlesque shows and waiting outside the Beaux-Arts Theater. She asks him what it is he wants from her, he tells her she must have a pretty good idea, and she replies she knows what it is she wants, and asks him to wait for her after the last show.

When Nucky throws a “surprise” birthday party for himself everyone of importance is present, including Commodore Kaestner, Senator Edge and Mayor Hague of Jersey City. The conversation turns to the topic of suffrage and the Commodore belittles Nucky’s girlfriend Lucy for not knowing anything about politics. Then there is a wonderful exchange between Margaret Schroeder and Senator Edge (Geoff Pierson, who plays Captain Matthews on Dexter) on the topic. She stands her ground very well, while the senator snaps one condescending remark after another. She tells him that if they withhold something most women want, they will always know to withhold something most men desire. She impresses Nucky, who understands he will need the female vote as much as he will need the black vote in the upcoming election. He may be Republican, but he sure isn’t dumb. He takes Margaret for a dance at great applause. And even as Lucy jumps out of the enormous birthday cake, Nucky cannot keep his eyes off Margaret. Readers of these chirps will know that this Cricket needs his time before becoming engaged in new TV series. Still, I can’t say I’m much enthralled yet by this show. I’m not much drawn to any of the characters, although Nucky and Margaret and sympathetic.

Boardwalk Empire 1x03

One of the victims of Jimmy’s shooting turns up in the hospital instead of the morgue. Before brown-shirt Eli can silence him forever with a pillow, Van Alden walks in to interrogate him. Eli can hold him off for the time being, but the witness remains alive. Not much later, with a warrant in hand, Van Alden whisks the guy away to New York. When his assistant urges him to take the guy to a doctor before he dies on the backseat, they are forced to take him to a dentist. After the dentist administers two doses of cocaine, he comes to just enough to tell Van Alden in Yiddish to go and fuck his grandmother with his little faggot penis. Before he dies from Van Alden squeezing his intestines through the open wound in his stomach, he tells him one of the guys at the shooting was called Jimmy. Van Alden wants to arrest Jimmy right away, but his superior, Supervisor Elliott, orders him to see his wife and get a rest, while he will consult with a U.S. attorney about their next course of action.

When Rothstein gets wind of it in New York, he sends Lucky Luciano to kill Jimmy. For his part, Nucky tells Jimmy to leave town and think about finishing college. Jimmy’s having marital troubles anyway, suspecting his wife Angela of having an affair while he was in the trenches. So he leaves her and his kid, and takes the train to Chicago, no doubt to look up his buddy Al Capone. Meanwhile, Nucky has gotten Margaret a job in a haute-couture shop Belle Femme at the Ritz with Madame Jeunet. Naturally, that means she’ll have to help Nucky’s lady friend Lucy in and out of lingerie while she rubs in Nucky has a soft spot for the charity cases. There is not much else to say about the episode. It was mostly focused on the development of the characters and their relationships. There were some scenes with Chalky White, the African-American gangster who has taken over Mickey Doyle’s bootlegging trade. I’m not too prone about the gratuitous nudity, even if Paz de la Huerta has beautiful breasts. Nor do I know why it is significant that Lucky Luciano has gonorrhea. The Cricket remains slightly skeptical and hopes our patience will be rewarded eventually.

Boardwalk Empire 1x02

We’re in Chicago, at a funeral. A large crowd has gathered in front of the church. There are even reporters on the scene. Big Jim Colosimo was murdered upon his return from New Jersey. Al Capone is walking behind the coffin bearers brushing off the journalists. Back in Atlantic City, County Treasurer Nucky Thompson gets a visit by Probation Agent Nelson Van Alden investigating the death of Hans Schroeder, who got pinned for Jimmy Darmody’s shooting of Arnold Rothstein’s men. After some back and forth, Nucky delicately points out that as a Probation Agent he should be raiding stills, rather than investigating a case of homicide. Nucky’s brother Sheriff Eli Thompson soon pays Margaret Schroeder (an angelic Kelly Macdonald) a visit in the hospital. She just had a miscarriage after Hans physically abused her. Eli implies she didn’t really know her husband, what he was up to at night, or who he associated with, and so he could well have been involved in the shootings – and she wouldn’t want her children ending up in custody, would she. He also hands her an envelope stashed with cash from his brother. The moment she gets home from the hospital Van Alden is at her door asking questions about her husband and Nucky Thompson. The uptight evangelist even steals her ribbon, which he’ll later clutch and sniff. Margaret decides to return the money to Nucky, offering to work for him rather than demean herself to his charity.

Over in New York, big time gangsters Arnold Rothberg and Lucky Luciano send for Frankie Yale, demanding to know who ordered the hit on Colosimo. Rothstein calls Nucky to complain about the missing cargo that ended up in Chicago and demands $100,000 for damages. Nucky warns Rothstein not to show his face in Atlantic City and hangs up. When Jimmy clocks in for work, but Nucky tells him he can go and be a gangster, but will owe him the privilege if it’s in his town. And he still owes Nucky $3,000, too, for the hijacked booze. That night he brings the money, but Nucky teaches him a lesson by placing it on the crabs table and lose it in one game. So, the stage has been set, and the various subplots are slowly introduced. There are quite a few characters, which make it a little difficult to keep up with. The tone is decidedly different from the Martin Scorsese’s pilot – not as grandiosely operatic, without onscreen violence, and a greater focus on the characters and their relations. The story remains engaging, though I am keeping a wait-and-see attitude, as this episode has the feel of something of filler. Still, a good show, with cinematic aspirations. No doubt it will take awhile for the plots and subplots to unravel. I’ll keep you posted.

Boardwalk Empire 1x01

This Fall HBO brought a new series to the American TV screens, Boardwalk Empire, about Prohibition Era Atlantic City, N.J. It is created by Terence Winter (The Sopranos), and co-produced with Martin Scorsese and Mark Wahlberg. It stars Steve Buscemi as Atlantic County’s corrupt treasurer and hypocrite politician Enoch “Nucky” Thompson (based on the historical kingpin Enoch Johnson), who pledges his heartfelt support to the suffragettes of the Temperance League, minutes before he swears to his fellow hotshots that even if Prohibition will turn the country dry, he will keep Atlantic City “as wet as a mermaid’s twat.” The décors are on gloriously grand operatic scale; we get arrogant Rolls-Royces and stately abodes, flirty flappers and blackface Dixie-land, comedy and cabaret, dirty dancing and midgets boxing, contraband dealings and moonshine bootleggers, dangerous gangsters in fabulous fashion plus humorless Federal Agents and their footsoldiers in the war against illegal liquor. It is January 1920 and Enoch Thompson fully intends to reap the benefits of the Prohibition, dealing in contraband and moonshine. Conveniently, Atlantic City’s sheriff is Nucky’s younger brother Eli. Thompson has invited high level gangsters from New York and Chicago to talk business. Meanwhile, Thompson’s protégé, Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt), has returned from the Great War with Gerry shrapnel in his leg and ambitions as dark as his experience in the trenches. Waiting outside the mobster convention, he happens upon one of Big Jim Colosimo’s low-level henchmen, Al Capone, who has ambitions to match Jimmy’s. Together they rob a shipment of whiskey off New York gangster Arnold Rothstein and kill several of his men, while they tipped off the Feds about Mickey Doyle’s bootlegging operation. From the looks of this pilot episode, the Cricket will be cheeping cheerfully about this show. Thanks Zory!