Boardwalk Empire - Thread #2 (apparently this evolved into a SPOILER thread behind my back)

[jurble]

Well, finally watched the ep. Holy shit I feel bad for Harrow, but he looks so damn cool.

I'm guessing they're going to go with an Abraham-allusion story thing with Agent van Alden. Nucky's former-gf is going to be his Hagar and her kid will be the Ishmael. His wife is going to magically end up pregnant, she'll be all happy and shti. But van Alden is going to have some kind of freak out and want to raise the two kids together and shit will happen.

[jurble]

Apologies, but is "Harrow" the shooter from the war w/ the mask?

si

[Trebla]

Great second episode. While Chalkey wasn't actually reading "Tom Sawyer" he delivered a Tom Sawyer lesson. Instead of getting his friends to paint a fence white, he got them to paint a cell blood red! The question is whether Chalky COULD red. At first I thought he could and was just fucking with the that other guy. But as the secene played out and he had the other cell mate begin to read I wasn't so sure.

Margaret and Jimmy were badass in this episode. I especially liked how Margaret waited a bit before showing Nucky the ledger and money. Rothstein had Jimmy pegged pretty good. A year ago Jimmy WAS just a brigand in the woods and now he's the main muscle in Atlantic City and emmisary of the Commodore.

Meyer's crazy friend Benny = Ben "Bugsy" Seigel

[drawkcabi]

Chalky just gets more awesome in every episode he's part of the story.

I thought there was a small gun or file or something hidden in the book when his wife first handed it over to him.

Loved Margaret in this episode, it's great when she gets to be proactive instead of just reactive.

The Commodore's dyed hair - :lol:

Nucky's phone call with Eli was one of Bucemi's best scenes in the entire series.

Jimmy was cool in this episode. I guess I like him when interacts with other characters like his dad or Capone, Rothstein, Luciano, etc. It's his moments of brooding in solitude scenes that really bug me, especially in the first season when there seemed to be one every episode.

[SwordoftheMorning]

Found out last night that Richard Harrow is in real life, the grandson of the screen legend John Houston and the nephew of Anjelica. I guess there is something in the genes, because he is creating on of the most memorable characters to hit TV in a long long time. The scene at breakfast where he is trying to eat but too self-conscious about how it looks to Jimmy and Angela was incredible physical acting and his command of the way Harrow would speak after losing half his face is simply masterful. Emmy's should follow.

[Arrogant Bastard]

I enjoyed this episode a lot. Liked the whole part with Chalky in the jail cell. I was very happy with he dealt with that prisoner; I was a little afraid he was going to pull a knife or something from the book, which would just be silly.

I'm guessing that IRA bodyguard guy is going to be Nucky's new muscle this season. Nucky needs some good muscle; Jimmy has Harrow, so I think this new guy will serve a similar role, and possibly create some conflict--seemed pretty flirty with Margaret.

Not really clear on what's happening with Jimmy and Meyer Lansky/Luciano and how Jimmy killing those two gangsters relates to it, but it seems like Lansky is going behind Rothstein's back.

Excited for next week's episode, and it's nice to have a good HBO show back on with Breaking Bad ending its season next week.

[Paladin of Ice]

I wonder just how well the IRA guy is going to pan out. The trailer for the next episode looked for one second like he and Richard Harrow had guns drawn on each other.

Seeing what happens in New York is going to be interesting. Is Lansky going to have to deal with trouble because those two guys turned up dead? Will Rothstein learn of Lansky and Luciano's attempts to go behind his back?

Al Capone being in Jersey is going to be more than interesting.

Margaret's character development looks to be interesting. The way that one might rate her morality or hypocrisy has varied, but she's never helped Nucky's criminal enterprises in such a bold way before. Very interesting, and so are the few hints and clues we already have or just got about her past. She's not close to her family, apparently they all fled Ireland, I think I remember that her dossier that Nelson was looking over stated she was already pregnant when coming to the US ( a victim of abuse, perhaps?) and she certainly seemed to loath the IRA boss and his principles. (I also see the boss as a rather direct foil to Margaret; both present moral reasons to dislike Nucky & Atlantic City, but they're both dependent on him for the sake of a cause, and both of them prove somewhat hypocritical about their seemingly ironclad principles).

But most of all, I'm curious to see the resolution of that face off/stare down between Jimmy and Nucky. How Nucky is going to react to all this when he's not so exhausted that he's about to keel over?

[Maia]

I have to say that I came to really enjoy The Boardwalk Empire, maybe in part because of my current fascination with the history of American Mafia, Prohibition, etc.

On the flip side, since I have looked up stuff about that period recently, I know how some of the big things will go, unless they fictionalize more than I expect them to.

Very interesting stuff with Margaret. Personally, I suspect that hers was the usual story of being seduced or raped by somebody in the household she served in, then thrown out when it turned out that she became pregnant. Family sent her off to US to hide the "shame" or maybe family disowned her and she went on her own savings.

Chalky White rules! That belligerent type was very stupid, though, since it was pretty clear that Chalky was somebody with a lot of weight in the community. I wonder if it was some kind of set-up?

I do find Nucky interesting, though. A Littlefinger with a bit of heart, imagine that!

Jimmy looks like a fool with a grudge to me, however. All of this seems to be a payback for his (deserved and necessary) exile and for the (completely false) impression that Nucky didn't really love him. Eh. And Jimmy, of all people, should know better than to rely on Commodore in any way.

[Mark Antony]

another great episode.

[Trebla]

Margaret is the best thing to happen to Nucky. Harrow seems unwilling to strike against Nucky and I suspect it's because Margaret and her children were so kind to him.

[Paladin of Ice]

Margaret is the best thing to happen to Nucky. Harrow seems unwilling to strike against Nucky and I suspect it's because Margaret and her children were so kind to him.

Yep. I think this season is putting to bed Harrow's theory from season 1 about the falseness of people forming attachments and all that. Of course, Harrow having false ideas about himself is nothing new, since his first episode had him saying he couldn't lie anymore and not 5 minutes later he was lying, albeit badly.

Really fun episode, and I think it marks a turning point for Nucky. He could have allowed events to break him, he could have just quietly suffered and limped on, instead he chose to fight and strike back at the Commodore et al. And judging from that, the scene where Slater stopped the delivery of booze to the casino, and the previews for next week, open war between the factions is coming.

I also liked the subtle irony that Jimmy, who a few episodes in was telling Nucky about how you can't be half a gangster anymore has thrown in with a side that is trying to be half a gangster. Even if Harrow wouldn't pull the trigger, they could have gotten someone else to do the job and just shot Nucky, but they're going about it in a smooth, political way instead. Never mind that Nucky can fight back that way and has enough on them to take them all down with him if he chooses, It also fits though: the Commodore and his buddies are the faction that still think they can be half-gangsters. It's probably just as well for them that they're not facing anyone truly ruthless who simply ignores their rules of how to operate.

[Cold Hands-Hot Pie]

Chalky White rules! That belligerent type was very stupid, though, since it was pretty clear that Chalky was somebody with a lot of weight in the community. I wonder if it was some kind of set-up?

When they moved Chalky into the other cell, out of solitary, I was certain too that he was being set up and the Commodore crew was going to do this to take him out. I figured the loud mouth guy was the start of it and it was only a matter of time.... they sure went in the other direction with it though.

[Cold Hands-Hot Pie]

I also liked the subtle irony that Jimmy, who a few episodes in was telling Nucky about how you can't be half a gangster anymore has thrown in with a side that is trying to be half a gangster. Even if Harrow wouldn't pull the trigger, they could have gotten someone else to do the job and just shot Nucky, but they're going about it in a smooth, political way instead. Never mind that Nucky can fight back that way and has enough on them to take them all down with him if he chooses, It also fits though: the Commodore and his buddies are the faction that still think they can be half-gangsters. It's probably just as well for them that they're not facing anyone truly ruthless who simply ignores their rules of how to operate.

Capone shared your disbelief. He looked blown away that their plan to take Nucky down was to get him thrown in jail.

When asked how the Chicago outfit was dealing with the competition: "We're killin 'em"

Got to be ruthless to survive in this new era. The first groups to realize this are the ones to seize power.

[Snuffaluffalee]

I've only started watching this show about two weeks ago-- and I'm loving it. What makes me curious, though, is that afterwards I have this urge to have a cigar (don't smoke, and never have). : \

[Arrogant Bastard]

Good and gruesome episode tonight. That scalping was disgusting, and I have to think it was not Jimmy's smartest move. I hope they cover the immediate repercussions of this in the next episode, and don't just gloss over it like the show did last season when Van Alden just passed off his drowning of that guy as a heart attack.

I really enjoyed the confrontation and subsequent fight between Nucky and Eli, perhaps more than his staredown with Jimmy and the Commodore at dinner two episodes ago.

Since Nucky already seems to be coming back on top less than halfway through the season, I wonder if he's not being set up by the Attorney General. Nucky seemed very hesitant and skeptical about the arrangement;I wouldn't be too surprised if he gets double crossed. This episode was missing Van Alden, Chicago, New York, and Philly, which I imagine the show will cover most if not all those locations next week.

[Mark Antony]

plus Chalky was missing too. agree with your entire post though^

[Crazydog7]

I felt the narration was tighter this time. Any episode without the idiotic Van Alden is fine by me.

Some really great scenes with Richard Harrow

Also now I think it can be said that every major cast person has their own secret murder,

[Ouroboros]

Pretty sure Jimmy is going to take Capone's advice and start 'killing' the competition. Not necessarily Nucky, but his underlings might start getting scalped, shot and generally mutilated.

[Alexia]

I can't imagine scalping :ack: (gross, I couldn't look at the screen for that) that guy is going to work to Jimmy's benefit at all. In fact, I think its a really bad idea.

Eli was pretty entertaining this episode. And I really like Margaret more with every episode, and Nucky's new Irish thug.

[Snuffaluffalee]

Great episode--I loved the gleeful admiration of the beadwork... only to be followed by: Jimmy busting -> my jaw dropping at the initial cut -> my hand covering my mouth -> watching the floor. I never do well with gore (I think I watched the floor 3/4 through one of the Saw movies).