What happened?
Jimmy has hooked up with Al Capone in Chicago. Although claiming to be just passing through, Jimmy is embroiled in the gangster goings on to the extent that the prostitute he has taken a shine too is mutilated as a retaliatory act to Al Capone’s brute force attempt to take over the area.
In Atlantic City it’s Nucky’s birthday. He invites powerful movers and shakers to his party to discuss terms about building better roads into Atlantic City but his eye is momentarily taken off politics, and his girlfriend, by Margaret’s appearance (there to provide a dress from the boutique).
Margaret is evidently swept up in the heady world of Nucky’s, too, dancing with him and impressing with her intelligent responses. Yet by the next day she is brought back to Earth, to work, seeing Nucky strolling with his girlfriend Miss Danzinger, and on a whim she steals an item of clothing.
Chalky is allowed a personal audience with the leader of the local Klu Klux Klan, hauled in as chief suspect to the hanging of Chalky’s man. After unseen torture, and the removal of a finger, Chalky determines that this is not the culprit after all.
Thoughts
An extremely strong episode. I thought the multi-strand story approach worked well, with each of the main characters having their own nearly self-contained stories playing out alongside each other. It was probably my favourite episode so far and if the rest of the season plays to these kinds of strengths then I can see it really catching hold.
I think Jimmy and Capone’s relationship and story is my most enjoyable part; whilst Jimmy’s reserve and near-dreamer qualities didn’t ring quite true with the guy that was cold and immune after his war experiences from the first episode, he is a terrific foil for Capone’s mercurial character. It’s just strange that Jimmy could seem so at ease given the illusions of Nucky have been shattered and he’s just left his wife and kid behind! And his mother, too!
Jimmy’s mother having a dalliance with one of Rothstein’s men might just be a subplot too far in a show that is still finding its feet, but maybe its planting a seed for now that will grow into something crucial later. I did warm to Jimmy’s mother’s spark and guts in standing up the gangster at her door, and clearly he did, too! But beyond that there’s not really anything about the pair of them getting together that interests me since it seems too out of the sphere of the main events.
Far better and meatier was the introduction of the Klu Klux Klan. It’s in stuff like this where Boardwalk Empire has fertile ground to grow new and interesting things that are fresh to the genre. A collection of racists that are not breaking any laws is a stain on American history, but it’s right that it be included and addressed in this period piece. This is a show, to me at least, about America finding its criminal identity (and with the healthy political investments here, perhaps making intriguing statements about how government and the criminal world were tight bedfellows at the turn of the century). This in turn extends to the characters, struggling to find their place in Prohibition-era America; a period of change both for better and for worse, where only the best able to adapt will survive.
Like Margaret being taken on to the dancefloor by Nucky. It would have been all too clichéd for it to have been a scene all about her having a taste of the ‘good life’, the money and the fine-living, before being dumped back out into her real life like Cinderella making a run from the ball. But it was just as much a flight of fancy for Nucky, who gazed longingly past his crazy hot girlfriend to the prim, above-it-all figure of Margaret behind her.
Chalky almost took the honours for best scene, with his menacing dialogue to the KKK leader about his father that was tricked into a rendezvous with a waiting lynch mob. It was good, injected some cool for sure, but it wasn’t anything you hadn’t seen done before. I do like that Chalky has been invested with some grit and wit, walking out of the room with a finger and the sure knowledge that he hadn’t got his man; it wasn’t quite Omar swinging a shotgun, whistling a tune, but he’s laid down his card as a man not be trifled with.
So four episodes in and Boardwalk Empire is collecting quite an array of characters – Nucky, Jimmy, Capone, Chalky, Van Alden, Margaret – that are filling out and presenting fascinating revelations about who they are and, more importantly, what they do when they encounter one another and whoever gets in their way. The only struggle the show may have is in servicing them all fully and still maintaining a unified momentum.
What was the best part?
I really loved the scene with Jimmy and Capone talking with the gangsters. Jimmy trying to temper Capone’s hot-headed, brute force approach worked for about three seconds before he shot his mouth off and started making outrageous demands. It was a nice touch at the end of the scene with Capone thinking it had all worked out well whilst Jimmy had taken the precise opposite view. It was a good scene for entertainment value, but also highlighted how Capone, at least, will find Jimmy a useful advisor and how the pair of them could make a formidable duo – brains and brawn.
What do I think will happen next?
I envisage Jimmy and Capone being, shall we say, ‘inspired’ by the attack and be looking to turn the tables back in their favour and regain total control over their territory. Violence will ensue. I also suspect Margaret and Nucky’s burgeoning relationship will continue to gather pace (though quite what Margaret will make of Nucky and his world is interesting). And I also imagine that Chalky is going to continue looking for the lynch murderer, but quite where his allegiances will fall should Rothstein and his men go on the offensive again I can’t quite say. Van Alden was absent for this episode, so I suspect to see him again next episode though he’s such a wildcard at the moment it’s hard to predict what his involvement will provoke.
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