Boardwalk Empire 1.03 – Broadway Limited

Boardwalk Empire just keeps on getting better. This episode we are introduced to the black gangster Chalky White (Michael Kenneth Williams), a scarred faced, sharp dressing friend of Nucky’s (Steve Buscemi) who takes over the liquor factory. The episode begins with the survivor of Jimmy (Michael Pitt) and Al Capone’s (Stephen Graham) robbery being wheeled into a hospital with a big gaping bullet wound in his stomach.

Nucky is concerned that the man will talk so he asks his brother to finish him off and Sheriff Elias “Eli” Thompson (Shea Whigham) chooses to do it by stifling him with a pillow. The big man turns out to be hardier than the average human being and survived the stifling to be rescued by Federal Agent Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon) looking to question he man about the shooting. This begins a game of cloak and dagger for the body and the Feds steal the man out of Atlantic City to take to New York for questioning. When it becomes obvious that the man won’t make that long a trip Nelson stops off at a dentist where he has him revived with a shot of cocaine and tortures him until he gives Jimmy up.

For Margaret Schroeder (Kelly Macdonald), Nucky lines her up with a job with a snooty French shop owner and she is made to be her personal assistant from then on. Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg) sends Luciano (Vincent Piazza) to take care of Jimmy after learning of his involvement with the robbery. Nucky sends Jimmy packing for his own good and he leaves his wife and child behind with a substantial amount of money in order to go work with his buddy Al Capone in Chicago. Chalky White has things running smoothly in the liquor house until the Ku Klux Klan interferes and hangs a boy right outside of the building. Nucky steps in before Chalky goes to war with the racists and offers him a bigger percentage in order to keep things quiet before the election. This is pretty much the episode.

Observations:

Chalky White is cool as shit and I look forward to seeing him bump heads with the Klan as he comes off as the type of guy to drive a knife into you if you deserve it. The cool and level headed way in which he handled the death of the boy shows that he is a diplomatic leader who may be more dangerous than we really think. There is a scene where Lucky Luciano is shown getting his penis shot up with penicillin and examined after contracting a venereal disease on purpose to avoid going to war. This little detail is major as it shows the difference in mentality between a street bred gangster like Luciano and a college boy turned gangster like Jimmy – who offered himself to the war voluntarily.

I am still wondering what the significance with Margaret Schroeder is outside of a possible future love interest of Nucky’s… a position that Lucy (Paz de la Huerta) will not give up peacefully. Speaking of Lucy she is shown as a real materialistic and worthless piece of ass in this episode. Her trying on of the dresses while putting down Margaret in one scene while eating breakfast like a little child before sucking off Nucky in the next. While she is no doubt beautiful and sexy (full nude scenes in every episode so far) she is not a very likable girl at all.

Historical Note:

There is an awesome scene where Rothstein is playing poker and calls over his young prodigy Luciano to explain a few things to him about the game. It shows a real connection between the two men and reveals the fact that Luciano is learning how to be a gentleman of worth from Rothstein. Luciano is still young, fresh off the streets and ambitious. He knows that to get ahead in WASP society he needs the manners, swagger and language of an Arnold Rothstein and Boardwalk Empire clues us in on this with the tiny exchanges between the two. I really appreciated this.

Boardwalk Empire keeps on getting better and the flash forwards of the next episode shows some sweet justice being served to the Ku Klux Klan by Nucky’s brother in collaboration with Chalky. I absolutely cannot wait.