Boardwalk Empire 1.11 – Paris Green

Gah, another episode of tying up loose ends, this one concentrates on the end of the Nucky/Margaret union and pretty much more Van Alden weirdness. The last episode Margaret Schroeder (Kelly Macdonald) stood by the bed ready to confront Nucky but she waits a bit to do so. Well actually, she waited to catch her gold-digging neighbor in his office trying to coax him to “ride her” again, before barging in all jealous, used and annoyingly polite (Margaret never breaks pattern). By this time I can’t say that I like Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) very much anymore, he is such a different man than the first 3 episodes and I’m not sure if he will be likable again. Granted it is the election season, he has had his life threatened and his girlfriend is being a snoop but damn, Nucky has completely lost his charm with me as an audience member.

When he brings up the argument with Margaret to his brother Eli, he doesn’t get the sympathy he sought but instead Eli goes in on Margaret dropping C-bombs on her name and telling Nucky that she was a huge liability. This apparently pisses Nucky off enough to fire his own brother as Sheriff and promote his bumbling idiot of a deputy to take his place.  Margaret confronts him on his killing her husband to which he calls her an ungrateful bitch in so many words and she quietly packs up her belongings and children and moves out… where are you going to go Margaret? Wait PAUSE… remember that bottle of Lysol that the head of the women suffrage group gave Margaret? Apparently she has been using it for birth control… geez, the 1920′s were harsh. I wonder how she used it…

From Wikipedia: in the late 1920s Lysol disinfectant began being marketed by maker Lysol, Incorporated and distributor Lehn & Fink, Inc. as a feminine hygiene product. They intimated that vaginal douching with a Lysol solution prevented infections and vaginal odor, and thereby preserved marital bliss. This Lysol solution was also used as a birth control agent, as post-coital douching was a popular method of preventing pregnancy at that time.

Well damn, learn something new every day! By the way the Commodore is Jimmy Darmody’s (Michael Pitt) dad, that sick sunovabitch knocked up his mother when she was 13… and he was 54! Nucky used to pimp out Jimmy’s mom and the Commodore got that young girl pregnant and therefore answers our questions as to why his mom could pass as his sister! Well the Commodore is dying and it is revealed by a doctor that the cause is slow poisoning, attributed perhaps by Jimmy’s mom and his maid. Coincidentally the Commodore is also the founder of Atlantic City and for all the venom Jimmy has for him, he stays with him on his death bed along with the mother.

The Bugsy Mr. Nelson Van Alden

Last episode we witnessed the bible beating Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon) having beast sex with Lucy (Paz De La Huerta) only to cry afterwards for committing adultery, well in this one he drowns his partner to death in some sort of twisted baptism ritual. While I applauded Van Alden for being a holy knight before, now he just comes off as a twisted, power-hungry demon. The partner was getting ready to transfer away from Van Alden but decided to try one more time to make right with the man only to end up drowned in front of a church of black baptists… brutal.

Finally Jimmy’s common-law wife, the beautiful Angela Darmody (Aleksa Palladino) was intent on escaping to Paris with her lesbian lover but was stood up and found only an empty shop and no girl to whisk her away from Jimmy. Problem is see, she told the kid who repeats everything and she left a note for Jimmy before leaving. Hurrying back to retrieve the note and deal with her life as she had before meeting the Photographer and his wife, Angela comes home  to Jimmy… and the note, gone as in he read it. I am not sure what the missing photographer means but the man and his wife vanished into thin air and Jimmy was home waiting, cool as a cucumber, kissing his son goodnight and promising him days in the future where it would be “just us guys”. I am not sure if Angela is going to make it into season 2… the final parts of this scene has Jimmy telling his son that mommy was going to kiss him goodnight, him walking back into the living room and her bawling her eyes out at what can only be fear of her hardened husband.

I am itching for the season finale now. Richard Harrow (Jack Huston) mentioned to Jimmy that the gang of Italian hoodlums were in hiding but he found their mother and a brother of theirs who is a dentist. He offers to off the mom and brother in order to flush out the rats and Jimmy didn’t look opposed to the idea. Will we see the masked man unleashed in the finale? Only time will tell.