Nucky Thompson’s (Steve Buscemi) world is about to turn upside down. The Klan strikes back at Chalky White (Michael Kenneth Williams), Jimmy’s father has managed to sway him to his side and his own brother has not forgotten how Nucky looked beyond him after he took a bullet. These things all happen outside of his control and the walls of doom slowly close in with this premier episode.
You Go School These Crackers!
Chalky is pissed off, and while it was great to have a glimpse of his home life (a huge house, piano playing intelligent son, and sophisticated wife), his relationship with Nucky is at a breaking point. The episode begins with a truck full of Klansmen shooting up Chalky’s booze bottling operation killing 4 men and a woman along with injuring the rest.
Chalky takes aim and kills one of the Klan but ironically the black people’s deaths are ignored as white citizens call for Chalky’s head for the Klansman’s death (he was a school teacher).
Nucky appeals to both the black churches and the racist white churches in a two-faced manner, vowing vengeance for both but ultimately he has to have Chalky arrested to protect the black don from being lynched.
The Falling Out of Jimmy and Nucky
Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt) is back hungry and ambitious, he finally elopes with his common law wife Angela (Aleksa Palladino) and now that his mother is moved in to help with things, his family is finally concrete. He and Nucky are on better terms in their broken father/son relationship but Nucky begins to worry that Jimmy is withholding something from him.
In a touching scene to jar Jimmy’s memory – Nucky sends him a wedding gift of some money and a statue of a father and son hunting. This came after Jimmy reminded Nucky of how the 2 of them used to do that and how he loved it – he himself had taken his young son out shooting despite Angela’s objection. Jimmy seemed touched for the statue but tucks it away in a closet very much like his feelings of love for Nucky. The sentimentality of their relationship is over – at least where Jimmy’s concerned.
At home Gillian (Grechen Mol) – Jimmy’s mom mentioned to Angela that she used to “kiss his winkie” when he was a baby. Angela also gives them the side-eye when Grechen made sure she met Jimmy with a mouth to mouth kiss first before he could get over to his wife. I am becoming more and more freaked out about Mamma Darmody and her bohemian ways.
The Broken Assassin
Richard Harrow (Jack Huston) has breakfast with Jimmy and his wife and looks uncomfortable as he shifts things on his plate and averts his gaze. “You don’t have to feel embarrassed to eat around us” Jimmy reassures him as if he knew what Richard was feeling but the masked man still doesn’t eat. Finally after looking over Angela and the house he was visiting, he asks Jimmy “how does it feel to have everything?”
When the next scene with Richard appears we find him cutting out images from a magazine of happy families – which he glues to pages of a bible, making for a scrap book of sorts. It was very sad.
The Double Life of Nelson Van Alden
Our favorite religious psycho Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon) invites his wife to Atlantic City to visit. She is appalled by the brazen attempts to sell them liquor by the owner of a restaurant they visit along with the “tour guide” she receives pointing out where all the whore houses were. Nelson impresses her by raiding the very restaurant that they ate at (after finishing his meal of course) and the show of power turns his stiff wife on.
After giving his wife “the business” and sending her off back to their rural home until “next month” – the saint goes to his apartment to a sleeping Lucy (remember she’s pregnant with his baby) and gives her money for her doctor bill. I am not sure whether to admire Nelson for taking care of Lucy or be appalled by his double life. Any way we look at it however, seeing him juggle all while being a hard ass to his men should be a treat.
In Conclusion
The episode was about Nucky’s coming to terms with his impressive power and hold over Atlantic City. It ends with one of his former business partners coming into his hotel to have him arrested for election tampering; a setup orchestrated by his brother, the Commodore who mentored him and other men that he trusted.
Up in his room, his little family of Margaret Schroeder (Kelly Macdonald), along with her son and daughter are the only people that truly have his back. This of course is not even as solid as we would like it to be being that Margaret is a strong woman and if she needs to make the hard decision of leaving Nucky she 100% will.
Cinephile and opinion writer, Greg Dragon has been a fan of movies since the 80's when Kung Fu theater was all the rage and Roger Moore was James Bond. As an opinion writer that has reviewed Box Office releases on a number of prominent websites, Greg is the founder and lead critic of Spicy Movie Dogs.
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