As I was watching Boardwalk Empire this week, something came to mind. Has there ever been a show with more throat slicings per episode? Certainly, there’s a fair amount of shooting, bludgeoning, and other assorted methods of death on the show (let’s not forget about the particularly gruesome scalping on last week’s episode), but the writers certainly seem to have a soft spot for an open jugular. Each and every one of them have been cringe worthy too.
This week, the throat being opened belonged to one of Manny Horvitz’s men. There was quite a bit of movement on the gangster front this week. At the center was Nucky making a big move, completing his deal with Rothstein to funnel booze through Philadelphia. I particularly enjoyed the awkward confrontation between Luciano and Jimmy in the woods, both of them trying to figure out exactly what was going on. Will this little encounter have a bigger impact on the conspiracy against Nucky? It may not matter, as Nucky has bigger problems on his plate, namely the now federal lawsuit against him.
It wasn’t all throat slashing and gunfights in this episode, though. I thought there was some nice character development, with both Margaret and Van Alden. I really enjoyed the story of little Teddy’s first confession. It shed some nice light on a lot of the characters. It highlighted Nucky’s impatience with the church, seemingly keeping up appearances with his involvement. I don’t think Margaret is too far behind. When she reluctantly “set an example” for Teddy by going to confession, I was hoping that we were going to get something a little more juicy out of the mysterious Margaret. It has been clear for a while that there is some powerful chemistry between Owen and Margaret, but “Mrs. Thompson” confirmed in confession that she has been having impure thoughts about Nucky’s henchman. It’s only a matter of time before they wind up doing something they both may regret.
Van Alden was having his own moment of confession in this week’s episode as well. We have seen many times that Nelson is a very devout individual, so it didn’t really come as a great surprise when he interpreted the fevered ravings of agent Clarkson as a direct message to him. It wound up coming back to bite him as he freaked out on the phone to Rose, who ended up paying him a visit, only to find very new mother Lucy at Van Alden’s. Nelson’s plans are certainly crumbling around him. Lucy certainly didn’t seem like a woman eager to give up her new daughter, and Rose didn’t look like she was thrilled with Nelson’s plan of raising the baby as their own. He’s going to have his hands full for a while.
I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see any of Eli this week. I realize that the show can’t service all of its characters every week, but his story was pretty huge in the last episode, ending with him burying a dead body in his yard. I would have liked a little follow up to that. I may be impatient, but I’m eagerly looking forward to where Eli is going to end up this season.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Oct 30, 2011 @ 22:05 EST5EDT
