***OFFICIAL*** Boardwalk Empire thread (1 Viewer)

[Good Posting Judge]

I've been practicing a little grunt under my breath when beginning sentences... Harrow-style.

I've got a giant hole in my face already, that makes it pretty easy.

 

[Raider Nation]

I've been practicing a little grunt under my breath when beginning sentences... Harrow-style.

I've got a giant hole in my face already, that makes it pretty easy.

Cheater.

 

[Samuel L Bronkowitz]

I must have missed something. It's implied that Massaria was tipped off by Lucky and Lansky about Owen coming to the bath house to kill him. How would they have known the specifics? The only people in the room were Nucky, Eli, Owen, Mickey and the agent.

 

[The Captain]

I must have missed something. It's implied that Massaria was tipped off by Lucky and Lansky about Owen coming to the bath house to kill him. How would they have known the specifics? The only people in the room were Nucky, Eli, Owen, Mickey and the agent.

Rat?Question is, which one?

 

[BigTex]

I must have missed something. It's implied that Massaria was tipped off by Lucky and Lansky about Owen coming to the bath house to kill him. How would they have known the specifics? The only people in the room were Nucky, Eli, Owen, Mickey and the agent.

Exactly my first thought!?!?!Must have been the agent, Owen was the only one delivered.......

 

[Raider Nation]

Wow. This should put an end to people bitching about bad episodes for awhile.

P.S. Who had Gyp beating a guy over the head with a shovel while he was buried alive on the beach?

 

[Raider Nation]

I'm not entirely sure that the palindrome Agent Sawicki trots out in Nucky's office — "A man! A plan! A canal! Panama!" — was all that well-known (or known at all) in the mid-20s. (What little research I've done suggests it was invented by Leigh Mercer and first published in 1948.) But the idea of a phrase that means the exact same thing backwards and forwards feels right at home in a series full of duplicitous men, who make the same promises to multiple people in multiple directions, leaving each of them wondering which version is real and which is setting them up for ruin.

In "A Man, A Plan" alone, we have Gaston Bullock Means cleverly getting both Nucky and Harry to pay him a $40,000 fee to take out Jess Smith (and is rewarded for his cleverness with Jess saving him the trouble by killing himself in a way that Means can no doubt take credit for) and Lansky and Luciano taking the heroin deal to Joe Masseria when Rothstein turns it down. And most importantly, we have Owen and Margaret each pledging their devotion to their respective partners even as they're plotting to leave Atlantic City with each other.

Or are they?

That's the question Margaret spends much of "A Man, A Plan" wrestling with, and one she'll never get an answer to, because Meyer and Lucky gave Masseria enough advance warning that he was prepared for Owen's assassination attempt. We think Owen was going to go with Margaret, particularly in light of the news that she's pregnant with his child, but we also got to see him with Katey, and he seemed just as convincing in casually proposing marriage to her as he did in all his promises to Margaret. I don't see any value in Owen deliberately misleading the boss's estranged wife, but at the same time, we don't know him nearly as well as we knew Jimmy, and Margaret doesn't even get to see all that we do. Is Owen really being honest with her, or is she the one being strung along when the sentence reverses on itself?

Because Owen has never been one of the show's more fleshed-out characters, his death matters less than what it means for Margaret, whose full-on hysterics at the sight of him in the crate should leave no doubt in Nucky's mind what his bodyguard and wife were up to, especially if she remains pregnant. Margaret's pre-natal class (which the bishop orders disbanded this week) has seemed like one of the season's less essential subplots, but now I wonder if it was all leading us to the moment where Margaret has to ask Dr. Mason to give her an abortion.

Owen was Margaret's best chance to escape this life and this man she's come to hate and fear. Now she's stuck, and though Nucky is sympathetic to her in the moment, we know what a petty, prideful man he can be, and I don't see their relationship getting warmer in the wake of this.

When we got to the episode-ending flashback, I worried at first we were just going to see the same scene all over again, like "Boardwalk Empire" underlining a point that we all clearly remembered from earlier. Instead, there's more to the scene than before — and in a way that gives much deeper meaning to an episode that's otherwise a bit of a "let's move the chess pieces" outing — as we find out Margaret is pregnant (though it was pretty strongly implied in the earlier scene with Mason), hear Owen's quiet yet proud reaction to this news, and witness the last interaction these two will ever have. Like the palindrome, we go in reverse, but this time the meaning isn't the same at all. In the past, Margaret is happy, looking forward to a new life in the wide-open spaces of America. In the present, she is grief-stricken and trapped on the Atlantic City boardwalk. She had a man. She had a plan. Now? She has Nucky, and all that comes with him.

Some other thoughts:

[*]"Boardwalk Empire" isn't exactly "The Wire," and yet I can't help but start waiting for the other shoe to drop whenever a character I like has too long a run of good fortune. Even factoring in the fight with Sagorsky, things are going too well for Richard and Julia, and I fear something or someone bad (Gillian, most likely) is going to screw everything up. And Richard's mask remains one of the all-time great accessories, here being the side of his face we can see as Julia kisses him, leaving us to read all kinds of emotion that isn't there among the paint.

[*]Speaking of waiting for the other shoe to drop, that's pretty much all you do when you work for Gyp Rosetti — though in his case, the shoe may be a shovel, a bullet, high tide, or any other manner of gruesome death that results from saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. On the one hand, I feel like we've seen this particular beat before. On the other, Gyp telling his sidekick that "You owe me" because he beat his cousin to death rather than letting him drown felt pretty chilling, even given what we know of Gyp's insanity.

[*]It's a testament to both Michael Shannon and the writers that I've come to sympathize with Van Alden as much as I have this season, here taking pleasure in our glimpse of him as a successful bootlegger, then feeling sorry for him when he winds up on the wrong end of Al Capone's fork. It's funny to think how far both Nelson and Al have come since the series' pilot, when Van Alden was the powerful G-man keeping tabs on Torrio during the summit with Nucky, while Al was just Torrio's lowly driver. Now Capone is the powerful man, and Van Alden is somehow caught in the middle of the Capone/O'Banion war.

[*]As was strongly hinted last week, Chalky has a plan (but not a canal) for the location where Babbette's used to sit, and I imagine next season we'll see a new Harlem-style nightclub as a prominent setting.

[*]It can not be repeated enough what a pleasure it is to watch Stephen Root play so slippery and composed a character as Gaston Bullock Means.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

Seems like these Italians are up to something...

 

[Raider Nation]

Seems like these Italians are up to something...

And how.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Wow. This should put an end to people bitching about bad episodes for awhile.

P.S. Who had Gyp beating a guy over the head with a shovel while he was buried alive on the beach?

Best episode of the season by far. Probably because it had a bit if everybody's stories. I will say though, that as each scene began, it was kind of predictable how it would end. So I don't know my gangster history, but I feel like joe the boss doesn't front lucky his money, lucky gets backed by nucky, lucky kills joe for him and Capone takes care of gyp and that's how those 3 become tight pre-syndicate.

 

[Colts Win]

You not the only one that be thinking.

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

Wow. This should put an end to people bitching about bad episodes for awhile.

P.S. Who had Gyp beating a guy over the head with a shovel while he was buried alive on the beach?

It was doo-doo until the whole Mick-in-a-Box scene. This season has been horrid compared to the first two.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

Wow. This should put an end to people bitching about bad episodes for awhile.

P.S. Who had Gyp beating a guy over the head with a shovel while he was buried alive on the beach?

Best episode of the season by far. Probably because it had a bit if everybody's stories. I will say though, that as each scene began, it was kind of predictable how it would end. So I don't know my gangster history, but I feel like joe the boss doesn't front lucky his money, lucky gets backed by nucky, lucky kills joe for him and Capone takes care of gyp and that's how those 3 become tight pre-syndicate.

Spoiler

Masseria doesn't eat it until 1931.

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

Let's see...it's the middle of the night, I have countless enemies, somebody tried to blow me up a week or so ago, I haven't ordered anything from Pottery Barn recently...why don't we just open up this suspicious crate anyway.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

Let's see...it's the middle of the night, I have countless enemies, somebody tried to blow me up a week or so ago, I haven't ordered anything from Pottery Barn recently...why don't we just open up this suspicious crate anyway.

He didn't even put his ear to it to see if it was ticking.

 

[The Captain]

Let's see...it's the middle of the night, I have countless enemies, somebody tried to blow me up a week or so ago, I haven't ordered anything from Pottery Barn recently...why don't we just open up this suspicious crate anyway.

Lol

 

[SHIZNITTTT]

I wish Mrs Thompson was in the crate

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

I wish Mrs Thompson was in the crate

Not until the abortion and Nucky finds out.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

Gotta give credit to the show for not being afraid to ice important characters, instead of having them dodge all sorts of bullets, GI Joe/Sons of Anarchy-style.

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

Gotta give credit to the show for not being afraid to ice important characters, instead of having them dodge all sorts of bullets, GI Joe/Sons of Anarchy-style.

Capone is next.

 

[Raider Nation]

Re-watching the episode... the scene between Margaret and Owen, discussing where they'll live.

Margaret: "[What about] Katie?"

Owen: "I'll leave one morning... tell her something that sounds convincing, and she'll never see me again."

Well, at least he accomplished all of that.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

Re-watching the episode... the scene between Margaret and Owen, discussing where they'll live.Margaret: "[What about] Katie?"Owen: "I'll leave one morning... tell her something that sounds convincing, and she'll never see me again."Well, at least he accomplished all of that.

He kept his options open. Great use of musical cues, the same timpanis play when Sleater is entering the bathhouse, and when the crate is opened up at the end of the episode. Also, the actor who plays Masseria is fantastic.

 

[Raider Nation]

Also, the actor who plays Masseria is fantastic.

Indeed. That entire scene when he's playing bocce has a very Godfather 2 feel to it.

 

[Raider Nation]

I'm not sure which of Margaret's facial expressions I'm most fond of.

It's between this one :( and this one :( and this one :( ...

 

[=Smackdown=]

Also, the actor who plays Masseria is fantastic.

Indeed. That entire scene when he's playing bocce has a very Godfather 2 feel to it.

Yes it did- really enjoyed that scene.Didn't have to bend to pick up one bocce ball- had every one handed or tossed to him.

 

[Evilgrin 72]

I must have missed something. It's implied that Massaria was tipped off by Lucky and Lansky about Owen coming to the bath house to kill him. How would they have known the specifics? The only people in the room were Nucky, Eli, Owen, Mickey and the agent.

Rat?Question is, which one?

I think it was Owen.

 

[Gr00vus]

Wow. This should put an end to people bitching about bad episodes for awhile.

P.S. Who had Gyp beating a guy over the head with a shovel while he was buried alive on the beach?

It was doo-doo until the whole Mick-in-a-Box scene. This season has been horrid compared to the first two.

Disagree, for the quality of the acting alone if nothing else (with the exclusion of Gyp's scenes - they're generally poor all the way around). Granted much of what happened was a bit predictable and the exposition at the end was a bit hamhanded, but it's set up some interesting questions and situations to be resolved in the last 2 episodes (and beyond).I wonder if Gyp's henchman will be a ready conduit for facilitating his downfall after what happened in this episode. They can't end the Gyp storyline soon enough.

 

[belljr]

are we assuming Nucky figured out the "affair" with Margaret's reaction?

 

[Gr00vus]

are we assuming Nucky figured out the "affair" with Margaret's reaction?

He has to be suspicious at least due to that.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

are we assuming Nucky figured out the "affair" with Margaret's reaction?

I think that is a safe assumption, based on his facial reactions to her losing it.

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

Wow. This should put an end to people bitching about bad episodes for awhile.

P.S. Who had Gyp beating a guy over the head with a shovel while he was buried alive on the beach?

It was doo-doo until the whole Mick-in-a-Box scene. This season has been horrid compared to the first two.

Disagree, for the quality of the acting alone if nothing else (with the exclusion of Gyp's scenes - they're generally poor all the way around). Granted much of what happened was a bit predictable and the exposition at the end was a bit hamhanded, but it's set up some interesting questions and situations to be resolved in the last 2 episodes (and beyond).I wonder if Gyp's henchman will be a ready conduit for facilitating his downfall after what happened in this episode. They can't end the Gyp storyline soon enough.

I agree with your take on Gyp. I just don't buy the character. I see what they're trying to do but it just isn't working.

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

are we assuming Nucky figured out the "affair" with Margaret's reaction?

I think that is a safe assumption, based on his facial reactions to her losing it.

Absolutely.

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

Mick-in-a-Box

No? Nothing? I was pretty proud of it. Screw you guys.

 

[Gr00vus]

Wow. This should put an end to people bitching about bad episodes for awhile.

P.S. Who had Gyp beating a guy over the head with a shovel while he was buried alive on the beach?

It was doo-doo until the whole Mick-in-a-Box scene. This season has been horrid compared to the first two.

Disagree, for the quality of the acting alone if nothing else (with the exclusion of Gyp's scenes - they're generally poor all the way around). Granted much of what happened was a bit predictable and the exposition at the end was a bit hamhanded, but it's set up some interesting questions and situations to be resolved in the last 2 episodes (and beyond).I wonder if Gyp's henchman will be a ready conduit for facilitating his downfall after what happened in this episode. They can't end the Gyp storyline soon enough.

I agree with your take on Gyp. I just don't buy the character. I see what they're trying to do but it just isn't working.

His scenes are always over the top, often cringe worthy in a "how did this make it past the editing stage" kind of way.

 

[Gr00vus]

Mick-in-a-Box

No? Nothing? I was pretty proud of it. Screw you guys.

No opinion until the Timberlake/Samberg video is released.

 

[gump]

I must have missed something. It's implied that Massaria was tipped off by Lucky and Lansky about Owen coming to the bath house to kill him. How would they have known the specifics? The only people in the room were Nucky, Eli, Owen, Mickey and the agent.

Exactly my first thought!?!?!Must have been the agent, Owen was the only one delivered.......

I thought two heads were in the box originally, but now that you mention it....probably not enough room for two in that box. That makes the rat pretty obvious.

 

[Otis]

This last episode was awesome. Agree with the comment in the link above about Van Alden. He was SO hateable just last season. Now the writers have me truly feeling sorry for me. That's some well done stuff.

 

[Evilgrin 72]

I must be on my own here, but I love Gyp. Every time he's on screen it's fun for me, waiting to see what innocuous comment is going to set him off and in what sadistic way the poor ******* who utters said comment will be executed. Plus, for some reason, I feel like I know Gyp. They really fleshed out his character.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

I must be on my own here, but I love Gyp. Every time he's on screen it's fun for me, waiting to see what innocuous comment is going to set him off and in what sadistic way the poor ******* who utters said comment will be executed. Plus, for some reason, I feel like I know Gyp. They really fleshed out his character.

It seems like the same gag over and over. He takes offense at some imagined slight at his intelligence, he kills or beats the #### out of someone. I like the scenes where he's not doing the "Oh, you think I'm stupid?" routine. The scene in his apartment with his wife and family was great.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

I must be on my own here, but I love Gyp. Every time he's on screen it's fun for me, waiting to see what innocuous comment is going to set him off and in what sadistic way the poor ******* who utters said comment will be executed. Plus, for some reason, I feel like I know Gyp. They really fleshed out his character.

It seems like the same gag over and over. He takes offense at some imagined slight at his intelligence, he kills or beats the #### out of someone. I like the scenes where he's not doing the "Oh, you think I'm stupid?" routine. The scene in his apartment with his wife and family was great.

Agreed. He is a bad caricature. His whole storyline is weak and forced. He takes over a town? Now he is jacking shipments at sea?

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

I must be on my own here, but I love Gyp. Every time he's on screen it's fun for me, waiting to see what innocuous comment is going to set him off and in what sadistic way the poor ******* who utters said comment will be executed. Plus, for some reason, I feel like I know Gyp. They really fleshed out his character.

And you have to wonder just how in the hell he hasn't been taken out by one of his own men yet. It seems like nobody in his crew is safe. Why be loyal to him? It's cartoonish to me that a psychopath like that would be able to hold power without providing his followers with some sort of benefits or rewards.

 

[Evilgrin 72]

I actually said to my wife last night : "Why would anyone work for this guy?" But, I'm not really too concerned with that kind of stuff in TV/movies - I can suspend disbelief fairly easily. I like the element of impending danger that he brings to every scene and he's an easily disposable nemesis for Nucky. Of course the character is off the charts cartoonish and over the top, but I guess I don't mind it.

Plus, that whole post was a setup for the last sentence.

 

[Gr00vus]

I must be on my own here, but I love Gyp. Every time he's on screen it's fun for me, waiting to see what innocuous comment is going to set him off and in what sadistic way the poor ******* who utters said comment will be executed. Plus, for some reason, I feel like I know Gyp. They really fleshed out his character.

And you have to wonder just how in the hell he hasn't been taken out by one of his own men yet. It seems like nobody in his crew is safe. Why be loyal to him? It's cartoonish to me that a psychopath like that would be able to hold power without providing his followers with some sort of benefits or rewards.

Have to believe his comeuppance is just about here though.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

I must be on my own here, but I love Gyp. Every time he's on screen it's fun for me, waiting to see what innocuous comment is going to set him off and in what sadistic way the poor ******* who utters said comment will be executed. Plus, for some reason, I feel like I know Gyp. They really fleshed out his character.

And you have to wonder just how in the hell he hasn't been taken out by one of his own men yet. It seems like nobody in his crew is safe. Why be loyal to him? It's cartoonish to me that a psychopath like that would be able to hold power without providing his followers with some sort of benefits or rewards.

Have to believe his comeuppance is just about here though.

Which, I think, is a bit of a flaw in the writing. Last year, there was no certainty to Jimmy buying it. It was certainly possible, but nobody really knew for sure. Same thing with Owen. As far as "deaths" go, I think the show suffers when they're foregone conclusions. Especially when we know how/when several of the historical characters are going to buy it.

 

[Gr00vus]

I must be on my own here, but I love Gyp. Every time he's on screen it's fun for me, waiting to see what innocuous comment is going to set him off and in what sadistic way the poor ******* who utters said comment will be executed. Plus, for some reason, I feel like I know Gyp. They really fleshed out his character.

And you have to wonder just how in the hell he hasn't been taken out by one of his own men yet. It seems like nobody in his crew is safe. Why be loyal to him? It's cartoonish to me that a psychopath like that would be able to hold power without providing his followers with some sort of benefits or rewards.

Have to believe his comeuppance is just about here though.

Which, I think, is a bit of a flaw in the writing. Last year, there was no certainty to Jimmy buying it. It was certainly possible, but nobody really knew for sure. Same thing with Owen. As far as "deaths" go, I think the show suffers when they're foregone conclusions. Especially when we know how/when several of the historical characters are going to buy it.

True, so maybe they go oppo with this and we're stuck with Gyp into next season. Mamma Mia!Actually, it might be nice to see what Capone does to this guy if they end up as adversaries.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

Harrow could probably snipe Gyp pretty easily. That small town doesn't seem to afford him much protection.

 

[Gr00vus]

Harrow could probably snipe Gyp pretty easily. That small town doesn't seem to afford him much protection.

That's the foregone conclusion I'm still eagerly anticipating - Harrow becoming Nucky's new enforcer.

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

Hell Bugsy came within a few inches of taking out Gyp.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

Hell Bugsy came within a few inches of taking out Gyp.

Yeah, one guy just pretending to be a paper boy. Scarface laughs at Gyp's amount of security.I could see Nucky cutting a deal with Chalky to take him out, in exchange for getting the club on the Boardwalk.

 

[Raider Nation]

are we assuming Nucky figured out the "affair" with Margaret's reaction?

I think that is a safe assumption, based on his facial reactions to her losing it.

Absolutely.

Yep.Her initial outburst was understandable. She just lost a friend with whom she had a shared background. But when the crying intensified, the camera panned to Nucky, and he clearly gave a 'WTF?' look.