***OFFICIAL*** Boardwalk Empire thread (4 Viewers)

[Dan Lambskin]

I'm going to throw up if Eli's kid becomes a major part of the stories moving forward. He has zero charisma.

He's going to be dead by season's end.

Hmmm. By Nucky's hand?

I'm thinking it will be his fault, and Eli will blame him regardless.

Bold prediction:Eli's last season

He's kind of a one-note character anyway.Angry, wronged Eli.

...

Yea he is...I kinda see him cooperating & as the Feds are about to take Nuck down in the finale, Eli gets murdered.

Hmmm. By Nucky's hand?

Elis son kills Eli and then Gyp hits him with a lasagna.

Bada bing bada boom

 

[Maurile Tremblay]

Arnold Rothstein was one of the country's most legendary gamblers. No way he would allow snot-nosed Nucky to own him in a high-stakes game like that.

I've got no problem with Rothstein losing. That happens to everyone. But he shouldn't have tilted so badly like that.

And does every poker scene in every TV show or movie (except for Rounders) always have to involve either a string raise or a failure to observe table stakes? "I need a marker so I can raise here" doesn't work.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

Arnold Rothstein was one of the country's most legendary gamblers. No way he would allow snot-nosed Nucky to own him in a high-stakes game like that.

I've got no problem with Rothstein losing. That happens to everyone. But he shouldn't have tilted so badly like that.

And does every poker scene in every TV show or movie (except for Rounders) always have to involve either a string raise or a failure to observe table stakes? "I need a marker so I can raise here" doesn't work.

My favorite part of Rounders was when Mikey got Johnny Chan to fold with a 4-bet (5-bet?). Playing with $6K behind. 300/600 blinds. Mmm-hmmm.

 

[flapgreen]

Arnold Rothstein was one of the country's most legendary gamblers. No way he would allow snot-nosed Nucky to own him in a high-stakes game like that.

I've got no problem with Rothstein losing. That happens to everyone. But he shouldn't have tilted so badly like that.

And does every poker scene in every TV show or movie (except for Rounders) always have to involve either a string raise or a failure to observe table stakes? "I need a marker so I can raise here" doesn't work.

yes

 

[Daywalker]

Arnold Rothstein was one of the country's most legendary gamblers. No way he would allow snot-nosed Nucky to own him in a high-stakes game like that.

I've got no problem with Rothstein losing. That happens to everyone. But he shouldn't have tilted so badly like that.

And does every poker scene in every TV show or movie (except for Rounders) always have to involve either a string raise or a failure to observe table stakes? "I need a marker so I can raise here" doesn't work.

yes

Was poker a hundred years ago played the same way regarding table stakes?

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Has anybody noticed the size of the monetary bills? They look huge to me. Was that their size back then?

 

[Balco]

Has anybody noticed the size of the monetary bills? They look huge to me. Was that their size back then?

Yes.

 

[Raider Nation]

Seems like the lapels on suits used to be quite a bit larger back then.

Women's butts, too.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Seems like the lapels on suits used to be quite a bit larger back then.

Women's butts, too.

:style: changes often. I wasn't sure how much the size of currency has in the last 90 years.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Why would nucky refuse to kill the Dr? He should mean nothing to him.

 

[Raider Nation]

Holy crap, what an amazing episode. Every once in a while we get a glimpse at what initially made this show so great.

Good idea seeking revenge on a psychopath who branded you with an iron.

 

[Daywalker]

Holy crap, what an amazing episode. Every once in a while we get a glimpse at what initially made this show so great.

Good idea seeking revenge on a psychopath who branded you with an iron.

Ah, i see now. I was confused. Wasn't sure if the guy seeking revenge was the guy who they pranked with the gun that backfired into his eye. Was wondering why he was going after Van Alden.

Yeah terrific episode. Harrow back in the fray. They finally did something with Van Alden.

Ron Livingston's character obviously up to something. Maybe he is law enforcement of some kind.

The Nicky Boyd beatdown and now an insurance premium seems a bit out of nowhere. Likely he has a role to play in these last few episodes of the season.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

I didn't really like this one. I think its just because the entire Dr. storyline just makes no sense and seems pointless. If it ends up leading to Chalky's demise, then it's even worse. The Gillian thing seems like a waste too.

I thought the Dr. was pulling a Sonny Corleone hit by beating the girl to lure Chalky out. I thought for sure he was getting killed in that room this time. Instead he goes and sits with Nucky and its timed perfectly that Chalky would go to the club to find the Dr? Then we end the episode with a phone call to the broad? Meh.

 

[The Ref]

Holy crap, what an amazing episode. Every once in a while we get a glimpse at what initially made this show so great.

Good idea seeking revenge on a psychopath who branded you with an iron.

We finally, after what seems like 18 seasons, got the VanAlden Heel turn.

I like where all of this is going.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

I was a bit confused about the O'Banion hit. Did Van Alden arrange it? Why not shoot him, himself?

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

I was a bit confused about the O'Banion hit. Did Van Alden arrange it? Why not shoot him, himself?

I think it's up in the air for the viewer right now. I took it as somebody else decided to take the mick out. They just beat Van Alden to it. Or not.

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

Seems like the lapels on suits used to be quite a bit larger back then.

Women's butts, too.

What's up with all the cars looking old and stuff?

 

[Dan Lambskin]

looks like Rothstien needs to start reading the FFAWT

 

[Gr00vus]

What year is it currently in the show?

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

What year is it currently in the show?

1924

 

[ericttspikes]

I was a bit confused about the O'Banion hit. Did Van Alden arrange it? Why not shoot him, himself?

They kept the O'Banion hit somewhat historically accurate and just worked the Van Alden storyline around it.

On November 3, 1924, Dean O'Banion inadvertently signed his own death warrant during an argumentative phone call to arch-rival Angelo Genna. Their disagreement originated at "The Ship", the gambling casino that the North Side gang boss owned along with the Torrio Syndicate. On this day, O'Banion sat in with Al Capone, Frank Nitti, Frank Rio, and others to tally the week's profits. It was mentioned that Angelo Genna had dropped a large amount of cash, plus a sizable marker. Capone recommended that they cancel the marker as a professional courtesy. O'Banion, instead, got Genna on the telephone and demanded that he pay his debt within a week. With this personal insult, Angelo Genna and his family could no longer be restrained.[3] Heretofore, Mike Merlo and the Unione Siciliana had refused to sanction a hit on O'Banion. However, Merlo had terminal cancer and died on November 8, 1924. With Merlo gone, the Gennas and South Siders were free to move on O'Banion.

Using the Merlo funeral as a cover story, over the next few days Brooklyn gangster Frankie Yale and others visited Schofield's, O'Banion's flower shop, to discuss floral arrangements. However, the real purpose of these visits was to memorize the store layout for the hit on O'Banion.

On the morning of November 10, 1924, O'Banion was clipping chrysanthemums in Schofield's back room. Yale entered the shop with Genna gunmen John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. When O'Banion and Yale shook hands, Yale grasped O'Banion's hand in a tight grip. At the same time, Scalise and Anselmi stepped aside and fired two bullets into O'Banion's chest and two into his throat. One of the killers fired a final shot into the back of his head as he lay face down on the floor.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

I was a bit confused about the O'Banion hit. Did Van Alden arrange it? Why not shoot him, himself?

They kept the O'Banion hit somewhat historically accurate and just worked the Van Alden storyline around it.

On November 3, 1924, Dean O'Banion inadvertently signed his own death warrant during an argumentative phone call to arch-rival Angelo Genna. Their disagreement originated at "The Ship", the gambling casino that the North Side gang boss owned along with the Torrio Syndicate. On this day, O'Banion sat in with Al Capone, Frank Nitti, Frank Rio, and others to tally the week's profits. It was mentioned that Angelo Genna had dropped a large amount of cash, plus a sizable marker. Capone recommended that they cancel the marker as a professional courtesy. O'Banion, instead, got Genna on the telephone and demanded that he pay his debt within a week. With this personal insult, Angelo Genna and his family could no longer be restrained.[3] Heretofore, Mike Merlo and the Unione Siciliana had refused to sanction a hit on O'Banion. However, Merlo had terminal cancer and died on November 8, 1924. With Merlo gone, the Gennas and South Siders were free to move on O'Banion.

Using the Merlo funeral as a cover story, over the next few days Brooklyn gangster Frankie Yale and others visited Schofield's, O'Banion's flower shop, to discuss floral arrangements. However, the real purpose of these visits was to memorize the store layout for the hit on O'Banion.

On the morning of November 10, 1924, O'Banion was clipping chrysanthemums in Schofield's back room. Yale entered the shop with Genna gunmen John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. When O'Banion and Yale shook hands, Yale grasped O'Banion's hand in a tight grip. At the same time, Scalise and Anselmi stepped aside and fired two bullets into O'Banion's chest and two into his throat. One of the killers fired a final shot into the back of his head as he lay face down on the floor.

All of these things and people are more interesting and entertaining that Dr. Whatever and Gillian the incestuous drug addict whore.

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

I was a bit confused about the O'Banion hit. Did Van Alden arrange it? Why not shoot him, himself?

They kept the O'Banion hit somewhat historically accurate and just worked the Van Alden storyline around it.

On November 3, 1924, Dean O'Banion inadvertently signed his own death warrant during an argumentative phone call to arch-rival Angelo Genna. Their disagreement originated at "The Ship", the gambling casino that the North Side gang boss owned along with the Torrio Syndicate. On this day, O'Banion sat in with Al Capone, Frank Nitti, Frank Rio, and others to tally the week's profits. It was mentioned that Angelo Genna had dropped a large amount of cash, plus a sizable marker. Capone recommended that they cancel the marker as a professional courtesy. O'Banion, instead, got Genna on the telephone and demanded that he pay his debt within a week. With this personal insult, Angelo Genna and his family could no longer be restrained.[3] Heretofore, Mike Merlo and the Unione Siciliana had refused to sanction a hit on O'Banion. However, Merlo had terminal cancer and died on November 8, 1924. With Merlo gone, the Gennas and South Siders were free to move on O'Banion.

Using the Merlo funeral as a cover story, over the next few days Brooklyn gangster Frankie Yale and others visited Schofield's, O'Banion's flower shop, to discuss floral arrangements. However, the real purpose of these visits was to memorize the store layout for the hit on O'Banion.

On the morning of November 10, 1924, O'Banion was clipping chrysanthemums in Schofield's back room. Yale entered the shop with Genna gunmen John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. When O'Banion and Yale shook hands, Yale grasped O'Banion's hand in a tight grip. At the same time, Scalise and Anselmi stepped aside and fired two bullets into O'Banion's chest and two into his throat. One of the killers fired a final shot into the back of his head as he lay face down on the floor.

Nice pull.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

I was a bit confused about the O'Banion hit. Did Van Alden arrange it? Why not shoot him, himself?

They kept the O'Banion hit somewhat historically accurate and just worked the Van Alden storyline around it.

On November 3, 1924, Dean O'Banion inadvertently signed his own death warrant during an argumentative phone call to arch-rival Angelo Genna. Their disagreement originated at "The Ship", the gambling casino that the North Side gang boss owned along with the Torrio Syndicate. On this day, O'Banion sat in with Al Capone, Frank Nitti, Frank Rio, and others to tally the week's profits. It was mentioned that Angelo Genna had dropped a large amount of cash, plus a sizable marker. Capone recommended that they cancel the marker as a professional courtesy. O'Banion, instead, got Genna on the telephone and demanded that he pay his debt within a week. With this personal insult, Angelo Genna and his family could no longer be restrained.[3] Heretofore, Mike Merlo and the Unione Siciliana had refused to sanction a hit on O'Banion. However, Merlo had terminal cancer and died on November 8, 1924. With Merlo gone, the Gennas and South Siders were free to move on O'Banion.

Using the Merlo funeral as a cover story, over the next few days Brooklyn gangster Frankie Yale and others visited Schofield's, O'Banion's flower shop, to discuss floral arrangements. However, the real purpose of these visits was to memorize the store layout for the hit on O'Banion.

On the morning of November 10, 1924, O'Banion was clipping chrysanthemums in Schofield's back room. Yale entered the shop with Genna gunmen John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. When O'Banion and Yale shook hands, Yale grasped O'Banion's hand in a tight grip. At the same time, Scalise and Anselmi stepped aside and fired two bullets into O'Banion's chest and two into his throat. One of the killers fired a final shot into the back of his head as he lay face down on the floor.

All of these things and people are more interesting and entertaining that Dr. Whatever and Gillian the incestuous drug addict whore.

You are a disgrace to all Libyans.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

I was a bit confused about the O'Banion hit. Did Van Alden arrange it? Why not shoot him, himself?

They kept the O'Banion hit somewhat historically accurate and just worked the Van Alden storyline around it.

On November 3, 1924, Dean O'Banion inadvertently signed his own death warrant during an argumentative phone call to arch-rival Angelo Genna. Their disagreement originated at "The Ship", the gambling casino that the North Side gang boss owned along with the Torrio Syndicate. On this day, O'Banion sat in with Al Capone, Frank Nitti, Frank Rio, and others to tally the week's profits. It was mentioned that Angelo Genna had dropped a large amount of cash, plus a sizable marker. Capone recommended that they cancel the marker as a professional courtesy. O'Banion, instead, got Genna on the telephone and demanded that he pay his debt within a week. With this personal insult, Angelo Genna and his family could no longer be restrained.[3] Heretofore, Mike Merlo and the Unione Siciliana had refused to sanction a hit on O'Banion. However, Merlo had terminal cancer and died on November 8, 1924. With Merlo gone, the Gennas and South Siders were free to move on O'Banion.

Using the Merlo funeral as a cover story, over the next few days Brooklyn gangster Frankie Yale and others visited Schofield's, O'Banion's flower shop, to discuss floral arrangements. However, the real purpose of these visits was to memorize the store layout for the hit on O'Banion.

On the morning of November 10, 1924, O'Banion was clipping chrysanthemums in Schofield's back room. Yale entered the shop with Genna gunmen John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. When O'Banion and Yale shook hands, Yale grasped O'Banion's hand in a tight grip. At the same time, Scalise and Anselmi stepped aside and fired two bullets into O'Banion's chest and two into his throat. One of the killers fired a final shot into the back of his head as he lay face down on the floor.

All of these things and people are more interesting and entertaining that Dr. Whatever and Gillian the incestuous drug addict whore.

You are a disgrace to all Libyans.

Indeed.

 

[Brady Marino]

THIS is the Van Alden I've been waiting for!

 

[Brady Marino]

I was a bit confused about the O'Banion hit. Did Van Alden arrange it? Why not shoot him, himself?

They kept the O'Banion hit somewhat historically accurate and just worked the Van Alden storyline around it.

On November 3, 1924, Dean O'Banion inadvertently signed his own death warrant during an argumentative phone call to arch-rival Angelo Genna. Their disagreement originated at "The Ship", the gambling casino that the North Side gang boss owned along with the Torrio Syndicate. On this day, O'Banion sat in with Al Capone, Frank Nitti, Frank Rio, and others to tally the week's profits. It was mentioned that Angelo Genna had dropped a large amount of cash, plus a sizable marker. Capone recommended that they cancel the marker as a professional courtesy. O'Banion, instead, got Genna on the telephone and demanded that he pay his debt within a week. With this personal insult, Angelo Genna and his family could no longer be restrained.[3] Heretofore, Mike Merlo and the Unione Siciliana had refused to sanction a hit on O'Banion. However, Merlo had terminal cancer and died on November 8, 1924. With Merlo gone, the Gennas and South Siders were free to move on O'Banion.

Using the Merlo funeral as a cover story, over the next few days Brooklyn gangster Frankie Yale and others visited Schofield's, O'Banion's flower shop, to discuss floral arrangements. However, the real purpose of these visits was to memorize the store layout for the hit on O'Banion.

On the morning of November 10, 1924, O'Banion was clipping chrysanthemums in Schofield's back room. Yale entered the shop with Genna gunmen John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. When O'Banion and Yale shook hands, Yale grasped O'Banion's hand in a tight grip. At the same time, Scalise and Anselmi stepped aside and fired two bullets into O'Banion's chest and two into his throat. One of the killers fired a final shot into the back of his head as he lay face down on the floor.

All of these things and people are more interesting and entertaining that Dr. Whatever and Gillian the incestuous drug addict whore.

You are a disgrace to all Libyans.

The only way I will be happy with Gillian's storyline this season is if she's dragged to death from the back of a pickup.

 

[zander_s]

Mr. White tells Nucky he'll give him a 'minute'? Certainly that slang phrase wasn't around back then. Or did he literally mean 1 minute?

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

Mr. White tells Nucky he'll give him a 'minute'? Certainly that slang phrase wasn't around back then. Or did he literally mean 1 minute?

Why would you think that?

 

[zander_s]

I believe a minute was a minute. Not today where a minute could be a year.

"I'll be there in a minute" vs " I haven't seen you in a minute"

Maybe just youngsters around here?

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

I believe a minute was a minute. Not today where a minute could be a year.

"I'll be there in a minute" vs " I haven't seen you in a minute"

Maybe just youngsters around here?

Cite?

 

[zander_s]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=minute

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=minute

Really?

 

[zander_s]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=minute

Really?

Something to the contrary?

 

[belljr]

they left out the entry for a 7 footer that shoots 3's

 

[UniAlias]

I believe a minute was a minute. Not today where a minute could be a year.

"I'll be there in a minute" vs " I haven't seen you in a minute"

Maybe just youngsters around here?

I think "minute" has been slang for quite awhile.. Your confusion may be in the phrase "I haven't (or, ain't) seen you in a minute", which as far as I know is relatively new slang. I don't think the context in which Chalky used the word applies to the newer phrase though.

 

[Raider Nation]

"My name isn't Mueller. I'm not legally married to my wife. I used to believe in God. But now I don't believe in anything at all." -Van Alden"Marriage and Hunting" is an hour full of low moments for several familiar "Boardwalk" faces. Van Alden is busy being emasculated by Sigrid and two different sets of wiseguys, and he blows two different chances to assassinate Dean O'Banion, though another gang performs the service for him. Arnold Rothstein is broke, thanks to his gambling habit and the trickeration of Margaret's stockbroker boss. (It turns out Rothstein wasn't running a scam on the guy, just trying to anonymously invest his ill-gotten gains.) Chalky's fixation on Daughter Maitland leads him to risk his family and his livelihood — and and, maybe down the road, his life. It's a tough hour full of angry men doing self-destructive things, and you can understand why, by the end of it, Nucky might be so damn tired of it all that he just wants to run away and hang out with Sally in the wilds of Tampa.

This is the first we've seen of Van Alden in about a month, but the writers and Michael Shannon quickly make up for lost time. There have been periods over the last two seasons where it's felt like Terry Winter and company didn't want to lose Shannon, even though they'd written Van Alden into a corner, and so they invented this new character he could play, tenuously linked to the old one. Shannon's great, so I haven't minded much, but it's been a while since George Mueller reminded me of the intimidating religious zealot cop we met at the beginning of the series. Every now and then there would be an outburst, like his assault on the iron salesman — who turned up here to foil Van Alden's first attempted hit on O'Banion, and who died for the trouble (and for reminding Van Alden of one of the more mortifying periods of his own existence) — but mostly, circumstance had turned him into a meek man trying to keep his head down so no one would notice him. His final scene with O'Banion — before history overrode fiction and a trio of gunmen (in real life, working for local wiseguy Angelo Genna) came into the flower shop to kill him — revealed the simmering, resentful Van Alden lurking underneath the Mueller mask, and gave us some insight into how he's genuinely changed, as opposed to how he acts to stay hidden. He's done being a punching bag — much to the delight of Sigrid, who seems to prefer this more commanding husband to the timid one she bossed around — and it'll be interesting to see how he copes with the volatility and bullying of Al Capone (who always looks so tiny next to him) going forward.

Van Alden at least seems to be in a good place by episode's end, even if he wasn't the one to take out O'Banion. Chalky is in full self-destruction mode, blind to how much his wife and children are aware of what he's doing, of how difficult a frontal assault on a man like Narcisse might be, and of how much he's jeopardizing his partnership with Nucky. Though Narcisse isn't entirely in his right mind after Daughter's betrayal. Not only does he turn her face into pulp (damaging a valuable asset to his operation), but he insists on sitting with Nucky in the front row of the Cotton Club, which should be his right but is not at this moment in time; if Chalky hadn't come in to make a big scene (calling back to earlier Chalky/Narcisse discussions about Chalky running a club he's not allowed to sit in), I suspect one of the white customers would have done so within moments. Dynamite work from Michael Kenneth Williams and Jeffrey Wright throughout; at this point, I'm resigned to losing at least one of them by season's end, but I sure hope it's not both.

There's been a jungle motif to a lot of scenes throughout this arc about Narcisse, Chalky and the Onyx Club, which fits the style of the time: black performers were considered exotic, and black acts aimed at white audiences tried their best to play that up, as happens with the dancing girls who futilely try to distract the audience from Chalky's tantrum. But we also see Owney Madden admiring a spear in Narcisse's office, and the final scene with Nucky and Sally on the phone plays up the wild, tropical environs of Tampa at the time; Sally's basically sleeping out in the kind of jungle where it only makes sense to cradle a shotgun in bed.

I don't know if the creative team meant to draw a line from this one part of the story to another, but if Nucky is understandably eager to escape all the headaches of his current operation, we're reminded in the final shot that this new destination would have its own major hassles.

Some other thoughts:

* It took about a year longer than I might have once expected, but Richard finally seeks a job from Nucky — who knows very well how useful it would be to have a man like this on the payroll. More important at the moment — and far more heart-warming — is Julia and Richard's decision to get married, both to help win the custody fight and because they do genuinely like each other. Julia proposing to Richard was a nice touch, not just because Richard is so inherently shy, but because it fits the show's pattern of featuring female characters who are far bolder than the norm for the period.

* I really appreciated the way director Ed Bianchi staged the moment where Narcisse first strikes Daughter, where it's shot in so close that we can appreciate the motion and understand what's been done without being given yet another shot of a man beating on a woman. It got the point across without feeling trite or exploitative.

* Nine episodes into the season, we get our first real sign that Roy is, indeed, too good to be true, as we catch a snippet of a shady phone call he doesn't want Gillian to know about. Is he just running a long con on her? If so, what assets does Gillian even have to give up? Nobody wants the Commodore's house?

* Also, Gillian's confession to Roy was interesting, not only because it's the second time this season where a character was that open about their biography (the first was Nucky with Sally when he talked about missing his politician days), but because it's as close to the truth as Gillian's probably capable of getting at this point, both in terms of legality and her self-perception. There are some things about her relationship with Jimmy that she will speak of to no man, ever.

* Let children be children: Gillian is raped by the Commodore at 13, and it shapes the entire rest of her life, for good and (mostly) for ill. Arnold Rothstein wins 32 bucks playing craps as a 9-year-old, and it does the same.

* I hope Nucky scolding Chalky about not getting too distracted by a mistress was meant to be ironic. His obsession with Billie Kent did, after all, keep his attention away from business for a large chunk of last season, while Gyp Rosetti was busy making moves on his entire operation.

* No Agent Tolliver this week, but it seems clear Eli is on the team, given his attempts to get intelligence out of Nucky.

* While other members of the cast have gotten more to do as more prominent characters have bumped of, Mickey Doyle has stayed pretty much in place, though I appreciate that Paul Sparks and the writers have toned him down from a cartoon into a more human-scale irritant. Nucky's discussion of how many people would be eager to help him cash in the life insurance policy was among the funnier bits Buscemi has gotten to play in what's usually a much more straight-laced role.

 

[biggamer3]

Holy crap, Van Alden finally pays off. I was seriously getting a Heisenberg vibe from him. He is such a good actor, I hope he is an integral part of this show going forward.

Love this season, but like everyone said, the Dr. And Gillian are boring me in every one of their scenes, there are so many awesome characters, stop focusing on the dead end ones!

 

[Daywalker]

So Rothstein fell for that real-estate deal Macdonald's boss was floating?

 

[Brady Marino]

So Rothstein fell for that real-estate deal Macdonald's boss was floating?

Watching it again right now. Sounds like his heroin partnership with Joe Mazzeria (sp?) went south for him.

 

[biggamer3]

So Rothstein fell for that real-estate deal Macdonald's boss was floating?

Watching it again right now. Sounds like his heroin partnership with Joe Mazzeria (sp?) went south for him.

I thought his gambling was costing him everything. Didn't we see him lose like 500K to Nucky that night?

Also the DR. mentioned Rothstein being out of the heroin trade i believe, so you are probably right.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

Yeah, I think it's a downswing across several fronts.

 

[Brady Marino]

"My name is Nelson Van Alden. *makes it rain* Take off your nightgown."

Easily my favorite moment of this season.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

"My name is Nelson Van Alden. *makes it rain* Take off your nightgown."

Easily my favorite moment of this season.

"Pop that hairy lutefisk, girl."

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

So now Chalky is going to think Nucky ordered the hit and Chalky is going to end up dead. ### ####it. I wish Will was given the order to take out the Dr. instead of this weird game going on. Dr. seems to be more important than he should be to me. Nuck should have been able to talk to Masseria without the Dr there.

 

[fantasycurse42]

So now Chalky is going to think Nucky ordered the hit and Chalky is going to end up dead. ### ####it. I wish Will was given the order to take out the Dr. instead of this weird game going on. Dr. seems to be more important than he should be to me. Nuck should have been able to talk to Masseria without the Dr there.

Completely agree, don't see the need for the Dr there, especially considering Masseria's hate for Libyans... I thought that was it for Chalky, glad to see he pulled through - gives me some hope he might not be done yet... I really don't want Narcisse making it out of this season.

 

[Raider Nation]

Bullets fly often in "White Horse Pike," which features a pair of failed assassination attempts on Dr. Narcisse and Al Capone, Agent Tolliver murdering one of Nucky's drivers just because he can and Chalky battling two Atlantic City cops inside a moving car on an isolated country road. And it concludes with the now-familiar image of Nucky, Eli and their guys arming up for the inevitable bloodshed to come.And the episode is very good at the action, in the way that "Boardwalk Empire" usually is. The assault on Narcisse's headquarters, for instance, concludes with a marvelous shot — by both director Jake Paltrow and Dr. Narcisse himself — of Chalky diving into a getaway car just as a bullet hits him in the shoulder.

But what drives the series, and makes episodes like this one so satisfying, are those moments before the guns come out, when deals are being cut, alliances are being formed, and very smart men (and, occasionally, women) have to decide whether the offer on the table is better than the arrangement they already have — and, just as importantly, whether the offer is real at all.

Several of the season's notable movements start to converge here, as the Chalky/Narcisse feud connects with Nucky's new Tampa operation, thanks to Joe Masseria, who has an arrangement with Narcisse and who has used his cousin and Lansky and Luciano to smuggle heroin on Nucky's trucks. Nucky and Narcisse have already had one heated confrontation — where Narcisse's temper swallows up his cultured tones and replaces them with a harder, more working-class Caribbean accent, and where Nucky finally gets to ask this intrusive black man, "Who the #### do you think you are?" — before Narcisse is able to compose himself and re-enter the Onyx Club with his Italian allies from New York. The negotiation is a fascinating one because we don't know to what extent Nucky will go to protect Chalky (especially after all the talk of how the Onyx Club itself repaid the debt Nucky owed him from last season), just as we don't know how willing Masseria and Narcisse are to live and let live, given how Mr. Thompson has gravely insulted the both of them.

Nucky appears to take the offer, but only to buy time for Chalky to get out of town — not realizing that Narcisse has already co-opted another of his allies and that he's sending Chalky into a death trap — and one has to wonder what the next step of his plan would have been if Mayor Bader hadn't changed loyalties(*). Was another war with Masseria inevitable no matter what? And given that Masseria is one of the show's real-life wiseguys, is it now inevitable that Narcisse will be sacrificed so that Nucky can claim some kind of victory here? Whatever happens, it's an interesting role reversal from a year ago, when it was Nucky bringing trouble to Chalky's doorstep, and perhaps fitting for a season where Nucky has been treated a bit more as a member of the ensemble rather than the unquestioned lead.

(*) And remember that Bader was one of the few members of Nucky's inner circle to stick with him during Jimmy's coup attempt in season 2. Also, Bader doesn't know he's just teamed up with the man responsible for the corpse dumped on one of his construction sites earlier this season.

I note sometimes that this mixture of real and fictional gangsters can be a tricky one for the show. The average viewer may not have intimate knowledge of Al Capone's story, or Meyer Lansky's, but I suspect if you care enough about the period to watch "Boardwalk" at all, you know that Capone's not going to die from machine gun fire on a sunny day in 1924. But both that assassination attempt(**) and the scene where Nucky threatens to have Lansky shot and dumped in a hole both had the requisite amount of tension, the former because it was staged so well, the latter because Anatol Yusuf sure as hell sold Lansky's fear of dying, even as I knew he was safe for the time being.

(**) A few episodes ago, Van Alden was on the verge of murdering Capone just to get him out of his life. Here, he saves him. Was this just cop instinct taking over, or has he moved up so much in the world thanks to Capone that he wants his new boss to stick around?

Not all of the deals being cut have violent consequences: Margaret and Arnold Rothstein get to enjoy a nice meal together, each coming out of it with exactly what they want: a nice rent-free apartment for Margaret and the kids, and some illegal stock tips for Rothstein. This one feels a bit like Van Alden's arc from a year ago, where the show is moving Margaret into a position where she can be more useful in the following season, but I enjoyed seeing Rothstein in a negotiation where he had no animus for the other party.

And while all of this is going on, Eli's busy being squeezed by a frustrated Agent Tolliver. We find out here that he's trying to string the G-man along with bogus info — as he was the one who went to Chicago last season to recruit Capone for the Masseria war, he knows damn well what's up with Torrio's organization — and Tolliver unsurprisingly does not appreciate this when he figures it out. But unlike some previous law enforcement gambits against Nucky's organization, this one feels fairly escapable, both because Tolliver isn't quite all there (shooting the driver in the head, after previously setting up Agent Sawicki to get killed back in the premiere) and because J. Edgar Hoover is much less concerned with the real threat of organized crime than he is about the idea of blacks and other minority groups seeking a place at the table.

Dr. Narcisse is, of course, affiliated with Marcus Garvey — taking advantage of Garvey's organization to peddle his dope — and I wonder if Agent Tolliver might have more luck getting the boss's attention if he notes that one of the many mobsters about to go to war in Atlantic City has much darker skin than the rest.

Some other thoughts:

* I assumed Nucky would quickly put Richard to work as a hired gun; instead, he's a lowly dishwasher at the Onyx Club, though Chalky looks on him favorably for Richard's help in dealing with the KKK problem back in season 2. We have to assume that, as we saw during his Midwest travels at the start of this season, Richard wants to be done with killing — otherwise, Nucky or Chalky would just send him to deal with the Narcisse problem by himself. It almost feels in a way like Winter and company realized just what an omnipotent killing machine they made Richard into with the assault on the Commodore's mansion last season, and the only way to keep every plot from being resolved by having someone ask Richard to get his guns is to make Richard not want to use violence anymore. Of course, I don't think his pacifist phase will last forever.

* I also wondered why Chalky called Richard, rather than Sam, when he had a gunshot wound, but we get part of the answer later when his daughter tells Narcisse that Sam (or, rather, Sam's mom) broke off the engagement.

* In a nice moment of the season starting to come full circle, Nucky tells Chalky about Rothstein's advice about a man's difficulty sitting quietly in a room. Nucky himself has been unable to heed that wisdom.

* Jake Paltrow's a new director for the show — though he has ties to Tim Van Patten, one of many "White Shadow" actors who were mentored into directing by Jake's father Bruce — and he did a fine job here. Would not object at all if he were to be added to the show's regular rotation.

 

[biggamer3]

Great episode, but hated how Chalky stopped shooting before their target wad confirmed dead and the fact they walked back without looking over their shoulders. Also anyone who thought chalky was dying today has lost his marbles, only way chalky dies is if another major player takes him out, not some low level punk.

 

[Daywalker]

Odd that Chalky controls his neighborhood but seemingly has no crew. He's got the singer chick and Harrow, who he barely knows, as his backup. Chalky leaving his own town and family doesn't make sense either. Last season Chalky is protecting Nucky from Gyp's crew now he is running for his life from the doctor? Sloppy.

 

[biggamer3]

Odd that Chalky controls his neighborhood but seemingly has no crew. He's got the singer chick and Harrow, who he barely knows, as his backup. Chalky leaving his own town and family doesn't make sense either. Last season Chalky is protecting Nucky from Gyp's crew now he is running for his life from the doctor? Sloppy.

agree that they are getting sloppy with the chalky and Dr feud. If anything the Dr should be on the run and chalky should be out and about since chalky supposedly has the area under his finger. Can the stupid Dr just die already, he over acts every scene he's in.