I AM IRON MAN!!!

When it comes to influence on Boardwalk Empire, few characters command more than Nucky Thompson. On "The Pony," though, Nucky was made to feel like a donkey when he deceived his way into an audience with Andrew Mellon.

Nucky does not buck easy, as we know, and he held his ground in the face of the pompous politician, striking an important deal.

Thanks to the Mr. Means setting him him up as some Prohibition version of Abe Froman, Nucky settled his legal issues with Daugherty. But his personal life took a turn for the worse after Billie's would-be costar "Sheik Whose Bin Fartin" insulted him. More on Nucky later, but first let's get into this.

In one of the craziest scenes we've seen this season, Van Alden went Jerry Maguire and then some as he finally let off some "steam" at work.

There was so much amazing in this one scene.

Luckily for Van Creepy, his wife is one nimble Norwegian and proved she is as good at running a still as she is as raising a family. With Van Alden coming unhinged as he listened to his debt to O'Bannion diminish drip by drip, she did well to devise a plan to hold their family together.

Can't even begin to talk about this guy and the steam powered dildo comment.

Al Capone seemed to recognize him at their meeting to discuss Joe Miller, though, so I'm guessing we will see a run in between those two again at some point. Maybe Nelson will eventually become actual muscle for the fraudulent florist.

Torrio was back from his holiday with a new lease on life. He tried to convey to O'Banion how life is too short to kill yourself over a few dollars, but the message behind his anecdote fell on deaf ears.  Capone seemed perplexed as well by his newly insouciant mentor's attitude, but I think he also started to see the writing on the wall. Torrio was more concerned with osso bucco than bootlegging and may hand over control of the business to his protege. Recall how he focused on Al's decision making when the matter of Joe Miller came up.

While it seemed Al Capone was being prepped to jump in the driver's seat, Margaret was ready to literally take the wheel when she asked Owen to teach her how to drive. Reminded me of that scene from Boyz-N-the-Hood when Tre is telling Furious about the girl he picked up.

While I like seeing Margaret become a more independent woman, the time spent on her quest to educate the pregnant masses has expired like the milk Mrs. Shearer admitted to drinking on purpose. I understand it was a difficult time for women, but with all the interesting story lines demanding screen time, to dedicate multiple scenes to the discussion of acquiring diaphragms was a bit much.

Gillian was looking for some protection of her own as she casually mentioned to Gyp Rosetti where Nucky and Arnold Rothstein would be dining together. Did you notice the look Gyp gave his boy after he made the comment about Gyp's wife? Amazing!

Then Richard appeared to tell her the bar was restocked. While his message to her was of little importance, I have a feeling Gyp may have shaken the hand of and dismissed with an insult about scaring mice, the man that will do him in at some point. I also think we'll see Richard become Tommy's guardian after he takes out Gillian too.

Nucky showed little patience with Eddie his butler when he broke the "news" that Jimmy was dead.

But he was willing to play along as Gillian played the role of the grieving mother. When all pretenses were dropped, however, there was no mincing words. She looked as good as she ever has when she threw the drink in his face (Can't blame Lucky for taking one last run at her "Come on I'll give you a nice hard fuk like you like.")

I'm sure inside Nucky must have been like...

But I loved how he kept his cool and LOVED how he reminded her of just WHO she was dealing with. His speech was maybe my favorite Boardwalk Empire quotes this week.
Nucky: You exist in this town because I allow you to. All in all I'd say that's-
Gillian: Very generous of you.
Nucky: You'd be wise to say that like you mean it.

One of the funniest moments of the episode was when Nucky introduced himself to Andrew Mellon at the midtown Manhattan social club and got zero recognition. As I mentioned before, he did give Mellon something to contemplate, but then was labeled an interloper and forced from the premises. Nucky achieved what he had gone there to do, but it was clear the way he was disrespected stuck with him as he in turn called Billie's friend Gil an interloper after their fisticuffs.

As things with Billie have deteriorated, it has become quite clear over the last couple weeks that Nucky is looking for a change in his life. He contended that people always want something new, but in his case I think he is yearning for the way things were. What life is he trying to recapture though? The one he had with Margaret, or has he always been trying to fill the void left by the passing of his wife and son years ago? Or is the Fed Lawyer next on his twist list?

Whichever it is, after the closing scene, I'm sure Nucky is just happy to be alive even though Billie most likely is not. Being in business with Nucky is starting to be as dangerous as partnering up with SAMCRO on Sons of Anarchy. The guy had never had a hard time with the ladies despite looking like a M-80 went off in his mouth.

Perhaps the saddest part of the episode was seeing the explosion at Babette's.

                          

Yeah Billie most likely got killed, but that's not what got me emotional. Over the years we've seen the supper club to be one of the most fun places on the planet and it's namesake was perhaps the sexiest female on the show despite her limited screen time.

Hopefully she survived and we get to follow her road to recovery but just in case she didn't I wanted to take a moment to reflect on a woman who just knew how to throw down with the best of 'em.

I think that's about it for me, so I'm gonna just casually say goodbye like nothing happened and open up the boards to see what you thought.