50 Shades of Gyp

More than a few characters were caught with their pants down this week on Boardwalk Empire, some figuratively and others all too literally.

At the onset of "You'd Be Surprised," the sight of a creaking headboard should not have shocked anyone familiar with the show, but seeing Gyp Rosetti's fetish for erotic asphyxiation revealed may have caused some heads to do the confused dog head tilt. It is interesting that the man who has no doubt snuffed out the lives so many men gets off by being choked to within an inch of losing his. At least he remembered the cardinal rule and made sure to use a spotter. I wonder what their safe word was? Sauce! Linguine?

If Gillian's house of ill repute does not offer services like those Gyp's waitress was dishing out, maybe she should think about adding them to the menu. Gyp's appetite alone might bring in enough to get that roof fixed. Something needs to give if she is to keep that blissful escape from reality, which she described to Leander open till business picks up again in the summer.

Gillian: This place Leander, it's meant to be a dream. Every man who walks inside is young and handsome. Every girl is innocent, trusting and devoted. The light is flattering, the air is perfumed and nothing ever changes. Who doesn't need to believe that? Just for a little while.

If Gillian won't open her eyes to the obvious truth about Jimmy's fate, though, it won't really matter.
Denial is not a river in Egypt and Gillian was not the only one showing forbearance for the truth this week. Van Alden tried to come clean to Sigrid, but she set him straight before he could. Her willingness to consciously ignore the truth, for a fabrication instead, made me wonder if she also has run from something in her past.

I have been wondering what would reunite Nelson with the florist O'Banion and here I got my answer.

Nothing brings people together like a dead body. Where is Dexter Morgan when you need him? I bet Richard Harrow could have told Nelson how to get rid of his unsatisfied customer. With the ex-fed in the Irish gangster's pocket now, I'd gather we will see him and Capone cross paths in the near future.

Getting back to shoddy service, Arnold Rothstein delivered some of his best material while discussing his disappointment in Nucky's organization and enterprise. He was visceral while fighting with Nucky as Owen and Lucky waited outside like children, but still was not above insulting himself mildly at the sit down with Gyp where he commented on the paleness of his albeit thick skin.


I liked seeing Nucky not back down an inch and fire back the way he did after Arnold insulted the great Garden State, but I hope deep down he knows Rothstein is much more than just a good poker face.
Owen and Lucky may have been told to "go watch the TV while Mommy and Daddy talk," but they each had some great moments of their own.

The two best of which were when Owen corrected Rothstein's comments about Rosetti, "he burned the sheriff," and when Lucky added his "sticks and stones" line at the Rosetti sit down.

I had wondered what Owen was referring to when he mentioned to Nucky that he did not like "it" being out of their hands. I guess he was talking about the attempt to take out Gyp falling on the young shoulders of Bugsy. Did you notice Rothstein's eyebrows perk up when Gyp told the newsy his room number earlier in the episode? That was a nice bit of foreshadowing.

I have gotten little enjoyment out of Margaret's storyline this season, but this week I found myself more intrigued. Perhaps it was because I felt a little heartache for her. She is alone while Nucky, Owen and her pipe smoking doctor all have someone romantically.

I did like how, despite her modesty, she really did seem to know everything Nucky was thinking. Her comment about Nucky struggling with Billie being able to take care of herself was spot on. She certainly is the less needy version of Lucy. Lets just hope she doesn't start calling Nucky "Daddy."

Chalky played a serious game of Who's Your Daddy when he and Don Purnsley got Eddie Cantor to fall in line without so much as raising their voices let alone their fists. Such a small but powerful scene those two delivered. The tension was tenable as "Milky" just played it calm and cool.

Things are getting tense in Washington too, demanding more screen time for Mr. Means and his assortment of phrases and his oh-so-unique style of delivering them. 

Also making the most of his limited screen time was good old Eddie K., who came a knocking on Nucky's door but still felt compelled to announce that it was he who had done the rapping. Thanks Jeeves.








This week ended with the state of things very far from Hunky Dory. If Nucky thought Gyp a mad dog before, wait till they get a load of him after a botched attempt on his life. He is going to make Cujo look like Odie from Garfield.


Did you notice how he used the redheaded waitress as a human shield when Bugsy burst into the room? Guy is ruthless but a survivor. Also had no problem letting his chain hang while returning fire in the hallway with the belt still around his neck.

Lastly how bout the shout out to LOST. Probably not intended to be so, but I couldn't help notice that in both shows the heroin was smuggled inside religious statues.

What did you all think?

Who's The Boss?

Boardwalk Empire served up one of its best installments this week wouldn't you agree Angeler? How bout you Mona?

While there was a little inconsistency at times with the show's main man Nucky, "Blue Bell Boy" delivered in so many other ways that in the end it didn't really matter.

Right off the bat, for the first time, we were introduced to a character who has had a "head" in the game for awhile now and has proved to be stiff competition for Nucky. Who am I talking about?

Even in the days of Prohibition, couples had nicknames for their partners bits and pieces I guess. Katie seemed to be a fan as she pleaded with her Irishman to let her kiss the Blarney Stone one more time before he went off to work.

Last week Nucky spoke of how he wanted his business to run itself, how he wanted to be free from all the little mundane decision making and the stress it causes him. This week, however, he was back micromanaging more than ever consorting with the help like he was one of the guys.

Owen's concern about involving the feds, crooked or not, was a valid point to make. Owen, you could see, has taken on more responsibility; he now has guys coming to speak to him in whispers. This was not lost on Nucky and why I'm sure he felt it so important to send Owen a message by shooting young Roland Smith.

I was surprised when that scene eventually went down the way it did. Maybe Roland should have called Nucky a little sooner.

I sort of thought Roland was going to be the new Jimmy and maybe even give Nucky a second chance to set things right in a way, but no sir. Proving he was one hundred percent in the game has taken its toll on him and he wasn't about to lose that street cred by letting some thief off the hook, no matter how charming or resourceful he proved to be.

It is easy to get lulled into thinking these men are really good at heart. Like when Roland recounted how Nucky had given his mother a Christmas turkey like an early day Nino Brown.

In a way, they can't afford to be, because that is when someone will come and take everything away. That is why we saw the normally collected Rothstein get as agitated as we've seen him when he called looking for his shipment and had to talk with the likes of Mickey.

Lucky saw this first hand when he tried to appeal to Masseria, who had known him as a boy. It is all well and good for these young men to strike out on their own, but they need not forget from whose table they were fed on their rise to manhood. I very much enjoyed the exchange between Luciano and Lansky after they asked a disgruntled Benny to leave the room. The juxtaposition of personalities, where we saw Lucky telling Meyer to not be so hot headed for once, was great. I also got the feeling that as Lucky left for that meeting, Meyer wondered if that might be the last time he ever sees his friend and partner.

Al Capone has been able to control his temper for the most part under Torrio's watch. Having heard about Sonny being bullied at school, when he saw what happened to Jake, Al couldn't keep that temper inside any longer.

 

What an array of scenes we got this week from him. Some fans no doubt had to avert their eyes as he took out his anger over Sonny and Jake on Joe Miller, while others like myself were reaching for tissues during the two tender scenes he shared with his hearing impaired son. I loved the way he tossed the cash on the bar and told the onlookers to pay for the dead bums funeral.

How funny was the initial scene with Al and Jake though when he told the bagman he smelled like a sardine's twat? Anyone else think "shmutz" meant something else when Capone asked Jake what the sticky stuff on the money was? Especially given the game of corn nut-corn hole going on in the background.

Gyp kept delivering the funny again this week and had a number of memorable quotes involving the diner's waitresses.

I don't think he'll have any trouble showing that ginger how to make sauce based on her reaction do you?

His buddy that noted that they should do the shipment of booze at night was lucky to get out alive seeing how we know Gyp to have beaten men for far less of a shot to his fragile ego. 

Speaking of being unnecessarily offended, Margaret's conversation with the nun was very amusing and finally put a somewhat interesting spin on her storyline this season finally.

It is hard to believe that an episode that did not feature Chalky or Richard could be so memorable, but tonight's certainly qualified. Richard seems to be plenty busy on his own expecting the birth of his first child with his girlfriend.

It's Always Personal

At the close of last season, Nucky put a bullet in Jimmy to show he wasn't some half way gangster without any blood on his hands. On "Bone For Tuna" Nucky had himself an "out damn spot" moment as his dreams were haunted by the memory of the boy who once loved him like a father.

The usually unflappable Nucky wore his inner anguish on his face throughout the episode as his inability to put Jimmy's death behind him may prove to be his undoing. With pillow talk a thing of the past as far as Margaret is concerned, Nucky tried to raise Billie on the phone on several occasions. His uneasiness grew with each unanswered ring, as he struggled to reach out and touch someone... anyone.

Nucky confessed to wanting to be removed from his business, that it would just run itself. All the man really wants is to not be alone. Margaret is becoming more and more cunning the less she is able to care about Nucky as we saw her dupe the hospital head in front of the bishop. Billie most certainly has other men occupying her time but Nucky either doesn't care of doesn'y care to see the obvious so long as she keeps cookin up dat bacon like she does.

One of the biggest stresses about Nucky's job has got to be constantly dealing with head cases like Gyp Rosetti. There just is no pleasing men like him who, as Nucky put it, "can find an insult in a bouquet of roses." This guy though is a whole new breed of crazy the likes of which we haven't seen before. Proof being when he made that cop look like the cover of Rage Against the Machine's debut album.

Nucky, for the most part, feels pretty safe on his home turf of Atlantic City, but what will happen if a man like Gyp can recruit the likes of Gillian to join his efforts to take down the coastal king? Gyp, of course, had no idea why Nucky snubbed Gillian like he did, but he quickly added it to his list of things he took personally.

If he can get her and Eli on his side Nucky could be in for a rough ride and I'm not talking about the kind Sara Jay dishes out. I'm not too worried. Nucky is the kind of man to always and ace in the hole and based on what we saw this week, that ace may very well turn out to be Richard.

Few characters can deliver such hard hitting scenes with such limited dialogue like our resident masked man can. 63!?...In a row?

Life certainly is better with friends and Van Alden seemed to be reaping the benefits of such at home. Yes, his job is less than ideal, but at least he has traded in the self mutilation for a loving woman.

While I was disappointed not to get a second helping of Chalky this week, I did like seeing the Lucky/Lansky storyline advance. How about Meyer showing he is as good a shot as he is smart? He certainly was smart to decide to cut Masseria in on the heroin business but unfortunately never got a chance to do so. We did get a glimpse of that famous Bugsy Siegel temper though. I wonder if he brought back any change for Lucky.

So two wars seemed to be brewing by the end of this week, the inner city squabble over street corners and the intracity beef Gyp now has with Nucky. Can Nucky entice the young entrepreneurs from Manhattan to join him in taking down some higher-ups? He certainly isn't getting much help with his current staff of fools. Where will Rothstein stand when lines are drawn? What did you think?