The Roof, The Roof, The Roof Is On Fire

We start off the week getting a glimpse into Nucky's family and childhood and it was not pretty from what we saw. His father was abusive and Nucky took a licking in and out of the house whether it was for eating out of turn or losing his baseball mitt. Nucky despises his dad but I liked how he told Margaret "he can't hurt me now." The shot of his brother Eli standing in uniform in front off their father's picture told me that Eli is going to fill the role of tormentor and make Nucky's life hell down the road.
LETS PLAY THE FEUD!

Chalky returned this week and thought he saw through one of Nucky's tests when he refused to do business with a man from Manhattan calling himself Michael Lewis. (Did you notice how he offered to pay Chalky in $500 dollar bills?)
While at Chalky's club, Nucky is approached by Chalky who talks mentions the test. Nucky has no idea what he is talking about and we know this to be true. While there Nucky sat with a man named Harry who tried to persuade him to invest money with a guy who could return a 50% profit on something called International Reply Coupons. After seeing how Harry was trying to get his "friend" involved in a deal that seemed to good to be true I immediately thought of Madoff. This investment opportunity was discussed very quickly and was a seemingly insignificant conversation, but upon reading up on it I learned that the man Harry was referring to was Charles Ponzi. The profit that could be made by taking advantage of the differing postal rates in different countries to buy IRCs cheaply in one country and exchange them for stamps to a larger value in another country was the intended profit generator for a scheme operated by Charles Ponzi, which became known as the fraudulent Ponzi Scheme. Great bit of trivia I thought.

The aforementioned Mr. Lewis we learned is actually Meyer Lansky, an associate of Lucky's. He reminded me of a little A.R. at first and after reading up on him more I learned I was not too far off. Known as the "Mob's Accountant", he was a Jewish-American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States. So pretty much a bad ass.
We also met another man to be reckoned with when Jimmy met Richard Harrow at the Vet hospital. I loved the scene where he showed Jimmy the German sniper mask he carried around and how he waited three days for the guy to lift it so he could take his shot. Just amazing dialogue.
Jimmy did his boy a huge solid by taking him back to his place and hooking him up with his girl Odette. I waited to see the shock in her eyes when Richard turned around, but she didn't flinch and was more than happy to give him a Ticker Tape Parade on behalf of a grateful nation.

Jimmy's monologue about the German soldier was spectacular, right up there with Chalky's story about his dad. "It's almost impossible to describe the horror, it's a living, waking, nightmare." Basically if any character talks for more than twenty seconds you know someone is going to get got. "I'm not going to kill you Liam." OK whew...BLAM! Harrow returns the favor by helping Jimmy take out Liam. The camera work was top notch and the organ music Ala The Phantom of the Opera, that played as Harrow packed up his rifle was quite a nice touch given our man's mask.


Wrapping up with a few thoughts:

This chick is going to lose it and go postal if that quote on the movie screen has any bearing on her future course of actions. "I feel empty without you inside me." Who turns a woman who says such things away?










Lucky partnering up with the Pope boys from Philly is a scary situation for our boy Nucky and Chalky I fear.






Sweet Berry Wine...nuff said.





Nucky lit a match and closed a painful part of his life. He don't need no water, let that motherfukker burn! There are those I feel who think Nucky is all about the green, but he shows here that he is a way more dynamic character with a seriously dark side to him.

Looks like Jimmy is coming back to Jersey to make like the 213 and regulate. MOUNT UP! But he also looks to be in some trouble of his own now that the blonde haired kid turned states evidence on him for the shoot out. Great stuff so far and more of the same ahead it looks like.