THAT'S MOMMY'S KISSING FRIEND

After this week's episode I'm not sure if you can really call Atlantic City civilized. The Land of Oz seemed to be taken over by The Lord of the Flies and beat downs and murder ran amok. What a roller coaster of an episode for our man Jimmy Darmody. First we see the sensitive side of him as he compliments Angela talking about how in the trenches one would forget that there was anything beautiful in the civilized world. Then he goes all Sam Wheat on her. So Jimmy beat up the wrong person at Dittrich's photograph store. Minor technicality. The guy tried to be the meat in a bohemian sanwich with his and Jimmy's wife. He deserved every last lick of that tripod. How bout Jimmy justifying his boardwalk beat down to the onlookers by telling them this man had relations with his wife while he was away fighting in the war. Apparently that works, because no one said boo. "Hey man why you rearranging that guys face? Oh he buttered your wife's toast while you were in the trenches? Here let me hold him down for you."
Our other war hero Richard started us off this week in dream land as we saw him and Odette walking down the beach together. He was awakened by Margaret's daughter screaming at the site of his unmasked face, or lack there of. I guess she had herself a real "Harrowing" experience? Nucky in his usual dickhead tone chastises him for making an already tense situation worse, but then later justifies his presence to Margaret by calling him a war hero. You could "show Dick some respect," Nucky and tell Harrow the same thing next time.
Speaking of respect, if Al wants Torrio's he needs to start acting like a man. Anyone else wonder if Torrio's googily eyes is a shout out to Steve Buscemi's character from Mr. Deeds? Capone takes the sagely advice from the Jewish man at the Bar Mitzvah. He tells Al he should swap out his hat for a yarmulke because he is a man yet wears the hat of a boy. This is a pivotal moment for young Capone and it was summed up with an amazing quote from the old man, "All of us spend our manhood unlearning the follies of our youth." Al tells crazy eyes Torrio that he is going to help turn the brewery around and show him that he is ready to take responsibility for his actions. Torrio snapped on him earlier for the cigarette joke and in so many words told him "This shit's chess it ain't checkers!"

You get the feeling that this might be his last chance to make good, much like the situation Jimmy has been in and even our resident lunatic Agent Van Alden has landed himself in as well.
Supervisor Elliot buys Sebso's story about having to "make water" and killing the witness in self defense. He give him a week long vacation and sends him on his way. Van Alden is not so lucky and faces his supervisor's ire. He is told that one more slip up will land him down in the Everglades chasing moon shiners.
Nelson is coming apart at the seams. He makes one last desperate attempt to woo Margaret, but the whole "I can see into your soul and have come to save you from the fires of hell" routine isn't exactly getting her all hot and bothered. Maybe start off slow, like dinner and a movie my man. Just a thought.
Like many a rejected man, he takes himself to the professionals and ends up bedding Lucy. Loved how they showed his discomfort in simply ordering a whiskey at the bar and then the way it seemingly swept through him after he drank it. "AGAIN!" His hand was trembling as he lit Lucy's cigarette, but that was nothing compared to his Smeagol/Gollum impression after he finished her off.Some great camera work was used in this scene and I'm not talking about the POV shots. Before they tightened up on the twisting they started off with a wide angle shot of Van Alden's room and bookending the bed was a picture of his wife on the left and the Bible sitting on his desk on the right. Not sure what sent this guy over the edge but he snapped big time. I mean he basically went Elm St. on his own back just for thinking about Margaret. What is he going to do to cleanse himself of Lucy? Cut off a leg?
Lucy looked pretty good I have to admit. Hard to believe Nucky got tired of that, but we saw why it is he loves Margaret so much as she delivered her speech on behalf of Bader. Very interesting shot of her at the podium with the She felt dirty I think afterward when she saw Nucky and his cronies giggling at the table as they no doubt were discussing how much money Bader was going to bring them, but Margaret is becoming more like Nucky with each episode. Sipping champagne, playing politics, taking advantage of her power to get what she wants. She is straddling the morality fence and she knows it. That's why she looks at herself like she did in the mirror. Go back to when she apologized to Harold. She said she should not judge a man by what he looks like but rather by whats inside. Harold says he can't do that, so why should she feel bad for not being able to. Sometimes he forgets how he looks he says. He sees himself in the mirror and he has trouble seeing the man he used to be, just like Margaret has trouble looking at that picture of her from Ellis Island. (Which Van Alden kept btw) She isn't the same woman that came over on that boat.
I felt so bad for my man Harrow when her daughter screamed at him though. Later on while Margaret is reading to the children he sort of slinks into the room like the dog who had been yelled at for chewing on the couch, all sheepish like. She sees him hovering in the shadows and invites him in. I really like this guy. When he told the kids he was the Tin Woodsman and needed some oil I was beaming just like little Emily Schroeder.

Ok enough happy time, let's get to the REAL.
Mickey Doyle realizes he is going to get cut out of the deal between the D'Alessio brothers and AR and crew. So he turns coat again and confesses to Nucky and Jimmy what has been going on. Jimmy spitting in his drink and then dropping the glass on him was great. I also thought the scene when Nucky is choking Mickey and Jimmy has the gun to his head was a nice foreshadow of what was in store for the D'Alessio bros at the distillery later on.
A.R., Lucky and Lansky are some unit. Nucky, Jimmy and Chalky are probably the only crew who can match them I would say. Seeing these two crews go back and forth is like a great gridiron grudge match. Reminds me of the old days of Cowboys/Redskins or Steelers/Raiders. It's no secret A.R. is using the D'Alessio brothers as his pawns. The only way he is going to get his hands dirty is if he loses his napkin while enjoying his cake and milk. On the other side, Nucky uses Jimmy and Chalky to tie up his loose ends.
A.R. asked Mickey why he thought he was a good gambler. "Cause you're lucky."
"He's Lucky, I create my luck." It's the age of information and Rothstein is a successful gambler because he does his "due diligence," or dare I say...channel checks?
So Meyer Lansky first approached Chalky posing as Michael Lewis. Chalky notes this when he is speaking with him and the D'Alessio brothers at his distillery. Sort of a nod to the fact that he knows who Lansky really is and reminds him how he tried to dupe him once before. The fat brother Matteo tells Chalky if he plays his cards right he'll be able to buy himself a Packard for every day of the week. This ends up biting him in the ass but if you listen to Chris Rock he rationale was not too far off when you think about it.

Regardless of intent, that comment confirmed for Chalky, that it was they who lynched his friend in an earlier episode. He gets the drop on them and says say hello to My Buddies.

Lucien D'Alessio (the one with "dogshit" on his face) talked himself right into the business end of Jimmy's problem solver and Matteo opened his mouth one too many times as Chalky shut it for him once and for all. Chalky admitted to getting skimmed by Nucky back when he ran the diuce game at Chicken Bone Beach, but he knows he has a strong ally in him. Loved how when Jimmy shoots Lucien Nucky looks at him as if to say "was that really necessary?" and Jimmy just rolls his eyes at him. Jimmy is a Regulator. He knows he has to be handy with the steel if you know what I mean, earn his keep.

Couple quotes to mention:

Nucky: That's the South, they're not exactly known for their forward thinking down there."

Nucky: "Andrew was a tailor and he became president."
Margaret: "Wasn't he impeached?"

Jimmy asks Mickey how Lucky fits into everything and Mickey replies, "your mother didn't tell ya?" Guy has a lot of balls laughing at Jimmy when he says he slammed his hand in the ice box.

Nucky: "You're lucky to be alive you fukking Polack!"

A.R.: "Nothing Says I'm sorry like money."

Lansky: "How do you do?"

Nucky: "There's another dego running around with dogshit on his face?"

Great episode, so much to discuss. There is a war a brewin, and Al Capone remains the wild card that could come in on either side and sway the tide of battle. I think his allegiance still is with Jimmy, but we will have to wait and see.