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.

Everyone In Paris Is Doing It

This week's episode was titled The Emerald City and appropriately so. We see Nucky reading The Road To Oz while at Margaret's house. Nucky didn't like Margaret asking and arguing about matters of the city. It ruined the whole artificial world he has created where he comes over and plays father and husband. Margaret bringing in outside real life issues ruins the illusion or pulls back the curtain to show that Nucky maybe isn't this grand wizard of Oz or AC but actually just a money hungry tyrant. Or as A.R. called him, "greedy and unreasonable." Nucky lives a charmed life in his very own bubble. A.R. lives in the real world so to speak.
The scene where AR played pool was very interesting and symbolic. The green felt is the Earth and with his delicate touch A.R. maneuvers his way around the table with grace and poise. Conversely we saw Lucky breaking and then trying a kind of aggressive bank shot which ultimately failed. A.R.'s style is more effective. It doesn't disturb the other balls until its their turn to disappear off the face of the earth/table and in the end he wins the money. He never loses his calm where as Nucky shows his temper often.
Interesting to note also that A.R. is the only one who Lucky allows to address him as "Charlie" we saw last episode when he corrected a man for addressing him otherwise. Well him and Jimmy's mom but that is over I have a feeling. Just a wild guess.
The scene with Gillian and Lucky and then Jimmy was epic. A few things to note.
-Gillian's hair looked amazing.
-Lucky lifting up the sheet to look at he Franken-dick with a sigh of relief.
-The shadow of Jimmy walking into the apartment to pay Lucky a visit was a nice shot.
- Jimmy throwing the coffee on Lucky then saying "I wasn't sure if you took cream?"
-Jimmy and his mom are very close, but how close. Anyone ever see the movie Taboo?

Speaking of things taboo, we learned that the photo store guy Robert was only giving Angela hopes of getting her art work evaluated by the dealer from NYC, in order to get her to join in a little three way action with him and his wife. He may not bite, but he definitely sucks. Jimmy returns home just in time and although she resists at first, Angela decided to take a break from the sea food buffet and eat some meat again.

After getting the drop on Lucky, Jimmy learned that A.R. had made a deal with the D'Alessio brothers, but was abrubtly interruped by Van Alden and his assistant in the hallway with their guns drawn. Loved how Jimmy got the slap in on Lucky just before the cuffed him.
Jimmy gets taken in and interrogated by Van Alden but he doesn't crack. It reminded me of the scene from Murder By Numbers when he was being interrogated for another crime he blatantly committed but showed the same ice cold resolve. He was so smooth when he surprised Nucky in his office. I like how when Nucky tried to get down to business Jimmy cut him off and made some demands, best of which was that Harrow get's to stay on board. He wanted to hear Nucky give the order to kill the D'Alessio brothers and when he asked, "even the kid?" Nuck's stare conveyed the message and Jimmy just sniffs and says he is going to go eat his steak. Jimmy is cold blooded ya'll.
Jimmy loses that composure though when he sees Billy the witness in the hallway. He once again finds himself asking Nucky to bail him out of trouble. He even asks if they should call his dad. Nucky scoffed saying "are you that nervous?" So Jimmy's dad must have some serious pull whoever he is. We don't know who it is but my guess would be the Commodore. At least for now.
If he is Jimmy might not have a dad for long, because that dude is dying ya'll. Was interesting how he noted that the dog was sick. Maybe there's something or someone in the house poisoning them. Maybe the maid who he treats so horribly. A couple episodes ago we saw him feed the rest of his dinner to the dog when he lost his appetite. Maybe that is why the dog is sick, if he is in the habit of feeding it from his own plate.
Eli might not be far behind the Commodore from the looks of things. I'm not a fan of Eli but I did laugh when after Nucky told him he needed to rest he asked "how do you rest your spleen?" Eli worried about the Italians spilling more blood. It's not blood Nucky's worried about, it's ink. The political angle of the show is really heating up.
I thought it was also great when the deputy was talking about the D'Alessio brothers and how they killed two customers and shot a waiter in the face while sticking up a restaurant. George the bag man then added, "that little bastard called me fat!"
Eli in disbelief at what was just said fired back with, "they're fuking killers George, sounds to me you got off easy." But Nucky's face was even more priceless.

Speaking of weird faces did anyone else notice the way Van Alden almost Gumped his pants when he was staring at Margaret's immigration photo.
He is so distracted that he doesn't see his man totally double crossing him. I think the agent killing the witness was on a direct order from the FBI boss, but he may be having his strings pulled by Nucky. Did you notice how when Van Alden called in to say they arrested Jimmy his boss was not visibly pleased but had to convey false enthusiasm to Van Alden over the phone.
When agent Sebso was driving the witness I was just waiting for Harrow's bullet to come crashing through the car window, but I liked the actual outcome even more.
How about Sebso playing Goldilocks and Three Bears while trying to select a rock to smash himself with. The first one was too big the second was too small but the third one was just right.
Margaret looked like a bit of alright in her blue dress that she got compliments of Madame Jeunet. I bet she never thought it would come back to bite her in the ass when she told Margaret that she did not realize how much power she had as Nucky's woman. "My daughter didn't help you Madame Jeunet... I did."

Wild ending to the episode as Nucky is almost assassinated by the D'Alessio's. Nuckys butler Eddie sure likes the ladies and seemed yet again distracted by the hostess at the club Babette's, but when the sh!t got real he was there to go all Kostner on them and save the day.

Some great quotes this week:

Jimmy: Lotta fellas still alive that shouldn't be.
A.R.: Reputation takes a lifetime to build but only seconds to destroy.
A.R.: You know what's nice about the Bronx Zoo Charlie? There's bars between you an the monkeys.
Nucky: If we only elected good men then we would never have leaders.

Can't wait until this week's episode. Until then be on your best behavior or face the wrath of Mambo the Zulu tribal chief from Africa!!!

TO THE LOST

This Agent Van Alden is some demented and sadistic cat. His wife Rose is crying about not being able to conceive and lamenting her period flow coming each month and all the guy says is "PLEASE EAT!" We knew since last week that the money Jimmy was sending home wasn't getting there but this week we finally learned it was old Agent 'Silas' who was intercepting them and keeping them in his desk drawer. Lucky for Angela, Van Alden hates his wife more than Jimmy so he ends up sending her the cash. That was some nifty camera work when they showed his wife Rose opening the letter from him making you think you were going to see the wad of cash to pay for her surgery, but then instead it's Angela, Jimmy's girl who finally receives the bank roll that could choke a hippo.

While Angela was getting paid, Eli found himself getting jacked the ski mask way by Vinny Delpino and his crew of Italians. Unlike the Manning brothers, this young Eli can't come close to stepping out from his big brothers shadow. Nucky throws full on blow out parties with pros and gambling while Eli and his handful of friends watch hand cranked p-rno flicks and nearly burn the place down.
Speaking of on fire, Margaret Schroeder KILLED it this week. The scene with her and Lucy was tops. First off I love how confident our Irish flower has become, ordering another round of sweet cakes and really enjoying the whole "ball of wax." She is going to start boozing soon enough I feel. Then she is sitting there in that hat looking all bad ass like the Emperor as Lucy is ushered in by the French store owner who lurked in the background like Vader.
Lucy held her own though, well up until the point where she got the taste slapped out of her mouth.
Lucy- Oh shell help she's very helpful aren't you Mrs macdougal Schroeder Is that Irish for bitch?
Margaret- You're not at your best now and you should leave.
Hey Lucy...what did the five fingers say to the face?

Nucky trusts her above everyone else as he asked her to secure his ledger from his desk. First off, who leaves that smoking gun in an unlocked drawer like that? Scrooge McDuck built a friggin money bin to protect his lucky dime and this guy just leaves the keys to his empire sitting amongst the stamps and envelopes. Not very smooth Nuck. Who do we thing was on the other end when the phone on Nucky's desk rang and Margaret answered? My guess would be Lucy.
Loved how mischievous Margaret was when she opened that lefter, but he face said it all after she saw the figures and numbers. Nucky isn't just rich, he's WEALTHY. Torrio is Rich, but Nucky and guys like A.R., are WEALTHY. There's a difference. Just listen to Chris Rock.

Nucky showed just how much cheddar he can throw around when he secured the Presidential Suite by tipping the hotel manager a few hundos at the Republican Convention. Nucky also backed the right horse when he ditched Senator Edge and jumped into bed with Shooter McGavin a.k.a. Harry Daugherty and swears allegiance to Harding if Shooter will guarantee that the only way Edge will ever see the inside of the White House is "on a guided fukking tour."

Along with Daugherty, President Harding is our latest historical figure we are introduced to. Although himself a man of political talent, it was no surprise to read that he was careless with his associates and rewarded his friends with powerful monetary positions. His administration was known as The Ohio Gang and notoriously consisted of Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty, Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall, and Navy Secretary Edwin C. Denb. They were considered to have been responsible for acts of corruption and cronyism. The resulting scandals are considered to have led to the suicide of one associate, Jess Smith, and the jailing of Fall for his involvement in the Teapot Dome Scandal . They were all indicated in acts of bribery and price skimming from bootleggers and drug dealers. Harding's creepy wife's psychic was on her tarot cardfs because Harding would go on to die suddenly while in office in 1923.

Jimmy and Nucky meet face to face again. I was a little dissapointed when Jimmy offered to drive Nucky and his butler back to their hotel. Nucky gave him attitude because he incorrectly thought Jimmy was neglecting his family and all Jimmy does is basically offer to go get his shine box. Nucky should know Jimmy has been away for awhile he don't shine shoes or drive people around no more. He cracks skulls with his boy Richard Harrow who I was psyched to see is sticking around. Looks like he will make the trip back to N.J. too with him. Jimmy realized that Nucky was right when he said because of his Irish blood Jimmy will never be one of Torrio's main guys. We saw this realization while he watched Al and Torrio playing cards. He would never be let into the inner circle. Like my man Henry Hill in Goodfellas explained.


I like how Jimmy always toasts "to the lost." Very appropriate given the holiday this week. I also like how my man A.R. only drinks milk while he is rehearsing his testimony with his lawyer in anticipation of the investigation into the Black Sox scandal.

Jimmy is headed home and he is doing some recon on his Mom's main twist Lucky. Looks like he also is going to put a hurt on the phtographer using the guy's own tripod. Harold also get medievil with the sawed off. Chalky sells out to A.R. and his boys and Lucy turns rat and talks to Van Alden. We learned that Nucky had a son but he died. He stands to lose a lot more though as Atlantic City is Under Siege and Steven Seagal hasn't even been born yet.

A lot to discuss as a lot went down. Looking forward to the comments as always. There may be a few new people joining in but not to worry they share our same enthusiasm for all things good about this show.

SHUT UP OLD MAN

Hats off to Cameron for the call of the week likening Nucky's father to the Crazy Cat Lady from The Simpsons.

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.