Flashback
Nucky essentially gets fired from the job at the hotel due to summer being over, which means he has to go back to school.
Nucky plans to go back to Cuba in order to get money to Bacardi for sugar cane. Margaret is in his office with his bodyguard. Margaret tells Nucky about the situation with Mrs. Rothstein. Margett expects Nucky to help with her situation as Mrs. Rothstein threatened to sue both of them.
Public Enemy No. 1
Capone is watching the video that was made about him. Lucky is growing tired of Capone’s stubbornness and arrogance. Capone gets mad at one of his lackeys for laughing too hard at a joke that Lucky made. Capone is two minutes away from killing the poor sap, until Capone acts as if it was a joke. Lucky proposes to Nucky that they need to handle their situations like a business. Capone is not completely set on this idea so Lucky gives Capone a miniature statue of the Empire State Building. ( I wonder what this could be used for?)
Mrs Thompson I presume?
Thanks to a rainstorm, Nucky has to postpone going to Cuba. Nucky wires Sally the money in order to buy the sugar cane needed for the rum. Nucky walks into his office where Joe Kennedy and Margaret are. Joe is sweet talking Margaret, which Nucky does not like. Joe tells Nucky that he is not in on the deal and that Rum and Scotch don’t mix. Joe invites Margaret for a ride back to New York on his personal train car. Joe finds out that Margaret is Mrs. Thompson and decides to back off.
MADE
Muller meets with Capone in front of all of his goons and Lucky. Lucky tells Capone that he recognizes Muller and points him out. Lucky remembers that Muller pinched him and Jimmy Darmody back in Atlantic City. When Capone has Muller sent up and questioned, Mueller flips the script. He points out that Lucky is a bigger problem, as Lucky is trying to tell Capone how to run his business.
Flashback
Young Nucky and Eli are locked out of the house. Nucky peaks through a window to see his dad going to town on someone who possibly isn’t their mother. Nucky offers to take Eli to the boardwalk to get a corn ball. Nucky and Eli sit on the beach. Nucky gets frustrated at how they live. He wonders why some people have suits for the day and evening. While he and his brother walk around in rags. Nucky breaks into the Commodore’s suite. He shows Eli the flushing toilet and indoor plumbing. Nucky takes a bath in the suite. Sheriff Lindsay catches them. Lindsay takes Nucky and Eli to his house to have dinner with his family. At the dinner table, while watching the love and cheer that the Lindsay family exudes, Nucky is sent into a crying spell.
Nucky and Margaret have dinner in order to figure out how they are going to deal with the situation. Nucky is enjoying the encounter with Margaret, while Margaret just seems to want his help. Margaret also fears that Nucky is going to have Ms. Rothstein killed. Nucky’s solution is that Margaret will offer Mrs. Rothstein 25 cents on the dollar for the $111,000 that she owes.
MADE II
Mike (the undercover agent working with Capone) does a little digging in reference to Charlie’s (Lucky) outing of Muller. Mike finds the file on Muller (Van Alden). Mike now knows that everything that Lucky was saying was true. Even by Muller’s own admission, everything he said to Capone, when Capone had a gun to his mouth, about him “possibly” being a fed, a murderer and a bigamist, was true.
We said “There IS a curfew”
When Sally is going down a dark closed road in order to get home. She is stopped by the police. The police ask her all of those stupid evasive questions. Like, where are you going? Where are you coming from? Why is Pluto not a planet anymore? Which is none of their damn business. The police officer informs her that there is a curfew. He then orders her to get out of the car after she tried to bribe her way out. They search her and find a gun. One thing leads to another and one of the cops shoots her.
The show ends with Lucky leaving. He and Capone seem to be on good terms. After Lucky leaves, Capone spits on the ground and talks about Lucky like a dog. The same lackey from earlier didn’t learn his lesson and starts laughing like a jackal. This pushes Capone’s buttons. He kills the man with the miniature statue of the Empire State Building. Capone then calls Eli and tells him to call Nucky (did they have three-way in the 30’s?). Capone tells Nucky that they have a problem name Luciano.
Time is not on Boardwalk Empire’s side
This was a very ho hum episode and wildly predicable. Now I understand that this show ends in four episodes, but it just doesn’t feel like there will be enough time to give closure to EVERYONE. We have only seen Dr. Narcisse and Chalky in one episode. Eli has been absent part of the season and these flashbacks take up way too much time. I understand the writers want to give us a look into Nucky’s past. But couldn’t they do it last season? Even with that, a flashback isn’t really necessary. We know that Nucky’s dad was an abusive jerk. That the Commodore almost raised him. I mean what else do we need to know? That Nucky worked on the same Boardwalk that he would soon take over? That little brothers are annoying. The only real takeaway from these flashbacks is that Nucky’s sister dies and he meets his first wife while kissing a horse. That could have been a five minute flashback in the first episode. There are more important issues that need to be addressed. There is not a lot of time to do it.