Wordy Old Men on Boardwalk Empire: Season Four, Episode Eleven "Havre de Grace"

The penultimate episode of the season finds Chalky nursing his wounds in the Pennsylvania countryside while Nucky tries to ferret out who the skunk in his camp is following a midnight call from Gaston Bullock Means. Roy's play with Gillian comes to light.

Old Man Duggan: First off, sorry for the delay, folks. I was out of commission on the Texas Gulf Coast without HBO or a computer to put this together with, so I come to you all cap in hand begging your forgiveness.

Wordy Ginters: Me? I was healing the poor. Giving sight to the rich. Or perhaps blithely endorsing a mini-vacation from the immediate reaction after-episode deadline pressure cooker.

OMD: Moving on past the excuses for our tardiness, this episode seemed to be operating primarily as a set-up piece for what is to come in next week's season finale. The backstory calm before the epic storm. Focusing first on Havre de Grace, where we spent much of the episode, it may not have been the source of a lot of tension or conflict, but I liked a lot of what was going on alongside the banks of the Susquehanna. Oscar Boneau (Louis Gossett, Jr.) was the first time the show has given us a link back to the black side of pre-Civil War America. It happened only in passing, but Boneau's talk of young black girls being sold on Queen Street and skepticism as to what the Civil War was actually fought over provided a nice bridge and historical depth to the proceedings.

WG: Gossett Jr.'s Boneau brings ancient gravitas to Albert's backstory, as well as a little heft to the race issues that Boardwalk Empire addresses in a pretty sophisticated way. I'm basically a slice of white bread in blue jeans and black Converse, so what the fuck do I know? It's pretty obvious that Terence Winter loves him some Chalky. Anti-heroes are about as passe as zombie fucking wives of vampire county reality TV these days, so to me it says something when an adulterous, murdering, Uncle Tom-ish, hot-head like Chalky is so Goddamn lovable.

OMD: "Never trust no buckras, no matter what." Chalky invoking the old Southeastern black word for white man or boss, likely derived from the Efik word for master, mbakara. Oscar's quick response, "Never trust no browns, neither," probably had a bit more relevance to Chalky's traveling companion than Chalky was gleaning from the advice, lending credence to Oscar's preceding statement, "Well, I told you a lot. Don't know what you heard." They also fit in "ofay" at the dinner table scene, just for good measure, dusting off another arcane term of disparagement against white people. Just like Nucky last season when he was entangled with Billie Kent and was unable to hear Rothstein's advice, we find Chalky in the same position, unable to see what people with wisdom on the matter at hand can see.

WG: The heart wants what the heart wants. The scenes in Maryland were beautiful. I watched the episode twice, and the second time around I realized that whenever Daughter and Chalky shared the frame, they were always separated by a window frame, a car door, a stile on the porch railing, or whatever. The composition on this show is unreal.

OMD: Yeah, it's really crazy how deliberately shot each episode of the show is. I guess that's what HBO money affords you. Time.

I also liked getting a bit more of Chalky's origins. The knockdown with some corner boys that he described in the car in the open took me back to The Wire for a split second. More than anything, though, I think this episode served as a moment for Chalky to peer through the looking glass and glimpse his future. For a man cut from his cloth, there is no going quietly into the night. Of course, Oscar probably goes down differently if Chalky never shows up in Havre de Grace, but as Tupac said, when you "live by the gun, [you] die by the gun."

WG: All in the game, yo. All in the game. I had the same Wire vapor trails sensation during that scene. Had to be a sly nod from the writers. If anything, I wish they would have introduced some of that backstory sooner or spent more time with it. Gossett Jr. was fantastic.

OMD: On the Gillian front, I believe I called it, but let's start at the beginning. The scene with Leander and Mr. Ferry on the stairs was nicely set-up, Gillian torn between her desire to hold onto the past or step into the future, the realization that what she needs to do for Tommy is to simply let go and that she needs to sell the Commodore's house, thus becoming unanchored, whirling out of control. Nicely done, Allen Coulter. Her gift of Jimmy's war medals actually seemed to give her a little shred of dignity before the fall. And what a fall it was. It played out like a long con straight out of The Grifters, surely the intention as the sudden influx of cash by way of the sale of the house gave cause to wonder if Roy wasn't, in fact, simply running a con on her. In a sense, I suppose he was. A Pinkerton. Who'd have guessed? Oh, that's right. Me. You can't run from Roger's corpse, Gillian. Ron Livingston will see to it.

WG: Nice call. Old Man Duggan, Plot Hunter.

OMD: I have to say I really liked the framing and composition in the scene in the diner with Eli and Tolliver. Tolliver: the lawman, bathed in light, clarity of face equating to clarity of vision. Eli: the fallen lawman, face obscured in the shadows, the darkness symbolic of the position he finds himself in, no clear way out. Eli's assessment of Nucky showed that he knows Nucky better than Nucky knows himself. Nucky's constant talk of wanting out is just Nucky trying to run from the obvious fact that he is addressing an internal need in his quest for supremacy.

WG: I'm glad you mentioned that scene. I dug the smoke from the table behind Eli billowing over his shoulder on the close-ups. Poor bastard was stooped over his coffee, bent, broken, and smoking. Knoxiver looked like he was being lit for a 1950's toothpaste commercial. Speaking of smoking, have you had the pleasure of viewing Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast? The Beast looks like a cross between Sluggerrr and the Lion from The Wizard of Oz, but he literally emanates smoke in many of his scenes. I don't know how they worked that effect back in the 40's, nail a smoke pot to the back of the costume? Smoke. So versatile. So sexy. So deadly. So visually communicative. So fucking smokey.

OMD: I've seen none of Jean Cocteau's work. My minor in film studies fails me yet again. Damn you, University of Minnesota. Damn you straight to Hell.

Of course, Eli couldn't cover his tracks well enough at the dinner table after Tolliver's visit to Eli's house was inadvertently revealed while they supped. Nucky knows something wicked his way comes. There's no fucking way he's at that meeting with Masseria and Narcisse, right? He could certainly use the meeting to clear the way a bit, conveniently getting held up elsewhere. He's a cool, calculating sonuvabitch, and he clearly knows something is amiss with Eli. Of course, he could just have Harrow take out Narcisse and anyone else who stands in his way.

WG: I think you've probably bagged another plot twist for your trophy room. I'm guessing Willie and Nuck had time to suss out the queer "insurance salesman" anecdote, and Nucky has done the algebra required to solve Means's hilarious phone call. Harrow will have Narcisse in his crosshairs. If only because I don't think Winter can give history the finger. Got to be a denizen of the fictional world.

OMD: That was a fantastic phone call, wasn't it? I laughed so many times during that scene.

So just a few days to wait for this season's conclusion. Any predictions? I got Harrow snuffing out Narcisse, though I hope Leandor Sydnor takes over his Harlem Chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, running it on the up and up. I sure as hell hope Scrapper and Levi come back to the A.C. with Chalky as soon as they send Weems a-dirt-nappin'.

WG: I think one of the "good guys" gets whacked. Harrow or Chalky. Like Abraham offering his son Isaac. Winter has to let some blood to keep things fresh. Leandor administering a regular program of lectures and one-act plays for the Universal Negro Improvement Association is the Boardwalk Empire spin-off yin to Breaking Bad's Better Call Saul yang.

Wordy Old Men on Boardwalk Empire: Season Four, Episode Seven "William Wilson"

Welcome once again as Wordy Ginters and I lead you through this week's episode of Boardwalk Empire. Gillian gets clean. Willie drops out. Margaret has a run-in with Arnold Rothstein. Knox gets Hoover's backing, though Hoover steals the credit for his work. O'Banion swindles Johnny Torrio out of half a million. Chalky is too busy getting some strange to notice that the walls are closing in around him. 

Old Man Duggan: As sad as it was for both of us, this episode was unfortunately not about the former Royals speedster, Willie Wilson. Moving past the inevitable disappointment that arose when conclusion of the Edgar Allan Poe short story which this episode bore for a name was read in Willie Thompson's English class, there was quite a bit of maneuvering going on in this episode.

Wordy Ginters: Correct. I too had high hopes that inside-the-park home run fetishist Willie Wilson would somehow inform the episode. But alas, nevermore. Regarding the maneuvering, Boardwalk Empire is almost radical in it's deliberate and languid pacing. When the slow sensuous groove begins to pick up the pace, as it did in tonight's episode, and the plot pay-offs begin to reveal themselves, the erotic anticipation is enough to make me think Sting was onto something with his joyful boasting about tantric sex.

OMD: Much of what was going on revolved around the man with the monogrammed handkerchief. JMT. Agent Tolliver. Agent Knox. The largest favor that Knox brought the audience this week was that we got some more Gaston Bullock Means, though the added bonus of having J. Edgar Hoover prohibit George Remus from speaking in the third person had its value. Means, ever the opportunist and always operating in his own best self-interest, hiding Knox's true identity was a surprise to me, though it certainly makes sense. I love that Knoxiver was drowning his sorrows at a speak, an irony that surely was intended. Do we really think that Means isn't going to see to it that Jim Tolliver doesn't meet an untimely end to get out from under his thumb?

WG: Lots of fucking tonight. Ron and Gillian. Chalky and Daughter. Presumably Willie and Tits McNietzsche. But no one got screwed harder than Knoxiver. Who knows which way Means will twist, but I read him as the "weak link" in the Nucky chain that Knoxiver was working on. You are likely there too, and yes, it's hard to see the an eager little toe-head like Knoxiver getting one over on a veteran operator like Means.

OMD: At the very least, Willie and Tits McNietzsche were petting quite heavily without that pesky clothing getting in the way.

So Margaret is working at what would appear to be a shady land deal place. Can't say I saw that as her future. I'm glad that it brought her face to face with Arnold Rothstein--er, Abe Redstone. A cursory internet search shows me that the is an Anaconda Realty in Anaconda, Montana. Moving right on past the fact that there is a town called Anaconda in Montana, which has to be at least 4,000 miles from the nearest spot in which anacondas are indigenous, you have to think Anaconda Realty is getting the most web traffic they've ever seen. Back to the land trust, what the fuck is Rothstein's game there? He needs her discretion? Is it just that he's using it to launder money and avoid the IRS, or is he up to something a bit trickier?

WG: I have no idea how the Margaret/Rothstein pieces are supposed to fit, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter that much. I'm glad Rothstein is still around. I assumed he would be pushed all the way off the margins after Meyer elbowed him off the Florida gravy train. Hopefully at some point we see Sally and Margaret dressed in white undies having a pillow fight while a drunk Nucky looks on drunk on bourbon and eating fried peanut butter and banana sammiches. Which, by the way, isn't quite as sexist as what passes for a women's rightful place in society at the Eli Thompson household.

OMD: Yeah, Nucky snickering while Eli looked incredulously at his daughter who wanted to *gasp* learn was a little jarring. I bet Margaret and Rothstein coming into contact with one another matters more than we would think initially.

I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop with Gillian and Roy (Ron Livingston). This show is far too dark for her to find a stand-up dude, even if he is divorcing his wife. Is "divorce" Prohibition era code for murder?

WG: Every time Ron kept winding the conversation around to "secrets," I was certain she would blurt out, "I had sex with my own child." Much like Means and Knoxiver, it's hard to imagine Ron coming out of that relationship with his limbs intact. I can't see a hint of darkness in that sweetly chubby face.

OMD: It sure seems like shit is about to hit the proverbial fan in Chalky's life. Daughter Maitland is setting him up. Dunn and Narcisse are lying in wait, well at least when Dunn isn't sticking a blade in deacons who are wise to his heroin trafficking.

WG: Narcisse's smooth moves at the church meeting reminded me of the "Hamsterdam" episode in The Wire. In Hamsterdam, the good people of the Western Precinct were pleading to the police about the many problems they had to deal with in their neighborhood. Bunny Colvin basically told them he couldn't do anything about it. In Boardwalk Empire's meeting however, Narcisse deftly twists the public outrcy to serve his interests. Unlike Bunny Colvin, who had no answers, Narcisse has all the answers. Not only will the neighborhood survive and thrive, but Deacon Cuffy (who looks a helluva lot like Bunny with a Red Sox play-off beard) is whacked, Purnsley grows stronger, and Narcisse sinks his fangs deep into Chalky White and Atlantic City.

OMD: That scene was the yin to "Hamsterdam's" yang.

Back to Daughter Maitland--her backstory--seeing who we later find out to be Narcisse murder her mother should have fucker her up a lot more. I wonder if maybe she isn't playing both sides of the fence hoping to get out from under the vampiric Dr. Valentin Narcisse.

WG: What a creepy scene to close the episode. She was praying not to God above, but to Narcisse. You may be onto something. Another thread that I'm looking forward to unspooling.

OMD: Unnerving to say the least. She's probably so Stockholm Syndromed that she doesn't have the urge to break free, but it could play out that way.

The Sieben Brewery Raid is essentially the final straw for Torrio. O'Banion takes him for $500,000 and sets Torrio up for the fall. It sure seems like O'Banion isn't long for this world. His Wikipedia page supports that assertion. I'm glad that storyline happens to line up pretty well with when this season should end.

WG: Capone is obviously stuck in the anger state of dealing with loss and grief. I love seeing him sniff, hiss, and spit like a bowed-up halloween cat. You're right, history tells us that O'Banion is soon headed for the great potting shed in the sky. The way Al has been bouncing off the walls with rage after Frank's death, I tremble for O'Banion. And he ain't even that likable. What are the chances Al finds out that Van Alden Mueller drew iron on his brother?

OMD: I don't know. I think maybe that's an out for Michael Shannon if he wants off the show, but it's possible that nothing comes of it past Van Alden Mueller coming to terms with who he is now. It does seem like there must be more in store for Van Alden Mueller than that, though, doesn't it?

I'd have loved to see Eli hit Willie with a closed fist. Would have been sweet. It definitely still feels like Willie is going to be Eddie Kessler II, though I'm not sure that I actually want to see that happen, as Willie isn't exactly interesting once you move past the similarities between he and Nucky.

WG: The only reason I like Willie is that it gives Terence Winter a window to playing around with 1920's college stereotypes.

OMD: Fair enough.

Is Dunn long for this world? The karmic balance almost needs to be struck, right? I'm guessing he falls in the attempted hit on Chalky that looks like it's about to go down per the preview for next week.

WG: Dunn has deserved the dirt nap for a long time. I'd love to see Chalky woo him back just to prove that Narcisse isn't supernatural.

Let's keep the real or imagine homage to Hitchcock alive. The show opened with a soon to be popped copper reading a newspaper headline about Leopold and Loeb, a famous Chicago homicide that involved two geniuses (literally) who attempted to carry out the perfect crime. Hitchcock's Rope was based on the real-life events of that case. I'm not as well-versed in Hitchcock as you are, but I've always loved Rope's creepy charm. The central conceit of the film, believing oneself too smart to be caught, a Nietzschean will to power, creative interpretations of morality, the idea of Ubermensch, and generally being King Shit of Fuck Mountain, pairs nicely with some of the egos in Boardwalk.

OMD: As long as I don't have to sit through Farley Granger "acting," I'm fine with Rope playing itself out on Boardwalk. It'll be a bit anti-climactic if a computer-animated Jimmy Stewart ends up putting away Nucky's interstate criminal network, but if that's the way Winter goes, I can't do anything to change it.

Wordy Old Men on Boardwalk Empire: Season Four, Episode One "New York Sour"

Just as we did for Season Three of Boardwalk Empire and for every episode of Downton Abbey, Wordy Ginters and I bounce words back and forth whilst trying to wade through what happened. This week finds the colorful cast of characters (with a couple significant exceptions) getting established in largely new environs. 

New York Sour
Two ounces bourbon, 1 ounce fresh lemon juice, 1 ounce simple syrup in a cocktail shaker. Fill with ice, cover, and shake until outside of shaker is frosty. Strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice. Pour 1/2 ounce red wine (Shiraz or Malbec) over the back of a spoon held just above the drink's surface so wine floats on top.

Salami

Wordy Ginters: I thought it was a good omen that Timmie Van Patten--A.K.A. Salami from The White Shadow--directed the Season Four opener. If I recall, he’s been at the helm for many of the series high points. Unlike previous seasons, this run opens at a gallop. Not much hand-holding for those new to the show, or like me, a bit foggy about how it all ended last year. Terence Winter is fucking fearless about whacking primary characters. Darmody. The Commodore. Manny Horvitz. That hapless Prohibition Agent who loosed his mortal coil via Sigrid and Van Alden’s meat tenderizer/suffocation combo. But I don’t know if I’ll be able to overcome the loss of Gyp. Dude burned like fire on the screen. He may have been sadistic, sexually deviant, a shameless ham, and obvious as all get out, but sparks were present nonetheless. The challenge for Boardwalk Empire is to keep cranking out compelling characters. I’m not sure I saw any new faves tonight.

Old Man Duggan: Yeah, I spent most of the episode alternating between being distracted trying to figure out who the fuck Harrow was offing and trying to figure out which of these new characters was going to factor in heavily to the goings-on this season. I mean maybe we'll get a big story line about the restaurant owner in Warsaw, IN, telling passersby about that spectacular contiguous brick wall, but Dickie The Cuckold sure as hell isn't factoring into much going forward. I'll be curious to see what Ron Livingston's character is really doing in Atlantic City, as I'd be surprised if he was really a Piggly Wiggly advance man, and he can't just be a love interest for junkie Gillian Darmody. As for TVP, he's directed a slew of eps, including "To the Lost" in 2012, for which he won an Emmy. He's been at the helm for each season finale and the last three season premieres. He also went to high school with Jerry Seinfeld and graduated in the same class as Brian Setzer and Brian Baldinger.

WG: I come back to this again and again, like Ned Yost and the bunting, but Jesus H. Christ, this show is beautiful to watch. The opening scene at the Tippecanoe? With the snow wafting down. It was like getting beamed inside a beautiful snow globe circa 1924. The radio station buzzing in the background. And did you notice the barkeep? If I’m not mistaken, that was the same dude from No Country For Old Men who Javier Bardem fucked with at the little gas station? Javier flipped the coin to determine whether or not he’d live or die? He’s playing the same kind of country rube here. I’m looking forward to other NCFOM alumni appearances. Speaking of which, where the hell is Margaret/Kelly MacDonald?

OMD: Good catch on the counter man. That is none other than Gene Jones reprising his role as rube. Perhaps it was Winter & Co.'s wink at the audience, seeing as though I expect any random person to get killed horrifically after Gyp's reign of terror. The scene was great, and you knew someone was going to get got. I'm still not sure why, largely because I can't remember if these guys were some unfinished business that Harrow was taking care of or if we'll find out who they were later. As for the possibly former Mrs. Thompson, your guess is as good as mine as to where she's gone off to, but I'm guessing she took a bunch of Owen's keepsakes with her.

WG: You make heads or tails of Harrow’s trail of death? Obvious that Rothstein, Masseria, and Nucky have reached a tentative détente. Lansky and Luciano are split. Nucky can go to Broadway, Harlem, Macy’s, and eat at the Russian Tea Room. Rothstein can enjoy the beach at Atlantic City (as if). I couldn’t quite piece together what Harrow was up to. Settling scores? Working for somebody?

OMD: None whatsoever. He must be settling scores, but I'll be damned if I can figure out why or for whom. I get the sense he's a lone gunman at this point, but I suppose he could surprise. Perhaps it was a familial score he was evening if a few years after the fact. The Harrow family homestead could have been seized in a shady way. As for the armistice, I might be wrong, but I think the tension with Masseria will cool to a simmer for a bit. If I'm not mistaken, Masseria is relatively quiet from now (the beginning of 1924) until 1928, but I could be oversimplifying things in that assumption.

WG: Capone with a little comic relief. And this is where things went a bit sour for me. You knew the outrage at having his name spelled wrong (fot-whosis? I ain’t nobodies fototis) would inevitably lead to bulldogging a pale and trembling reporter in some cramped office. The wrestling and the horseplay with his brothers. Beating one of them with his size 4.5 wingtip. Those damn Italians are a gregarious and hot blooded bunch, ain’t they? I get it. Capone is straining under Torrio’s leash, and hungers for more power and recognition. If only this aspect of the story telling matched the heights of the cinematography.

OMD: "New York Sour," right? I worry a bit about the Brothers Capone. I like Capone, but I want the balance between his animalistic side and the family man. I worry that the brothers stuff won't play as well.

Kinkmaster General

WG: Boardwalk Empire does kink better than True Blood. They’ve apparently replaced the erotic asphyxiation fetish with the bi-racial/cuckold/voyeur trifecta. I was hoping Purnsley was going to play out that scene with the assured sexual sophistication of David Bowie or Charles Kuralt. But you can’t fuck with Purnsley. He ain’t all that far removed from jail. I don’t know what I liked better, that she riffed on John Travolta with the “Don’t touch my hair” line, or that she was able to snare Purnsley by scrawling a crude simulacra of coitus on a napkin. She might was well have written “I'm batshit crazy” on that thing.

OMD: All I'm hoping for is that Dunn gets to finish what he started and gets to "swirl that cock" per her command. Her sketching skills were not quite where Jackie Treehorn's were, but you've got to admit there's a charm to it all. I, for one, am glad Dunn poked holes in that racist cuckold. Hell, he wasn't even very good at sitting back an laying waste to his junk. Where's the feverish jerking there, Dickie? I will say that I loved Chalky giving Dunn the business while he was disposing of Dickie's corpse. "Sweetback, Sweetback, the hell you leave the door open for? Letting all the cold in." Eli getting in on it telling him not to slam the door.

WG: Speaking of cameos, good to see Herc from The Wire joining Capone’s team.

OMD: Let's just hope his lack of attentiveness doesn't fuck over Randy a second time.

WG: Did you catch the names of Eli’s son’s college buddies: Flitch. Dobby. Tip. Henry, A.K.A. Bucket. Non-smokers all. What the hell is going on over there at Temple?

OMD: Yeah, a veritable shitshow of college boys with douchey nicknames. Temple is clearly a collegiate hellscape if we're to judge it by its dearth of shitty monikers and fetid fight song. Also, am I crazy, or did they re-cast Willie? I do not remember Eli's eldest looking like that at all.

WG: More cameos, Ron Livingston from Office Space and Swingers. He could use a knowledgeable companion. Gillian has him dead or addicted to bath salts inside of 5 episodes.

OMD: Let's hope he doesn't go the same way that the Jimmy surrogate went last season. Stay away from the bathtub, Ron. Stay away.

WG: I happened to catch a few old episodes in the run up to the new season. I was struck by how much I like this show. The meticulous attention to detail. Character development over plot. Breathing life into infamous history. Narrative that moves a notch slow, not pimping the audience on false starts or cliff hangers. That being said, there is an ingredient missing. Something about tonight’s episode seemed lacking. The end of Season Three was electric. The confrontation with Gyp and getting sideways with the New York mob. Capone riding to the rescue. The delicate balance between Nucky, Chalky and Capone’s racist gunsels. I’m conditioned to be a little disappointed to have to begin that slow build up again.

OMD: This episode definitely spent a lot of time setting the stage, and Jeffrey Wright didn't even make an appearance. I thought for sure that Eddie Cantor's friend was going to be Nucky's distraction this season, but that ain't happening. Talk about misplaying a hand. There were a lot of bodies that hit the ground in this episode, but with the exception of Warren Knox's play at the Borst farm house none of it was of the surprising variety. I guess we'll see what Knox has planned next week, at least in part, judging by the scenes for next week. We did get a glimpse of some of Nucky's bigger plans, as it looks like he's going to try to make a play in Florida, if we're to take the post card and maps in the folder to mean something (a safe bet given their penchant for wasting no moments). I think some of the let-down might be coming from the fact that we have no damn idea what Harrow was doing clipping guys across the Midwest. The two guys at the Tippecanoe were surely dickbags, but what the hell did that desk jockey do? Regardless, Terence Winter has earned my trust. I'm sure the season will have plenty of payoff.