Welcome to episode 1 of the Pubcast. My name is Brendan O'Neill and I would normally be joined by Mike Cross and Michelle Riley. But in these first few episodes we are revisiting our previous podcast, Boardwalk Breakdown. Basically we're shutting down the Boardwalk Breakdown podcast and moving those 13 episodes over here so we can keep them alive and well in our archives.
So the Pubcast is our new podcast where we'll talk about all kinds of stuff and not be limited to only talking about Boardwalk Empire. And we'll actually begin on episode 14. So just consider these first 13 episodes as bonus content. It's oncha.
Welcome to the Boardwalk Breakdown podcast featuring Joe Riley, Michael Cross, and me Brendan O'Neill. Basically, we're fans of the HBO show Boardwalk Empire providing some analysis and silly commentary. If you have any comments or questions you can contact us on Twitter at Boardwalk Break. Enjoy the show.
Going forward, looking into season 5. What do we expect? I'll give you my quick thought. Yeah.
Please. Having not read the source materials, I don't know how it's supposed to end. I don't know the end game for these historical characters. What about the Kentucky?
I'm not sure how long this goes. This goes 1935 or something. I have no idea when it starts and ends. Anyway, I expect big things from Shockey White.
I think he will make this whole season. I think he will be the guy. I think Narcisse gets it. I think Shockey is involved.
I think Shockey and Nucky are standing side by side. I think he plays a huge role in this whole season. I think, again, without knowing the historical data, I would think that the first one is the Eli takes a backseat. Either is killed or dismissed by Nucky.
Nucky becomes the monster. Although, I think he also steps down or is forced out of power. He's behind the scenes character. What else?
What other predictions do you have? Where else to kill with this one? It probably has to extend beyond the end of prohibition. I'm not sure where it goes.
Does it follow up with where people are? What happens when prohibition is lifted? The whole money in this business is in uphall being illegal. Once it becomes legal, that ends.
Do you find a new source of income? Does it go beyond that? Does it go into Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano and drugs? I don't know.
Yeah, it's the series. So here's where I see it. I see it as prohibition is closing out. As it's ending, I think it's got to end right there.
It ends with Nucky having a moment on a terrace with a cigar and a glass of scotch or whiskey. It's a fake-the-black kind of thing. I see raging al this year. I mean, I see raging al this year.
Yeah, it has to be. And they really have to because frankly they've been setting up al for four seasons. They have not let him. They've let him cut loose sometimes, but they have not let him explode.
So we're going to see him explode. Oh, let me interject there. Can I say, while I like it, I like the way he's done it, I have a problem with Al Capone being a guy from England. I love that.
I think he's so good though. I know he's so good. He's the only one who's out of the way. He's not a big guy.
Yeah, he's not a big guy. But he wasn't a bigger guy. But he wasn't a bigger guy. But he wasn't.
He was kind of Italian. But he was big. He wasn't tall. Now this may tie into my nerdiness.
He looked younger in this. Yeah, that's true. You're thinking you're untouchable. But of the idea that it indulged me for half a second for being insane with this stuff, but in the movies, Superman is English, Batman is English, Spider-Man is English, Capone cannot be English.
Capone shouldn't be English or right. Which one of these is not like the others? Capone is a bad one. I know.
I know. True. Capone is a real guy too. I do see the raging owl this year.
And despite the fact that he has English, which I didn't know until just this moment, I'm going to give this guy a lot of props because he's doing this. Showing him, turning to a volcano. I can't complain about it. In quick fashion.
I see the Willie Eli storyline getting downplayed. I see Chalky having a big, big year. So I think this is going to be Alan Chalky with Nucky kind of working kind of. He's there and he's obviously a catalyst in the show.
So you're going to get a lot of Nucky. But I see him taking a backseat to the Alan Chalky kind of story that's going to come forward. At the end, Nucky wins. He's going to be on the, whether he's in charge anymore or not, he's getting away with it.
Right? So he's staying on the balcony with a cigar in his glass of scotch. With that in mind, do we think we have seen the antagonist in season five? Is it going to be in our seas?
No. Is there another new guy we haven't seen yet? My other note like Jib, like Narcisse is like somebody. My other note that I have is that Narcisse fades.
I think anyway, you know, a shooting star, right? I mean, is Capone that guy? I think Capone turns into the big catalyst this year. That's my thought.
Just based on that history has to be. Right. I mean, God, I haven't been a big central character this year. I agree with a lot of things you said about the ending, Michael.
I think you're right that it will end at prohibition and it will end with Nucky alone. I do not think, like Brandon said, that Chucky and Nucky will be shoulder to shoulder. Absolutely not. I want Chucky to play a big role.
He's going to play a big role. I mean, he will play a role. But they're not going to be together. Absolutely not going to be.
And as for Eli, I believe that he's going to abandon Nucky one way or the other. Whether it means he does it of his own volition or if Nucky orchestrates it that way. But the bottom line is I do believe Nucky will be alone. Yeah.
I agree with that. And some sort of power play. And as for Capone, I don't think it's so much of an explosion or a volcano as I do think you're going to see him in position of power. So he's finally going to take his place as a leader in this organization.
We all know that Capone was Cuckoo-doo and he had a massive time for a matter of how far up the ladder he got in Chicago, he was always crazy. So that violent part of Capone is never going to stop. He played the friendly role to the press too. He was like a...
Well, he was a showman. He was a showman. He was a new gomaniac. Yeah, he was a gomaniac.
Yeah. He served himself the mayor of the city. And he's with Capone where he starts to take his place of power. Well, and in this world, that kind of maturity leads to a lot of bad decisions or a lot of nasty decisions that need to be made.
But it'll start becoming more of a thinking person as opposed to just a doing. And I really would like to see what does happen with Jillian. I know she's going off to jail right now, but that can't be the end of her. So I think there's going to be something going on with that.
I like that and I would... You're right. They can't end it that way with her because she was too central to character for too long where they can just wash her... Right.
She's in prison. There's got to be a backstory to that. But I wouldn't be surprised if Nucky somehow orchestrates... There's going to be ongoing stuff with New York and Chicago in terms of the mob operations.
And then the personal size of it is going to be Chucky, Eli, Jillian, to an extent Richard. Well, we're going dead. Oh, that's right. I got to feel like...
Cut that. Cut that. I don't know the history off top of my head, but I got to feel like Ross Dean is still a player in this. Oh, I don't.
I think the calling Ross... I think he's sneaky. Maybe he's part of the L. And they may even know how the Atlantic City thing goes into the New York thing.
I don't even know what to this day if that's true. I think what's great about this is that we don't have all the historical context, the cloud, what we're thinking, or the way we feel like it's not out. The details are not well known details. So what I'm saying is that by us not being intelligent about situations, we're actually intelligent.
Right. We're showing an objective. It helps. This is going to end on a personal note.
This is going to be Nucky searching for his own redemption, which will be unrequited. You don't think it ends on a federal note with Jadra Hoover in some way or some sort of bullshit bureaucratic government... Are you kidding, Brandon? That's not trauma.
That's not trauma. That's not trauma. That's trauma, but it's ending. In the Scorsese movies?
I don't agree with that either. I do think that every move in this story has been about what people are willing to trade on their morality for, what people are willing to do to try and get right with God, or themselves, and what people are going to be able to withstand and what they betray. Who have we not touched in this description of what we think is going to happen this season? Margaret.
Margaret. We haven't at all. She's got to play a big role, right? Yes, I believe she will.
None of us touched on it means that it doesn't matter that much. I mean, we're not a collective representative of the sample. She's so very to him though, right? They're not divorced.
But is she the kind of person that if she didn't come back in season 5, would it really bother you that much if you didn't get it? Yeah, yeah. Except for Nucky. Who, Nucky of course, is the central character.
Who is left from season 1? Capone. It's Nucky. It's Capone.
It's Rothene. Yeah, but I think you're going to take them out of the equation. It's Joggy. Margaret and Chucky, right?
I mean, we're throwing Mickey Doyle the Cockra. Well, yeah, I mean, you can't play. One of our secondary characters. But she's the one who has played a major role in the series that none of us talked about.
She really has. She's got to be there. She's got to be there. She's got to be there.
And I bet you, at this point, she's going to use it. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Because she's been sitting on it for a long time, but I don't believe they are divorced. I think she's gone.
They're not divorced. Does she take down Nucky? Or does she? In some way, she tries.
Or hell, right. Right. Right. My try.
I don't think she gets away. Or does she make a play for herself. I think Nucky gets away. I think it means Nucky gets away.
No character either. I swear I'll figure either. No, she's not. Jimmy and Margaret.
Right. So she can do anything. I bet that we. Yeah, but she can't change history.
No, but maybe she played a role. We don't see. That's interesting. All right.
So we got the premiere in September 7th. Can't wait. I cannot wait. I cannot wait.
I can't wait. We'll have to do a what I think we should do. And you can edit this or not is let's email each other some of the answers to these questions. Like what we know what we hope we kind of talked to what we expected.
We didn't touch on cameos we'd like to see. And I want to think about that. Yeah, I want to think about that too. So because I know there been some like who was the big fat president Taft.
Yeah. He's been there. I don't know if Teddy Roosevelt had any role. I have to kind of look at the.
Like Harding played a role. Harding played a role. Yeah, one heart. Or individuals like actors.
Oh yeah. Yeah, they could be thrown in and. I love C-Bobby's hero. Come on.
He's got to, right? Well, I mean, I mean, just for the fun. Yeah, I mean, just for the fun. All right.
Let's wrap it. All right. Sorry for the abrupt end of the show. Thank you for listening to the Boardwalk Breakdown Podcast and follow us on Twitter at Boardwalk Break.
Future episodes of this podcast will focus on a single episode of Boardwalk