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. From 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 Loncha. Welcome to Boardwalk Breakdown podcast featuring Michelle Riley, Mike Cross and me Brendan O'Neill.
If you have any comments or questions you can contact us on Twitter at Boardwalk Break. Enjoy the show. Season 5 episode 1. We open on a flashback.
Not even to the flash forward that we're living in which is to 1931. We open apparently in like 1884 or somewhere around there. Nucky is, we see young Nucky basically trying to win the Commodore's favor in a number of ways in the flashvipes and I'm going to go into details with the coins and all that stuff. So this is Nucky trying to get his place with the power brokers in Atlantic City at a young age.
He's got nothing. Right it's clear that his home life is terrible. He's got a sister that's dying and the nursery rhyme or whatever it is that's being narrated I guess by Jillian is a thing that runs through the entire episode and it's basically about be a good honest boy and you'll get ahead and he learns to the contrary. Yeah which is the opposite of the entire life.
Exactly. I love the cinematography of these pieces. I can see it. You know watching the kids swimming through the water in the beginning when it was there was very little sound to it and it was just all visual.
I thought it was a nice touch. Very interesting. I have a way to pull you in immediately. And all that like the CPA tones too.
You get that feel that it is in the past. It's pretty good. Yeah in the CPA I did read up about this and the CPA was by design so that you could keep track and you know one of the things we talked about is the nature of the show and how it shifts gears so quickly and so often. The capability to recognize that hey we're flashing back to 1884 in this particular scene so yeah definitely very visually done well.
Which is a clear homage or is inspired by Godfather 2. There's a number of Godfather touches one and two throughout this whole episode. Right I mean you have to sort of forgive the natural things that you're going to tell a mafia story and there's going to overlap and then you have to forgive the historical things because you can't change history. But beyond that there's obviously some stuff that's intentional or if not intentional then sadly derivative and you want to believe that's not true either.
But yeah those those touches are there. I will say about that opening scene for a split second there. I was excited because I thought Danny Coleman was going to be back on the back on the scene and then for the second split second I recognized it was not Danny Coleman and I thought that it was Nick Offerman. Oh my God.
Which would have been interesting. Oh my God. Oh my God. That's brilliant.
That's not true either. I mean with all due respect to the actor who is playing that person. No it's not. You do get a touch of Danny in there but it's not great.
Okay so this brings me to my big statement of this episode we were talking about earlier. Michelle I think I can say with confidence this is my least favorite episode of all of them over the entire run of the series. I don't like it at all. I don't like most of it.
I mean I don't like the flashback. I'm not interested in the relationship between Naki and Kombator. There are so many different plot lines and characters we have to wrap up. We have eight episodes.
Eight episodes to wrap up all this stuff and throw a vision and that's why I am. I agree. I will say this. I think with it being an eight episode arc which is contradictory to the 12 that they've run with through the life of the series.
It is tricky. They're gonna have to jam a lot in. So I think one of the reasons that it's so compact at the front end here is by design so that they can start getting to a point where they can wrap everything up. So I'm with you in that it was a lot of it was a lot to take in and there was a lot going on and right now we're probably on 30% of it saying why do I need to know this right?
We're gonna get to say why we need to know it. I'm just saying you don't care so much other stuff that takes priority over most of this episode. Not all of it but most of it. I mean we were talking about this earlier.
People that we don't get to see in this episode include are not limited to Gillian, Capone, Narcisse, the villain from the previous. That's fine for me. The previous series who destroyed a couple of the people's the main characters lives at the end of the last season. Van Alden still making a play for Mr.
Creepy for the entire series and Eli taking her leave me. He wasn't in the episode either. All those guys were not in this season opener. That's amazing to me.
They have a lot of stories to tell and the truth is for Ben Rovers the show is centered on Nucky and the entire series is going to end with Nucky whether in terms of the narrative or just in terms of the metaphor that he's going to play out for the larger story and the only way that we can wrap Nucky up is to go back to the 1800s and figure out what made him this way. And so that is the device for Ben Rovers. I agree. And there's no getting around.
I enjoy it. I don't have a problem with laying some framework or some groundwork on who Nucky, why Nucky is who he is today. I'm okay with that except we know the high points already. I don't think we know it.
I felt like it was setting up for some. But hang on. I agree. Things we already know in previous seasons.
Nucky's got a horrible potentially abusive father. Potentially. I think we know that. Yeah.
I mean it's definitive in this series. You know, this episode. We know that he was to put a lightly second fiddle to the Commodore. He was the Commodore's bitch.
Yeah. Yeah. And he, the Commodore went to jail in Nucky with the prospered. We know all that.
Plus the Commodore is dead. That story can't be fast forward to now and then have that story. Yeah. Can't show that all up.
Right. It's not about the kind of. I know I'm just saying it's really there's never a new payoff. There won't be a new payoff on that.
But there will be a payoff in that you're going to see the flip side of Nucky. What we've seen for what we've what has been implied over the first four seasons is understandable, right? We know we came from a broken or messed up home. But I think the what they're trying to do is lay the framework for hey, this is really why he is who he is.
And another Scorsese kind of hallmark is this. Hey, you get all this up front. And then now and in the second half, I'm going to tell you why you why this person is doing this or why they're this way. It's it is really a hallmark of this.
And I know that he's just the EP on this. He's not really, you know, directing or he's not involved or writing. But I think they're following that formula, which is another reason why you see so many. Oh my, you know, the homage to Godfather two is I think they're trying to kind of weave that in so they can, you know, pay the respects to the man who really drove the bus on this at the front.
Right. Well, Godfather was not. No, I know. But you know, you see a lot of the ties to the mafia, you know, right.
One thing I will say, and I don't I found the storyline with the flashback. I mean, I think it was obvious that we knew that this was a bad situation for Nike. But I thought incredibly sad. Oh, yeah, of course.
It was really incredibly sad on two levels. I mean, one was just dark. But the other part is that this is a child that was extremely earnest. I mean, he was very earnest.
He was trying to do the right thing. He believed in working hard and getting ahead. And you really do see how that was just beaten out of him. But he had an incredible amount of empathy for his mother, for his sister, for his brother.
And he really thought that, you know, if he did the right thing, he would be rewarded and over and over again. Yeah. Well, is this is just a humanizing? Are they are we learning this to see Nike humanize?
We're right now probably in present day or in, you know, prohibition era to 1931, which is the area the show is covered. You're looking at a guy who's not a monster, but he certainly is a manipulative conniving in the previous two seasons. He got darker. Yeah, got darker.
Right. So all right, let's reel it back in a little bit. Let's show you the human side of them or show you why he became this monster. So there's, you know, that could be the day.
But I do want to be building empathy for the viewer, right? It's getting without what? What happens to his future? It was a brand and he is okay.
So I do want to move on from this, but I'm going to talk back quickly. And one thing, it just came to me and it's of course brilliant. Of course, of course. The reason I don't want to see them go into Nucky's past so much, because I think in this show, Nucky, while he's the main character in the book end of the show, in the through line through the entire plot, he's not the most interesting character of all of the main characters.
That's not. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on.
It's the straw that's going to go down this road with me for a second. And this is a wild road to get ready for some turns here. Just like Willing Grace. It was about Willing Grace to start.
And then you saw the popularity of Jack and Karen, the wilder crazier characters, you can go in different directions. They became the show. Willing Grace were there, but they were just holding it together. It was the heart was these crazy characters.
And that's what I think has happened to this is Nucky is there and he's the namesake. He's in the title sequence. He's the show. He's the straight man.
We have all these crazy characters around. I want to see the crazy characters. I know Nucky, you have to stay with Nucky. I get that.
I'm impatient. I want to see Chucky go crazy. I want to see Capone get fully realized. I want to see what happens with the insanity of Van Alden.
I want to see all that. I am going to have you. You definitely will. Let me interject two points.
For most of you that I'm listening, maybe you don't know who Willing Grace are. Point number one. Okay, we're old. Point number two.
I agree with you on a certain level there. It's definitely Nucky is the one constant in the ever changing craziness that is boardwalk empire. He's always there and he's always sipping his drink slowly and he's very inanimate. He's not a very, I mean, a character and that is totally by design and that is totally to show you that he is a guy who is constantly thinking about the next move.
He's not living in the moment. He does not live in the moment. And every other character that you describe or that you're alluding to are people who live in the moment. Chucky, Narcis.
He's the only guy I think. He's the only guy I think. He's throughout the show. They've, they've, they've, yeah.
Yeah. He has yet to be out thanked. I like that. I'm going out.
Anyway, all right. So flashback, we go to Cuba. It's a good time. And so this is part two of my hatred of this episode is the Sally Week character.
I'm just, she's fine. And like we were talking about, she's more of a conveyance, more of a way to get from A to B, more to introduce Nucky to these new opportunities. She's a vehicle. I'm not a fan of her role.
It's just like, yeah, someone has to do it. I think she's too prominent in my eyes and it's well, maybe I should have. I like the actress, not the, I get a kick out of her too. And I think that shines through in her body of work.
She's always played that kind of character. Oh, well, she's a fantastic. Yeah. I mean, what's our, the Christian Slater movie?
She's a role in that movie and she plays this kind of off-center character. Oh, she's brilliant. And it's really, it is really good. It really kind of pulls things along.
So she is totally a vehicle in this. And I will agree with that. Could they have cast someone that was unknown that might have kind of made it less imposing? I mean, for lack of a word, I mean, maybe, maybe she's gone to it because she's so, you know, she, yeah, so right.
Yeah. So she were, or I think made it's because she so easily signed up to Nucky. She brought into his little world so quickly and so easily where he keeps a lot of people at arms like, but she's right in. I still maintain that the reason that was true is because she is the only woman he's ever met that didn't need anything.
I agree with that. And she also had the keys to a kingdom that he didn't have access to. So it's a you use me. I mean, it really is.
So I think there's value in that character. I think you do have a justifiable point that it could be a little bit more underplayed. Yeah, I don't know. All right.
So Cuba is one of the quarter swords of this episode. Yes. It's really important. You know, we moved ahead.
We're talking about the future of look at being all right. I had to. We're talking about the future of you know, booze being legal again. And it's all coming back to McCarty here.
So this was wild, right? Because right away it did feel it felt like Fredo and Michael. Yeah. You want to keep up?
Oh my God. I just felt like that. But again, that was the time and it's precast row and that's what's going on. It felt more like Scarface to me.
He goes to Columbia. Well, okay, hang the guy out the helicopter. It's not like that to me more so than I didn't think about that. Yeah.
I guess I was just throwing that on. No, I mean, I'm going to drag different things quickly and in passing, we see Maya Lansky out of nowhere. That is bananas. And he's just there supposedly with his wife in quotes.
And so the Maya Lansky thing on Maya Lansky Cuba. I'm like, God, Father, I'm in rock. I'm like, there's so many things. I know that the historical backing is there.
But I'm like, it's just too much. Maybe you can't avoid it. But it's fine. Well, one of the things I was telling Brandon that I found so interesting and maybe I'm making this up, but the meeting with the Cardi family was interesting because there was an implication there that he would be open to doing this with Nucky.
If the American family would help him get the hell out of Cuba. And, you know, I'm thinking, well, dude, that's how they got to Puerto Rico. I found it interesting that they got to be that's got to be. Oh, yeah.
But they usually able to use like a real brand name. Yeah, we've been a real brand as well. Well, it's a real family and it's a real story. So I think part of it, there's a story in the context there.
I mean, who knows, they might have gone to Cardi company and said, Hey, we want to weave this in. We know we can. We just want to get whatever. You know, it is an interesting part of the storyline.
I don't like the Maya Lansky thing. I thought that was until it became obvious that Maya Lansky was behind the assessment. But I mean, it didn't, it just didn't none of it. The Cuba thing, while it was entertaining and interesting, it didn't work for me.
I think it was too forced. I think it was too. I didn't feel like it. And I think some of the problem here is that part of HBO's issue and the reason there's only eight episodes is because Boardwalk Empire hasn't been that vehicle that they thought it would be.
It doesn't have viewership. It hasn't drawn in more subscriptions. So they're saying, Hey, you guys have eight episodes, wrap this shit up and trying to, yeah, and being that it's period piece. They're talking tons of money.
I mean, reliving that set in Cuba. I mean, that had to be moving like, yeah, it was unbelievable. We visually moved you. Like I felt like this really was Cuba in the 30s.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. It accomplished what it did what it set out to. But I think they're handcuffed by this.
Hey, bottom line. So instead of saying we're gonna do 12 episodes and we're gonna do them very good. They're saying we're gonna cram as much as we can and eight and you have X amount of dollars, right? I guess so.
I mean, I'm looking forward to the next seven because they have to be jam-packed with all kinds of stuff. This one started off pretty slow. So it must be a slow build. Well, I don't know that it was slow.
It was just it was because there were a lot of different things happening throughout the show. I think it was that. I mean, and we've seen this happen in previous up previous seasons where their team something up first up. So let's tee this up.
They did it with our series. They did it, you know, they did it with our media. I'll do that. So I think that's part of the reason why we're on the path we're down.
So through Lansky, we learned quickly that Rossine is dead. That blew my mind. Was not shown. It was just happened in the interim.
In the present day of season five, we are in 1931 seven years after season four as Mike Phillips glass of Nucky's favorite bourbon. Rossine is dead. One of our favorite characters is going. Just just I know we're in really talked about he has to come back.
We'll see him. Right. There has to be an explanation. He contacted guys like that.
You know, there's a story to the dying and there's also an implication which I didn't really it was not a strong implication, but there was an implication that he was still connected to Margaret in the scene. Right. Yes. Where we see Margaret.
Right. All these years later still game. Filing away. Same place that she had been.
There were two things that were revealed in that segue. The first is obviously introducing the audience effect that we are smack-dem and all the depression. Right. Two years in.
And the second that she doesn't cop to having a family. She's obviously right. All these years maintain that she's not married. She has no children.
So it's really interesting to me at this point where those kids are what they're up to. If we'll see them as adults and how that's going to play out. Is she still living in that apartment? I think that was being financed by Rossine.
Right. Wasn't he behind it at the end of the season for? I don't know. He was living with their family.
Yeah. I think he started to. But there was the location that was a relationship that was going to be. So I guess they had to show her that she was still living in some sort of ambiguity.
We'll find out more about it. But I thought that was a lost sort of few scenes. Like it didn't feel like we moved forward in the story. Just said, oh yeah.
And there's Margaret doing her thing. And back to this. It was sort of never nothing ever came up again. Well it's the problem with sleeping in that job for that line.
Right. It doesn't a lot of time. It's not a lot of things. We're sounding here.
Seven years. Seven years. Seven years. And again I don't want to keep going back to this but the fact that their hand was forced on some of this leaves the fact that hey we skipped from 24 to 31.
Rossine died in 28. I'm okay with the skip. But I'm not okay with the skip in that we miss. You're asking hey Rossine's dad.
Well yeah he was that he was murdered in 1928. So it's 1931. He's gone. The flashbacks are going to take the flashbacks.
Hopefully we'll take care of that. That's why I don't like the the nucky flashbacks because it's so sing-songy and whatever. We have more important flashbacks to see like Rossine's death and all that. Rossine's death is legendary.
I mean he was well then you got to believe it's going to be a kind of I mean well let's hope that it is because it was a three day poker binge. He lost $320,000. It was all fixed and he refused to pay the debt. I like what we're hearing about that.
In the meantime we have a juggernaut of a mobster story which is the coronation of Lucky Finally Becoming a Made Man. I have to say I was hardly impressed with this actor. I mean he not only Lucky Luciano. Yes what is this?
The guy? Yeah. Pia. That's how we like him.
Once again a couple Irish people trying to say the kind of name. Forgive me Vincent Piazza. Piazza I believe that was me. Anyway he actually physically looks different to me.
I don't know what they did to make him look different. He was older. I believe they gave him a scar here. Some sort of thing on his eye and coming down on the right hand side.
Yeah I don't know what he's done. He is absolutely gorgeous. But the point is he looks like a kid now he looks like a man and the presence that he commanded. It was really quite impressive.
I love that little Italian kid is going around collecting cash. He was right there yet. So he meets with Mazria and another Omar's to the godfather. He meets with the guy, goes to the bathroom and then he's killed.
So he takes out Mazria. But then the ceremony makes you remind me of the minds you have got. Good fellas. Now I while watching the show I didn't catch the name or who this new mafia boss was right.
Salvatore or Salvatore. Maranzano and apparently historically just for a little bit backstory he was he ended up at the time we see him he was now called the boss of bosses. He orchestrated a war between his family and Mazria's family. It was called the Castile Maurice war.
Again I don't know how to pronounce Italian words Castile Maurice war. But I know between his family and Mazria's family which is waiting for a while the final nail in the coffin of this war was lucky that Giano killing Mazria. So that was a big turning point at the time. And you know what else was with him at the time.
Who? Ben Nixigal. Right. I call him Bugsy.
Bugsy. Who was with Lucky Luciano. They murdered. Bugsy was the gunman.
They were both involved in the murder. Hold that up. We'll come back to that. So the ceremony that we see is Maranzano.
He had 200 or so of the mafia also in the area under his purview at this banquet hall. They were meeting to the family. There were other families involved. But yes.
So he brought them in and he was anointing the five new surviving members of the war. The heads of the five families for this war. It was Lucky Luciano and these names may or may not come up again. But it's Lucky Luciano, Tommy Gagliano, Joe, Profacie, Profacie, Vincent, Manjano, Manjano and the fifth being himself who was the boss of bosses.
These four bosses were under Maranzano, the boss of bosses. Now there's the five families, Godfather. Turns out Maranzano was a character Mario Puzo mentioned in the book, Godfather. He's another Godfather connection there.
He was involved with Corleone and actually Capone as well. We're tied up in the Godfather. Maranzano was noted in a number of movies throughout the world. He was a big deal.
The Bellaci papers, Charles Ronson's in the vehicle. mobsters, the film Lansky, Bonano, a Godfather story. He's a well-known character in the syndicate history. He is the boss of bosses.
So that's one thing I'm looking forward to hopefully soon is to be introduced to Bugsy Segal. I'm going to see that character. Who's going to top the Warren Vadie portrayal of any Segal, which was not to get off, not to get too sidetracked, but absolutely one of my favorite movies of all time, especially mob-related, without questions in the top three from me. Godfather, I'm not a Godfather 2 guy.
I'm a Godfather. We don't have to have this. This is a different podcast because I'm putting good followers. Godfather 2 may be better than Godfather 1.
I know. Oh, that's a whole other podcast. Okay, so another character we see and it's kind of mysterious how we got there, Chalky, in the chain gang. Yeah, that built a lot of tension for the viewer.
I like that a lot. You know, you just saw it building, you knew this shit was coming down because you could just feel it in the way that it was rolling. And there was, you know, plus Chalky, the restraint that that actor shows with that character is just brilliant. He's just simmering.
Yes, simmering. I mean, it's just waiting for the explosion. I did. It's a small thing, but I like that they started calling him Strypy.
Strypy. They're calling him Strypy. I know, it was good. And I love this actor.
You know, I think he's very much playing. He's playing a role and it's a very simple role in that you have to portray this man in this hard fashion constantly. But I think that in and of itself to make it believable is a tricky thing to do. And he's very much pulled it off.
His name's Michael Williams. Michael Williams. Michael K Williams. This is, you know, he was on the wire, which is another unbelievable.
I think he was on the wire as well. Yeah, there's not a role too. There's, you know, this guy's obviously got some chops because anyone who was on the wire was, I don't recall one acting scene where I thought this is not believable. Yeah.
Yeah. So, you know, I think he's a great actor and I think he's done a good job for trying that. And yeah, you can see the tension building throughout the episode with that. And you knew that was coming to a hat.
You know, it's coming from the first minute he saw him pretty much when he was playing. When he refused to get off the truck and, you know, he was the last one off the out of the patty wagon or the sorry, sorry for all you Irish. Yeah. In that for a reason.
Yes, exactly. All right. So, knocky, knocky. Knocky.
Knocky. Knocky. Knocky. Knocky.
Is this Senator or? Or, or coerce him. Or coerce him. Or just, you know, their buddies, their, their pals.
I'm sure it's on the up and up. Yeah. He's trying to get the Senator to facilitate the repeal of the Volstead Act of prohibition. And it seems to be like on the tuss.
Like it's maybe not going to happen, but it's hinted at a couple times and it's probably going to happen. So then he meets with McCarthy and knocky is looking to find a new source of, you know, some alcohol to bring to the States. It's a new venture for him. And part of his selling point to a party is that this is going to be legal real soon.
And you need to get in with me to get the proper connection. You can't. You can't. But that is quite an interesting flat point that he's obviously banking on the fact that this is going to be legal sooner than later.
He's trying to get his ducks in a row. I think it's interesting because Nucky seems so hell-bent on making this happen on so many levels. But it kind of goes back to what we were talking about in the previous recap, which is to say knocky like Michael, Corleone, is constantly trying to go legit, right? He is trying to go legit.
Every time I get. Yeah. So if he, if he can get liquor legal, he can try to take his place and legit. Legitimate, legitimate.
Legitimate. And so this could tie back into the flashbacks with the Commodore. It certainly will. So, guaranteed.
He's trying to go legit because he learned it from the Commodore. The Commodore was the guy we think that first or best tied in the political and the criminal. Well, I mean, he was the guy who straddled both worlds and gave Nucky the blueprint. See, I disagree, Brendan.
No. Because I think, I mean, I think what we're saying is two opposites, which is he didn't learn it from the Commodore. What we're learning with his earnestness in his childhood is that he's had the desire to be legitimate all the time. And all of this criminal activity has been his means to the end.
Yeah. And this redemption will be found. Yeah, he's done a lot of bad stuff. But if he can turn this around, get legal, get right with the government, get right with that, then he can wear this $1,000 suit to be fine in a legitimate way.
I really think that it's not about the Commodore. I mean, he learned everything from the Commodore. No doubt. But he possesses this desire to go straight that the Commodore never had.
But I think that's, I mean, Nucky, in my mind, Nucky thinks he can get out, but I think it's so ingrained in him from age 10 or whatever that was, that he needs to do the illegitimate to fund the legitimate. He needs, in order to be that guy, he has to do something bad. But the Commodore never had any, you know, illusionist in that, trying to do anything. He didn't even believe in trying to be honest.
Well, you know, why would you want to get ahead? And Nucky has maintained that kernel of, and there's obviously some self-hatred and there's some conscience at some level there about how he knows it's not, you know, he's struggling. Yeah. And this is where I think the flashbacks really come into play because it shows that struggle that he's having, that man versus man struggle, the internal struggle, where he finds the, the dirty with the $50 bill in it, and he has another as bad, and he's trying to figure out what to do.
And he eventually bucks up and says, you know what, I'm going to bring it back because I know that I'm going to be rewarded for bringing it back. That way they'll give me the money. And they give them nothing. Right.
And he should cap the dirty. That was a good point. And the Commodore told him on the back, what did you think you were going to get something for that? You know, that guy's finished last.
That's what he called it. Yeah, that was exactly what the Commodore was telling him. And I mean, the Commodore, there've been a lot of liberties taken on the show with Commodore. I mean, not all that it's very manipulated for the show's purposes, which is fine.
But the Commodore does represent that dark force in the world, right? And Nucky is a kid, as a kid in these flashbacks, is writing that fence off. Am I going to go, am I going to be a legitimate straight, you know, hardworking guy, or am I going to do it, take the shortcuts to get there fast? And the turning point, the tipping point is when the Commodore kind of pulls him aside and says, this is no way to get it done.
Being honest is not going to get you anywhere, do what you have to do. Now, sweet my fucking boy. I know. Exactly.
Because he's clearly been taught over and over again to do the right thing. Exactly. So I think that's really what the setup is on these flashbacks is that this isn't a character who was born of evil. This is a character that was Brad of evil, right?
I mean, he became it because that's what he saw, right? And I mean, a desperate situation that he was trying to resolve. Of course. And again, you know, we said it in the last thing too.
I mean, it's a lot easier to be right just when you don't have to deal with any consequence. Exactly. And that is 100% the truth, you know. Anyone can take the easy or the harder path or the more righteous path when there aren't a lot of obstacles in their way.
There are a ton in Nucky's way at this point. He's in an abusive household. He's got a dying sister. He's got a brother who's, you know, obviously not all together there.
It's yeah, it's an impression. Everyone's fighting for every guy they can get. I did think it was interesting how the dad did not hit him until Eli left around. Yeah, right.
That that may have exposed why at the end of his life in the first season Eli was always very open and love. He had supportive of his father and irritated with Nucky for it. It shows two things. A, I think the favorite child was the sister who was dying of tuberculosis or whatever.
Whatever the disease of the day was, right? Nucky was the brother that had a stepchild and then all those two, Eli was the favorite or potentially the favorite of the two boys. I think that probably had a lot to do with it. It was protecting the younger one and putting the boyfriend on it.
We've already seen why Nucky had that house burned down. Right. We already know why now. I think that some of the wrap up in some of these flashbacks, and I know it's frustrating at times, but I think there is value in wrapping up some of that early on stuff that we had no basis for.
I know. Our little juniors. For the listeners, we are watching the show as we go along here. I actually appreciated how low the ceilings were in this.
It's the banquet scene. Because this is not grand, right? No. This is like a shit mill.
It's like the back of an Italian restaurant. It's the back of a 1930s bago mafia shit. That's what it is. It's really, no, I mean, that's what it is.
It's like hard to wear. It's not like a married in, I think. Actually. I don't know where it was German.
That was German. But yes, it was old school. So now we come to a couple of the quality kills. Yes.
There's two that stand out to me. The machete in the head. Yes. I love the bodyguard.
His nameless- Very efficient. Doesn't speak. I love how he cleans his, he like tucks his jacket down when he's not- He's fantastic. A just as a hat and he watches away.
The bodyguard is Cuban or Filipino or I don't know what he's not a white guy. He's probably not. He's probably native of Cuban. Yeah.
So that guy's great. I mean, he cuts the ear off and thinks it's a souvenir. Fantastic. That was great.
Everyone watched an amazement. Yeah. That was amazing. And then Chalky, was it Chalky who did it or one of the stripies as they revolted against the- The man.
The man. Does the old pickaxe in the chest maneuver? I don't know. I don't think it was Chalky but I do remember it vividly.
And there was a lot of violence in that scene. And a lot of pent up anger. It really showed in true to form, I think, what the early 20th century was like for our black brothers and sisters trying to deal with being imprisoned and being oppressed. And there's a lot of symbolism in that.
That was a very tricky time in America. In particular, in the south, but even in the north where you had very divisive action taken against people of color. And it's definitely- It shows a lot of that rage. Yeah.
It was actually very- It was a powerful scene. Yeah. It was very powerful and very empowering, I think, on their end. It's like they weren't taking outrage that had been building for 50, 75, 100 years out on those guards.
And then we see Nucky almost be killed by this uneducated prisoner guy who saves Nucky or Nucky saves himself by telling the guy that he can talk on a telephone. That he's a little more educated. He can communicate with the man, so to speak. And they go off.
They escape together to do something together. Something's going to happen there. I don't know what it is. We're going to find out on that.
Yeah, that's interesting. I think that other prisoner, interestingly, and I'm not going to use the term, but back in slave days they were called house- Right. Right. Word.
Oh yeah. I mean, he's just trying to- And Taki was- Yeah. He came from that school. He's one of those house brothers.
Right. You're in there and you're kissing the man's ass and you're, you know, you're the white guy's slap, right? Yeah. Uncle Tom.
Yep. And I think part of what his goal in was in pointing that gun at Taki's face was, are you one of me or are you one of them? And we're going to find out real quick. And it's an interesting difference in Chalky right now as opposed to Chalky at the beginning of last season.
Before the first half of season four, he was on top of the world. He was running a club. He was- He was the guy, right? He's following me down.
He's following me down. His family. His daughter was going great. He's lost everything.
I assume the wife. The wife, the girlfriend is dead. The daughter is dead. The family is probably gone.
The money's gone. The money's gone. I think he's incarcerated. He's now even below this uneducated dope.
I'm changing. That makes him the man with nothing to lose. Right. Right.
And I think that this is going to come to a head. And I think, and that's the fast forward too much, but my thought is that the end of this Chalky is going to be the one that comes out smelling like a rose. Somehow or another, he's going to end up being a power broker of some sort in some way. Or they pull the old switcheroo in not in the last episode, but the second last episode he has killed.
He'll build, build, build. You see him. I don't whack him. Getting back to his old self, he puts on a suit and then he gets whacked.
You know, I don't want to deal with that. We'll see about that. The final equality killed it. I don't know that we've mentioned is the suicide.
Right. And actually that scene was quite beautifully played. The way he sort of manically talked about how everything was going to be fine. And Margaret's boss killed himself in the middle of the trading room.
I thought it was good if nothing else, just to represent the time. Just to show you where you were. Exactly. It was interesting.
All right. So we've got up. It's most of the episode in a nutshell. What are we looking forward to?
What do we need to see in this next episode? Or what do we want to see in the next couple? Well, we want to see the evolution of this Chalky story and see where he's going. I'm dying to see that.
I'm really extremely anxious to see the Nelson slash Capone slash Chicago arc play out. And we're going to get that. Because all of those guys, Nelson is the fictional character. Everybody else has historical art.
He's sort of tagging along there. We're going to see what role he plays. I still want to know you guys don't care. But I still want to see what happens with Jillian because she's a cornerstone to Nucky.
She's part of his entire life from childhood on up. And there's some I feel that there is something there that has yet to be revealed. Yeah, she's got one more secret. I don't know what it is.
I don't even know if I want to know. I want to know. All the characters that you thought would last to the end. She's not one I would have picked, but she's there.
Oh, she's going to be there. Margaret, I really hope. I got to tell you, I hope she dies. You know what?
I hope something fantastic happens because I feel that we've invested a lot in watching her move because we are somehow other than her getting fanged by the Irishman. There's been nothing exciting with her. Right. And somehow we're convinced to believe because of the dominance of the story that there's an important way to pay attention to.
And I'll be damned if I haven't seen it yet. I'm surprised if it doesn't happen. I will be surprised if it can happen. I won't be.
Every aspect of her life has been in this series has been based on a lie. So what's her next lie or does she then turn to the truth? Right? No, there's no truth.
Right. My prediction. Market to her. Here we go.
She makes a transformation totally to the dark side. She's pursuing a hearing on this hypocritical, you know, righteousness for so many years. I think we're just going to see her completely submit to the. Oh, what was it looking at in the biocarbonate?
She had the case of the biocarbonate and she was looking up. She's got the same. No, but it was redstone. Redstone.
That's Rossine's alias. Thank you. Oh, yeah. That's a.
Oh, I have to believe that she's been making money with him this whole time and my guess now that he's dead. They had an arrangement of some sort. And she's probably got the only one that knows that money is there. Yeah.
And she's getting something out of his body. So she's getting something out of that money. So she's getting away scot-free is the question. Is she going to walk away with Rossine's treasure trove?