Previously on Boardwalk Empire: Word of the Commodore’s incapacity started leaking out, leading Eli to try to cut and run back to his big brother (unsuccessfully) and Jimmy to assert himself with some of the Old Guard (gruesomely and successfully). Two Face almost decided to pack it all in, but some woodsmen and a dog convinced him to give living another try.

Ahh, Van Alden’s back! He’s sitting in his crappy little apartment, reading the Bible as Lucy calls out for him to pick up some lemons on the way home from work. How very wifey of her. He puts the Bible aside and prepares to leave. She’s about a zillion years pregnant and complains that she can’t get comfortable. He tells her that his deputy’s in the hospital with third degree burns and can’t get comfortable either. Geez, Van Alden, just acknowledge that she’s in one of the worst stages of pregnancy, will you?

Speaking of near-marital relationships: Nucky and Margaret are meeting with the priest and Margaret’s son, who’s preparing for his First Holy Communion. The priest is grilling him and quite literally putting the fear of God in the poor kid, as well as Margaret, who looks a little nervous when she finds out she’ll have to confess along with her son, to better prepare him.

Continue reading “Boardwalk Empire Recap: Confession”

Previously on Boardwalk Empire: The Commodore suffered a stroke, which will probably put him out of commission forever and put Jimmy in charge. Jimmy started establishing relationships in Philadelphia at exactly the same time Nucky did, so we’ll see how that goes. Two Face bonded with Angela over art and his painful past, and two of Van Alden’s boys started to suspect he was up to no good. And then one of them got himself blown up by Sleater while attempting to inspect Mickey Doyle’s warehouse.

It’s summer in AC, by the look of things. Nucky’s addressing a group of soldiers on Memorial Day; Jimmy’s amongst those in the audience, along with Angela and his son. Eli’s there too, staring daggers at his brother. Nucky even pays tribute to the Commodore, whom he says is detained by other business, and he acknowledges Attorney General Dougherty, who’s also present. To finish up, Nucky calls Jimmy up to speak, apparently without having given him any warning that he was going to be presenting. Jimmy talks tough to Nucky when he gets to the podium, but once it’s just him, he starts to visibly shake. He manages to pull himself together and tells the crowd he’s no hero. All he did was fight for democracy, and for his mother, son, and wife, just as all the other vets did. He gets a god round of applause, to Nucky’s chagrin. After the applause, Jimmy reads out the names of men who, presumably, died in combat. I assume these are just the men from Atlantic County who died, since the list sounds fairly short.

Continue reading “Boardwalk Empire: Violence Is the Answer”