WARNING - This review contains spoilers - WARNING
The season kicks off with two guys at a bar in a nondescript midwestern town. These two unknowns (because of the dark lighting, I thought one of the guys was Van Alden; thankfully not) are delivering an envelope from Old Mission Title Insurance to Ohio. We quickly get a Richard Harrow sighting as he dispatches the two gentlemen, courtesy of a Columbian necktie and a bullet, respectively. Later, our favorite disfigured sociopath kills the President of Old Mission. Then shows up on his sister's doorstep. Why? I dunno, but any Richard is better than no Richard.
Gillian is trying to sell the mansion and herself ($30 for the regular, plus $10 for oral gymnastics, don't know how much that comes to in present dollars), possibly to support her new heroin habit that Gyp introduced her to last season. I don't know much about disclosure laws back in 1924, but she should probably mention to potential buyers that the property was a Bunny Ranch precursor and the site of the infamous Richard Harrow massacre. And she's also in court, fighting a custody battle for young Tommy against the Sagorsky lady. But she meets a potential buyer that will likely be with us all season, in the form of Roy Phillips (Ron Livingston from Office Space and Band of Brothers), a Piggly Wiggly executive that is in charge of expanding operations in the Northeast.
Al Capone is bringing his brothers in on his operations, and one of them is Herc from The Wire! Al's complaining that a local reporter spelled his name wrong, so he goes down to the newspaper's office and slaps the young 22 year old writer on the back of the head. A tense scene, but the young Jimmy Olsen-wannabe faired very well in the exchange, considering he gets to keep writing and breathing. If Stephen Graham had shown this kind of moxy in Snatch, I bet Brick Top would have shown him more respect. Also, his brothers call him "Snorky."
We check in on Nucky, and he's meeting with Joe Massiera, Lucky, Arnold Rothstein, and Meyer Lansky. Lucky is now firmly the Number Two in the Massiera organization, and Lansky is A.R.'s Assistant Gangster In Charge (AGIC?), so it will be interesting to see how the Lucky/Lansky partnership develops under these constraints.
Eli's oldest son, Billy, is now attending Temple, but he's homesick and wants to get a gig in the family business. And he has a mancrush on his Uncle Nucky. He admits to Nucky that he now smokes, and Nucky warns him that college and smoking is where his own bad habits originated. So let that be a warning to you kids out there, a cigarette today can lead to a future RICO indictment.
Also, Nucky is Margaret-less and has his eye on a new starlet in town, who's willing to trade her womanly wiles for a shot at a starring role on Broadway. Once she admits her intentions (post-coital, of course), Nucky has a recovered-but-disabled Eddie show her the door.
But let's not forget Chalky's new adventure. He's running the Onyx Club (formerly Babette's) and he's working with Dickie, a talent manager. Dickie's perky wife has the hots for Dunn Purnsley, even playing Charades on a cocktail napkin to illustrate her willingness to engage in pre-Depression kama sutra with the Chalkster's Number Two (I think I like AGIC for Number Two). AGIC Purnsley engages in the tryst, only to get caught in the middle of some odd voyeurism thing that Dickie and his wife engage in. After suffering a racial slur and Dickie touching himself while Dunn re-engages the Mrs. Dickie, Dunn snaps and kills the talent scout with a broken bottle. Chalky gives him a lecture about playing well with others, and the two of them with Nucky and Eli dispose of the body somewhere on the frozen tundra of the greater Atlantic City area.
Boardwalk Empire is back and the season looks promising.
Random Thoughts:
- The bartender in the opening scene looked familiar, but I can't place him.
- Did I mention Dickie's wife was perky?
- No Van Alden (boo!), Jeffrey Wright, or Margaret in the opener.
- Is $40 a good deal 60 years prior to the invention of aciclovir?
What did you think?
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