Boardwalk Empire - "The North Star" Review

by Lee Padrick, November 1, 2013
Boardwalk Empire S4E6

WARNING:  This review contains spoilers.

Nucky (Steve Buscemi) is in a different place, and not just geographically.  He is looking for something in Tampa, and it appears he may have found it in Sally Wheet (Patricia Arquette).  

He meets with Margaret (Kelly MacDonald) in New York City as he is travelling to Tampa, and the reception he receives from his estranged wife is lukewarm, to be kind.  He leaves her the gift he bought for Teddy's birthday, then continues his journey.

Bill McCoy (Pierce Bunting), his Florida contact and partner in the land/liquor deal, tells him that there is a new partner in on the deal, a Mr. Pierce.  Mr. Pierce happens to be an Italian-American also known as Mr. Petrocelli, and he tells Lucky (Vincent Piazza) that he did not know Joe Masseria was doing business in Florida.  The fact that Lucky is partnering on a deal in Florida without Joe's knowledge is enough to spook him into backing out, so our Tampa partners are Nucky, Mr. Pierce/Petrocelli, and Meyer Lansky (Anatol Yusef) .  McCoy gets a finder's fee, and Sally will serve as showrunner a manager of the deal.   Sally and Nucky punch each other a few times, then have rough sex.

Agent Knox (Brian Geraghty) is trying to convince a young J. Edgar Hoover that there is an organized crime syndicate developing, but Hoover is more interesting in anarchists and communists.  Harrow (Jack Huston) is back in Atlantic City, and it looks like he will be moving in with Julia Sagorsky (Wrenn Schmidt) and Tommy.

Chalky (Michael Kenneth Williams) is having a rough time dealing with his infatuation with Daughter Maitland.  How does he resolve it?  With rough sex, of course.

This episode serves as a transition piece in the middle of the season.  I like the Florida change of venue for Nucky, and his budding romance with Sally.  And the idea that Richard Harrow may have a shot at the happiness he has always wanted.  Somehow, I think all of this may change over the second half of the season.

Random Thoughts:

- The Margaret sighting scared me.  Glad to see she's happy in New York and does not want to rejoin Boardwalk Empire.

- OK, the thunderstorms and palm trees in the background of the Tampa scenes is a little cheesy.

- Mickey Doyle (Paul Sparks) was hilarious this episode!  


What did you think?

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