Boardwalk Empire Sneak Preview 4.8: The Blues

Continuing with my sneak preview reviews of Boardwalk Empire - this one of 4.8 - courtesy of screeners from Starpulse, guaranteed to be specific spoiler free, and to be followed this Sunday with a proper recap/review right after the episode has aired in New York City, just up the road from A.C.

Music played a bigger than usual role in episode 4.8, especially with Maitland doing some fine singing, which Chalky tells Nucky is "the blues".   But the show ends with a 1920s version of Lonnie Donegan's "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight," sung in Eli's home, on into the closing credits, and providing a great chilling contrast to what we've just seen, and the possibly even worse of what's to later come.

Killings:  There are two in the episode, one of a minor character, which leads to a series of events and the killing of a much more major character.  The murder weapon - in the second killing - is a knife in the back, not a gun.  But the act is not an act of perfidy, at least not to the victim.   And among the many powerful things about this scene is that it looks, for a moment or two, as if an even more major character might die.

And that's not the powerful or important theme or development in this episode.   That distinction would belong to the FBI's making a major move on Nucky, which, if followed through, could prove his undoing.  But I'm betting/hoping it doesn't come to that - though, honestly, that's more a hope than a bet, given what we've seen on BE in the past.

It was good to see Sally again, this time up East, to Nucky's surprise and mostly delight.  The part that's not delight ends in the only other act of violence in the episode, but it's not a death and it's well deserved.

And I'll be back here this Sunday night with a more detailed review of this episode after it airs on HBO.

In the meantime, here's Lonnie Donegan singing that chewing gum song ...





See also Boardwalk Empire 4.1: Sneak Preview Review ... Boardwalk Empire 4.2: Sneak Preview Review ... Boardwalk Empire 4.2: J. Edgar ...Boardwalk Empire Sneak Preview Review 4.3: Honey, Sunny ...Boardwalk Empire 4.3: Nucky, Sunshine, and Heroin ... Boardwalk Empire Sneak Preview Review 4.4: Downfalls ... Boardwalk Empire 4.4: Bullies and Betrayals ... Boardwalk Empire Sneak Preview 4.5: The Gift of Rage ... Boardwalk 4.5: Two Deaths ... Boardwalk Empire Sneak Preview 4.6: Good Lovin' ... Boardwalk Empire 4.6: Sally and Margaret ... Boardwalk Empire Sneak Preview 4.7: Beds, Promotions, Surprises ... Boardwalk Empire 4.7: Family and History

And see also Boardwalk Empire 3.1: Happy News Year 1923  ... Boardwalk Empire 3.2: Gasoline and the White Rock Girl ... Boardwalk Empire 3.3: The Showgirl and The Psycho ... Boardwalk Empire 3.5: "10 L'Chaim" ... Boardwalk Empire 3.7: Deadly Gillian ... Boardwalk Empire 3.8: Andrew Mellon ... Boardwalk Empire 3.9: Impaired Nucky

And see also Boardwalk Empire 2.1: Politics in an Age Before YouTube  ... Boardwalk Empire 2.2: The Woman Behind the Throne ... Boardwalk Empire 2.3: Frankenstein and Victrola ... Boardwalk Empire 2.4: Nearly Flagrante Delicto ... Boardwalk Empire 2.5: Richard's Story ... Boardwalk Empire 2.6: Owen and Other Bad News for Nucky ... Boardwalk Empire 2.7: Shot in the Hand  ...Boardwalk Empire 2.8: Pups with Fangs ... Boardwalk Empire 2.9: Ireland, Radio, Polio ...Boardwalk Empire 2.10: Double Shot ... Boardwalk Empire 2.11: Gillian and Jimmy  ... Boardwalk Empire Season 2 Finale: Stunner!

And see also Boardwalk Emipre on HBO ... Boardwalk Empire 1.2: Lines and Centers Power ...Boardwalk Empire 1.10: Arnold Rothstein, Media Theorist  ... Season One Finale of Boardwalk Empire

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