Boardwalk Empire Penultimate: Taking Care of Business

Well, in its next to last episode, Boardwalk Empire served up the most powerful episode of the season - one of the most powerful of the entire series - in which all kinds of business was taken care of and closed.

First, though, I've got to say that the meeting between Nucky and Lucky, and all the guns on either side, was handled incredibly ineptly by Nucky's side.   He allowed himself to be out-argued, out-maneuvered, and out-gunned.  And the truth was that there was no reason that Lucky wouldn't have killed Nucky's nephew even after Eli led the assault and killed Maranzano.  Lucky had already demonstrated his lack of concern for bargains struck, when he declined to relinquish the nephew even after Nucky had returned Bugsy Siegel to Lucky and Meyer.

Still, it was great to see Eli and Nucky back together.   And Bugsy Siegel was given a virtuoso performance by Michael Zegen, with a verbal double fistful of Yiddishisms my own grandmother never heard.

But where does this leave Nucky?  His giving up Atlantic City and even his interests in Cuba are no surprise, given what we know of actual history.   This leaves the finale open for the wrapping up of some personal business, which we get a strong glimpse of tonight.

That business would be Gillian, whose message to Nucky, rendered in a spoken montage of overlapping phrases from her letter, has to be a highpoint in television dialogue presentation.   What we the audience of course know all too well is that Nucky killed Jimmy, Gillian's beloved son.  How there can ever be a meeting of Gillian and Nucky, based on any kind of truth, with this fact of the series hanging in the air, and surely on Nucky's mind, should in itself be worth the price of admission for the finale next week.   I'll be sad to see this series go.

See also Boardwalk Empire 5.1: Lucky Rising ... Boardwalk Empire 5.2: Joe Kennedy ... Boardwalk Empire 5.3: Veal Parmagian and Family ...Boardwalk Empire 5.4: Margaret and Nucky ... Boardwalk Empire 5.6: The Skipping Record

And 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 ... Boardwalk Empire Sneak Preview 4.8: The Blues ... Boardwalk Empire 4.8: Knives in the Back ... Boardwalk Empire 4.9: The Imbecile ...Boardwalk Empire 4.10 Sneak Preview Review: Unholy Alliances ...Boardwalk Empire 4.10: Family Treachery ... Boardwalk Empire 4.11: Nucky on the Beach

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