There’s a serious undertone to the character pairing, however, that keeps the duo from becoming a punchline. Eli adds an odd-couple vibe to Van Alden’s schtick, playing the disheveled, urine-reeking mess to Van Alden’s uptight lapsed Calvinist. Because Van Alden’s involved, the Chicago scenes are straight-up funny: an old lady shoves a puppy in Van Alden’s unsmiling face Chester learns clouds float “because…of…the atmosphere” a stick-up ends with Van Alden screaming “WHY MUST IT ALWAYS BE PANDEMONIUM?!?!” like a Sunday school teacher pushed to the brink. The dynamic between Eli and Van Alden, now seven years into their working relationship, is simultaneously the most entertaining and the most interesting new element of season five. It’s whether they’re good enough to justify limiting our time in Van Alden’s pre-suburbia suburban hell to a mere minute or two. Still, the issue isn’t whether the flashbacks are good they are, or at least they are this week, when they start to shed light on Nucky’s motivations for entering a life of crime. As horrible as it sounds, the flashbacks improve once the Thompson’s terminally ill sister is out of the picture. I’m biased because Nelson Van Alden/George Mueller/General Zod is and always will be my favorite character on this show, but I’d rather have seen more of him-and Eli, and Gillian, and Al Capone-earlier than spend quite so much time in Nucky’s past. Case in point: we’re a quarter of the way through the season, and we only just got to Chicago! But virtually all of the supporting players from “Golden Days for Boys and Girls” have been swapped out, showing just how much pipe laying was pushed aside in favor of flashbacks and cute Cuban kids.
Nucky’s still around and very much in focus, hunting down legitimate business partners and ruminating on his terrible father figures. (R.I.P.) have some sort of insider trading deal going on that would have put her on the outs with her employer real fast? But respect, Margaret has seen enough crazy for one lifetime she really didn’t need to see this on a Monday.After last week’s premiere made it loud and clear that the final season of Boardwalk Empire is gonna be All About Nucky, the show had some extra groundwork to cover tonight. So the real question: why does Chalky get to wear a coat on the chain gang, but not allowed to tie his shoes?Ĥ.) Why is Margaret attracted to such losers? Are we supposed to believe she’s been kissing the ass of that Mickey Mouse-loving loser for seven years? Didn’t she and A.R. I like to think that Lucky will turn that frown upside-down when him and Lansky reunite and become a team again, since they are the true love story of Boardwalk Empire.ģ.) Why is Chalky on a chain gang? Wait, no, we can probably deduce that his trip back to Baltimore after his daughter’s death wasn’t the greatest escape plan in the world, especially with Dr. Maybe Richard’s mask is still available, though it’d be for the wrong side. Then the whole room of Italians drank exactly four espressos and everyone was fine.
(I’m basically a lawyer now.)įor a moment I got to hope that meant Lucky was finally going to man the eff up–I mean, his syphilis and impotency scare was decades ago, at this point!–but he continued to prove himself an eternal lapdog by trotting back to the new New York boss, Salvatore Maranzano, and slicing his hand open on a ceremonial knife, which then all the other “dons” did, before everyone shook hands and promised to be BFF blood brother forever. Not pictured: Anyone who looks like Steve Buscemi.Ģ) What the hell happened to Lucky Luciano’s face? He’s been scarred in some terrible, droopy-eyed way, and he’s obviously hardened his heart against not just his former partner Meyer Lansky (who is down in Cuba for slightly nefarious, non-wife-related reasons), but against his former boss, Joe Masseria, who he has bumped after five cups of espresso, which is the legal amount of caffeine you can have in your system to allow you to plead temporary insanity. 1) Has Nucky been in Cuba this whole time? If so, what of the famous Atlantic City Conference in 1929, which was when Nucky had all the infamous mob heads down to his city? Just historically, that’s a pretty big moment to gloss over, seeing as it’s the one time Nucky Thompson was photographed with Al Capone.