Episode Report Card Joe R: A- | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT He's There, the Phantom of the Brothel
By Joe R | Season 1 | Episode 7 | Aired on 10.31.2010
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Jimmy's leg has been especially bothersome lately, so he heads to the VA, where he's alienated by the doctors who just want to use him as a statistic in their survey. He also meets a fellow vet named Richard Harrow who's had the left side of his face blown completely off (he wears a Phantom of the Opera-style mask ... sometimes). Jimmy really takes a shine to Richard and brings him by the brothel, even gets him laid. Later, as Capone has tracked down the whereabouts of Liam, the Irish who slashed Pearl, Jimmy talks to him about the war, makes threats, but promises Liam he won't kill him. But as soon as he's out of the restaurant, a sniper's bullet catches Liam right below the eye. Still got it, Richard Harrow!
Nucky's dad is living an even more pathetic existence than you figured, his giant home dilapidated and overrun with cats. When he takes a bad fall, Nucky and Eli step in -- Eli takes him in, and Nucky decides to sell the house to a nebbishy acquaintance. With the house undergoing refurbishing, Nucky brings Margaret by, and he tells her about the abuse his father subjected him to, including scarring his hand with a hot poker. Margaret takes this as opening the door to inquire about his past at all times, but boy, is that a bad idea. They eventually make up, and Nucky even takes her little boy along with him on an errand. Of course, that errand involves Nucky bringing his dad by to see the house one last time... before he douses it with gasoline and sets it ablaze. Burn, traumatic childhood, burn!
Lucky Luciano has imported one of his New York cronies -- one Meyer Lansky -- and goes to see the D'Alessio brothers (and Mickey), about a partnership to go after Nucky. Earlier, Lansky had approached Chalky (under an alias) about making a side deal for whiskey distribution, cutting Nucky out. Chalky thinks this is Nucky testing his loyalty, so he refuses.
Elsewhere, Margaret is getting along with the other kept women and getting a mixed bag of advice from Annabel; the third man from Jimmy and Capone's roadside heist gives them both up to Van Alden; Lucy is not handling getting dumped by Nucky all that well; the Commodore's gastrointestinal system is rebelling against him; and Angela Darmody is having an affair with the photographer's WIFE! I realize now that I never committed my suspicions to the actual recaps but still I KNEW IT!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!On a gray Chicago morning, a frog-faced creep of a guy sits down in a diner with his morning coffee and paper. This is Liam -- remember Liam? The wonderful person who slashed Pearl's face open a few weeks ago? And who was miraculously not present at the Sheridan massacre last week? This is his usual dining spot, and thanks to the cop at the counter who's on Al Capone's payroll, Al knows it too. He tells Jimmy, who is currently laid up on one of the brothel's fainting couches. It's his leg, again, still hurting from those war wounds. After last week's confrontation, it's nice to see Jimmy and Al able to talk about Jimmy's leg without any resentment hanging in the air. Anyway, Jimmy takes in the news about Liam with stone-faced silence.
Cut to an enormous but severely run-down home where Pa Thompson is currently stumbling around, half-senile, cursing the cats who are running around his kitchen. The house, while clearly in a dilapidated state, definitely looks like something that used to be quite stately. So Pa is threatening the cats with a fireplace poker -- it's not clear if these are a) his cats and he just hates them, b) his cats and he doesn't remember, or c) feral things who have taken to squatting in Pa's kitchen. Either way, they're getting a mouthful from this old wretch. He takes his toast from the stovetop -- after momentarily burning his hand -- and heads back to the table when he stumbles over the cats underfoot. It's a hard fall, and he's clearly hurt his leg. He calls for help, but after everything he's been saying, I don't blame the cats for ignoring his pleas.
And while we're on the subject of injured legs, Jimmy's at the VA hospital, having his looked at. The doctor is vaguely unsympathetic, as he smokes and asks Jimmy how it hurts and what he does for a living. The leg, by the way, looks like mangled hell, all giant scars. Doc says the screws in the femur could be the problem, though he doesn't get the joke when Jimmy cracks about having a screw loose. Doc then brings up Dr. Robert Woodworth, who's developed a test -- a kind of personal inventory -- for returning soldiers. Jimmy says the war is over, but Doc says it might be useful anyway. Jimmy agrees to answer a few questions, and the Doc walks across the room, which brings Jimmy's gaze to the sad-looking man sitting on a bed across the room. The guy turns to look at Jimmy, at which point we see he's had the left side of his face blown clean off. It's unsettling, not least of which because of the way he's staring back at Jimmy, vacantly but persistently. Jimmy looks down and sees a mask -- Phantom of the Opera style to cover half his face, but flesh-colored. It comes attached to a pair of glasses, which kind of makes it look like a Halloween costume. The predecessor to the classic Groucho glasses. Except, you know, if you were wearing them because your nose and mustache were blown off your face in the war.