Episode Report Card Daniel: A- | 45 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Dunn Purnsley, This Is Your Knife
By Daniel | Season 4 | Episode 8 | Aired on 10.27.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Nucky begins smoothing things over between Eli and Willie. Willie appears to be finally getting over himself enough to want to get involved with the family business, with the ambition to return the family to its rightful place in power, with his dad the sheriff and Nucky was the treasurer or comptroller or accounts receivable clerk or whatever it was. It's too bad for both Willie and Nucky (more so for the latter) that Agent Knox has decided to stop screwing around and apply some pressure on Eli to give up his brother and the vasti criminal network. Knox hits Eli where it has to hurt most: right in the family. One of Knox's otherwise-useless agents knows about Willie being looked at for Henry's murder before a visit to the D.A. by Nucky. Give up your brother, and your son stays out of jail. We don't get an explicit answer, but Eli does get to go home to his family, where he finds a cheerful Willie waiting and hoping to rejoin the family. Plus Eli's bound to be pissed at Nucky for concealing Willie's involvement in the murder from him. Plus, it's his son, which is going to trump brother pretty much every time.
And Chalky is finally waking up to the machinations around him, especially now that it appears people seem to think he had something to with Deacon Cuffy's death. Chalky decides to take control, and raids a smackhouse that is being run by Narcisse, and then publicly confronts the good doctor himself. Like Knox, Narcisse decides to get moving on his whole plan to take down Chalky, and orders Daughter to keep him around a little longer after he's done with her tonight, because Narcisse plans to have someone pay them a visit. That turns out to be Purnsley, pretending to have discovered that Narcisse is slinging powder and was the one who killed Deacon Cuffy. Chalky knows better, though, and the two of them brutally beat each other, and Chalky stabs Purnsley IN THE MOUTH and I actually flinched and looked away, and then Purnsley still manages to get the upper hand on Chalky and is choking the life out of him, when Daughter appears to switch sides. Or maybe she just doesn't want to see Chalky go down like that. So she stabs Purnsley in the back, and he dies. Well, he stabbed a deacon in the church. He wasn't going to be coming back.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Dunn Purnsley, carrying a small handbag, strolls up the steps of a nice house on a quiet street, picking up a partially smoked cigarette on his way up the front steps. He knocks on the front door, which is opened by an elderly lady he calls Miss Monroe, with whom he exchanges small talk about the changing weather affecting her joints. Do Dunn Purnsley's duties now include checking up on the older folks in the neighborhood? Nope — inside is a house full of people in various stages of consciousness, thanks to the heroin that has apparently flooded the city. Can't help feeling that these people are less annoying than cokeheads, though.
Monroe tells Purnsley she's going to visit her relations next week, so he smilingly gives her a big chunk of change to get "situated" and to bring them all something nice.
Turning back towards the dozing junkies, Purnsley steps on a syringe on the floor, and shakes his head at the approaching underling who's apparently running the operation. "You know she like it tidy," says Purnsley. The underling doesn't say a word, but turns, and he and Purnsley enter a back room, where he tells Purnsley they're running low, and yes, he already cut it twice, using cornstarch and talc. So cut it four times, advises Durnsley, not exactly displaying a Heisenberg-esque commitment to purity. Purnsley's just there for the money, which the underling — named Mose — hands over, showing off the sawed-off shotgun he uses to deter anyone after the money, which Durnsley doesn't think is secure enough. Cut it four times, he says again, and leaves — but not before giving Mose a pamphlet for a play called Ominira, a free production by Dr. Narcisse, who's expecting everyone to come. Well, Mose's clients don't look too demanding, so I imagine he'll have plenty of time to think up an excuse why he can't come.
Over at the Bureau of Investigation, a tableful of agents are reveling in one's account of watching Rothstein lose half a million dollars at the track and then ordering a piece of cheesecake like it was no big deal. Knox is decidedly less amused than the rest of them, and then lays into "Ben" for finding things so entertaining. He asks Ben what he thinks his job is, because it apparently doesn't involve any police work. Everyone goes quiet as Knox blasts them for bringing him anecdotes instead of connections, and he goes to the map to point out all the places (including Florida) where our favorite gangsters hang out, saying he needs them connected to make a case. When he's asked where the law is, he responds, "We'll get the crooks, then we'll find the law." Anyone who disagrees that is welcome to go back to investigating land fraud. Hey, land fraud is a serious crime! It costs people, uh, I want to say billions? Oh, I don't know.