Episode Report Card Joe R: B | 2 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Dead and Gone
By Joe R | Season 2 | Episode 12 | Aired on 12.11.2011
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Let's start with the important part: Van Alden and Sigrid and the baby have all fled to the Midwest to live as the Meullers. I know you were worried. (Actually, this will supposedly pay off next season, as they've settled into the Al Capone-preferred town of Cicero, IL.)
On to business: Jimmy and Richard storm a Klan gathering, delivering to Chalky the men who shot up his joint. In exchange, Jimmy wants a meeting with Nucky. At the same time, Nucky is meeting with a drunk-and-hiding Manny Horvitz, who wants to make a deal with Nucky wherein they eliminate Waxey and Jimmy for each other. Nucky meets with a humbled (though quixotic) Jimmy, and it looks like there's room for an alliance once again.
Margaret (with Father Brennan by her side) is brought in to answer Esther Randolph's questions. Randolph gives her real talk and encourages Margaret to set herself free of Nucky. Back at home, Nucky asks Margaret to marry him, so she won't testify against him, which only seems to strengthen Randolph's warnings to Margaret about Nucky's amorality. But after watching Nucky sweetly teaching Emily to walk in her leg braces, Margaret agrees to marry Nucky, after she makes a full confession to God.
Jimmy goes to Leander and Neary and wants to pull back the Nucky railroading and sacrifice Eli instead. He gets no takers, so the next day, Jimmy and Richard storm Neary's office -- interrupting some HBO-mandated doggystyle -- force him to sign a confession, and then blow his head off. Neary's "suicide" puts a giant hole in Randolph's case against Nucky. A mistrial is declared. Nucky and Eli go free. Halloran is sentenced to Fort Leavenworth. Wah-wah.
"Maybe God is giving me another chance," Nucky muses to Margaret, who is buying none of Nucky's good fortune as being mere coincidence. He goes to visit Eli and wants his brother to plead guilty to the Schroeder murder. Two years in prison, tops. Eli, as ever, is totally pathetic about it.
Luciano and Lansky bring Rothstein in on their heroin business, and they're all very excited about the prospects. Nucky calls AR for advice -- he's stuck between killing Manny Horvitz or ... something else. Rothstein tells Nucky to flip a coin; in the air, he'll know what side he wants to come up. So Nucky lures Jimmy out to the war memorial with promises of delivering Manny. In truth, it's an ambush, and Jimmy walks into it willingly. He died in a trench, years ago, see. Nucky shoots James Darmody dead -- his first kill -- and makes it clear he's not looking for forgiveness.
The next morning, Nucky completely lies to Margaret about Jimmy re-enlisting in the service. So while Nucky, Bader, and the rest of the cronies are out celebrating at the site of the new highway Nucky's been angling for since last season, Margaret is busy signing the deed for that very land (which Nucky had set up to transfer to her last week) over to the church. That's going to be one holy highway.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously: Jimmy Darmody was created in sin. He rebelled. He evolved. He aspired to be the biggest gangster in Atlantic City. For a time, he felt like he was the biggest gangster in Atlantic City. He has many enemies. And they're about to have a plan.
Currently: Jimmy and Richard, with hastily-applied cloths covering their faces, wheel up into the middle of a Klan rally. Well, not so much a rally as a Klan outdoor mill-about. Quickly and casually (with a handheld cam following behind to give the scene a visceral goose), Jimmy strides up to the first white robe he sees and blasts the guy's brains out. Panic sets in, and Jimmy gets right to it: "Names and addresses of the three men who shot up Chalky White's warehouse." Hesitation means Richard fires a shotgun blast into another Klansman's chest. One un-sheeted man rattles off two names quickly, then stalls out. Jimmy's like, "And...?" Snitchy nods in the direction of a blood-spattered robe-wearer to his left. The coward tries to sprint away, but Jimmy is ON IT.
Elsewhere, in the basement of a muggy little synagogue, Manny Horvitz waxes on the subject of criminals and the hierarchies of power. He's drunk and mumbly and rambly, and while he reminisces about life as a small-time hood in Odessa, Nucky, Mickey Doyle and Owen Sleater try their best not to look too visibly bored. Mickey's not hiding it well, for one. (I also love that Mickey has, in the space between episodes, already jumped ship back to Nucky. The little weasel.) Manny says he has to live away from home because he's under threat from Waxey Gordon. Nucky tut-tuts Manny that Waxey is a business partner of his, but Manny in turn is all, "You know Waxey and Jimmy Darmody have a deal together, right?" "You give me Waxey," Manny promises, "I'll give you Darmody, and we'll make business together." Nucky is more than a little repulsed by Manny, and he doesn't think Manny holds as many cards as he thinks he does. Manny catches the whiff of criminal elitism from Nucky and doesn't appreciate it. But Nucky thanks him for his offer and says he'll be in touch. Manny grumbles to Mickey after Nucky leaves. "He would be nothing in Odessa."
Chalky's people are lined up with shotguns in front of the warehouse, ready for anything. The good news is that Jimmy and Richard drive up with the Klansmen in the back of the car, bound and ready for presentation. Jimmy offers Chalky these three murdering crackers, plus $20k for the families of the victims -- $2k more per victim than Chalky was even asking. Also, the Governor's office has dropped Chalky's case. Not bad treatment from Jimmy. Chalky says, "You can tell your dad I'll call off the strike." So...the news of the Commodore's demise hasn't exactly trickled down yet, then? Also, I love how the strike is off because Chalky's personal shit got dealt with. Aren't there minimum wage issues at hand? Not to mention the residuals from online video! Jimmy says in exchange, Chalky can tell Nucky that Jimmy wants to talk. After Jimmy leaves, Chalky welcomes the Klansmen back to the warehouse, after which they are dragged from the car and beaten savagely. Outside, by the car, Richard has some wise advice: "Whatever you do to try to change things, you know he'll never forgive you."