By Daniel | Season 4 | Episode 3 | Aired on 09.22.2013
Billings' man frisks Richard, finding only a wallet, which he tosses to Billings, who inspects it and finds cash that I guess he just assumes is the same cash he gave Richard last summer? As though Richard couldn't have made other money? Anyway, he yells at how not touching the cash for a job he didn't do makes him stupid, not honest, and when the fluttering of birds distracts the thug, Richard lowers the knife he apparently managed to stash up his sleeve and starts stabbing the guy, who in the melee yanks Richard's mask off. Richard grabs for it and the barn floor, only to have Billings stomp on his hand (we hear bones break). Richard looks up at him, and Billings is grossed out by his half face, and says he's doing Richard a favor, and he cocks his gun. But he's dispatched by Emma, suddenly in the doorway with a shotgun, waiting for the most dramatic moment to shoot Billings. She sits down hard, looking a little like maybe she's not as overjoyed to have her brother back anymore. I think at the very least she might discuss charging him rent. We go to the scene before Emma can tell Richard that he can add "corpse disposal" to his list of chores.
Nucky shows up to Sally's bar in the middle of a downpour. He looks dour as usual, but it's not like he was happier when it was sunny. Sally (Patricia Arquette) is introduced (to the show, but not by name yet) to establish herself as a wisecrackin' dame, and then Nucky meets August Tucker. "They call you Gus?" Nucky asks. "Not if they want to stay friends," Tucker says jovially, and the men all sit down.
Nucky seems less than enthused that Bill has been talking him up to Tucker, who met Bill when McCoy was running rum from the Caribbean of whatever, and as Sally pours a round of drinks, Tucker toasts "new friends" and Sally, not just the bartender, makes them wait so she can pour herself a drink and be a new friend too. They all drink, and then Tucker swats Sally on her ass with a brochure, telling her to leave the bottle and scat. Nucky looks askance at Tucker and a little sympathetically at Sally, who decides to take her face's battle between anger and humiliation elsewhere.
Then men get down to business: Tucker asks Nucky if he's ready to get rich. "I'm already rich," says Nucky. See, that's nice! Everybody assumes gangsters just always want more money. Tucker says he's talking about millions, which Nucky points out won't do him much good in jail. The good humor at the table is evaporating quickly. Nucky says given the need for secrecy for their operations, the land is worthless because the surrounding land is under development. McCoy says the land is 14,000 acres, which will give them all the privacy they need. "And when the convoy of trucks leaves the property every morning and rumbles down Main Street past the church? Then what?" McCoy says there's a risk to everything. "Not when I can avoid it," says Nucky. This isn't sitting well with Tucker, who seemed to be under the impression from McCoy that Nucky was already in. Nucky says he said he'd consider it, but it's no dice. Tucker is practically Yosemite Sam-level angry immediately. "I don't like having my time wasted," he says, and Nucky points out that he's the one who came all the way down here. He leaves, thanking Sally for her hospital on his way out.