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Jimmy's settled down in Chicago, shacking up with a girlish prostitute named Pearl and finding out quickly and repeatedly that Al Capone is a total dick. But they buy fancy suits and intimidate local businessmen together, Jimmy the passive good cop to Al's bull in a china shop. After Capone delivers a Greek-town beatdown, some of the other Chicago wiseguys get their hackles up. Torrio orders Capone to negotiate, which Capone does in his usual "Fuck you, pay me" style. He thinks he's won. Jimmy knows better, so it's especially cruel when it's Pearl who gets her face slashed in the retaliation attack.
Back in A.C., Nucky is busy preparing to be surprised by his surprise birthday party. He's also on edge, considering all the politicos who will be there -- he's determined to score public funds so Atlantic City can get some G-D paved roads into town. Meanwhile, Madame Jeunet requires Margaret to be on hand at Nucky's party for a Lucy costume change. ("What, is she jumping out of a cake?" you might ask. Uh... yep.) At the party, Margaret impresses Nucky by making the case for suffrage in front of a pair of Senators. They dance, but Margaret becomes disillusioned when Lucy does indeed jump out of that cake, to Nucky's delight. She later rebels against Madame Jeunet by stealing one of her dresses.
Backstage at the party, Nucky struggles to get Senator Edge to appropriate the roads funds, and it doesn't help matters when Edge requests a Pimm's Cup, and Eddie has to tell them they don't have that brand. The Senator laughs and pointedly tells Nucky that not everyone gets what they want. But Nucky has a crate of Pimms Cup delivered to Sen. Edge, with a note stating he certainly does expect to get what he wants.
Elsewhere, Nucky pushes Eli to find the guy who lynched Chalky's driver. So Eli raids a Klan meeting and arrests the Grand Cyclops. He lets Chalky in to see him, and Chalky tells the story of his daddy getting lynched. After some alone time with Chalky's satchel of torture tools, he emerges with Cyclops's pinkie finger and the news that the Klan didn't do the lynching.
Gillian is babysitting Tommy when Lucky Luciano comes calling, looking for Jimmy at Rothstein's request. Gillian invites him to investigate up his own ass, at which point Lucky becomes (rightly) enamored with her. Watch out, Gillian! He's got gonorrhea!
And the Catholic brothers from Philly still want their money from Mickey, so he tells them he plans to steal one of Nucky's honorariums. Guess that's week.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!We open in Chicago, where Al Capone is proving to be something of a complete dick. He creeps into the flophouse where Jimmy Darmody is staying (and shacking up with a girl, no less), pulls out his gun, and appears to aim it at Jimmy's head before firing it point-blank into Jimmy's pillow. As fakeouts go, it's not great (I can't imagine anyone was buying Jimmy to bite it in episode 4), but still, Jimmy awakes in a complete freakout -- his left eardrum bleeding and likely panicked in a post-war PTSD way, all the while Capone is cackling like the dough boy he is. He teases "soldier boy" "Princeton" Jimmy and says he was just playin'. Then he asks for the keys to the car. You guys, nobody told me Al Capone was such a twat. After Al leaves, Jimmy tries to calm his lady friend down, and I say "lady" even though I'd be floored if she's even seventeen. In return, she tends to his bloody ear. Just another evening in Chi-Town.
Back in Atlantic City, Nucky practices being surprised in the mirror, for the birthday party he's not supposed to know is coming. Eddie interrupts him with talk of the guest list, while Lucy pops in to announce she's going shopping. She also manages to indiscreetly compliment Nucky for tearing her apart last night, which makes Eddie blush and Nucky blush even harder. After she leaves, Nucky reminds Eddie to invite Governor Edwards, despite the fact that he won't come, the filthy Democrat. But Senator Edge and Mayor Haig both will be coming, and they're to be treated like "visiting royalty." Edge especially, as he's Nucky's key to a huge chunk of road appropriation funds. In other words, "make sure everybody gets laid." Oh, HBO shows, you change, but you always stay the same.
At Margaret's, Edith is reading an article about the woman believed to be the Russian grand duchess Anastasia Romanov, who had recently washed up alive. Margaret thinks it all sounds like a fairy tale, but Edith appears more circumspect. Edith appears to have as little patience for fanciful gossip as she does for noisy children, as she threatens Margaret's children with a spanking if they don't pipe down. Man, if anybody ever did that today, they're probably get the electric chair. Yes, they would bring the chair out of retirement for just such a heinous crime. Or they'd reinstate tarring and feathering. You think the Temperance League was formidable and humorless? Try messing with fucking Mommies today. ANYWAY, Edith's stern demeanor actually gets the boy to add a "please" to his request that Margaret read the "funnies." From Anastasia to Mutt and Jeff, Margaret's enjoying getting lost in some stories this week.
The morning in Chicago, Pearl -- that's Jimmy's girl, we won't find out 'til later, but allow me this shortcut -- is washing out Jimmy's poor ear. She suggests some opium for the pain, and honestly, I don't think I ever get tired of stray references to how commonplace opium was in the olden days. As they talk about Al and his Brooklyn sensibilities, it becomes clear Jimmy and Pearl are still in the getting-to-know you phase (also known as the "Hey, I paid for the night, but now that we've been traumatized together, let's chat" phase). She tells him she's from a small town in Wisconsin called Star Prairie. "My grandpa was the first white man born in town, Pa was the first man got sent to state prison, and Ma was the first run over flat by a car. So you could say I have a lot to live up to." Oh, I like her. Can we keep her? She looks like a young Geena Davis. She asks him about the "Princeton" thing, but he clarifies that it's not where he went but where certain people in his life thought he should go. He refers to Nucky, though not by name, and compares his position to Torrio's in Chicago. He says ultimately that he and Nucky had different ideas about who Jimmy should be. She asks him what he thinks he should be, but Jimmy's not sure. She nods towards the book he's been reading -- Free Air by Sinclair Lewis -- and says she plans to head West like the girl in the story. He flatters her with comparisons to Lillian Gish, which she accepts with clear eyes and a good bit of worldliness (when she volleys back with a reference to one of Gish's movies, Jimmy doesn't get it). She tells him she'd let him go West with her, because she thinks he looks like he needs taking care of. Guys, I like her a lot.
Nucky's meeting with Eli and his pie-faced deputy about the investigation into who lynched Chalky's driver. Eli's dragging his feet, saying nobody cares about who killed some black kid. Nucky couches it in political pragmatism -- the "colored vote" is 20% of Atlantic City, and they vote the way Chalky tells them to; "one hand washes the other, and both hands wash the face" -- and I'm not saying it isn't mostly pragmatism, but when Pie-Face ("Halloran," it seems) makes a joke about how it'd take a lot of suds to wash Chalky's face, Nucky throws him out of his office. Eli, for his part, thinks Chalky knows what side his bread is buttered on and won't risk crossing Nucky, but again, you feel like a part of Nucky wants to see actual justice done in this case. He tells Eli to step it up.
At the Darmody house, Angela is getting ready to head out on some errand or another, so Gillian is here to watch Tommy. Angela notices Tommy actually calls her "Gillian" and says that "most women are proud to be called 'Grandma.'" Gillian gives her a smile and says, "Well, not while the peaches are in still season," and gives her torso a little shake. Hee. That appears to be too much familiarity for Angela, who heads out. Gillian then fixes one of Tommy's toy wagons and talks to him about a tin train Jimmy had as a boy -- a gift from one of her admirers. You wonder if maybe Jimmy himself wasn't a gift from one of Gillian's admirers. Anyway, she sends Tommy along to play with his repaired toy, and a moment later there's a knock at the door. Gillian opens to find Lucky Luciano, who you'll remember has been sent by Arnold Rothstein to "take care of" Jimmy. Gillian doesn't know that, exactly, but she knows trouble when it asks for "James" Darmody. (It's probably important to note that Luciano greets her as "Mrs. Darmody?" and she, truthfully, replies "yes," which likely makes Lucky think he's speaking to Jimmy's wife.) She inquires as to Lucky's name, at which point he gets testy and asks if Jimmy's here or he ain't. "Maybe he's up your ass," is Gillian's helpful suggestion. "Have you considered looking there?" Lucky tells her she's got a "smart mouth for a broad," to which Gillian says he'd probably like to smack it, right? She asks if the roughneck routine is what the "little girls" are going for these days. Then she closes the door in his slack-jawed face. Well, the peaches certainly are still in season, and in more way than one! That said, Gillian's obviously worried for her son and what this encounter means for him.
"Filthy immigrants, Christ-killing Jews, anarchists of every stripe." A roll call for my train to work? Nope, just your everyday rantings of the Ku Klux Klan. We're at an Atlantic City meeting where the Grand Poobah or whoever -- dressed in purple robes and a silly hat (like a goddamned CATHOLIC of all awful things) -- lectures his hooded brethren that the greatest threat to them, moreso than all the previously named groups, is the "coon." He rants about them "coming up from the South" and taking jobs and resources away from "true Americans." Before he can get to the part about how you should vote for his daughter on Dancing with the Stars, Eli and Halloran bust in, guns drawn, hollering about a raid. Eli asks who the leader is (um...Eli? Everybody's in white sheets but the one guy ... at the podium ... in purple?), and the brave knights of the KKK all point at Purple up there, who declares himself Joseph Earl Dinman, Grand Cyclops of the knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Atlantic County Branch. Eli tells them all to remove their "dunce caps," and Halloran recognizes Dinman as the guy who runs the hardware store. Dinman derides Eli as a "grafter, a whore-monger, and a bootlegger." Eli quips that he's thinking of his brother, then hauls Dinman in for questioning. One of the Klan guys stands up for their right to ... you know, be in the Klan. That's not against the law, after all. Eli, in all his sensitivity, says that "stringing up darkies" is. It's a thin line between love and hate in 1920.
That night, Lucky Luciano waits in his car outside the Darmody house and watches Gillian leave. Is he waiting to attack her? He certainly seems to be watching her ... intently. He walks behind her, at safe, stalker's distance.
Back in Chicago, Capone is in a restaurant, trying to intimidate its Greek owner into ceding his business over to Torrio, but our Greek friend is protesting that he answers to a Mr. Sheridan. Capone negotiating tactic goes like this: yelling, then telling the guy to be smart like his fellow Greeks (who invented arithmetic and all), and then kicking the chair out from under him. Jimmy's watching this all from the bar, looking both displeased and weary. I doubt this is the first such negotiation for Capone, who is currently daring the other patrons and employees to do something. He turns back to the Greek and offers to help him up ... only to slap him back down. Jimmy gets Al's attention and tells him to get on with it. After a few more threats, the Greek caves. Al tells him if Sheridan has a problem with his new arrangement ... well, see he kind of doesn't end that sentence with words, electing instead to stomp his boot on the Greek's face. He then shouts out where he's staying, a challenge to Sheridan, wherever he might be. Jimmy delivers a classic "this fuckin' guy" expression, then follows Al out.
Back at the Ritz, Nucky's going over party prep with Eddie when he spots some "lip rouge" on one of the water glasses. Eddie scrambles to assure Nucky he'll make sure everything is washed twice and ready for the party, but that's enough. Nucky goes on a rant about how hard he works and how he stuck with Eddie through the war and the "anti-German bullshit" that came with it. "And this is the fucking thanks I get? This filthy piece of shit that some whore left her cock-smeared lip rouge on?" Look, not that that's not a great line, ripped right from the pages of Deadwood from the sounds of it, but is somebody going to tell Nucky that odds are it's probably Lucy's cock-smeared lips left the stain in the first place. I mean, law of averages and all. Anyway, Nucky flips a table over in frustration and stomps out. It's probably due to being under so much pressure -- you can tell, because he tells Eddie he's under a lot of pressure. Complicated though he may be, there's not much mystery to Nucky yet. To Eddie's credit, he doesn't pay the abuse forward to the kitchen staff, instead just telling them, "Please, do your best."
Eli interrogates our friend the Grand Cyclops, who maintains he doesn't know who hung "that coon." Cyclops is tied to a chair, and so when Eli places his hood back over his head, backwards this time, he's left to panic, alone in the dark.
At La Cage Aux Folles, Madame Jeunet announces that she's going to need Margaret to stay late tonight. Margaret says she'll have to make arrangements for the children, at which Jeunet sighs and recalls that Rosalie had no children at all. Wow, still pining for Rosalie? I haven't heard a French lady repeat the same woman's name so many times since this song was a hit. Anyway, it's Nucky's party tonight, and Jeunet needs Margaret to deliver a dress to Babbette's for "Miss Danziger" (that'd be Lucy). She's to wait until after Lucy delivers "the surprise," then help her get into this very intricate and delicate dress. Margaret looks dismayed, like the notion of Lucy delivering a surprise to Nucky has made her involuntarily think about Lucy's giant boobs. Margaret looks like she's forced to think about Lucy's giant boobs quite a lot. Meanwhile, Madame Jeunet goes back to stitching Rosalie's name across the butt of her latest flapper dress. How very fashion (eight decades-) forward!
In Chicago, Torrio's complaining to Capone about the headaches he's causing him on account of rampaging all over town. Sheridan is particularly angry, which is a significant problem for Torrio. Al promises he'll smooth things out with Sheridan and "work out an accommodation," promising Johnny he'll be "swimming in it" once they're done. Torrio then excuses himself on account of the plantar wart on his foot. After he leaves, Capone turns back to Jimmy and brags, like the straight-up six-year-old he is, that Torrio trusts him to take care of it. Jimmy seems less sure, but Al tells him not to get jealous. "I got big coattails." Jimmy imparts some free advice: "You don't take over a country all at once." He advises Al negotiate for a small piece of the pie, then later expand until, without kicking up much notice, he's got the whole thing. Yes, that definitely sounds like Capone's style.
Sheridan shows up for the meeting and is, frankly, insulted by Torrio's absence. He and his fellow Irish refuse Jimmy's offer of coffee or whiskey (so anybody looking for the origin story of Irish coffee is just outta luck). Everybody sits down, at which point Pearl saunters out, walks over to Jimmy, plants one on his cheek, and whispers that she's headed to Chinatown. (Subtext: "I'm going on an opium run -- can I pick up some for anyone?") The gangsters are all suitably impressed/horny. A smarter businessman might've used this occasion to find some common ground across the negotiating table. Capone instead smirks and asks after the condition of "the Greek fella." Back to square one, then. Jimmy takes his turn and begins with talk of how Greek-town is big enough for all of them. He even manages to get things on an even keel after Sheridan sneers at them for being New York outsiders. But then there's Al, who interrupts to say that they better stay outta Greek-town or else there will be trouble. Sheridan's like, "But we own Greek-town." Capone announces that Torrio's claiming the territory on his own. Sheridan is quiet for a long minute, then asks if there's no room for negotiation? He offers Torrio 10% of his business. Capone hop-skips from 25% to 50%. Sheridan evenly says he doesn't want any trouble. "Tell Torrio he gets what he wants. Just like that. The Irish get up and leave without a further word. When they're gone, Capone crows about how fast they caved. Jimmy takes a thoughtful drag of his cigarette: "That's one way of reading it."
This scene we can just call Michael K. Williams Should Have an Emmy By Now, and it's dedicated to all you Wire fans who are in no way annoying as you smugly insist on the superiority of your chosen television program. So Chalky is in the interrogation room with Cyclops, and no one else. Cyclops looks like he just made a master race in his pants. Chalky goes on to deliver a monologue about his daddy, who was so skilled in working with wood. He was hired by a rich white man in Texas named Purcell, who was building himself a mansion and needed bookcases built for his library. After 10 months of work, Chalky's dad brought Chalky by to see his work ("walked through the front door," Chalky describes in mock-haughty tones), and he describes how the intricate detail of his father's work moved him. "It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen." Then he leans forward, tells the rest of the story. Of another rich white man who approached Chalky's dad some months later with another job. Only this one led him to the edge of town, where six men were waiting to hang him from the closest pepper tree. Chalky then unfurls the satchel in front of him, containing his father's woodworking tools. He pulls out a rusty pair of bolt-cutter-looking things. Cyclops trembles and asks what Chalky's going to do with those. "Well," he says, pausing for Emmy-clip effect, "I ain't building no bookcase."
At the cabaret, Gillian is performing as the centerpiece of some high-minded piece of topless stagecraft. There are Romans and goddesses and ritual bathing. See, this is what's missing from today's strip clubs: the theatricality. Anyone can grease up a pole and spin around it. Give me Topless Antigone and I'll be impressed. Anyway, as Gillian goes through the motions with a bored look on her face, Lucky Luciano stares at her from the crowd with a somewhat less bored look on his face.
Back at the police station, Chalky emerges to give Eli an update: It wasn't the Klan who hung his driver. Eli is incredulous that Chalky would just take the Cyclops's word for it. "There's a point which if a man still sticks to his story," Chalky says, all wise and worldly, "that's a man who's telling you the truth. We passed that point about ten minutes ago." Heh. He hands Eli a piece of purple cloth, folded over. Eli un-folds it and finds a freshly severed pinky finger, its signet ring still attached. Ha ha, Grand Cyclops! Try drinking tea without looking stupid now!
At Babbette's, Nucky's fake surprised expression could've maybe played a bit smaller, but I'm certain nobody cares as they all shout "SURPRISE!" and throw confetti and raise illicit glasses in his honor. Later, Nucky's at a table with some political muckity mucks, including the Commodore and Senator Edge, as well as their various chippies (Lucy included). Edge makes a crack about women getting the vote, and the table has a good laugh at dumb girls. Nucky tells them all it's the wave of the future -- 32 states have ratified it already. "Those suffragettes did their job." The 'Dore opines that they all just need a good rodgering. "It's nothing to be afraid of," Nucky stresses. "You just have to give them what they want." At this, Lucy giggles. One of the pols -- the lone Democrat at the table -- says the problem is they've no idea what women are thinking. "You're assuming they have minds at all," Edge says. You know, I often wonder what would happen if Boardwalk Empire suddenly became a horror movie about vagina dentata. I definitely think here is where the first giant vagina would devour a whole lot of people. Anyway, Lucy decides to speak up in defense of her own intelligence. Nobody wants to see where this is going, except for the Commodore, because he's a horse's ass. He's also not terribly original, because he asks Lucy the same question about the League of Nations that he asked his poor maid last week. Lucy's all, "The huh?" Everybody laughs, while Nucky tries to feed her enough info to let her get out of this with some dignity (although her dignity not resting comfortably between her breasts, I doubt Lucy would notice it if it was gone. Nucky's like, "Big meeting in Paris," and Lucy goes on that she don't know nothing about no League, but she hears Paris is sure nice. "You wanna take me, daddy?" Before the restless ghosts of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton can show up and level this whole table, Nucky asks Lucy to go fetch him a drink. Once she's gone, he turns to the Commodore -- who puts out his arms like, "who, me?" and says, "Perhaps she's not the best example."
Back in Chicago, Capone and Jimmy sit in their shorts while two of Chicago's finest male fashion experts outfit them in (admittedly rather sharp) suits, while I sit at home and cross my fingers Al doesn't beat them senseless. It's like Queer Eye for the AH! AH! MY EYE!. Capone keeps talking shit about the Irish, how they're all talk and beer muscles. Not like Sicilians, of course. And like a good gay boy who was raised on Golden Girls episodes, I can attest that some of those "picture it, Sicily" stories were pretty intense. But Jimmy remains skeptical that Al accomplished as much as he thinks he's accomplished. As they're trying on their "fruity" suits, Al notices the wicked scarring on Jimmy's leg. Al points to his own face and says the Germans "got us both." At this point, Jimmy knows this is a lie as much as anyone with a Wikipedia link does, but he humors him about it. One of the dressers notes that the slim-cut suit on Capone is "very a la mode." Jimmy turns back and says that means "right on the money." Jesus, these two. Capone turns back to Jimmy and beams, "The wife's gonna shit." Okay, get me outta here.
Back at Babbette's, Nucky leans against the bar, looking bored amid all the flapper-ish dancing. Margaret enters the party with her parcel to deliver to Lucy. She looks around at the festivities -- the band, the dancing, the glamour ... yes, even the booze -- as smiles bigger than we've seen her so far. Big enough to catch Nucky's eye from across the room. He walks over to her, and she cheerfully wishes him a happy birthday. Babbette comes by and takes the dress to Lucy's dressing room, which is nice because now Margaret doesn't have to see her and can stay and talk to Nucky. He introduces her to Senator Edge and the mayor of Jersey City. Edge offers her a drink, which allows us a bit of awkwardness as Nucky informs him of Margaret's membership in the temperance league. Big ups to director Jeremy Podeswa for pulling back to a medium shot at this moment, so we can take in this sight of Margaret, flanked by three men with drinks in their hand, flanked by an entire party of revelers. But Margaret doesn't seem to want to make a big deal out of it. She does, however, speak up when Edge says he hopes she's not a suffragette. "I come from a country where women already have the right to vote," she says, plainly but pleasantly. "In fact, most of the civilized world affords women that privilege." Edge lays some bullshit about wanting to protect women from the unpleasant realities of life. "By denying them the right to take a meaningful part in it." Nucky's in a glass cage of emotion watching this. On the one hand, he's petrified that any slight might turn these two men against him and queer any pork-barrel deals he's got cooking. On the other hand, he's got an intellectual boner for Margaret about a mile long. Margaret continues with a winkingly delivered warning about the dangers of withholding from women what they want: "They'll surely find a way to withhold something that you desire?" Edge asks what that's supposed to be. "Alcohol," Margaret says with a laugh. She's quite winning in this scene, and showing her first glimpses of being a woman Nucky would be so smitten with.
Edith Day steps up to perform on the stage as Nucky walks Margaret towards the dressing rooms. He apologizes for the ... festive atmosphere: "Old habits die hard." "If they die at all," Margaret says, though without much judgment in her voice. She certainly seems more engaged in suffrage talk than in advocacy for temperance. Maybe for her it really is just a political tool. Nucky compliments her on taking such a "practical" view of it all, and in a most awkward segue, he asks her practical self to dance. It's very sweet, and improbably, Margaret looks like she fits right in with Nucky's world.
After the dance, Margaret thanks him and heads off for the dressing rooms. Babbette then calls for the lights and brings out the surprise. Yes, it's a giant birthday cake, and yes there's a girl jumping out of it, and yes, it's Lucy. The classics are classic because 90 years ago there were no such things as clichés because they hadn't been done so often yet. Lucy starts dancing all hoochie-coochie-like, and Nucky smiles at this and appears to be enjoying the moment. From off in the distance, Margaret looks on at this and reads it as confirmation that however sweet Nucky was, and however right things felt while they were dancing, this den of decadence is still decidedly not her scene. And if Nucky wants a woman who will jump out of a cake for him, she's not his girl.
Sheridan's Irish associates approach the madam at the flophouse where Jimmy's staying. They ask around for Al, then Jimmy. "We don't cater to poofs, fellas," the madam replies. WELL I NEVER! Sheridan's #1 goon then lies that Jimmy told him about a girl he could meet here. The madam, thinking she's making expedient business, says he must be talking about Pearl. She points them in Pearl's direction, and they definitely recognize her. Gulp.
Nucky's party has subsided to the point that he's retired to a sitting room with Senator Edge and Mayor Haig. Edge is resistant to giving Nucky that road appropriations money, and Nucky isn't worried about letting his frustration show. He put Edge in the governor's mansion after all, and the Senate. Edge says it's complicated, and nobody can expect to get everything they want. Nucky says he's got hotels nobody can get to by car, because the roads are mud puddles. Haig needles him that it's not just hotel patrons Nucky wants traversing a paved highway to A.C., it's also the liquor trucks. "What is that, lemonade in your hand?" Nucky counters. Haig stresses that the people of Jersey City need roads too, at which point Nucky wants to end the charade: Haig doesn't expect to get the roads, he's just looking for a payoff so he'll back away. "Just give me a fucking number," Nucky says, impatient. Haig is silenced for a moment, having his bluff so thoroughly called. He says he'll have to do some calculations. Edge then makes an oblique reference to maybe Nucky helping him get into the White House one day. He finishes his glass of champagne and asks for a Pimm's Cup. Eddie steps forward and stammers that they're all out of Pimm's, which visibly dismays Nucky. Edge instead asks for a brandy. He tells Nucky to relax -- "Like I said, you can't expect to have everything."
Back in Chicago, Sheridan's lead goon is dressing up after a go-round with a supremely bored Pearl. He tells her she doesn't even seem like a whore -- that Jimmy's got good taste. Again, she's not impressed with his flattery. He calls her over for "something to remember [her] by." At this point, I'm standing and yelling at Pearl to get outta there. He touches her face, then pulls out a knife . "You're like a fuckin' angel," he says, then brings the knife down in a diagonal slash across her face. Pearl screams and falls to the floor. Downstairs, you can hear her, and in the commotion, Sheridan's other men start shooting around indiscriminately, before running out.
On the boardwalk the day, Margaret walks to work and passes by a newspaper stand: "Russian Princess Revealed as a Fraud!" the headline screams. And then a little farther down the page: "HBO Prestige Drama Puts Too Fine a Point on Character's Disillusionment."
Meanwhile, Eli is giving Nucky the update from the Chalky/Klan interrogation. Obviously, the severed finger is going to lead to problems down the road, but for a guy who didn't seem too concerned about seeing justice done for Chalky, he also doesn't seem too worked up about the Grand Cyclops getting his finger lopped off. Maybe Eli's dominant trend is just lazy complacence? Eddie comes by with some papers to sign -- Senator Edge's bill, for one. Dude rang up $1800 in one night, and Nucky still didn't get his appropriations money guaranteed. He looks supremely dissatisfied.
Jimmy goes to see Pearl, but the poof-hating Madam tells him -- not unkindly, but more sadly -- that she's just been given a sedative and needs to rest. She offers to put the flowers he brought into a vase. He peeks inside before he goes and sees Pearl's Lillian Gish face wrapped up in bloody bandages. Behind Jimmy, Al Capone fat face -- also scarred, though the effect isn't nearly as tragic -- looks on. You'd hope the fact that his actions and attitude directly led to what happened to Pearl would imbue him with some humility. He grabs Jimmy by the back of the neck and points to his own face: "It happened to me, and I'm still beautiful." So...no, then?
Mickey Doyle is with the brothers from Philly -- the ones all named after popes and whose number sits anywhere from four to forty. He's telling them that they hung "the wrong coon" when they strung up Chalky's driver. They scoff that it likely got the message across all the same. "He probably crapped his drawers," the one brother (Ignatius?) says, of Chalky. So it looks like Al Capone isn't the most divorced-from-reality mobster on this show's canvass, then. Even Mickey looks at this guy like he's a moron. MICKEY! After Mickey makes fun of their pope names some more, Theo holds a pair of scissors to Mickey's neck, and Leo demands their money. Mickey has an idea: jack one of Nucky's ward bosses on his way to make a payment. "It's candy from a baby, I tell ya." (Again, cliché hadn't been invented yet, remember.) Mickey seems awfully gleeful about stealing from Nucky, after being so unceremoniously dumped. He's even brought back the wheezy giggling.
Somewhere in ... I guess Washington? Senator Edge is in his office when an aide comes in with three crates wheeled in on a dolly. He hands Edge a note, from Nucky Thompson. Inside the top crate: three bottles of Pimm's Cup. And the note reads, "I do expect to have everything." Bold.
Outside the cabaret, Lucky watches the other showgirls giggle over gifts from some admirer or another. Gillian walks up from behind him, and he jumps a bit. He admits he came to see her, which is just as well, considering she's noticed him following her around the last few days. "I think you know what I want," he says, almost sheepish. This is the most hangdoggy I've ever seen a would-be assassin act around the supposed "wife" of one of his targets. Anyway, Gillian knows the best way to defend Jimmy is to put on a good offense, so she leans in, puts her hand on Lucky's crotch, and kisses the daylights out of him. She tells him to meet her here after the last show. Gillian is in the game, people.
At Pret-a-Porter, it's late and Margaret is ready to go home, but Jenuet is making her wait until she's done with some paperwork. Margaret looks out the storefront and sees Nucky walking past, with a guffawing Lucy on his arm. Jeunet tells her to come in at 9 AM tomorrow for "a mentoring." Margaret, still depressed from her Lucy sighting (can't blame her there), glumly walks out ... and on her way, she surreptitiously grabs a silky slip dress off a hanger and stuffs it into her purse. An act of rebellion and a way to bolster a dowdy wardrobe. Margaret might just be in the game too.
Joe R will be sitting shiva for Pearl's beautiful face. He can be reached for lavish praise and nothing but at joseph.reid21@gmail.com.
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