He's There, the Phantom of the Brothel

S01E07

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!

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.

Pa Thompson's got his leg in a makeshift splint as Eli and his deputy try to lift him into a chair. He's screaming bloody murder, and that incoherent screaming turns to abuse the moment Nucky arrives. Eli passive-aggressively says he called Nucky's office to be told he was out with his "ladyfriend." Pa mockingly asks if this was "Mabel," but an annoyed Nucky tells him Mabel was his wife and she's been dead for some time. They finally get him into the chair, as he wails about being on the floor for five hours before Eli happened to stop by. They wheel him out to the ambulance, and then Eli comes back to the kitchen, where Nucky is looking around the room with a combination of nostalgia and disgust. Eli tries to give him grief about taking up with Margaret -- he did arrange to have her husband killed and all. Nucky says she'll never find out. I'm not so sure part of her doesn't already know. Nucky then proposes putting Pa into a nursing home and selling the house. Eli refuses the former idea, offering to take the awful old coot into his own home. But it does seem time to unload the house. Nucky proposes giving it away to someone named "Fleming," who is starting out with a family. Nucky thinks a "decent family" could make it into a home. The implications of that statement hang in the air while Nucky complains about a toaster he bought Pa that's never been plugged in. On the bright side, he probably would have put a cat in that thing, so...

Chalky White is grousing about poorly made counterfeit labels for his counterfeit whiskey when a persistent knocking at the door reveals himself to be a nasally-voiced pipsqueak of a bootlegger who introduces himself as Michael Lewis, from the borough of Manhattan. He talks in exaggerated formalities, like he's trying to make himself seem more legitimate by saying "the borough of Manhattan" instead of "Noo Yawk." Chalky is, let's say, standoffish. Lewis's proposition: he buys 1,000 cases directly from Chalky, cutting out the middleman. That middleman being Nucky. To sweeten the deal -- or at least to prove he's not just blowing smoke, Lewis hands him $10,000 in cash. Chalky fans out the money for a moment, then tells Lewis to "tell Nucky Thompson it's gonna take a lot more than ten grand to get me to fuck him over." Lewis looks confused but doesn't protest, even when Chalky throws the money back in his face. He doesn't lose his chipper, can-do attitude, though. "Can't blame a fella for trying," he chirps. Chalky looks back at him, troubled.

By Joe R

Nucky's in his office, taking a meeting with Damian Fleming, the aforementioned family man. Fleming is a chatty, friendly guy, and he's motormouthing some story about the whole family crammed into their one bed. It's a credit to Fleming's personality that this comes across as sweet and not deeply creepy. Nucky asks about the baby, and when Fleming starts talking about how far they've come since the kid was born premature, we see why. Nucky gets that faraway look in his eye that he usually gets when somebody talks about preemies. Just when it seems like Fleming has stopped his yammering and Nucky's about to get down to business, in barges Lucy, who's voice is pushing the needle up to Baby Doll with a Purpose. She's also dressed like the Fantastic Mr. Fox just exploded all over her. Nucky tries to shut her up, but her pout will not be denied. What does Margaret got that she ain't got! Who's gonna buy her clothes? Or take her to the picture show. Eager to placate her, Nucky promises to take her to see "Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" later on. "I feel empty without you inside me," she pouts, as Eddie rolls his eyes like a champ and Nucky gets all Hugh Grant-y and flustered, shoving her out the door. Back to Fleming, Nucky says he needs a house, for his kids' sake, and so Nucky is offering his father's old place. Fleming says he can't afford it, which is why Nucky's giving it away for free. He tells Fleming that if he fixes it up, makes it livable, it's his. Fleming doesn't know what to say. He seems like the one, genuine, guileless person in Atlantic City. How soon 'til he dies?

Margaret and Annabel and Annabel's awful haircut (honestly, she looks like she just escaped Girl, Interrupted) chat amiably about life as kept women. For all their compatibility between the sheets, Margaret says she still doesn't know what Nucky wants from her. Of course, beyond loving her new digs and wanting very much to hold onto them, Margaret doesn't entirely know what she wants either. Certainty would be nice, but as Annabel points out, he'll never marry her. She points to Lucy as evidence, though I'm not sure I'd chalk up any man's reluctance to marry Lucy Danziger as much more than common sense. Annabel has a bit of advice for Margaret, on the security front: stash some money away. She herself has squirreled away about four grand, found in dribs and drabs in her man Harry's pockets over the years. Margaret's all, "I would never!" but come on. She's already come this far. Talk turns to whether Nucky loves her, and Margaret thinks he's still never quite gotten over his dead wife. I keep wanting the show to cut to Molly Parker's photo every time Nucky's wife is alluded to or it's obvious he's mooning over her, with sad, Frisky Dingo/Archer style piano music. Anyway, the point is that Nucky's not overly chatty about his past or his feelings. Annabel thinks that's just fine -- the more a man tells her, the more he ends up seeing his own weaknesses reflected in her. Margaret takes this in. But when her daughter comes out and Annabel coos at her, "You'll have no trouble getting a man at all," Margaret has the good sense to look troubled.

The D'Alessio brothers -- the ones named after the popes, though the only one whose name I know is Leo, because he was Doogie Howser's best friend -- are playing cards with Mickey Doyle. Leo is twanging away on a mouth harp that is totally not annoying. Thankfully, in walks Lucky Luciano to make things interesting. He introduces his pal Meyer Lansky -- it's the same guy who told Chalky his name was "Michael Lewis." And all of a sudden, he's not the jittery Chatty Cathy he was before. John Paul D'Alessio II introduces Mickey to Lucky, though in Italian he clarifies that they're only hanging on to him because he owes them money, otherwise they'd slit his throat. Heh. Lucky asks them about knocking over Nucky's bag-man, and tells them they owe Arnold Rothstein for the privilege. This is news to the D'Alessios, since Rothstein has no jurisdiction in Atlantic City. Lansky then tersely brings up the cost of gasoline, which I guess is supposed to mean that the cost of running jobs on Atlantic City when you're based out of New York (Rothstein) or Philly (D'Alessios) is pretty steep. Lucky offers a partnership -- Rothstein will back them, if they agree to knock over one of Nucky's casinos. And that, it sounds like, is just the beginning.

Agents Van Alden and Sebso are called in by an out-of-jurisdiction investigator who says he's got one Billy Winslow, who they picked up for an armed robbery beat. The guy is terrified of going to jail, and almost immediately asked to talk to the Feds out of Atlantic City. When Van Alden questions him, Winslow tells them all about the hijacking in the woods last January. See, he was the guy who overturned his car and served as the decoy while Jimmy and Al fucked things up royally. Nobody was supposed to get hurt, Winslow stresses. Van Alden wants names, though Winslow wants to make sure they have a deal, Van Alden says he'll use his influence the best he can (which seems like a fine promise until you realize Van Alden would just as soon fuck this guy over and then flog himself for it later). But Winslow is eager to get this off his chest, it seems. He says the guys were Jimmy Darmody, and "this fella called Al."

Speaking of Jimmy, he's at the VA, waiting to take his evaluation. The half-faced guy walks out and asks Jimmy about the book he's reading (called "Tin Soldier"). Jimmy calls it a "bunch of malarkey." He offers Half-Face a smoke, but Half-Face, in his halting, guttural grown, says it's "not possible." Jimmy gets up and sits to him, introducing himself. Half-Face's name is Richard Harrow. Incidentally, he's played by Jack Huston, who is not only part of the John/Walter/Anjelica Huston clan, but he's also Cat Deeley's boyfriend. Recapping worlds are colliding! Taking a closer look at Richard, we see his mask has an eyeball painted on it. It's quite the unsettling creation. Anyway, both men are set to take the test; Richard worries the questions may be embarrassing. "Just lie," Jimmy says. Harrow finds it very difficult to lie these days. "They're interested in what's in our heads so that time we'll fight better," Harrow says. He then pulls a shield of some kind out of his satchel. Jimmy identifies it as a German sniper mask, and Harrow says he gets anxious if he doesn't have it with him at all times. Jimmy intuits that Harrow was a marksman. Harrow tells the story of waiting three days for the German who wore it to take it off. He eventually lifted it to scratch his nose, at which point Harrow put a bullet "one inch below his eye." Jimmy: "Well, fuck him, right?" Heh. Harrow goes back to fretting about the test, asking if one of the questions is "Have you ever made love to a girl?" When the nurse comes out and calls for "James Darmody," Jimmy hollers back that he left. When she calls for Harrow, Jimmy stops him and encourages him to give lying a shot. Both men pipe up to say that Harrow has left too.

By Joe R

Angela Darmody is in a silky robe with her boob halfway hanging out, putting on a record. Looks like she's been having that affair after all. But wait! Who's this naked LADY she's kissing? Why it's Mary, the photographer's wife! It wouldn't be a prestige HBO drama without some lesbians, after all. They talk all sexy-like about how Nucky is onto them. Angela, for one, doesn't think Nucky will be too challenged to put two and two together. (I have to admit, if they showed this scene of Nucky catching a glimpse of these two together, I don't recall it.) Angela also makes mention of her bewilderment that Jimmy wouldn't be sending any money back for his son. Since we saw Jimmy mailing some money back home last week, you have to wonder where that money's gone. Angela and Mary keep kissing as Mary talks about one of her artist friends coming to town and taking a look at Angela's work. Clearly, Angela wants to get to New York and pursue a career. Looks like Gillian intuited pretty well the other day, huh? And for as potentially sensationalistic as the Stock Lesbian Makeout can be on a show like this, I have to say, these women project a real intimacy and heat that actually makes the scene feel MORE grounded. Unexpectedly great work.

The day -- or, more likely, several days later -- de-hoardification procedures are taking place at the Thompson homestead. Nucky has brought Margaret and the kids by to see the progress. As Nucky heads in, he passes a barrel full of burning junk -- Fleming tells Nucky that Pa Thompson said it was junk that could be thrown out. At the top of the pile is a plaque commemorating Nucky's knot-tying skills from his days on the Junior Beach Patrol. Always sad when a father doesn't appreciate his son's nerdy accomplishments. Inside, the kitchen looks remarkably cleaned-out and painted over. Margaret notes that it's nicer than Nucky described, to which Nucky is all, "No shit." Nucky starts reminiscing about how the house seemed when he was a kid. And how imposing his father used to be when he was so small. Margaret prods a bit, asking if Pa still frightens him. "He can't hurt me now," is Nucky's reply, and we're all left to wonder how far the truth of that statement stretches. Physically, sure, but he certainly still seems to be able to rile Nucky up. Nucky grabs a nearby poker and tells Margaret of the day when he tried to reach for a piece of bread before his father. He shows Margaret the scar on his hand that was his reminder that Daddy eats first. Margaret can empathize, as she references her late husband. But, perhaps remembering Annabel's earlier advice, Margaret pumps the breaks on Nucky pouring his heart out, saying some things should stay in the past. Nucky's obviously a bit stung by this -- a Lucy move if there ever was one -- as Margaret ducks out to check on the children.

Elsewhere, here's all I'm going to say about the Commodore and his gastrointestinal issues: the Commodore has some SERIOUS gastrointestinal issues. He berates his poor housekeeper Louanne again, this time about some homemade potion she's making for him (because he refuses to see doctors). While he's complaining about his bowels, he's also complaining about Nucky, who merely sent an errand boy over with the 'Dore's payment, rather than bringing it himself. Nucky, he feels, is getting too big for his britches. And/or the Commodore is feeling resentful in his old age. He bitches about having put Nucky where he is today, "and they put me in jail." That does go a bit of the way towards explaining the Commodore's place in the whole Atlantic City hierarchy. He felt the fuzz coming down, he installed Nucky in his place while he went to jail, and upon his return he's kind of a kingpin emeritus. And a resentful old bastard, it seems. Louanne hands him the potion -- a dark green mixture of awfulness -- and Commodore barely gulps it down before he's on all fours, puking into a spittoon on the floor, like a dog. Well, this is undignified to watch.

Keeping with the theme, however, we cut to Nucky reading a cutesy (but educational!) poem about germs and such that make you sick. The kids applaud, as do Margaret, then ask to be excused from the dinner table. Once they're gone, Margaret takes a regretful tone and tells Nucky she took some "bad advice" the other day. When Nucky began to tell her his "troubles." "It was selfish," she says, and while Nucky says it's all right, he's still clipped and stung about the whole thing. Margaret says it's not right -- she wants him to feel like he can tell her things. So Nucky returns to the subject of that baseball mitt: four older kids stole it from him, and when Nucky came home, his father made him go back out and challenge the bullies to a fight. He did, and was promptly beaten unconscious and put in the hospital for eleven days. Margaret recoils, says that's horrible. "Life can be that way," is Nucky's response. The phone then rings -- it's about the house, it's all ready for Fleming. Nucky invites Margaret to come down with him to see it, but she can't. Little Teddy asks if he can go, and while Margaret says "Mr. Thompson" is busy, Nucky says that "Uncle Nucky" can surely take him. I'd be happier with "Uncle Nucky" as a nickname if it didn't sound so filthy.

Well! Remember Liam? He's back in his usual table, at his usual diner. Only this time, Jimmy Darmody is sitting at the counter. Liam doesn't notice until Jimmy's about to sit down across for him. Jimmy orders him to keep his hands where he can see them. Jimmy's even-toned, though, and pledges that he's not there to kill Liam. All this despite the fact that Liam's promise that he was just doing Sheridan's bidding starts with him referencing Pearl as "the whore." Anyway, Jimmy asks if Liam ever served in the army (he didn't), which leads to Jimmy telling a story about the War. It was a "living, waking nightmare," he says. One time, Jimmy shot a German soldier while he was trying to cross some barbed wire. The guy didn't die, but he also couldn't manage to extricate himself from the fence. No matter how much he struggled, he only dug in deeper. Jimmy says he left him there for days, moaning in German for his momma. He never begged for death, though, despite Jimmy's repeated offers. He kept fighting, like a miracle might come. "Some people, in a similar situation," says Jimmy, "might feel like being alive is much, much worse." This seems the appropriate note to leave Liam on. Jimmy says he doesn't ever want to see Liam around again. Liam can't assure him fast enough that he won't. Jimmy leaves, and Liam can finally exhale. It proves to be his last, however, when a bullet whizzes through the window, shattering a water pitcher atop a waiter's tray, and connecting right below Liam's right eye. He's dead, a customer screams, and as the camera races back through the bullet-hole, up to the upstairs room across the street, we see -- obviously -- Richard Harrow. And then, in maybe my favorite moment of the show thus far, we hear sinister organ music, because the Phantom of the Opera is there, inside your mind. Harrow packs up his rifle and leaves the room, but hopefully not the show, because: awesome.

In a transition that nearly lives up to the Phantom reveal, the same music turns out to be coming from the "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" picture show that Lucy is taking in ... alone. She's frightened by the creepy movie -- as any emotional infant might be -- and she's crying because Nucky isn't there to protect her. On screen, we see the title card read Jekyll's thoughts: "Think what it would mean! To yield to every evil impulse -- yet leave the soul untouched!" Cut right to Lucy's tear-stained face. Are we in for some out-and-out evil from this imbecile? It might be an improvement.

Nucky and Teddy arrive at the house, and to Nucky's chagrin, Eli is wheeling Pa Thompson around the kitchen. Pa is clutching the fire-poker like a totem as he scowls around the room. Nucky harshly tells Eli to get him out. As he wheels past, Pa looks up at Nucky and sneers, "You think you're the king around here. But you're not worth a god damn." Charmed as ever, old man! Come see us again some time. He and Eli leave. Nucky then sends Teddy out to the car. It's hard to tell whether this was Nucky's plan all along or if seeing his father in the kitchen again made Nucky realize that no matter how clean it was or how many coats of paint went up, his father will always haunt this place. I'm honestly not sure which is true. But either way, Nucky starts dousing the kitchen with gasoline, lights a match, and tosses it into the room. The house is ablaze within seconds. Back outside, with Teddy in the car, Nucky looks on grimly at the ritual burning of his terrible childhood. Fleming drives up, in a sweaty panic, and dismays at the scene. Without flinching, Nucky pulls a wad of cash from his pocket and hands it over. "Find a better place to live," he says.

Joe R thinks that Jack Huston and Cat Deeley need to pull Aaron Paul into a polyamorous relationship, so that all his shows can be properly connected. He is not a crackpot. He can be reached for lavish praise and nothing but at joseph.reid21@gmail.com, and you can listen to him yammer on to his heart's content on the Extra Hot Great podcast.

Discuss this episode in our forums, then see why Boardwalk and Jersey Shore have a lot in common!

By Joe R

Discuss this episode in our forums, then see why Boardwalk and Jersey Shore have a lot in common!

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