Peg of Old

S02E07

New federal prosecutor Esther Randolph arrives in town, and she has no interest in getting up to anything but the business of putting Nucky behind bars. She also has zero use for Nelson Van Alden, who is having his own problems now that he doesn't have the money to pay off Lucy for her baby-carrying (and doesn't have a wife to give the baby to anymore anyway). Lucy manages to be the enterprising one as she takes the baby to see Nucky. Well, once a sugar daddy, always a sugar daddy. Nucky in turn summons Van Alden and proposes a deal where VA would report to Nucky on Randolph's case, while Nucky would provide for the child. Van Alden seems to go for it, though he does later appeal to Randolph with Nucky's case file in hand.

The new consortium of decision makers -- Jimmy, Lansky, Luciano, Capone, Harrow, and Eli -- meet to decide on steps in their burgeoning criminal empire. The consensus is that they don't have time to wait for Nucky to get sent to prison -- now is the time to kill him. Jimmy doesn't want to, out of some naïve belief that it wouldn't have to come to this, but after Gillian whispers in his ear about not looking like a waffler, Jimmy approaches Nucky at Babbette's during a Jack Dempsey press conference, identifies him, and then walks away as an assassin opens fire on Nucky. He got his hand up in front of the bullet, so it looks like he'll live, but just barely.

Margaret spends the bulk of the episode in Brooklyn, seeking out her lost family. Things are tense and unpleasant between her and her brother -- and we are confirmed that Margaret left for the States because she got pregnant -- but there's a closeness with her three younger sisters. When Margaret brings the youngest a book and mentions that she should come stay with her in Atlantic City sometime, her brother steps in and tells Margaret to leave them alone.

Back in Atlantic City, Owen Sleater reveals his true purpose for having been stationed here in the States, as he finds an old IRA deserter in a dingy bar and ends up garroting him in the bathroom, When he returns to Nucky's house he finds Margaret recently returned. Neither of them are aware of Nucky having been shot, and with the house all to themselves, they finally give in to the inevitable and DO IT.

We open with Jack Dempsey practicing in a boxing ring set up on the beach in Atlantic City, just as Nucky had proposed earlier. And Nucky's there, along with a hundred or so spectators and countless reporters. Also, not for nothing, but Jack Dempsey could have been on the 1920s version of Gossip Girl with that bone structure. That is not a face that has been punched for a living. He fields questions from the adoring press, and then brings in a little person dressed as a Frenchman (the same nationality as his upcoming opponent) for an extra bit of showboating. Afterwards, Jack is glad-handing with Nucky and Bader outside the tent. Nucky asks him to do some promotion at Babbette's later this week, to which Jack agrees. Another reporter approaches with one more question, this time for Nucky: what did he and the Attorney General talk about on the golf course recently? Nucky evades the question, and then tells Jack to show him the "old right hook," and Dempsey puts the reporter in a playful headlock in the way that only devastatingly handsome professional athletes can do to soft journalists.

Elsewhere, Van Alden returns home to Lucy playing her music and smoking, with an air of impatience about her. She says the baby cried for five hours straight today, and she just got her down to bed. "Did you feed her?" Van Alden asks stupidly. She wants to know if he was able to reach his wife. He wasn't -- she's gone to visit an aunt in Milwaukee and won't speak to him. "We're being tested, Rose and I," he says. Lucy asks what about her? Van Alden: "I'm sure you're being tested as well, in your fashion." Heh. No, Lucy wants to know what happened to their arrangement, the one where she carries his baby for nine months and then hands it over to him for money. He doesn't have the money, however, and may not ever have it. (Also, unspoken, but no wife to give said baby to at the moment.) The baby starts crying in that super loud and intrusive way that they do when filmmakers want to covey that the baby is becoming a burden. Lucy starts pressing for her $3,000. "Lord knows what I was thinking," Van Alden says, to himself if no one else, which makes her think he's been conning her this whole time. He doesn't know how else to defend himself, so he just leaves, with Lucy hollering out after him: "This is your baby! You bought it!" She yells that the kid doesn't even have a name yet. From the apartment door: "Shut up with the shouting!" From Lucy: "YOU SHUT UP!"

In the Commodore's game room, the young Turks convene: Jimmy, Lansky, Luciano, Al Capone, Richard Harrow, and Mickey Doyle have all gathered. I'm bummed that Mickey gets to benefit from this new arrangement. It's also interesting that Manny Horvitz isn't there. Are they cutting him out, or is he leaving the little insurgents to their war games? Lucky gives an indication of the esteem for Manny held in New York when he grumbles that "Sammy Sabbath from Philly"(charming) keeps pestering Lucky for his five grand that they all agreed to advance him. Jimmy agrees to cover it "as a gesture." Lucky: "It's not a favor." Funny to see these two squabbling punks struggle to nail the business manners that Nucky and Rothstein have down pat. Lansky comes closest, and he suggests Jimmy start the meeting. Jimmy decides to get poetic about how they're shrugging off the shackles of men like Nucky, Rothstein, Waxey, and Johnny Torrio. Capone bristles at the idea of lumping Torrio in with the other three, apparently not completely sold on the coup aspects of this deal. He and Lucky squabble -- Lucky seems to be in an especially grouchy mood today, possibly due to the blue balls from being in such close proximity to Gillian again.

Speaking of whom, she brings Eli into the meeting, and boy, does he stick out like a sore thumb in this group. He's wounded that they started without him. Jimmy introduces him to Meyer, Lucky, and Al. Lucky finds a new reason to be pissed, noting that he and Eli have already met (last season, when Eli roughed Lucky up). Gillian manages to take her leave by calling as much attention to herself as possible, cooing, "The men talk, the geisha retires." Yeeeeah, I think the geisha doth protest too much. Jimmy lays out the whole plan, where they import the booze through AC and truck it out to NYC, Chicago, Philly, wherever. Capone is resistant, saying Torrio already has a supplier. Jimmy's like, that's great for Torrio, but where does that leave you? And Lansky asks, what of Nucky? Jimmy says he'll go to jail and then Jimmy will have Bader appoint a patsy. "The way this place runs, you have to keep people happy," Jimmy pontificates. "You have hotel owners, clubs, theaters. They need to know that when one boss is gone, someone else is there to keep things in line." This is hilarious. Jimmy's really speechifying today! I'd love to know where he thinks he picked up these grand theories of city-running. From whom? Lansky's almost imperceptible smirk at Jimmy's grandstanding is why I love him, by the way. Capone and Luciano almost immediately jump on this, saying, essentially, screw this velvet glove approach -- just intimidate people into compliance. Lansky joins in, Jimmy tells them that's not how AC is run, there is much squabbling, until finally Eli blurts out "Jesus Christ, just kill him!" The camera push-in on that line is very Scorsese-wannabe. "What's he, King fucking Neptune?" Eli continues, "Just kill him and get it over with." Capone agrees. Lucky wants to know what the big deal is. Lansky says he's just another old-timer they need out of the way. "So's Arnold Rothstein," Jimmy shoots back. "Come to my house," Lansky says, "we'll discuss that." Harrow's mind is a few steps back as he asks Eli if he'd really kill his brother. Eli looks at the floor, shifts in his seat, and says no, they'd find someone to do it. There's the weaselly Eli I know! I was worried that killing a man might have stiffened his spine some. Capone says he'll call Chicago and get someone to take the train down and do the job. Jimmy looks around and knows the plan has gotten away from him. We know he's feeling intense emotions because there's another push-in! All eyes turn to him: what's the answer? Jimmy looks at Capone: "Make your phone call."

By Joe R

Van Alden returns to his office to find a WOMAN working there. My stars. He demands to know what's going on -- his stuff is missing and poor Agent Sawicky is hidden behind a comically tall desk. He's like Bob Cratchit working in Scrooge's counting house. So this woman turns out to be assistant U.S. attorney Esther Randolph, and she's going to be prosecuting the Nucky Thompson case. It's a tense meeting with Van Alden -- he gets all huffy about how he's the head of prohibition enforcement in this city; she tells him he and Sawicky will practice discretion when it comes to what they hear in this office from day to day. He says he took an oath. Well, so did she. He can't think of much to say that would re-assert his dominance over the office. He finally comes up with "You'll be eaten alive," as the scales of justice in this town are "weighted down with graft." Randolph, immediately becoming a favorite of mine, looks right at him and deadpans: "My. That is shocking." Boy, this is just a week for little boys in big-boy jobs getting put in their place, huh?

BROOKLYN! In all its old-timey glory. Stickball! Laundry hanging over the alleys and housewives hang out their windows, beating their floormats. Bartering in the streets! Margaret arrives at a dirty little alley and walks past Fievel and all the other Mousekewitzes as she finds a building with a silent old lady sitting out front. In the apartment at the top of the stairs, a little girl (the girl who plays Debbie from Shameless) greets her in Gaelic. Which sounds like playing real words backwards. According to another little girl, Beth, li'l Aylesh here has been practicing her Gaelic all day. Margaret remembers them, but as little babies. Aylesh says wants to be called Juliet; they're both adorbs, these girls. There's a third sister, Nuala, who is older and a bit more reserved in her greeting, but she's clearly happy to see Margaret too. The brother, Eamoinn, is another story. Clearly, he's the one who said she was dead. He tells the girls to let her come in. Margaret is very happy but very nervous. She offers them taffy from Atlantic City. Eamoinn initially is like "Oh, fancy taffy! They have the same in Luna Park, you know" but Nuala gives him the "be nice" throat-clearing. They embrace tentatively, and he invites her to stay for a dinner of roast and potatoes. Aylesh is fascinated by Margaret's fancy hat. Nuala tells her that Aylesh is just like her, "always dashing about." So far, so sweet!

Nucky's in his office, dishing out abuse to his lawyer, who I finally had to look up to learn his name is Isaac Ginsburg. Obviously, Nucky is pissed that after all their fancy legal maneuvering, all he has to show for it are FEDERAL charges instead of state ones. And this new federal prosecutor won't be bought off with the promise of free blowjobs at the Ritz either. The word on her is that she's basically the token honest public servant in the AG's office. Isaac is like, "What do you want me to do if even the AG can't help you?" Nucky says between the Commodore in a diaper, O'Neill "off hiding" (that's one way of putting it), and ward bosses like Neary and Paddy Ryan presumably running scared, is there no way Isaac can lean on them? Eddie interrupts which only perturbs Nucky further. But Eddie figures Lucy with a bassinet is the more pertinent meeting. Isaac could not be more thrilled that he's off the hook for the time being.

Alone with Lucy, Nucky immediately is like "I have not seen you for at least a year." In other words: "Not my baby!" She takes offense, somehow, so he apologizes and congratulates her. Lucy comes honest: she thought of shaking him down, but knew she'd never be able to pull it off. And that's no way for a mother to behave. Nucky's happy she's taking this seriously. She reminisces about their good times, and says back then, she woke up with only one thing she had to do: make Nucky happy. Now she's got someone else she's got to make happy. Forever. She doesn't say this resentfully. In fact, there's a glimmer of hope that Lucy may be turning over a new leaf. But she needs money. Nucky asks about the father, if she even knows who it is. Oh, she knows. And he might too.

Cut to Van Alden, who is Sourly watching Randolph conduct her business, which at the moment is interviewing Neary. Her underling closes the door to Van Alden's office so he won't eavesdrop on her squeezing Neary's nuts. Even though Neary had already signed on to be a confidential witness against Nucky, she's pressing him with threats of jail time for offenses he thought he'd gotten immunity for. Meanwhile, Van Alden gets a call he must attend to.

Back to Brooklyn, the Rohans are having dinner. Aylesh asks, "Did you take a boat here, Miss?" Her sisters tell her she's not a "Miss" -- "She's our Peg of old." I love the way that phrase sounds so much; no wonder they chose it for the episode title. Margaret tells them a bit of her life in Atlantic City and her two children with American names. Eamoinn asks of her husband, and she says Hans passed a year ago. Nuala is saddened to hear she's a widow so young, but Eamoinn wants to know how a single mother has the money to jaunt out to Brooklyn for a day and leave her children in the care of others. Margaret looks ashamed when she says they're being looked after by someone she pays. The sisters chide Eamoinn, saying what's wrong if she can afford it? Eamoinn checks his watch; he's working the night shift, digging the 4th Avenue line. And while he's talking about what a tireless worker he is, he mentions that Nuala sews in a room full of a hundred women, little Beth works at a laundry, and Aylesh is in school. Otherwise she'd be loading the steamboats down at the naval yards. Margaret says she knows they work hard. She then very delicately says she could help them out. Eamoinn says they haven't asked. Awkwardness. "Beth made a trifle," Nuala offers. Y'all, consider the topic changed.

Gillian is getting changed in front of Jimmy. Her: "Eyes closed." Him: "When did you start getting modest?" They're really pushing the oedipal angle this season, huh? Jimmy's having a really hard time with what's going to happen tomorrow -- a man's going to get off a train and go put a bullet in Nucky's head, just because he said so. Gillian does not see the problem, but Jimmy is obviously struggling. What if he rescinded the order? Gillian says his friends wouldn't like that much. He says they don't really give a shit if Nucky lives or dies, but Gillian says they ARE looking to him to see what he does. How decisive he is. He can't let them see him waffle. He has to project strength. "And that's why he dies?" Jimmy asks. This isn't what they set out to do. "We weren't being honest then," Gillian says. "We are now." He finally lays his cards out: "I don't want to do this." She says it's already done; it was done when he gave the order. "The rest is just bookkeeping." She kisses him and tells him to make her proud. This lady!

Van Alden barges into Nucky's office after being summoned. Nucky's having a drink, Lucy a smoke, which is just a great juxtaposition. Nucky asks Lucy to give them a moment, and she slinks out with the baby, halfheartedly apologizing. Nucky offers Van Alden a drink -- "if there was ever a time..." -- but he refuses. Nucky begins by wondering how Van Alden is pulling off supporting a wife, a mistress, and a baby on a government salary. Van Alden is hostile to Nucky's offer, but he doesn't exactly leave. Nucky says he doesn't judge people, only helps them, and maybe now Van Alden can appreciate that about him. In exchange for helping Van Alden out financially, he wants info on Esther Randolph -- everything that gets discussed, her plans, her actions. "If she renews her subscription to Vogue magazine, I want to know about it." Oh man, I wonder how old Anna Wintour was back in the '20s. Nucky says to think it over -- and to consider what he's already given Lucy as a gift. Van Alden goggles at that revelation.

Back in Brooklyn, Margaret and Eamoinn talk over tea. She kind of ribs him for his very American cigarette-smoking habit, then he tries to rub it in that their mom died back in Ireland. Doesn't seem like such a fair swap. She says she's already heard the news from a cousin who also emigrated, which Eamoinn sniffs at. She doesn't want to fight, but he seems to want to keep poking at her. He tells her their mother asked for her on her death bed. "Will you weep, Peg, now that it doesn't matter?" Margaret finally speaks up for herself, meekly at first. She did what she had to do. "Would you have seen me off to the Magdalene Sisters?" she asks. "And broken in the workhouse?" He says the priest deemed it a fit punishment (which: ye gods, with the implications of that; and also it puts last week's confession into an even more intense light, huh?); what makes it right for others and not her? "What makes it right for anyone?" Margaret returns. Would he have wished that fate upon Nuala, Beth, or Aylesh? He asks who the father was -- just some guy, some barrister's son. He asks her if this guy forced himself upon her, like she claimed. She silently shakes her head; it's the one thing that shames her. She says she miscarried on the crossing to America, which draws at least an "I'm sorry" from her otherwise pitiless brother. Then she pulls out a stack of bills and hands it to him. To return what she stole when she left Ireland, she says. He argues that she stole from their mother, not him. Is that why she came down here, to pay a debt? "To be among those who know me," Margaret says. Aylesh comes in the kitchen, and Eamoinn snatches the cash from the table before she sees it. She asks Margaret if they can have some trifle. Okay, that's twice that a scene has ended with the promise of trifle. By Chekhov, we'd better get it!

By Joe R

Van Alden sits with the baby, thumbing through the Bible in a search for baby names. The little darling kind of makes a noise when Van Alden gets to "Abigail." Maybe that's it? Anyway: Cute baby alert! Genetically improbable cute baby alert!

day, Van Alden strides into work and just starts talking to "Mrs." Randolph (it's "Miss," she tells him). He asks to speak privately, and when it's just them, he starts off with, "I am a married man." "There goes my dream," she says, once again with a deadpan. I like this bitch! He tells her straight up about his embarrassing indiscretion with Lucy and the current situation with the baby. She's all "phone a priest," but he says he's telling her this so she knows he is at heart an honest man. He hands over the file he's been keeping on Nucky for 16 months, full of bootlegging, gambling, vice, extortion, and murder. Esther is clearly impressed, but she plays it cool. Why has he been sitting on this? He says he was ordered by his supervisor to focus on alcohol. She gets him to confirm that he'll testify to all this. He goes to leave, and she tells him they will get his domestic situation "sorted out." He doesn't tell her about Nucky's offer, however. Maybe he's playing both sides? I guess if she can get his "domestic situation sorted out" he won't have to? Esther does tell him to quit telling everybody about his little bastard child, though.

However long later, Margaret returns to that alley in Brooklyn and Aylesh over. Cut to them walking, Aylesh opening a package with a book inside ("A Girl, a Horse, and a Dog" -- let no one say Margaret isn't an attentive gift-giver). Margaret says to write her and tell her all about it. "We'll have a secret correspondence," Aylesh says. Margaret smiles: "That'd be a good crack." Aylesh doesn't get the saying, and Margaret says their mam used to say it. Aylesh asks what their mom was like, and in the same breath she gets wary of the book. "The horse doesn't die, does it? I wouldn't like that." Margaret sees that poor Aylesh has grown up with so much loss. She tells Aylesh she can visit over the summer and meet her niece and nephew. Just then, Eamoinn approaches, filthy with grime from his work. He sends Aylesh away with her book. Margaret looks gaudily clean to her brother as he accuses her of trying to buy away her guilty feelings. Um, yeah, it's called FAMILY, Eamoinn. "Must you hate me?" Margaret asks him. He says he doesn't feel much about her at all. He hands her back the money, saying he doesn't know where it's from. Margaret sums her brother up pretty well: "You're honest are you? Never take more than you need. Never talk back to the priest or the boss or the policeman. Never question. Never make a fuss. Never dare to stand up for me, your own flesh and blood, who begged you for help when she'd nowhere else to turn. And you're proud of it." BOOM. Eamoinn stands firm. "You did as you wanted, Peg. You always have." She says she'll make Aylesh's life better. Eamoinn's all, like you made yours? He tells her to go home and leave them be. "No one knows you here." I really hope Kelly Macdonald uses this as her Emmy submission. And I hope she wins. Back in the car, she totally breaks down.

Nucky is at home, pacing impatiently. One of the non-Katy maids tells him that she is taking children to the beach with Katy. Nucky waves her off, then calls the Ritz and asks Eddie if he's heard from Owen yet. Eddie hasn't heard from him all day. Nucky tells Eddie to come get him, then; he's late.

Well, Owen is in a dark basement speakeasy, watching intently as a man enters and sits down at the bar. For a brief moment, I entertained the notion that this was Atlantic City's lone gay bar and that Sleater's wanton sex appeal was omnidirectional. Alas. Owen strikes up some small talk with the guy, but there is a thick air of danger that maybe only we feel because we know Sleater's been there all day. They talk about the old country, the Black and Tans and how they popped a mutual acquaintance of theirs named "Desi." Sleater is obviously swallowing something as he hears this guy talk about staying out of the conflict and retreating to America. He offers to buy this guy another and won't take no for an answer. The thick-eyebrowed guy agrees to a whiskey, but first a trip to the loo. Owen grabs a spoon from the bar top and follows him in. In the bathroom, he wedges the spoon through the door handle and sneaks up behind Plenty O'Eyebrows. After a knife fight and some bludgeoning with a spittoon, Owen comes behind Plenty with a garroting wire. Plenty catches wise in time to get a hand up in front of his neck, keeping the wire at bay, but Sleater is yanking back with all his might. After a prolonged struggle, with foot traffic crossing the overhead grate and customers trying to use the john, Sleater ends up slicing the wire through Paddy's fingertips (plop, plop, plop into the urinal) and cuts his neck open. A hard-won victory. "Lead me on a merry chase these five months?" Sleater nearly spits at the guy. "You traitorous fuck."

At Babbette's, Nucky and the local high-hatters are regaling Dempsey with bad jokes, then send him up to the stage to make remarks they prepared for him. As Dempsey makes jokes about anybody who might not know who he is, Nucky makes eyes at this flapper girl across the room. From behind her, comes Jimmy Darmody, who walks right up to Nucky. Nucky is anticipating an altercation, and looks around for protection that's not there. But Jimmy simply approaches with his palms out. He just wants to say: "Doesn't make a difference if you're right or wrong. Just have to make a decision." He's The Decider! He turns on his heel, and passes a heretofore unseen man, who strides at Nucky with gun brandished. Nucky gets a hand up in front of his face in time to put something between the bullet and his head. After Nucky goes down, a federal agent, likely spying on Nucky, shoots the assassin dead. There's chaos at Babbette's, and as Jimmy rushes out, he hears "Hey, he's alive!" Indeed, Nucky's got a hole in his hand, but is alive enough to be writhing on the floor. Poor Jimmy. Can't get anything right.

By Joe R

Unaware of any of this, Margaret returns home to find no one there but Owen. She initially refuses his help with her bags, but he insists. They have awkward small talk about New York and the humidity therein. She tells him to leave her luggage at the foot of the staircase. He tells her the children are with Katy at the park and that Nucky gave him the afternoon off to take care of some business. She wonders why he's not making an effort to find him now. Prickly, isn't she? "You find it odd here, ever?" Sleater asks her. In this country, he means. Boy, is that ever the right button to push today. He says everything feels off here, from the air to the water to the people. "And yourself," he says, "bit by bit. And you think, if I vanish now, who'd care? Or even notice?" Oh, sexy broody Irish with a poetic streak? That NEVER works. Clearly this strikes a chord in Margaret, but she tries to push it away, telling him he should be on the beach with Katy, then. Doesn't she want him with Mr. Thompson? In either case, she says, he shouldn't be here. He says he'll go if she tells him to. "Are you mine to command?" Ooooh, girl, this is some torrid Jane Eyre dialogue happening right now. She tells him to bring the bag upstairs.

By Joe R

Upstairs, she lays out how this is going to go. As she lets down her hair, she says when they're done, he'll leave and not speak a word about it, ever. He kisses her, and they're off to the races. So many clothes to remove in 1920! The closeup on her face as he, um, enters her reveals that Margaret has possibly never had it quite this good. Clearly, Nucky's been bested in a couple ways today.

Joe R is serious about that Kelly Macdonald Emmy. Unless Margo Martindale gets on another show besides A Gifted Man. 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.

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