Two Boats and a Lifeguard

S02E08

Nucky survived the shooting with only a hole in his hand to show for it, leaving Jimmy sputtering in all directions as to what to do . While he's hollering at Capone on the phone, Angela overhears the part about having Nucky shot, which leads her to retreat to the beach and to her oh-right-I-remember lesbianism with a scandalous bathing-suit-wearer.

After Eli gets a visit from the Feds, Pa Thompson has a heart attack and dies. Nucky and Eli have a tense interaction before the wake, but Nucky only allows himself to break down when he's all alone.

Later, Nucky takes a meeting with Arnold Rothstein and Johnny Torrio, where he confirms their respective suspicions about Luciano, Lansky, and Capone. So how will these old dogs deal with their young pups? Rothstein advises biding their time. On this advice, Nucky decides to abdicate his position as treasurer -- though not before telling Chalky to carry out that black-workers strike he's been threatening.

With Jimmy officially in power, he decides to celebrate. Mickey Doyle invites Manny Horvitz along, which annoys Jimmy since Manny keeps bringing up the money Jimmy owes him, not to mention how he's not shy about expressing his disapproval for daddy's-boy Jimmy trying to off Nucky just for the victory of it. Jimmy expresses his defiance by tossing Mickey off a balcony down through a table below.

In less consequential news, Van Alden hires a Swedish nanny for the baby. In more consequential news, Margaret's daughter Emily has a fever that could get dangerous.

Previously: Nucky got shot.

Currently: Nucky looks pretty okay. He's in an elevator, with the attendant gabbing at him about the results of the Dempsey fight. But according to Nucky, the fight hasn't happened yet. When the elevator opens up to his suite, and we see it's full up of people we haven't seen before, gathered for what feels like a wake, it becomes clear we're in a dream state. Nucky spots a baseball mitt on the chair -- childhood trauma alert! And, yep, right on cue, there's Young Nucky sitting at his desk, with a bloody hole in his hand to match Nucky's. "Daddy eats first," Nucky sternly tells himself. Then there's a mortally wounded deer writhing on the floor, because David Lynch is timeless throughout all eras of history. In truth it's all very Sopranos-y, and not really in a good way. Kid Nuck shoots a shotgun at Adult Nuck, breaking him out of his reverie. He's in his office with a doctor attending to his hand. It's likely a few weeks removed from the shooting, as his hand wound is evident but healing. He jokes about his "stigmata," then gives the doctor shit for not telling him about the Commodore's stroke. Doc's all "doctor-patient privilege" this and that, but Nucky retorts that his medicinal alcohol license is a privilege too. Margaret comes in and asks the doctor to check on Emily, who's feeling feverish. Meanwhile, Nucky struggles to tie his tie.

At Eli's house, his 8 billion kids are all running around and contributing to the general air of hopelessness when Dick Halsey, a clerk from Esther Randolph's office, comes in. Pa Thompson, from his wheelchair, is like "Who the fuck is this?" Halsey is here to serve a subpoena, which gets Eli furious and Pa apoplectic with WTF-ness. Eli grabs the guy by his lapels and forces him out of the house. All the while, Pa is yelling and starts gasping -- a heart attack, obviously.

At the Darmody house, Jimmy runs from the shower to pick up the phone. This shirtless shot of Michael Pitt shows some hair on his chest, in defiance of all logic and expectation. It's Al on the phone, and Jimmy is agitated because Al's pal from Chicago didn't get the job done on Nucky. Al says Jimmy should have done the job months ago anyway, so... classic schmucky Capone logic. "You vouched for this fella," Jimmy snaps, "and now Nucky's still alive!" The camera turns to find Angela and Tommy in the hallway. How long has she been standing there? Long enough. She darkly tells Jimmy she's going to the beach. Jimmy hastily hangs up, but by the time he does, they're out of the house.

By Joe R

On his end, Capone hangs up, only to turn around to find Johnny Torrio RIGHT THERE. Torrio wants to know what he's got to do with Jimmy, but Al puts him off. Torrio doesn't pursue it, as he's got a meeting with George Remus. "Romulous couldn't make it," Torrio jokes. Al doesn't get it. Torrio sighs. He says whatever the hell Al's got going on with Jimmy, "Keep me out of it. And don't do anything stupid." Seems likely! On the list of BE characters you'd like to see die so we never have to bother with them again (and it's lengthy), Capone would have to be in your top 5, right?

Back at Nucky's, the doctor examines Emily. She's got a 99.8 temperature, which isn't too much to worry about. He says to call him if it spikes. Nucky motions to Owen that they're heading out, and as he walks past the women in the house, we see that he's aloof to Katy and gives Margaret a "ma'am." In turn, Margaret and Katy are cold with each other as they both try not to mention Owen. Yet another old-timey issue that could have been solved with a simple threesome.

Later, Margaret helps Nucky prepare for his meeting with the federal prosecutor. She doesn't like him going out of the house, but he tells her to relax. Owen will be there. Of course, the subject of Owen is anything but relaxing for Margaret. The phone rings, and Margaret answers. We only hear her side of it, but as she says, "I'm very sorry," we can guess what it's about. Indeed, she tells Nucky that was Eli's wife, and his father has died. Nucky is somewhat inscrutable at first, but he's clearly affected. He says he'll eat something at the office.

Van Alden is at home, watching over his baby girl and checking his watch. Often. A very Scandinavian woman named Sigrid arrives with a suitcase -- she's the live-in nanny. He's brusque with her as he shows her around the apartment -- including the Victrola, which he hilariously treats as a selling point. She manages to wrangle ONE Sunday a month of time off, but otherwise she seems like a sweet pushover. She picks up fussy baby Abigail and calms her down. "Don't you want to kiss her goodbye?" she asks as Van Alden leaves. Yeeeeah, that's not the best idea for a calm baby.

Elsewhere in the Tri-State, Arnold Rothstein is meeting a horse trainer in a stable. Meyer and Lucky arrive and make small talk with the trainer. AR is in a fine mood as he asks for word from Philly. Oh, you know. Business as usual. Rothstein says Nucky is still alive, so until they hear otherwise they'll stick with him. He asks them if they know what happened there. Both Meyer and Lucky play dumb. Lansky suggests it was maybe Nucky's brother. Rothstein's like, "Really? Because I'd have guessed Jimmy Darmody." Luciano unconvincingly scoffs that Jimmy doesn't have it in him. Rothstein slyly wonders if Lucky gleaned this from pillow talk with the kid's mom, causing Lucky to sputter a denial. Rothstein sniffs at the air. "Manure," he explains to his men. "But what can you expect when you conduct your business in a stable?" BURNED SO HARD.

Nucky and Ginsburg meet with Randolph and her clerk in a great Atlantic City law face-off. Ginsburg rattles off the charges: tax evasion, graft, gambling, Volstead, the works. "You're like an onion," Esther says about Nucky, "the more layers we peel..." Nucky prefers to think of himself as an artichoke. Heh. Nucky professes his innocence, of course. She asks if he wants to talk of his shooting, but he'd rather not. "You're not curious who'd want you dead?" she asks. "I want to know who shot me," Nucky replies. "Listing who'd want me dead would take too long." She asks about Torrio, telling him that his shooter was an associate of Al Capone. "Your so-called friends are trying to kill you," she says. Nucky suggests she go after them, then. Oh, she intends to. And what of Mrs. Schroeder? His "...companion"? How did they meet? Nucky evades, saying she already knows the answers she's looking for. Still, she would be grateful for his being forthcoming. "I do have ways of showing gratitude." Probably not in the way Nucky's used to getting gratitude from women. Speaking of gratitude, Mr. Lathrop here was the one who saved Nucky's life. "Some thanks might be in order," she says, as they leave. Nucky ponders.

At the beach, Angela tries to relax, given the circumstances. As she's lost in thought, nearby is a bathing beauty with a skirt that goes down only to her upper thigh. Scandal! She gets shit from a schoolmarm patrolling the beach, who is not, I am sad to report, played by Dana Ivey. What happened to her? Bummer. Schoolmarm writes this woman up a summons, while Angela's all, "Pretty shitty town, huh?" The lady -- from San Francisco -- says to make it out to Molly Fletcher. When she refuses to pay it, the schoolmarm calls a cop over, at which point Angela decides to defuse the situation by paying the fine herself. After the schoolmarm leaves, the two ladies get to talking, while in the background, a child laborer patrols the beach with a sandwich board that reads "Angela's a Lesbian, Remember?" The woman's name isn't Molly, for one thing. It's Louise. Molly is just a character in the book she's writing . A novelist, huh? How very Greenwich Village! Louise asks Angela what she does. Angela says she's still trying to decide.

Jimmy and Gillian are arguing quietly at home, as he defensively asks if she thinks it's his fault that they're in the situation they're in. "Success has many fathers," Gillian says. "Failure just one." Manny Horvitz arrives, with Mickey Doyle in tow. Gillian and Manny flirt for a moment, then she leaves them to their business. Gillian does a very good job of keeping up the front that she's not a prime mover behind Jimmy's business decisions. Too bad she keeps undermining it with all the mouth-kissing. Manny looks around the opulent surroundings at the Commodore's house. There's an underlying tension, not only because of Jimmy's failure, but also because he still owes Manny that five grand. And Manny, while officially letting Jimmy slide on it for now, is not letting him forget the debt is there. Especially when he's living in such a house. Jimmy stresses that it's his father's house, not his. Manny also seems perturbed that Jimmy tried to off Nucky, although he broaches that subject obliquely. He gets up and looks at the stuffed bear in the corner. He tells a story of a man who came into his shop with a deer he'd just shot, wanting Manny to cut off the head for him. Manny offered to butcher the whole animal, but "this piece of shit" wasn't interested in the meat. He just wanted the head to mount on his wall (his friend did the shooting, even). "For this alone, you kill?" Manny asks with disdain. "To brag to your friends that you killed this beautiful animal?" Manny clearly regards this man as less than dirt, and in doing so, he's intentionally tarring men like the Commodore with the same brush. And Jimmy, for attempting to do the same with Nucky. Jimmy knows exactly what Manny means and sticks up for himself. "I've eaten venison, if that's what you're getting at" he says. "And you hid behind Papa when he pulled the trigger," Manny replies. Uh-oh! Time for the patented Michael Pitt Pouty Face!

By Joe R

That night, Nucky and Margaret reconvene at home. She takes his hand and says she's sorry about his father. "People die," is Nucky's response. Margaret is surprised that's all he has to say. "I pretend all day," Nucky sighs. "Must I pretend with you too?" Margaret changes the subject to the prosecutor, and Nucky tells her that Esther knows about the two of them, and about all his various dealings. Margaret is worried that Nucky will go to jail, but he assures her nothing will happen to them. "Is this all worth it?" she asks. Nucky says he can't let "those greedy bastards" win. Margaret counters that it might be greedy to risk one's life in order to hold on to a fiefdom. Nucky tells Margaret a story about a drowning man who is confident that his faith in God will save him. A lifeguard offers to help, but the man turns him down, saying God will save him. Ditto when a rowboat and then a steam ship come by -- God will save him. Then, when the man dies, he asks God in heaven why he didn't save him. God says he sent him a lifeguard, a rowboat, and a steam ship -- what did he expect? It's a decent joke, although it felt more applicable when The West Wing did it. It draws not even a smile from Margaret. He assures her they will both get through this.

Inside the armory, Nucky meets with Arnold Rothstein and Johnny Torrio. A secret summit! Nucky gets right to the point and tells Torrio that it was Capone's guy who shot him. Torrio knew something was up and says Al has been consorting with Jimmy. Rothstein (finally) mentions how Jimmy came to him with an offer after Nucky was thrown in jail. He can't say Lansky and Luciano aren't working with Jimmy, and he brings up the "failed hijacking" that killed one of Waxey's men. Nucky gets poetic about it, saying, "The pups have grown fangs, gentlemen." So...what to do about it? Nucky can't kill anyone with the feds up his ass. And he doesn't want to take a plea and retire. Rothstein pipes up: They should do nothing. They don't have a move right now. They should wait until they do have a move. He says he makes his living as a gambler. Some days he makes twenty bets. Some days he makes none. He waits. He plans. He marshals his resources. And when there IS a bet to make? He bets it all.

On the Boardwalk, a half-man, half-woman attraction (really just a guy with half of him made up as a lady) wows the crowds. Meanwhile, Van Alden and Sawicky are at a food counter. Van Alden rudely turns down the offer of a comped meal, saying it's against regulations. He looks expectantly at Sawicky, who's all, "Uhhh, that's right." Van Alden then gets philosophical, about that which is evil in and of itself versus an evil dictated by statute. The latter includes accepting free lunches... or selling whiskey. This is a dangerous conversation for Sawicky, because even though we know that Van Alden's moral resolve is deteriorating, Sawicky doesn't, and there's also no predicting Van Alden's latest wild mood swing. Sawicky says when he first joined the Bureau, he was convinced they were doing right. But seeing how it's harder and harder to enforce the law... he trails off. Moral dilemmas!

Hey! It's a Bohemian Beach Party! Louise takes Angela around to meet her weirdo artist friends. There is much drinking, music, and dancing. Louise takes Angela's hand, and when Angela looks nervous, she tries to put her at ease: "We're invisible here." Cut to outside, as the pair listen to ukulele music together. Angela gathers up her courage and kisses her. It's all very sweet.

Nucky, Margaret, and the kids are playing a board game at home. NOT Monopoly, unfortunately. Margaret is still holding a sick Emily, while Nucky is lost in thought. He's staring at the image of a steam ship on the board, getting an idea. It's Uncle Nucky's turn in the game, and he asks the kids to start calling him Dad. Aw. "It's your move, Dad." Teddy, you're right on the nose. Boardwalk Empire, you too.

The day, Nucky arrives early at the funeral parlor in order to mourn for his father -- or whatever he's planning to do -- in solitude, but of course Eli arrives to fuck it up. Things are tense. Nucky snarks that Eli must be surprised that it's not Nucky in the box. "I had nothing to do with that," he bald-faced lies. And besides, from Nucky's perspective, he did nothing to stop it. They talk about an old family wake that took place at their house when they were kids. Eli was terrified. Nucky says he came early today because he didn't think anyone would be here. Eli is surprised he came at all. Nucky says he came for their mother and sister, and Eli remarks that they're all in heaven together now. Nucky's like, you think that bastard is in heaven? If it exists at all? Eli starts snorfling: "Was he that bad?" Whatever he did made them into the men they are today, after all. "We run this fucking town, Nucky." Nucky's like, WE don't run anything, and he can rot in hell. Eli then gets on his high horse -- such hairpin turns of petulant emotion from Eli today! -- about how Nucky has "no capacity for forgiveness." Nucky simply tells his little brother to grow up and take some responsibility. Seeeeriously. Eli leaves, and Nucky prepares to go too. He walks up to the casket and sees his father's shoe is untied. He goes to tie it and starts breaking down; it's always the little things like that, isn't it?

At the post office, Mr. Lathrop gets a delivery from Nucky -- a basket of fruit with a note attached: "You're a peach. Thanks for saving my life." Brillz, Nucky.

Nucky arrives to meet with Jimmy, Gillian, the Commodore, and Leander. Nucky gives what sounds like a prepared speech about the last few months, the threats and accusations. He says he's got a new outlook since his father passed. The Commodore croaks out that he's sorry to hear that, which is both pathetic and strangely sweet? Anyway, Nucky is thinking that he doesn't need this and no longer wants it. "I have the love of a fine woman," he says. "And the joy of raising her two wonderful children." He plans to sell some property and live off the profits, once his legal troubles are behind him. "You built this town," he says, looking at Commodore and Leander. "Now you can have it back. And all that goes with it." He's instructed Bader to give them full cooperation. He's stepping down, and he won't stand in their way anymore. As he goes to leave, Jimmy speaks up. After a long pause, he says, "Good luck to you." Nucky turns back and replies simply: "And to you too, James."

By Joe R

At the post office, Mr. Lathrop gets a delivery from Nucky -- a basket of fruit with a note attached: "You're a peach. Thanks for saving my life." Brillz, Nucky.

By Joe R

Van Alden returns home, passes Sigrid and the baby and heads straight to the bedroom. He takes a pouch of payoff money and sticks it behind the mirror in his bedroom. Moral dilemmas!

In his office, Nucky looks out his window towards the ocean. Chalky shows up upon request, and he's bummed. His people are losing faith in him. Nucky's like, now that you mention it, it's time to give your people the justice they crave. Remember what Chalky talked about before? About grinding the gears of Atlantic City to a halt? Nucky says do it. Call a strike. It would cost the city a fortune and Chalky holds all the cards. You know, you'd think Chalky would be angrier at Nucky for stepping down and leaving Chalky high and dry in the power structure of Atlantic City. Though I guess this plan will alleviate that some.

At Babbette's, Jimmy is celebrating with the other alderman and his supporters. Neary is being especially obnoxious, as he's the new treasurer. Richard is there, looking awkward; Jimmy makes a point of talking to him, saying they'll get him a fancy new mask, among other things. Mickey and Manny show up, getting a stink eye from Jimmy in the process, and Eli keeps pestering Jimmy for a word, though Jimmy puts him off. Jimmy instead makes a speech about a new era of people-pleasing in Atlantic City. "Talk is cheap," he begins -- "So's Nucky!" interjects Mickey. Jimmy sneers at Mickey to let him finish. Leander proposes a toast: "To Prince James." Manny looks at Jimmy with that same judgment in his eyes. Jimmy knows what he's thinking and is squirming.

At home, Nucky shares a drink with Owen and say they need to talk. Nucky's "I know what's going on" talk feints towards Owen sleeping with Margaret on the day Nucky was shot, but this is really about Owen shooting the guy at the bar. Nucky is wise to the fact that Owen is here in the States on IRA business. He wants him to set up a meeting with McGarrigle in Belfast. Nucky's got a proposition for him.

By Joe R

Back to the party at Babbette's. Mickey is talking Jimmy's ear off and Eli busts in. Not sure which is worse. Not sure Jimmy deserves better. "My brother," Eli begins. "He's smarter than you are. And a lot more dangerous. Don't underestimate him." Jimmy's not trying to hear that. He goes back to Mickey, talking about the booze importing plan. But Jimmy gets distracted by Manny on the floor below. He asks Mickey what the fuck he brought Manny for -- he's an asshole who keeps reminding Jimmy of his debts. From his cowardly distance, Jimmy smiles down at Manny and lets loose with a string of invectives that only Mickey can hear. Mickey tells him to cool it with the "Jew bastard" stuff. "He aint' the type I'd play with." But Prince James won't be told what to do. Manny calls Jimmy to come down. Jimmy says they'll be right down, and then he shoves Mickey over the balcony onto a table right in front of Manny. Manny glares up at him.

Nucky is again dreaming of his office full of mourners again, while the disconcerting sounds of a child moaning are heard. Nucky wakes up, but the moaning remains. Margaret looks frightened as hell; Emily's fever has gotten worse.

Joe R wonders now that Nucky's gotten them to call him Dad, might he lose another child? 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.

Think you're a TV or movie expert? Prove it! Play Trivia Without Pity, our new online trivia game with over 2,000 questions about the shows and films you love -- and love to hate.

What are people saying about your favorite shows and stars right now? Find out with Join the conversation now!