Fighting Irish

S02E09

Nucky travels to Ireland with Owen, supposedly to bury his father but actually to deliver weapons to McGarrigle in exchange for Irish whiskey. Alas, McGarrigle up and decides to negotiate a truce with the English that would render Nucky's contribution useless. But things aren't so different across the pond than they are in Atlantic City, and you can always count on someone to want war more than peace. As such, McGarrigle's inglorious end is arranged and Nucky is told he'll be dealing with other IRA bosses from here on out. For his part, Nucky is more concerned that Owen was in on the plot than anything else and tells him yet again, "I don't like secrets." Strike two, Slater.

Back in AC, Jimmy -- drunk with power -- finks on Manny so that Waxey Gordon will make that pesky $5,000 debt go away. Clearly this plan is faulty from the start, and it ends with Manny laying a cleaver into the would-be assassin's head -- that's after he's shot in the shoulder, mind you -- then lifting a Matchbook from Atlantic City off of the poor bastard. With yet another hit commissioned by Jimmy gone awry, it's clear the new King of the Boardwalk is in way over his head. Post-botch job, Jimmy attends the live broadcast of the Dempsey-Carpentier fight and receives a note: "Watching you closely." In fact, it's from a bunch of slutty mob groupies, but Jimmy would be dumb schmuck (to use a bit of Manny's parlance) if he didn't see the greater implications.

In also-rans, Emily develops polio, which Margaret takes as a sign of divine retribution for her sins. Dunn Purnsley returns, still bruised but as feisty as ever, and allies himself with Chalky to plant the seeds of discontent that will lead to the black workers' strike. And Esther Randolph's people easily discern that the coffin Nucky carried to Ireland didn't hold his dead father. They call in Halloran and drill him as far back as Hans Schroeder, which yields no fruit at present but clearly makes the point that Esther means business and the walls are closing in on Atlantic City's underworld.

Previously: Nucky made plans for a black workers' strike, and then planned to vacate his position as county treasurer and head out of town -- to Ireland. Jimmy inherited Atlantic City and immediately got way too big for his britches, including but not limited to throwing Mickey Doyle off a balcony.

Belfast. Nucky and Owen arrive, ostensibly to bury Nucky's father. The border agent asks, "Accident, was it?" Nucky tells him natural causes. The agent clarifies that he's asking about Nucky's hand. Nucky half-smiles, "Got caught in the wrong cookie jar." The border agent is all, "Noted," and gives Owen the stink eye.

Back in Atlantic City, Margaret gets the telegram that Nucky arrived. Katy is gobsmacked about the marvels of modern travel and whatnot, but Margaret basically tells her to keep it in her pants. Excitement and/or enthusiasm on Margaret's end wouldn't foster their warped power dynamic at all. Lillian walks down the stairs and reports that Emily is refusing to get out of bed. Margaret tells her to start with Teddy's bath while she checks it out. Margaret heads upstairs and is playful with Emily, who insists, "I can't move... I can't move my legs." Margaret frantically checks her legs and tells Emily to wiggle her toes, but Emily is paralyzed. A mother's nightmare. Margaret tells Katy to call for the doctor while she tries to put on a brave face for Emily.

Elsewhere, Jimmy meets Remus while Lucky, Lansky, and Al sit in. Remus is immediately unimpressed that they're taking this meeting in Jimmy's home, but Jimmy assures, "I'm looking for an office." (I'm sure it didn't help that Jimmy called him "sir" to begin with.) Remus passes third-person pleasantries about the Shore, but Jimmy has no finesse whatsoever, so he cuts to the chase: Whiskey. Remus tells him it's medicinal, and Jimmy drolls, "Turns out, we got a lot of sick people in this town." Chimes in Mickey (who's in a neck brace from Jimmy's balcony antics), "Practically an epidemic." Ha! Remus goes through the mumbo jumbo about how he can only sell to sanctioned buyers, yadda yadda, then slips in that he's not responsible for what happens to the booze on the truck from point A to B. Long story short, he wants money and the pups are prepared to fork it out. Three hundred grand for 500 cases, plus a weekend in AC for Remus.

Once Remus makes his exit, Mickey imagines how well they could do for himself with the haul... "if we do things right." (There's the tricky part -- especially with Jimmy.) Says Al cockily, "So we don't do things wrong." Lansky can't help but mention that Jimmy still owes Manny five large. Jimmy clearly has no intention, which says a lot that he's about to throw down 60 grand for a liquor run but won't with five Gs for a debt he genuinely owes. Mickey suggests Jimmy ameliorate his debt by cutting Manny in on the Remus deal, but Jimmy says with the hollow authority he's acquired of late, "I'll take care of it." "You're the Grand Poobah," says Mickey with the acquiescence or someone who got thrown off a balcony but the edge of someone who also doesn't believe Jimmy can handle this thing for a second. Because, let's face it, do you think he can? Number one, you don't fuck with Manny. Number two, you don't fuck with Manny. And number three, Jimmy is all brute force, with very little strategic insight. Al's proposition, "So we don't do things wrong," depends on a lot of moving parts, is all I'm saying. As the fellows disperse, Lansky invites Jimmy down to Jersey City to see the Dempsey-Carpentier fight. Jimmy doesn't think he can take two nights away and says he plans to listen on the wireless. He mocks Remus, "Darmody wants to see what all the fuss is about." As the others leave, he lets Mickey's "Grand Poobah" sink in, and you know he's not going to miss that fight.

Even in an Irish morgue, Nucky can't escape the speculation over the "fight of the century". Nucky thinks title holder Dempsey's a shoo-in because of his size. An Irishman thinks Carpentier is a chance because "he's a puncher" and knocked out Britain's best. Nucky dismisses Britain's best as a bum. It's a pretty apt metaphor for Nucky's ongoing battle. He has the stature and the clout, but Jimmy is scrappy and has proven himself in other arenas -- but were they competition enough to prove his chances against the defending champ? Intertextuality, y'all...

Owen escorts McGarrigle down the stairs. The IRA honcho gives Nucky his condolences for the recent misfortune to befall the Thompson clan. He wonders why he's been brought to this place. Nucky and Owen open the casket to reveal not a corpse, but a passel of Tommy guns. He's taken aback at the sight, but can't help noting that the amount Nucky is presenting (a dozen) won't make that much of a difference in his battle against the English. Nucky says there are 3,000 in Atlantic City, and he's prepared to barter them for Irish whiskey. McGarrigle is offended by the American coarseness of the exchange, which is lost on Nucky, who's all, "My checkbook was good enough for you a couple of weeks ago..." He says he'll discuss it with his leadership and effectively shuts Nucky out of the process entirely. Nucky asks Owen, "What the fuck was that all about?" Owen dismisses McGarrigle as "a flinty old geezer," but he's losing points by the minute.

As the prop casket closes in Ireland, the real casket descends into the ground in Atlantic City -- which does not escape the attention of Esther Randolph's crony Lathrop.

Meanwhile, the doctor has arrived to check out Emily. He assures her she's doing a job while discreetly telling Margaret to evacuate the room. Margaret wastes no time panicking and barely gets out of earshot from Emily before hysterically asking the doctor whether it's polio. He does not deny she has all the symptoms and says they'll need to quarantine Emily immediately.

Elsewhere, Dunn Purnsley is still bruised (not to mention a few gold teeth richer) from his time in jail, but he's got a dishwashing job at a hotel and still as fiery as ever -- which is of little consequence to his boss. Dunn's coworkers take their 10-minute lunch break and sit down to savor the slop their bosses allow them to take -- food that Dunn considers worse than the leftovers from the hotel guests' room service trays. All the others are more concerned with keeping their jobs than quality of life, and when the boss returns to address Dunn with haughty parlance that drips of condescension ("Lord Purnsley, your great celestial majesty") but makes it clear that not even a scrap of insubordination will be tolerated. Satisfied he's made his point, he leaves the kitchen. And, because Dunn will never learn anything -- even if he is nearly killed for the learning -- he says faux humbly, "You heard the man. Eat up!" It's obvious there are wheels turning in that head that cannot be stopped. (And Eric LaRay Harvey is spectacular in this unctuous, rabble rousing role).

Hospital. Margaret watches as the doctors prepare to give Emily an agonizing spinal tap. Margaret wants to go in, but the doctor reminds her that polio is highly contagious. She protests, "I don't care what happens to me!" He says, "Care about what happens to the people you come in contact with." (As good a thesis statement for this series as any I've heard so far.) So Margaret must stand just beyond the glass, powerless and horrified as her daughter screams and writhes through horrible pain. The doctor tells her, "It's better if you don't look," but she can't not look.

Esther and Lathrop smoke and chat post-coitus. She laughs, "Your toenails are like talons." (Been there, girl.) He silver lines, "So you're saying I'm like an eagle," and she shoots right back, "They're rather unpleasant birds if you know anything about their habits." Speaking of dirty birds, she pulls out Van Alden's file on Nucky -- you know, to keep the mood going. She lights up a cigarette and notes that she thinks it's odd that Nucky came a palm away from being murdered and was able to be nonchalant about it a day or so later. Lathrop acknowledges that Nucky is "dirty up to his elbows" and is ready to leave it at that. He doesn't see the point in bringing in Van Alden's ostensibly paranoid indictments (which they are, but also not that far from the truth).

Esther's not concerned with dead-on accuracy as much as where to arrange the pieces on the chess board of her investigation. Van Alden is one of those, though she does throw in an amazing line about keeping "him away from small children and nursing mothers." If only she knew! Lathrop says condescendingly, "Good girl," and snatches her cigarette. She reminds him, "I'm your boss, Clifford," as she drops her sheet and walks naked to the bathroom. Dominance, thy name is Esther. Trying to reassert his authority in the relationship, Lathrop tells her, "I went to a funeral today." He eventually unfurls the greater point: Nucky did not go to Ireland to bury his father, since his father was buried Stateside that very afternoon. Esther is irritated that Lathrop waited this long to come out with this knowledge but quickly realizes Lathrop didn't want to blow one wad before the other. She orders him to call in Eli for questioning but is reminded that Eli is a hostile witness as best. So they'll go to the best person: Halloran. She mutters to herself, "Belfast... God only knows what he's doing over there."

Well, God and the nearest neighbors. Cut to Ireland, where Nucky is shooting a grandfather clock to smithereens while a group of old countrymen watch with jaws a-gaping. I will not even begin to comment on the symbolism you could draw from this moment -- mainly because my head would explode. One of the old timers asks of the Tommy (a.k.a. Thompson) gun, "You invented it?" Nucky says, "No, just a happy coincidence." McGarrigle arrives and announces that the English have offered a truce. Owen seems more irritated about this than anyone, though there are plenty of dissenters to McGarrigle's compromise. A meaningful look passes between one of the IRA members and Owen as McGarrigle vows to "make peace, if it's wise." As McGarrigle leaves, one his of fellow freedom fighters -- Fitzgerald -- informs Nucky that McGarrigle lost a son during the fight recently, then invites him for a drink.

By Lady Lola

Nucky and Owen join Fitzgerald at his family's whiskey distillery, which has fallen on hard times with the Irish-English conflict, the collapse of the Irish economy, and Prohibition. Nucky is prepared to work out a deal to take 10,000 cases of whiskey off his hands, but Fitzgerald wants to wait and see if he can broker a deal after the peace is negotiated. Nucky is skeptical, and Owen confirms that the peace negotiations will take a good six months minimum. Still, Fitzgerald refuses to go against McGarrigle.

Back in AC, Esther is busting balls as Halloran enters the office. He finds the concept of "a lady lawyer" novel, and she says drily, "What's ? Horses carriages?" The irony is totally lost on him as he says obliviously, "They already got those," which gives her exactly what she needs to move forward with her interrogation. Lathrop brings up Eli, and Halloran mentions Mr. Thompson's passing. They get to talking, and Halloran calls Eli his friend. Esther says that must be complicated, and she and Lathrop begin tag-teaming Halloran about how friendship and employment create different relationship dynamics. Namely, you can tell your friend all sorts of secrets, but you have to maintain a certain professional decorum with your boss. Again, this is all lost on Halloran -- though the obvious sizzle between Esther and Lathrop isn't. He's canny enough to realize there's something there between them, just not smart enough to stop himself from asking, "Are you two married or something?"

Esther meets his innocent but perceptive question with an icy silence before basically spelling out the fact that Eli (Halloran's boss-slash-friend) had Halloran booted out of his position as sheriff. Halloran's all, "Well, Nucky's... the boss." There you go again with the boss versus friend. Lathrop says obliquely, "It seems some people here are fed up of getting bossed around." Halloran's all, "I just keep Snooki from annoying the tourists too much." Oh wait, wrong decade. Point is, Halloran isn't exactly a strategic thinker. He's more a of a boardwalk heavy, which prompts Esther to turn the conversation toward the night that Hans, Margaret's husband, died. Halloran reveals his hand by saying, "I thought this was about election rigging," then adding, "That fellow had nothing to do with that." He tries to backpedal and says he needs to check his files, which only gives Randolph ammo to smirkingly wonder that he has files at all. Seeing that Halloran's in a corner, Lathrop nudges, "We're not after you. We're after the men who boss you around." Adds Esther quickly, "And we're prepared to do a lot for our friends." Halloran claims he doesn't know what they're talking about, but the message has obviously been received loud and clear -- if nothing else by the fact that he turns beet red and screams, "I know the law, and I don't have to keep on sittin' here if I don't want to!" Beat. "Do I?" Annnnnnnnd we're done here. Well, not with one more snarky remark from Esther: "We'll be sure to let Sheriff Thompson know that you stood up for him." Translation: You're an idiot, Halloran. She gives him a curt smile, and he leaves in a befuddled shuffle.

By Lady Lola

The day at Nucky's house, Margaret and the staff remove all of Emily's things are burn them on a giant bonfire. Teddy asks if Emily is "going to die like daddy." Feeling more responsible by the minute, Margaret lashes out, grabbing Teddy by the shoulders and screaming that he mustn't say such things. As he apologizes, she notices that her housekeeper Holly is leaving. She has a family of her own and can't risk staying. As she leaves, Teddy watches the conflagration consume Emily's favorite doll. A single twist of fate, and the markers of their rich new life add up to nothing.

AC. Dunn is on the job, but really he's just waiting for the right moment to wreak havoc. He dips his toe into the water by starting back in on the crappy food they're served for lunch. It's obvious his coworkers resent how they're treated, how little they're paid, but when the buzzer goes off, they seem resigned to go back to work. One man is especially resistant. Dunn carries on complaining and prodding, decrying the absence of raises and the lack of appreciation. The holdout says they're all expendable, but bit by bit, Dunn gets the others on his side until he's ready to introduce the possibility of a strike.

Just as the idea starts turning in the men's head, their pompous boss strolls in, clapping at them like they're dogs and ordering them to work. Dunn smart mouths about the food until the boss hastily fires him. Dunn stands up, nostrils flaring, and leans toward him menacingly. The men rally around him as he demands a raise and better working conditions. The boss tries to order the others back to their jobs, but he has lost all authority. As they encircle the boss, there's an amazing symmetry from the moment that Chalky silently bid his fellow prisoners to attack Dunn. Interestingly, it's the last of the converts who is the first to throw his plate of slop on the ground. They all follow suit, and soon the kitchen falls into one, big, revolutionary food fight.

In Ireland, Owen carries Nucky's suitcase out to the car as McGarrigle offers Nucky patronizing platitudes for his return to America. As Nucky moves to get in the car, he notices Bill Neilan (the very same man who exchanged glances with Owen after McGarrigle announced the truce) is waiting inside for him. McGarrigle bids them farewell, and the car begins down the driveway. Behind them, in the distance, McGarrigle is shot in the back. Nucky shoots an uneasy look at Neilan, who simply says, "You'll deal with me now." Note to Jimmy: That's how you deliver that line. Neilan delineates his terms: 1,000 guns for 10,000 cases of whiskey. No negotiation. Fact. Nucky silently assents.

Back in AC, Dempsey is giving Carpentier a pounding as Jimmy and Harrow join a crowd of people listening on the wireless. Jimmy puffs on his cigar, anxiously taking in the various crowd members in front of him who are looking back at him. Are they checking out the new King of the Boardwalk? Is he paranoid? A little of both? A man walks toward Jimmy with a hand in his coat and a stern look on his face. His eyes are trained on Jimmy. As he strides up the aisle, Jimmy reaches into his pocket defensively. Just as Jimmy is about to pull out his gun, the guy proffers a slip of paper that reads, "Watching you closely." At which point, Jimmy is a sneeze away from shitting his pants. He looks across the aisle and sees a couple of chippies checking him out. They make their way over as Round 3 begins.

At the hospital, the workers are also consumed by the fight, so Margaret takes the opportunity to slip into the quarantine unnoticed. She walks slowly, heavily toward Emily's bed and strokes her hair. She weeps, "Forgive me for what I've brought upon you," and curls up to her (highly contagious) daughter -- the ultimate act of repentance. The camera pans back from above, putting us in a position to judge Margaret for her choices.

Back at the fight, Jimmy tells his floozies, "You shouldn't pass notes out to strangers." One flirts back, "You're not a stranger. Everyone knows who the new king is." They say they saw him at Babette's and have a laugh at the expense of Mickey and his swan dive. They each take a turn pulling Jimmy in for a kiss, though one finally notices Harrow at Jimmy's side. Jimmy embraces his friend and tells them, "He's with me." The girl says, "What the hell? Something to talk about when we're old." She makes her way over for a little Phantom of the Makeout action while Jimmy gets handsy with her friend.

Ireland. Nucky wistfully looks at a young girl on the dock as he prepares to head home. Owen arrives with two telegrams from home. Before he reads them, Nucky asks Owen how long he knew McGarrigle. Owen says since he was 17 -- he wanted to fight but was turned down twice. Nucky wonders how much Owen knew about McGarrigle's sudden demise. Instead of answering plainly, Owen tells Nucky, "Nothing I could say would stop it," and emphasizes that Nucky got his whiskey. He adds, "Besides, I don't live here anymore." Nucky tells Owen, "I don't like secrets." Translation: Go rogue on me again, and I will end you.

Owen opens the telegrams. The first is from Nucky's lawyer, telling him the trial date has been set. The second is from Margaret: "Come home." Owens voice catches. "Emily has polio." Nucky double checks the telegram in disbelief and heads to board the boat. As the credits roll, we hear the final moments of the Dempsey-Carpentier bout. The Frenchman was knocked down, and he got back up. Ultimately, he was knocked down for good. Dempsey won.

Think you've got game? Prove it! Check out Games Without Pity, our new area featuring trivia, puzzle, card, strategy, action and word games -- all free to play and guaranteed to help pass the time until your show starts.

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

By Lady Lola