Mother May I Sleep With Danger?

S02E11

Word of Angela Darmody's Sapphic demise trickles out into Atlantic City, but Jimmy has yet to return home. In his absence, we get flashbacks to his days at Princeton, where his Michael Pitt Hair is able to flop around freely, and he's sneaking off for secret trysts with a weirdly dressed Angela. Enter Gillian, who comes to campus for the weekend, flirts with -- and later gets groped by -- Jimmy's professor, leading to a fight, and finally, when Jimmy drunkenly puts her to bed, they carry out the incestuous act we all really hoped we wouldn't end up seeing. The morning, Jimmy signs up for the army to get away.

Back in the present, Gillian (with Richard's assistance) is trying to hold down the fort, and keep the rest of Atlantic City from believing that Jimmy caught his wife in bed with a lady and killed them both. That's what Lucky, Lansky, and Capone, think, until Mickey sets them straight. Mickey doesn't have the best week, as he gets bullied by the aforementioned three criminals, and then when he tries to make another deal with Van Alden, to blow them in for a percentage of the money the Feds would confiscate, Van Alden turns him down flat.

Van Alden is ALSO having a terrible week. He's become a key part of Esther Randolph's case against Nucky for the murder of Hans Schroeder. But after Nucky's black servant pipes up with an anecdote about this wild-eyed IRS agent drowning his partner in the river year, Nucky's attorney takes the accusation to Randolph, and when the Feds try to arrest him, Van Alden escapes and is now on the run.

Margaret continues to tie herself in knots of guilt and Catholicism over poor Emily's condition. She drifts further from Nucky, and in a confrontation near the end of the episode, she reveals that her desire to clear her conscience is so intense, she might even testify against Nucky.

Jimmy finally returns to A.C., though he's still a mess. When he gets fed up with Gillian's blithe plan-making for Angela's funeral, he begins to choke her out. From behind him, The Commodore attacks, leading to a struggle during which Jimmy sticks his knife into his father's gut. At Gillian's twisted urging, Jimmy finishes him off. And maybe finishes himself off in the process.

Jimmy is in bed and awakened by an amorous Angela. "Jimmy ... I have to leave," she says. "I'm sorry." The dreamlike quality of the moment makes us think this is all in Jimmy's head. And it is, in a way, only it's a memory. They're back at Princeton, in the dorms, trying to avoid getting caught. The Poindexter-like Cal rushes in, and they both usher Angela out. This is Jimmy before the war, before the coup, before everything that happened that grew him up and made him hard. Angela steals one more kiss and she's out the door.

Back in the present, Nucky meets with Fallon about his case. Fallon says he's been sending out subtle "signals" to the judge -- at least as far as he can go without being cited for tampering. He says Randolph is pursuing the capital murder case hardest of all. Halloran's going to roll over on him, saying Nucky gave the order to kill Hans Schroeder. And Eli's not talking to anyone, so there's no assurance he won't roll over as well. "They're also going to put the Prohi on the stand," Fallon says. "Van Alden?" Nucky squeaks. At this, Harlan, Nucky's servant, who has been invisibly tidying up around the room all this time, perks up. "You need to dust under my eyelids?" Nucky asks him, agitated. Harlan goes back to his business, but Nucky just wants him to leave. Fallon advises Nucky to get his finances in order, and Nucky asks him to pour him a scotch. Harlan is taking his time leaving, and Nucky is getting annoyed. What is it? Harlan thanks Nucky for keeping him working through these last few strike weeks; he starts to mention the Baptist church he belongs to, but Nucky's like, "I don't need your prayers, thank youuuuuu...." So Harlan goes to leave again. It's Fallon who sees there's clearly something on the man's mind and tells him to spill. About a year ago, Harlan says, the deacon at his church held an outdoor revival out by the river. Van Alden showed up one afternoon with another lawman. "He drowned that fella, in front of us all." Fallon and Nucky are agog at each other. Fallon reaches out: "Harlan, is it?"

Speak of the devil, Van Alden is at home, having surprisingly lively conversation with Sigrid. She says "How are you?" to him in Dutch, but he doesn't understand it. He's from upstate New York, not Holland. (Well, maybe Holland, New York, I guess. Don't bother me with this.) She asks if he goes back to visit his parents ever, but he says his parents don't care to see him. They were followers of an apocalyptic cult, see, and Papa Van Alden gave away their farm in anticipation of Judgment Day. They lived in a tent for a year, and the family never got over it. Now, Nelson is a living reminder of his father's terrible decision. Sigrid assures him that "Yesus" will still come. "Doesn't that worry you?" Van Alden asks her. Obviously these matters are still on his mind. Sigrid assures him he's a good man and that there's nothing to be frightened of.

At the doctor's office, they're trying leg braces on Emily Schroeder. Father Brennan is there with them, which should give an indication as to how prominently the Church is factoring in Margaret's life these days. Emily falters some as she tries to take her first steps. Doc pulls Margaret aside and says they have a lot of work to do. It might be rough at first, and she'll be strongly tempted to go back to crawling, but "we're not going to let that happen, are we?" Father Brennan comforts Margaret with a story about a man who went to visit both heaven and hell. In hell, the tormented souls were at a table filled with food, but they were starving because the spoons were so long, they couldn't get them into their mouths. Their frustration was their torment. In heaven, same long tables full of food, same long spoons, but the souls were fed and satisfied, because they were feeding each other. He tells her the donation she made went towards the construction of a new parish hall. They have enough for walls and a floor, now they're just paying for a roof. Margaret says she can find more to give, but Brennan says that's not at all what he was trying to say. Sad-faced, he puts a hand on her shoulder. She still thinks she can buy Emily out of perdition. Or herself, anyway.

Outside the Darmody house, they're loading Angela and Fun Louise into the ambulance, as Gillian watches, cigarette in hand, from the window. She takes questions from a police officer about the whereabouts of her son. She explains he's out of town on business, though on what business she won't say. She's annoyed that her request to speak to Eli has gone unheeded, and the cop won't tell her it's because Eli is behind bars. He just wants the facts. "The facts are these," Gillian indignantly responds. "My son's wife was being intimate with another woman. I highly doubt if it was the first time. An intruder broke in, killed them both." That doesn't sound suspicious at all! In the living room, Richard stares at the bloody spot in the bedroom where the bodies were piled. The cop asks him what, if anything, he knows about Jimmy's whereabouts. He hesitates, which gives Gillian time to tapdance. "Can't you see this man is a simpleton?" she pipes up. "He's just someone my son is charitable to." Ouch, lady. It gets the cop to leave, anyway. But man, poor Richard. Gillian asks him about Jimmy, and he says Jimmy wouldn't answer the phone. Richard then walks to the bedroom and stares at the blood. Angela was so kind to him. Wonder if he thinks Jimmy did it. Hard to believe anyone wouldn't.

Back (in time) at Princeton, Jimmy's in class, reading from Webster. It's a verrrry Ivy League setting -- wood-paneled library lit by desk lamps, a dozen or so students seated in armchairs arranged haphazardly around the room. And hoo boy, is the Michael Pitt Hair getting time to stretch out today; this is some Murder By Numbers action. The young professor is one of those cool profs who jokes around with the students but also tries to help them genuinely learn their stuff. The story they're reading is predictably reflective of Jimmy's own story -- "His mother taught him things that aren't of any use," Jimmy analyzes. "Everyone around him is getting rich, and he can taste it like a hunger." Throw in some inappropriate "suckling at mama's breast" imagery, and you've pretty much got Jimmy. After class lets out, one of Jimmy's classmates says he can't make class week because of ROTC. "Taking your soldiering seriously?" the professor lightly teases. "We're headed for war, aren't we?" is the overly serious response. Jimmy jests that he "just likes the uniform," which leads to a small contretemps wherein Jimmy says that "the Kaiser never hurt me." The bespectacled kid standing to our ROTC guy pipes up that his brother was killed on the Lusitania. Jimmy genuinely apologizes (have we EVER seen him this humbled?) and ROTC Guy shames an apology out of him.

Before Jimmy leaves, the prof calls him aside. "You won't win that way, with people like that," he tells Jimmy. He knows it, but he explains, "Where I come from, people come out swingin'." Prof wonders if he's going back there after school. Jimmy says that's what Mr. Thompson and his mother say he's supposed to do. "Mr. Thompson" is footing the bill at Princeton, after all. "As long as I don't screw up." Prof tells Jimmy that "people like us" -- i.e. folks who grew up poor -- need to be "clever." They quote some more Webster at each other, and then plan to see each other at the mixer tonight.

Back to the present, with Mickey, Lucky, Meyer and Al touring their warehouse and being pretty pleased with themselves for moving almost all of their excess inventory. Except for Jimmy's share, of course. Lucky's position, as it often is, is fuck Jimmy. His booze is theirs now; he won't be coming around again anyway. They all have heard about Angela and Louise and assume Jimmy did it. But Mickey knows better. Jimmy's coming back, he says, because he didn't kill his wife. Manny Horvitz did. Mickey seems to revel in knowing something the others don't. Still, Lucky and Al figure Manny is Jimmy's problem -- sell his shit and be done with it. And when Jimmy returns? Lucky tells Mickey, "Pay him out of your share." Like he's placating a child. Mickey seems genuinely wounded that he's being treated this way. Low man on the totem pole again. Lucky tells him Rothstein holds a half-a-million dollar policy against his life. Mickey says he doesn't know anything about it. "I watched you sign it, ya fuckin' snitch," Lucky snaps. They could just as well put a slug in him and split the money with Capone here. So ... Mickey will pay Jimmy from his share, then. Al slaps him across the face, like a fake paisan. Mickey's getting backed against a wall here, and he doesn't like it.

That night, Nucky and Margaret are preparing for bed, and Nucky can't wrap his head around the heaven-and-hell-and-spoons story Margaret has repeated to him. "Can't they just bend their arms?" he says, honestly baffled. "Or grip the spoons higher up on the handle?" Margaret is frustrated that he's missing the point. Nucky's hard-line agnosticism is butting up against Margaret's newfound hold on her religion. Emily calls from the room -- she needs to go potty -- and Margaret storms out.

Meanwhile, Eli is still in jail, getting a visit from his lawyer. Eli refuses to read Halloran's deposition on account of he says it's horseshit. He says Halloran wants to get him out of the way as sheriff, and also probably wants retribution for the beating he took on the picket line, though Eli also disclaims responsibility for that. The lawyer is buying none of this. He tells Eli he won't be getting any bail, because he's a flight risk. Eli is petulant about all this, big shocker. He won't admit to taking orders from his brother, even though if he rolls over on Nucky, the lawyer says, Randolph will spare his life. Eli is shocked to learn his life is on the line, but yes: he could end up in the electric chair.

Back to Princeton, where Jimmy's room is located right to train tracks -- this will be important for later metaphors. Gillian has arrived, looking anxious. She talks about her latest paramour back in Atlantic City, who turned out to be married. Jimmy pours her a drink, and she encourages him to have one too, but he's supposed to write an essay. Mother of the Year insists, though. She wonders what he's been up to, and says she hears he's been kissing a girl. He says her name's Angela, and Gillian playfully (but secretly seriously) says that's fine, only if it's just the kissing. Already the flirtation between these two seems more insistent, right? "I can't ever get too sad," she sighs dreamily, "because no matter what I have you." He clinks her glass and kisses her on the forehead. She perks up: "Now what are we college kids going to do for fun?"

Back in the present, Van Alden stares at his divorce papers while Randolph and her cronies puzzle over Margaret Schroeder's place in all this Nucky business. Lathrop surmises that she "went after" Nucky, snaring him "with her feminine..." "...don't say 'wiles.'" Randolph interrupts. She asks Van Alden's opinion, but he lies that she left no impression on him in either direction. Bring her in, Randolph says. Nelson signs the papers.

Princeton. Mixer. Jimmy calls out to Angela ... and she is wearing the dowdiest dress in creation. It looks like a bathrobe, and not a very fancy one either. "How do I look?" she asks him. "Like you're from Bryn Mawr," he replies. O...kay? (Wait, is that a lesbian joke??) Gillian appears, shimmering in blue, several steps above Angela on the staircase, looming. She assesses Angela as pleasingly "simple...restrained" and insists they kiss. More of that later. She also reminds Jimmy to put Angela's corsage on her. This lady!

Cut to inside the party, as Jimmy, Angela and Cal huddle away from the more popular, connected people and their schmoozing. Jimmy is amused at Cal's extreme discomfort. Angela says to stick by her, and while Jimmy is looking on warily as Gillian laughs it up with Professor Pearson and the ROTC kids, Cal is clumsily professing his infatuation with Angela, in that half-kidding way you can get away with when you're absolutely no kind of romantic threat. Jimmy can't stop staring at his mother. She continues to laugh and tug at Prof's lapels. Angela breaks his reverie with something to tell him -- she's pregnant. This bombshell isn't treated as the catastrophe it might be. In fact, Jimmy decides they'll get a place together. "It'll be swell." Angela's like, "Is this a marriage proposal?" Jimmy's super-romantic reply? "Well, it would make getting a lease easier." Swoon. They hardly know each other, true. But she's an exit door he never knew was there.

Nucky is filling out paperwork at home when Margaret comes in, having just put the children to bed. She's angry about something but doesn't say. He tells her Fallon says that Eli will testify against him to save himself. At this point, Randolph's case might be enough to put Nucky in the chair. His money, he says, can be seized. But he can hide it, and make sure the people he cares about are taken care of. "Why is that important to you?" she bitchily snaps. Nucky says he can't talk to her when she's carrying this attitude. She thinks all this concern about providing for her and her kids is his way of making something "good" come out of his situation, and thus nebulously redeeming him in God's eyes or something. Obviously, Nucky has no use for this or the rest of the "nonsense" that Father Brennan has been putting in her head. She insists the thoughts are hers alone. Nucky tries to get the conversation back on track, talking about the 160,000 acres he owns through a company run by Ed Bader's brother. As he runs through the particulars of having Fallon transfer the stock over to her, Margaret zones out, her thoughts likely drifting towards heaven and other pious pursuits.

In some Princeton catacomb or another, Jimmy is flasking it when Angela finds him. She tries to get him to return to the party with her when they both spot Gillian angrily bursting out of some alcove, her dress all askew. Jimmy is alarmed. "I thought we were just flirting," Gillian says. Jimmy looks down the way and spots his professor. Jimmy storms down and demands to know what he did to his mother. Pearson is A) drunk, and B) flabbergasted to find out she's his mom. Jimmy demands he get up, and he staggers to his feet. He tells Jimmy there's no sense in winding himself up to do something stupid. "I will apologize in a convincingly chivalrous fashion," he promises. At this bit of insincerity, Jimmy slugs him. Angela covers her mouth in shock, while Gillian looks on in silent approval. Pearson tells him to walk away and they'll forget it happened, but Jimmy keeps slugging away. Gillian keeps looking on. She's ... aroused?

Van Alden shows up for a secret meeting requested by Mickey Doyle. Mickey invites him to sit for a drink, but Van Alden declines. "Please," he insists. "I don't like the way you loom." Heh. Mickey outlines his dissatisfaction with this new arrangement with his unfriendly partners. He says he, Luciano, Capone and "the Jew kid" are planning to meet and divvy up their moneys. And Jimmy? Mickey could give a fuck about Jimmy, considering old wounds. He just wants Van Alden to know there will be a meeting, and at this meeting, large sums of ill-gotten gains will be exchanged. Van Alden's like, get to the part where you say what you want. Mickey wants half of the 300 grand to be exchanged at the meeting; Van Alden can pocket the other half. Mickey extends a hand, but Van Alden turns him down flat. He gets up from the table and tells Mickey not to contact him again. Mickey can't BELIEVE what's happening to him today. "You gonna fuck me over?" he yelps. "'Cause that's not how I think!"

Princeton. Jimmy returns Gillian to their room, and they are both very drunk. At this point, we can see what's coming like the trains barreling down the tracks outside the room. It's just a matter of waiting for it. She tells him to take off his bloody shirt so she can rinse it. She assures him Nucky will fix the matter with the battered professor. She says she's lonely. His nipples are insanely erect. He takes off her shoes, her stockings, her dress; she warns him not to do anything stupid with Angela. Mmm hmm. They're too drunk to remember anything tomorrow, at least according to Gillian. He finally goes to lay her down, they stumble, and he's on top of her. "There's no one else in the world but you and me," she whispers to him. The train outside roars past, they can barely hear each other; just enough that when she grabs his face and kisses him, and then they start making out, he can hear nothing but her telling him that none of this is wrong. The train arrives at the station. As it were.

By Joe R

The morning, Jimmy wakes up alone with his regret. The closet is empty; Gillian has gone. He looks outside and spots a car full of pampered Princeton asshole carrying on, then beyond them, the army guys marching in formation. Cut to Jimmy enlisting, duh. The recruitment officer wants him to be sure of the commitment he's making. He lists Angela as a of kin ("both mother and father are gone"). The recruitment officer asks Jimmy why he's enlisting. He says he'd like to stick a bayonet right through the Kaiser's guts, is all. Okay, but why? Jimmy finally comes up with, "I lost a brother on the Lusitania." Oh, is that what they're calling it?

By Joe R

Atlantic City. Present. Owen finds Margaret downstairs in the servants' quarters. She's mending Emily's leg braces so they won't chafe her on the legs she can't feel, and wallowing in the ugly irony of it all. Owen sweetly offers to take a look and -- when he discovers the problem -- to smooth out the rough grommet. Wait, is THAT what they're calling it? He finally addresses the elephant in the room: "Do you think about me? Because I think about you." She tells him she will pray for him to find the strength to stop doing that. Suddenly, Katy's in the doorway. Not sure how much she heard, but it's enough to have her flee.

Jimmy -- present-day Jimmy -- is as drunk as you've ever seen a person. He's in a hotel room somewhere not in Atlantic City, and he's chasing his grief into the bottom of a bottle. He reaches again for his bottle of whiskey, and the screen fades to black. Fade in, and Jimmy's on the phone with Gillian, though he's barely listening as she tells him to come home to his son and business. "You need to come home and show the world you have nothing to hide," she says, continuing her season-long theme of reminding Jimmy of how he needs to come across to others. Fade out, fade in. Jimmy's on his hands and knees. What a drunk, crying mess.

The morning, Van Alden shows up at the office to find Randolph huddling with Fallon and the Deacon from the river. Gulp. Van Alden maybe recognizes the deacon, but it takes him a second. In the meantime, Lathrop steps up behind him, blocking his exit. Fallon then produces Agent Sebso's shoes and gun, and Randolph asks him if he recognizes these. The Deacon pipes up, half-apologetically: "It is joy for the just to do judgment." Lathrop goes to relieve Van Alden of his gun, but VA grabs for it, shoots Lathrop in the foot, and takes off. Randolph yelps for "Clifford" as Van Alden barrels past Sawicky and out the door into Atlantic City infamy.

Margaret sits at home and stares into space. Boy, they sure sucked all the fun out of her these last few episodes. Guess a lady can't sex up her husband's wicked hot bodyguard without getting punished for it. "Drinking alone?" Nucky remarks at her. "Drinking at all?" for that matter. She's been subpoenaed, see. He says to ignore it, that Fallon will handle it. He's awfully glib about it. She tersely reminds him that yesterday he thought he was going to the chair. Well, today, Van Alden is not a credible witness, and Nucky will figure out a way to handle his brother. "We began in sin..." Margaret begins, but Nucky doesn't want to hear it. She persists that they'll end in sin unless they change. They argue some more about her bullshit superstitions and his bullheaded insistence that nothing that's happening has been brought on themselves. He tries to explain that Emily was stricken by a disease, plain and simple, but Margaret refuses to believe she isn't culpable. Why? "I have stolen, and cheated and deceived," and now she and her loved ones are being punished for that. Nucky turns stone-faced. "Who did you steal from?" he demands. "My family," she says. "My employer, you." Who'd she deceive? "Anyone who thinks I'm good." Oh, brother. I'm sorry. This Irish Catholic shit is just too boring for words. Finally, Nucky hits the money question: "And who have you cheated on?" She hesitates long enough for us to think her self-hatred extends to blowing her own spot, but ultimately she pusses out (though it does seem like Nucky all but knows). "I live with the man who had the father of my children murdered." Nucky puts on a convincing show of being outraged at this false accusation. Margaret: "I can't go on pretending that I'm not being called to account!" At this, she holds her subpoena aloft. Nucky's eyes go wide -- what is she saying? Is she actually going to testify? He grabs her arms -- if she wants to sacrifice herself, fine, but he will NOT have her sacrifice him, and she doesn't want to test him on this. "Will you strike me now?" she accuses, probably hoping he will so she can feel like she's deserved that too. "I have given you EVERYTHING," he yells at her. He must feel like an idiot, right?

Gillian is reeling at the developments. Commodore can't speak as he stares back at Jimmy. Finally, Gillian screams at Jimmy to finish the old man off. Jimmy stabs the Commodore right in the heart. He staggers out of the room, but the blood loss from his shoulder (plus all the drinking) means he's barely out of the room before he passes out.

Fade in. Jimmy's bandaged up but woozy as hell. In the room, Richard is cleaning up the floor around the Commodore's body. He sees Jimmy is awake, nods to him, and then closes the curtain. Jimmy passes out again, and when he wakes up, it's the voice of a ghost he hears. "Jimmy..." says Angela, "I have to leave." Surely a memory from their Princeton days. He looks over and sees his father's body is gone and the floor is cleaned up. Good ol' Richard. Gillian brings Tommy in to see his dad, so Jimmy hastily drapes a coat over his bloody shoulder. "I had a bad dream," the kid says. Jimmy says he did too, but everything's going to be fine. "Where's Mama?" he asks. Gillian's like, "I'm here. Don't worry." Yeeeah. She also tells Jimmy that she knows he didn't mean it about the whole choking thing. They don't have to talk about it again. That drawer is getting mighty full, you know? She takes Tommy off to bed, leaving Jimmy, struggling to stand up, to take in everything that's happened. Like, ever.

Joe R is making a list of characters he'd prefer to die in the season finale. Eli Thompson, it's not looking good. 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.

By Joe R