Nucky's all alone in his fight against Rosetti and Masseria, so he's got to plan this stuff out perfectly. Aside from planning to run Remus's old operation out of Andrew Mellon's distillery and sending an emissary to Chicago to court Johnny Torrio's support, Nucky sends Sleater to New York with one simple mission: assassinate Joe Masseria. Before he leaves, Sleater and Margaret make their plans to run away, to St. Louis, in fact. Just as soon as this business is settled.
Meanwhile, one of Rosetti's boats dumped its cargo by accident, so liquor bottles are washing up on shore just like in the opening credits. Rosetti's pissed, and gets even angrier when one of his underlings, tries to explain that it might have been irregular wave patterns. You can imagine how much Rosetti enjoys being educated on the subject. Unbeknownst to him, Nucky has sent his (rabid anti-dentiteItalian) ship captain to infiltrate Rosetti's business, and when he contradicts the underling, Rosetti decides the only acceptable punishment for being wrong is to bury him in the sand up to his neck and wait for high tide to roll in. The underling's cousin begs Rosetti for leniency, so as a compromise, Rosetti merely bashes the guy's head in with a shovel. Fun storyline, as always.
In Washington, Jess Smith is cracking up at the impending crackdown at the Justice department. Gaston Means manages to stoke the fires of that crazy, merely so he can point out to Daugherty that their only choice is to take Smith out, which he volunteers to do. Only Means gets caught in Jess's bedroom by Jess himself, but rather than kill his would-be assassin, Jess turns the gun on himself when he realizes that his good-buddy Harry had arranged his murder.
Back at home, Margaret and Nucky are back on very brittle ground, marriage-wise. She blames him for the hell that's raining down on them. Speaking of which, Nucky receives a delivery in the dead of night. It's a giant crate, and when he opens it -- in full view of Margaret -- inside lies the dead body of Owen Sleater. Guess that assassination attempt didn't go so well. Margaret breaks the fuck down, and in a flashback, we see her tell Owen that, as expected, she is pregnant and he's the father.
In other storylines -- and there were only a billion of them -- Richard and Julia go on a date and make out on the beach; the women's clinic gets shut down, though Mason does deliver the diaphragms to Margaret (too late, in her case); Van Alden's Norwegian hooch enterprise runs him afoul of Al Capone; and Chalky White wants to build a jazz club for black performers on the site of the still smoldering crater where Babbette's used to be, but Nucky callously shuts him down. --Joe R.
On the beach, there is some sort of batshit undersea kingdom set up with King Neptune on a stage to Mayor Dingleberry. Neptune is greeting everyone there and I have no idea why this happening. Is this an American holiday I'm not aware of? Richard Harrow's carrying a couple of ice cream cones along the beach, pausing for a moment to take in the domestic bliss that is Julia and Tommy hanging out on the beach, while this Neptune guy is talking about shipwrecks and whatnot. There are women dressed up as lobsters, though. Is it Sexy Crustacean Day? At since it took some doing for me to figure out whether it was Julia or Gillian on the beach, the resemblance can't be coincidental. Their names even sound alike.
It's not important, what Neptune is saying, because even though everyone is apparently there on the beach on purpose for this, their attention is soon distracted by bottles of whisky washing ashore. It's not quite the liquor tide of the opening credits, but hey, free whisky, am I right? "Why is everyone yelling?" asks Tommy. "Maybe it's a sea serpent," says Harrow. It's not long before everyone is wading into the surf -- Neptune among them -- scooping up bottles. To be fair, he was inviting everyone to partake of the spoils of the ocean. You got whisky, he got whisky ... everybody got whisky!
Over to the beach by Tabor Heights, the unintended source of the free whisky. You can imagine how Gyp Rosetti feels about losing two crates of hooch, and he tells Tonino that he wants to see the pompinaio captain. This is a word I take to mean "cocksucker." Tonino feebly defends the captain by offering the excuse that the ocean was crazy. "It's a fuckin' ocean, Tonino, doin' what it's supposed to. Why ain't he?" yells Rosetti.
That's when Tonino's idiot cousin Franco speaks up, talking about "rogue waves." We all know how Rosetti feels about being spoken to as though he should know more than he does. Franco's new to the operation, though, so he doesn't know that as soon as he opened his mouth, he was a dead man. That's eventually, though; Rosetti first wants to hear more about the rogue waves, and Franco -- despite his cousin's best attempts to defuse things -- explains that sometimes when the wind shifts and different waves hit each other, they make giant waves. "It's easy to lose cargo when it's not strapped down," he says. Well, why wouldn't it be strapped down? Franco's not really offering the strongest defense of the captain, but Rosetti instead gets mad at Tonino for not learning all his cousin's fisherman-insider wisdom like "strap your cargo down." Then he stares at Franco for a moment, making everyone wonder when the hammer's coming down. Instead, Rosetti calls Tonino "fuckin' Sinbad over here," and then saddles up to ride off.
By Daniel
Over in Chicago, Van Alden is cold-calling on a Norwegian bar owner who's not interested in talking to any peddlers. Undeterred, Van Alden asks his name. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Inotbuynothing! Beautiful language, Norwegian. Van Alden opens his case full of aquavit, and Mr. Inotbuynothing's so intrigued he ignores Van Alden's suggestion they do this in the back. Van Alden pours him a cup from his tester bottle, and Mr. Inotbuynothing bargains Van Alden down from six dollars a bottle to four for twenty dollars, also earning a handshake and a promise to buy more if Van Alden comes back later. Van Alden's pleased, if a little discomfited by the openness of the transaction. He got a smile from the elderly woman folding napkins, so if things don't work out with Sigrid, he's got options. Wait, hold up; she's giving him the stinkeye now he's leaving. Fickle woman!
Nucky's reading the Atlantic City Daily Exposition. Lead story: Source Alleges Remus Paid Attorney General's Aide. Another story lets us know that the Atlantic City boardwalk is Alive With Activity because Memorial Day Visitors Are Many. That Neptune production was for Memorial Day? Please no one correct me; I want to continue thinking that Americans celebrate Memorial Day with a Roman gods theme. Kessler comes in, distraught that Nucky didn't drink his powder, which is I suppose to help him from not being a raving lunatic like he was all last episode. Nucky ignores this and wants to speak to Gaston Means, who is already on the line.
Nucky dismisses Kessler and picks up the phone. Gaston, that bundle of affectations, is his usual flowery self, alerting Nucky to the possibility that Jess Smith ("I was just reading about that guy!" Nucky does not say) is not necessarily only Harry Daugherty's problem. "The likelihood is high that Jess will say anything to anybody regarding everyone he's ever met," says Means, as his damn cat gets a couple of lines and camera shots.
Means reminds Nucky that his name is on the list of people Jess will likely blab about. As is yours, Nucky reminds Means right back, and then their silence is code for "OK, this guy's dead." Means suggests that some "finesse" is required here, but fortunately, he's got experience in these matters. Nucky really only needs now to know how much: "Forty thousand," says Means, and it takes Nucky a good long while to answer, Then he finally says, "There are men who do it for ten dollars." Means says he's welcome to hire the Ten-Dollar Assassin if he wants, warning Nucky that he hopes Nucky wouldn't choose a surgeon by the same criterion, because in both cases the outcome can be unexpectedly messy. Nucky says he'll pay Means after he sees the result.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
Elsewhere Owen Sleater is getting ready to go to work -- to work on Margaret, that is, Katy says. Sleater says he's not a "monkfish" and won't take the bait. That's probably far from the only thing that makes him not a monkfish. Katy rhetorically wonders if Mr. Thompson knows his wife fancies the help. This is a conversation they've had before, and Sleater's in no mood to have it again.
But she heard him on the phone, and isn't buying Sleater's "I'm only doing my job" stance. "Maybe she needed your help removing a pea from under her mattress," says Katy. He warns her to stop filling her head with foolish notions, and she pleads with him to prove she's a fool. And he winds up offhandedly proposing to her. She's surprised, pleasantly, and he gives her a kiss and says they'll discuss it later, and walks out the door to the reason why he never intends to make good on that arrangement.
He arrives at the hotel and is happy to see Margaret, less excited to see that cockblock Kessler there with her, causing her to be coolly businesslike. "You come bearing secrets," she says, when he finds himself at a loss for something non-horny to talk about in the presence of Nucky's manservant. Margaret even asks Kessler what he thinks Sleater is hiding, and Kessler has no idea what is going on.
Eventually he comes up with a cover story that it's Katy's birthday tomorrow (might I suggest NO PONIES), and he'll be damned if he knows what to get her, but also damned if he chooses wrong. Hey, how about not putting your penis in another woman, especially the boss's wife? A lot of guys are getting that for their girlfriends these days. Margaret, satisfied, says Sleater needs "a woman's touch," like KESSLER ISN'T AN IDIOT, YOU TWO. I have to say the look he gives Sleater on his way out to fetch the car suggests he knows something's up.
After he's gone, Sleater warns Margaret that she shouldn't toy with Kessler that way. "He sees more than you think," he advises her, but Margaret insists he's only seen them talking. "And soon he won't see us at all," she adds.
Margaret's clearly excited at the prospect of being with Sleater, but looks conflicted when he warns her of the danger of being found out by Nucky. His plan is for her to leave first, with him following a month or six weeks later, to keep Nucky from making a connection. "We leave together, then he knows. And he won't forget. And there's no place far enough then," he says, simply.
Margaret nods, and then asks what St. Louis is like. He doesn't know, but his mate Emmett will set them up, and if they don't like it, they'll "live among the Indians," suggests Margaret, wryly. Look, how could you not like St. Louis? It's got that arch -- wait, when did they build the arch? Hold on, let me check Wikipedia ... OK, so in four decades or so it'll have that arch! She asks about Katy, and Sleater says he'll leave one morning, tell her something that sounds convincing, and she'll never see him again. Margaret looks uncomfortable. Really, it's not super-romantic to hear your sweetheart blithely brag about how easy it will be throw over the other woman he's currently sleeping with.
Over in Nucky's office, Agent Sawicki is reciting, "A man, a plan, a canal -- Panama!" for the benefit of the Thompson brothers, only one of whom already knows what a palindrome is. Sawicki's example -- "mom" -- doesn't impress Nucky, who suggests "imbecile." Mickey Doyle's immediate giggle should be clue enough, but Sawicki takes a little longer to work out in his head that that doesn't fit. At least, not as a palindrome. As a general descriptor, sure.
But he doesn't follow the meaning all the way to "Nucky's insulting me again" before Nucky expresses annoyance that Sleater hasn't shown up. Doyle goes to fetch him, giving Sawicki plenty of time to piss Nucky off some more with the endlessly fascinating world of palindromes -- no, wait, that's over. Nucky's got a "fucking headache." Probably pissed off that he's got to try to take down Masseria with this gang of idiots.
Doyle comes in, Sleater (apologizing for being late) in tow, and Sawicki starts right in with it: His contact in New York says Masseria goes to the Turkish baths every Thursday night, and Eli and Sleater are immediately on board with this as the venue for whacking him. Doyle, unsurprisingly, gets off-message by wanting to know if there's actual mineral baths there.
Eli tells Sleater he'll come with, but Nucky's got other plans for his brother -- heading to Chicago to see Johnny Torrio and rustling up an army to help them take Rosetti out. "He'll be weak without Masseria's backup," says Nucky, who also wants Doyle to pack his bags. Doyle claps his hands and says, "Please tell me I'm going to Paris." His face falls when he finds out he's going to the Paris of Pennsylvania: West Overton. Well, the Paris of western Pennsylvania, anyway. A man named Fahey will take him to the Overholt distillery that he'll get up and running. "We're taking over Remus's old operation, using Overholt as a base," says Nucky (it's Andrew Mellon's old place, Eli reminds everyone).
Meanwhile, Sleater and Sawicki will take care of the Masseria thing. Nucky wonders if they'll be enough -- Sawicki will distract Joe's bodyguards with his badge and/or word games while Sleater gets him good. More men means more mistakes, says Owen. He doesn't need an army, just patience and opportunity. A man and a plan, in other words. Plus it helps that "assassinating boss's enemy" uses the same strategy as "boning and absconding with boss's wife."
Rothstein, Luciano and Lansky are playing billiards, with Luciano and Lansky trying to sell Rothstein on the heroin business by pointing out that this "mishegas" (Lansky's word, in a transparent attempt to engender goodwill from Rothstein) will soon end, by which he means Prohibition. Rothstein uses an extended snooker metaphor to say no; what he wants is for Nucky to make his move on Joe Masseria, No point in entering into any new deals before one (or both, I suppose) is dead. Lansky's impatient, but Rothstein says a deal will always wait, but fools will always rush in. But he likes the concept, which I guess means their performance evaluation reports will go pretty well this year.
Jess Smith is reading The Redemption of David Corson, on which I can offer no insight, by Charles Frederic Goss, when Jimmy James strolls up to compliment his reading choice and also to stir up some shit by telling him he has it on "unimpeachable authority" that the $10,000 Remus recently gave him consists of marked bills. Jess reacts with the usual stoicism and aplomb we've come to expect from him: "It's over. It's fucking over!" he mutters, starting to breathe very heavily. Means tells him burning it in the yard right away -- "consign it to the fires of hell" -- is the best way. Jess, having no interest in going to prison over this, rushes out.
Of course, Means goes straight to Daugherty and points him to the window to show him the clearly addle-brained Jess torching perfectly good money in the birdbath. Daugherty wants to rush out and stop him before anyone sees him, but Means holds him back: "A panicked man drowns both himself and his savior," he says, so instead Daugherty starts talking about other times Jess seemed like he was going batshit. Means sits Daugherty down, assuring him that Jess will be doing hard time soon. That's not the ideal solution for Daugherty of course. But, speaking cryptically of an old dog that went rabid, Daugherty contracts Jess Smith's killing, at least tacitly.
Margaret heads to the hospital, perturbed at the lug of a bodyguard trailing her. He says he'll keep ten paces behind her and stay out in the hall, but that's the best he can do. Turns out she needn't have worried, because the bishop has decided that "this experiment has run its course," a message delivered by Sister Mary Coming Around, who sounds genuinely regretful. Dr. Mason wants to know what'll happen to the women. They'll have to get their information elsewhere. "I found a great deal of what went on in here very educational," says Sister Mary Bundle of Repressed Desires, who then hurries out before she gets all emotional and starts blubbering all over the place. See you summer! Promise to write!
Mason, saying he feels like a German spy -- hey, Gerry, whassamatta wit' you? Our boys got spies too! -- and brings out a couple of diaphragms. One for Margaret, and one for Mrs. Scherer. Hey, Doc, glad you told Margaret that both diaphragms weren't for her. He asks if she's OK. "Nothing I haven't been through before," she says, so it sounds like the diaphragm is arriving a little too late. Mason feels her forehead, and then stands around awkwardly. "So, uh, do you still want this? It cost five bucks, and it's not a big deal, but I took it out of petty cash is all."
Then he looks around the empty room and says the class doesn't have to happen here. It could happen anywhere, where they could say whatever they want. Margaret's skeptical since that could get him in trouble here, but he's thinking of bagging on the hospital anyway, and his fiancée is always telling him to put his money where his mouth is. He tells her to think about it, because he hates being told what to do. Plus the two of them make a good team. "We did, didn't we?" says Margaret. Past tense. She shakes his hand and heads out the door, bodyguard giving him a "you better not have tried something" look, it appears to me.
Over in Nucky's office, he's hatching a plan with someone who wants to hear what Nucky's got to say about this "dirty wop" Rosetti. Nucky explains he wants the guy to go to Tabor Heights and cut a deal with him. Nucky tells him to agree to anything, because what he really needs is information: the number of men and boats, where they get their suits pressed, how they take their coffee, if any of them like being choked during sex, that kind of thing. Nucky's prospective spy leaves him with a joke: "What's the difference between a catfish and an Italian?" The punchline begins, "One's a scum-sucking bottom-feeder," and you can probably fill in the rest yourself.
Van Alden returns to the bar in Little Oslo or wherever the hell, and Mr. Inotbuynothing is pleased to see him, what with the happy surprise he had for his customers earlier with the aquavit. Van Alden's got another surprise: he brought genuine lefse made by Sigrid. "I am sorry," says the owner, which confuses Van Alden, because unlike us, he can't see the tough guys approaching him from behind, pulling a gun on him and hustling him out to a car waiting outside. "They do not give me a choice," says Inotbuynothing. Any guilt he feels doesn't prevent him from starting to chow down on the lefse, though. Well, I suppose not eating it won't get Van Alden out of trouble.
Richard and Julia are hanging out in the Sagorsky kitchen, Julia talking about how wonderful it is that Tommy has Richard. "He has his grandma, but everyone needs a dad," says Julia. Sadly, Julia could probably use a little less dad herself. Oh, hey, speak of the devil! Here comes Mr. Sagorsky. You're never going to believe this, but he's drunk, and doesn't like it when he sees Richard and Julia holding hands. He says Richard is doing it because Julia's "strutting around like some mongrel bitch in heat," and that gets Richard to his feet, and once Mr. Sagorsky says, "I won't have you spreading your legs for some sideshow freak," not even Julia's pleas can prevent Richard from going after Mr. Sagorsky. Easy on him! It's the '20s! You're still going to need his permission to marry her! Richard wrestles him down to the ground and takes off his mask so Mr. Sagorsky can get a nice good look ("Would you pay a dime to see this?" he rasps) and orders him to apologize. Sagorsky does. "To her," growls Richard. Sagorsky does his best to glance at his daughter and say "sorry" but Richard's hand is clamped over his windpipe so it's difficult. Julia puts her hand on Richard's shoulder, and he finally relents.
Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano have gone to see Joe Masseria to make their Rothstein-rejected heroin deal with him instead, but Luciano's having difficulty because Masseria is too busy playing bocce and sneering at Lansky's heritage (in Italian). "They fuck their women through a hole in a sheet. A joyless people," says Masseria. Luciano assures him that Lansky is a total hound, "like he's been out to sea six months." I think men who have been out to sea for six months sometimes explore other options, though. It makes Masseria laugh, but he's still not interested. Luciano, finished kissing ass, tells Masseria it's rude not to speak English for the benefit of Lansky. Masseria wants to know why, if this is such a good deal, that they didn't bring it to Rothstein (also known as "the other Jew"). Lansky explains: "Mr. Rothstein's got reservations about entering the heroin trade, more than likely because his business is suffering." His pointed tone reminds Masseria that everyone knows whose fault that is. But Masseria's got reservations too, but since he doesn't know the word "anti-Semitic" he tells Lansky that he doesn't trust him.
So Luciano and Lansky leverage a little info that they (correctly) figure Masseria would be interested in: that Nucky's planning to make a move. Once Masseria agrees to the deal, Luciano starts whispering in his ear.
Over in Tabor Heights, Nucky's spy captain is going over the plan with Rosetti, and marveling that the order of 1,200 crates is much bigger than Nucky's. "Everything of mine is bigger than Nucky's," says Rosetti. I suppose we can be thankful "That's what she said" wasn't a thing back then. The captain easily pulls out more info in the guise of being unsure about the trip, but Rosetti says he's got 17 boats, so he shouldn't have any problems. "Unless you run into one of them rogue waves," pipes up Tonino. Holy shit, asshole! You couldn't leave well enough alone? Nucky's captain is confused, so Tonino awkwardly explains about his cousin's rogue wave theory. Rosetti says he's a shitty sailor, more than likely half in the bag. "I don't think so," says Franco, who is quite possibly suicidal. Rosetti stares at him long and hard, until Nucky's captain tries to defuse the tension by throwing his support behind the rogue wave possibility. Eventually Rosetti shrugs it off (although we all knew it wasn't over, right?). "The fuck do I know. My father laid bricks for a living," he says, and he and his new captain shake hands on the deal.
And it's bathroom break time, by which I mean we get a scene between everyone's favorite characters, Harry Daugherty and Jess Smith. Daugherty attempts to cheer Smith up with a sunny story about a tornado in '85 that was so bad they never found "poor Mary Shackleford," but his point is that the morning, in the light of day, everyone picks up the pieces and moves on. As for Daugherty, why, he's thinking of retiring to some fly-fishin' and porch-sittin'! This seems to ease Smith's mind, and he admits his heart was never in this. Daugherty, instead of saying, "no shit," says that lately his hasn't been either. Then he tells a brightening Jess to get some sleep, and things will look better in the morning. "And you're totally going to live until morning, that's not a problem," says Daugherty.
Speaking of people in better moods, Margaret is singing a lullaby as she tucks the children in at the hotel. "How long do we have to stay here?" asks Teddy. "Not for much longer," says Margaret, who then shifts into actually-talking-about-something-else mode: "Soon we'll all leave, and see what adventures await." Then ol' buzzkill Nucky is in the doorway, promising they'll all return home as soon as the repairs are done. Margaret turns out the light and wordlessly walks past him out of the room.
Julia and Richard are having a fire on the beach, and I hope they're talking about going on a multi-state killing spree. Turns out they're discussing former sexual partners, or the 1920s equivalent, which is people they almost married. Julia wants to know if there was anyone waiting for Richard after the war. Jenny Hastings, he says: "We rode horses together. She'd write, knit me a scarf. Married my cousin when I was in France." I know it's probably largely due to necessity, but god love Richard's economy of language. He doesn't even say, "and you?" but just looks at Julia expectantly. She explains that she was 20, and her beau was 32 (she didn't say "beau" but how many chances does one get to use it in 2012?), a widower with three children. She was 20 and about to take on a widower with three kids? God, the '20s sucked. But then her brother Freddy was killed and her father... she doesn't finish that sentence because she doesn't need to. And anyway, her beau married the daughter of the man who ran the telegraph office (growth industry!) and had three more kids. Yeah, you're better off, Julia. "I wish I could kiss you," says Richard, and Julia leans in and they do just that. And then again. You know, I really hope things end happily for Richard, but I certainly have my doubts.
In his office, Nucky is playing a little game with pegs -- I think it's like one I used to have, where the object is to remove pegs by jumping over them until there's one piece left. In the centre, preferably. This is before we had Grand Theft Auto, obviously, but this probably a better metaphor, with Nucky making moves so that he's the last one standing. Eddie arrives to announce Chalky White, who comes in and asks Nucky, "Know who I am tonight?" Nucky doesn't know what that's supposed to mean, and Chalky says Nucky had some trouble with it the other night. Nucky says, "Come off it, Chalky. That had way more to do with you barely even being on the show this season."
Anyway, Nucky -- and EVERYONE -- wants Chalky to get to the point, but Chalky starts sideways, talking about how he's got cash behind him and he'll cut Nucky in proper, and use his connections on the circuit: "A club on the boardwalk where Babette's used to was," says Chalky. Guy, if you came here looking for permission for something like this, you probably shouldn't have busted Nucky's balls over his memory deficiencies after almost dying in the explosion that killed his girlfriend, huh? Not that I think it really would make much difference. Nucky's not interested in a "Negro club," and Chalky assures him it'll be elegant with "tuxedos and chandelabras." We get it! He's uneducated! He puts on the hard sell, saying nobody wants to see the wreck that used to be Babette's, and there's a real opportunity here, but Nucky's not having it: "There's a dividing line. There's a line and you know that," he says. Chucky tries telling him the line can move. Nucky, though, doesn't have the time to bump off Joe Masseria and bring racial harmony to the boardwalk, and he blows Chalky off. Chalky takes an extra-long time to button his jacket as he stands up. "You ain't the only one been thinkin'," he says.
Capone's having dinner and upbraiding Van Alden for selling whisky in his territory on O'Banion's behalf, and a very worried Van Alden doesn't correct him on the aquavit but does try to tell Capone that O'Banion is unaware of his activities. This amuses Capone -- who looks like he's growing comfortably into his increasing autonomy -- and he starts pressing Van Alden on what O'Banion's like to work for. "He has his peccadilloes," says Van Alden. Capone asks his name again, and Van Alden offers up just "George." Then Van Alden turns to the Bible, because it's been great for him this far, and starts reciting from the book of the Job, much to Capone's consternation. Van Alden pleads with Capone that he's just trying to provide for his family and he should have done a better job of eschewing evil. Capone opts for the no-more-Mr.-Nice-Guy strategy and sticks his fork in Van Alden's cheek. Doesn't break the skin (not yet). Says Van Alden's going to pay him back, and Van Alden is, essentially, cool with that. Returning to the happy spectrum of his bipolar disorder, Capone slides some food over to Van Alden -- offering him the cheek fork -- and tells him to spill everything he knows about O'Banion's operation.
Jimmy James, carrying a gun, enters a darkened room and crosses the floor to a bed that's not NEARLY lumpy enough to contain Jess Smith, but he starts to pull back the quilt anyway and then Jess comes out of the bathroom, leveling his own gun at Means. Means spins a story about Harry being concerned about Jess and sending Means to check on him, which seems unlikely given the way he was just stalking in the room with a gun. Jess is not so depressed that he can't figure out what's going on. "How much is Harry paying you to murder me?" he asks. Means calls these the "fever dreams of a restless imagination" and Jess starts to sob. He lowers the gun, and Means takes a tentative step forward, only for Jess to raise it again. So Means puts his gun down on the bed and raises his hands. Jess asks him if he's ever actually killed a man, and Means confesses he's never actually "brought down the curtain" like CHRIST GIVE ME A GUN I'LL SHOOT HIM MYSELF. "I'll show you how easy it is," says Jess, who then shoots himself, which wasn't unexpected. Means picks up his gun, gives a little chuckle, and walks out.
Over at the Turkish baths, Masseria and his bodyguard head inside, followed by Sawicki and Owen, who hits his mark and looks around ominously. Or maybe that's just because I know what's coming.
Over at the hotel, Margaret's sitting alone in the dark. The Cure's Disintegration is on the Victrola. Nucky comes in and gallantly moves to turn on a lamp, but she stops him. He sits down by here and says the craziness should soon be over, but she doesn't have to say so to indicate she doesn't believe him. He doesn't blame her, given the way he "bollixed" everything -- he checks to make sure he said the word properly, and she says he did, and quite appropriately too. "I guess between you and Owen, the old country's starting to rub off," he says. He takes her hand and promises to make it up to her: "It's a new start from here on out," he says. "It is," says Margaret, evenly.
On the beach in Tabor Heights, Rosetti is crowing about the successful delivery of 1,200 cases, at 24 bottles per, 28,800 bottles in total, and begins lecturing his men, standing around on the beach, on the usefulness of math and his hard-working bricklayer father, who worked his ass off and died at fifty, and could have lived to be a hundred if he'd laid around a fishing boat all his life. Hey, who do we know whose father was a fisherman?
Yep, there's Franco, buried on the beach up to his neck. Tonino pleads with Rosetti, playing the family card, and Rosetti says Franco's a lucky guy. He takes a shovel from one of his men. I don't think anyone expects that Rosetti would be the one to dig him out. But we've known this was going to end this way from the moment Franco started talking about "rogue waves." I mean, not nearly this specific way, with Rosetti beating Franco's skull to death with a shovel, but I'm sure even the actor here got his script and knew from his first couple of lines that Franco didn't exactly scream "recurring character." After caving in Franco's skull, Rosetti tells Tonino he owes him one. I think at this point we can be trusted to remember that Rosetti's a psycho, you know.
In the hotel, Eddie is waking up a sleepy and irritated Nucky -- sleeping by himself -- at nearly 4 a.m. because there's a delivery. Uh, can this be anything but terrible?
In the foyer, Eddie works at the lid off the large crate with a crowbar. Goddamn, can this be anything BUT a corpse? Margaret comes out of her room wondering what's going on, and ignores Nucky telling her to go back to bed. Nucky's eyes go wide when Eddie lifts the lid, and he orders Eddie to close it and -- more urgently this time -- tells Margaret to go back to bed.
But that's not going to happen. Margaret comes forward and starts screaming at the sight of Owen's dead body, face bloodied, in the crate. Lifeless eyes open. She goes into hysterics. Understandable, really. But she keeps it up to the point that Nucky furrows his brow, especially when she starts trying to hit him. He holds her arms and eventually she gives up and goes off wailing somewhere, Nucky standing there knowing that her tears were more grief than shock, and probably considering the likelihood that she wouldn't have been that upset had it been Nucky's body in that crate.
Under the boardwalk, in the morning twilight, Julia and Richard are asleep in each other's arms. A couple more bottles wash up on the beach. Truly, the bounty of Neptune's kingdom is plentiful!
And Margaret sits in a chair and ignores Nucky's knocking and calling her name. She sobs, and we go back to the scene where she and Owen talked about going to St. Louis. It's the extended remix, in which, after Owen talks about walking out on Katy, she asks if he's lying to her now. He doesn't say no, but asks why she's asking. "Because I need to know," she says, and he asks if she doesn't trust him. "Tell me you're different from him," she says, urgently. Those would just be words, he says, and she asks what she has to go on. He moves in to kiss her, but she stops him.
"I'm pregnant," she confesses, adding that it's his. She tells him he can do what he chooses, and she won't hold him to any plans; just tell her the truth. "Well, I'd like it to be a boy," he says. Now that's what she needs to hear, and she touches his cheek and he kisses her hand and the touching scene is ruined by Mickey Doyle coming in to bring Owen to the meeting to discuss the plan that will end his life. Their last words to each other are "Mrs. Thompson" and "Mr. Sleater."
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. He almost called this recap "Crate Expectations." Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.