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Nucky gets an early-morning call from Willie, who's been arrested — but not charged — in connection with Henry's death. Willie's parents don't know, and Nucky's happy to help keep things that way — he's less happy, though, that the liquor came from him, via Mickey Doyle, and this is the first he's hearing about it. There's a little bit of hassle from the assistant district attorney because Henry's father is a major contributor to the Republican Party and wants heads to roll, but Nucky manages to make his connections work, while teaching Willie the benefits of clamming up. In the end, Willie's roommate Clayton (you know, Scootch) is arrested and Willie walks.
It's election day in Cicero, with Van Alden leading the Capones' thugs to intimidate plant workers by a polling station. But Van Alden's light approach doesn't impress either the thugs or the plant workers, and things quickly devolve into a riot, where the severely outnumbered thugs are beaten, and Frank Capone is shot to death by a group of special anti-mob police, sending Al Capone into even more of a rage. "Every fucking thing that crawls is going to pay," he tells Van Alden, unaware that, during the riot, Van Alden considered shooting Al in the back. But GUYS GUYS GUYS: Van Alden did coke!
Gillian crashes through rock bottom to hit another rock bottom, attempting to seduce a judge and then being escorted from Tommy's school. But Roy knows about the heroin now, and he's not running away.
Nucky had to handle the Willie thing on his own, because Eddie Kessler is nowhere to be found; he's in a room being interrogated and lightly beaten by Agent Knox, who wants him to give up the goods on his employer. Knox — who picked up a little German in the war — has done his homework on Kessler, too; Eddie left Germany in disgrace with a mistress and stolen funds from the department store where he worked. This is the weak link Knox is exploiting: forcing the loyalty-is-everything Kessler to choose between giving up his boss or sending him back home in shame to Germany, where his sons have gone so far as to change their last names to avoid the association. Fatherhood trumps employment, with Eddie admitting to the exchange with Ralph Capone, on Nucky's orders. Satisfied that Eddie has been broken, Knox lets him go, warning Eddie he'll be in touch. Eddie returns home to Nucky, who's pissed off that Eddie was gone a whole day, and the heart-crushing reason is because he had to wear mismatched socks. Eddie's lost forever the family he left in Germany, and Nucky will never be a substitute (made explicit earlier when Nucky reassured Willie in part by explaining to him the importance of blood). Eddie straightens his affairs, and steps out a hotel window. I didn't get the sense that The Albatross was suicide-enabling tall, but given the end of the show, it'll seem like a cheat if Eddie isn't dead week.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. He's had as much Season 4 screentime as Kelly Macdonald so far. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!It’s dark, the telephone’s ringing, and we hear a call to Nucky from his very distressed nephew Willie, who says he needs his help. Then we see some scenes of an open window, ocean view, birds in a cage, an empty single bed, a music stand holding songs by Franz Schubert, books of "Old Surehand" on a shelf, Nucky yelling and knocking in vain for Eddie. Tom has to tell a perplexed Nucky that Eddie hasn’t been around today, and Nucky tells Tom to bring the car around.
Eddie’s in a room with windows being covered with newspaper by the Bureau of Investigation agent who isn’t Agent Knox, but Agent Knox is there too, offering Eddie some tea. Eddie takes some prompting even to just refuse the tea. Meanwhile I am distracted by the aftermath of a chair avalanche behind Kessler, like WHAT ARE THOSE CHAIRS DOING THERE. There’s a little discussion on the syntax of using "you’re welcome" after someone says, "No, thank you," and Knox’s colleague -- Selby, that’s it -- cracks that Kessler speaks better English than Knox does. Knox asks Kessler if he learned English in "Prussia, I guess you would have called it?" Kessler doesn’t answer; he just wants to know why he’s here. Knox is basically "You tell me" about it, since people don’t just get hauled off the street for no reason. He refutes Kessler’s protestations of innocence by pointing out Kessler had a pistol up his sleeve, which Eddie attributes to protection… from Apaches. While we ponder the possibility of Boardwalk Empire adding Apache attacks to the mix, Knox and his buddy pretend like they’ve got no choice but to let Eddie go. But Selby, at first, offers Kessler his walking stick and then pulls it out, forcing Eddie to stumble and giving Knox a pretence to keep him there, that he seems unsteady and should stay for a while, for his own good.
The Pflaum for Mayor campaign is marching through the streets, blaring a message of honesty and crime crackdown from roof-mounted speakers, pissing Sigrid off since it’s so early. Van Alden -- attempting to feed his very fussy son -- sportingly points out that it’s election day and they have the right to campaign. As for Sigrid’s political cynicism -- she says people should just do as they’re told -- he tells her that wouldn’t be very democratic. Now, if you’ll excuse him, the Capones are here, so he’s off to help rig the vote. Nothing more democratic than that!
Outside the house, Frank notes its unfinished state, and tells him to put some grass down and spruce it up. "That’s the summer project," says Van Alden. And people think he’s no fun! The sound of a factory whistle in the distance has Frank note the "morning shift" and hustle Van Alden into the car so they can get to work. Van Alden looks back at his wife in the window, holding his son up to wave goodbye. Van Alden musters up the best smile he can, but as usual, it looks like he just realized his dog farted.
Willie’s sitting at a table in some sort of jail basement. It's all-natural light for that sunlight-streaming-in-windows atmosphere. Nucky’s escorted in by a guard, and asks Willie how he’s doing. Willie tries to pretend he’s handling things okay, but given he looks like he’s barely holding it together, he admits to being a little shaken. Nucky tells him they’ll sort it out, and he assures Willie that his parents don’t know, and he’ll do his best to keep it that way.
So, on the plus side, they haven’t charged Willie with anything, which is good. But there are reporters "living" upstairs, just looking for something to do, Nucky tells him, so he can either walk out like a suspect in a capital case or like someone who just paid a parking ticket, but Nucky needs a little time. "You know people in Philadelphia, right?" asks Willie. Nucky says he does, and he’ll call on them if it’s required. Willie promises to make it up to him, but Nucky tells him not to worry about that now.
Instead, Nucky wants to know about "this boy." Willie says he didn’t have anything to do with it. The expression on Nucky’s face says he doesn’t believe that for a second, but he doesn’t say so: "Let’s just talk about him, for a minute."
Gillian’s puttering around her house, anxious and high and making (apparently a lot of) phone calls to the Hotel Arlington for Roy Phillips, and getting short with the nosy front desk clerk who might also be expressing his desire to accomplish something other than taking messages from her. So, more drugs, then? Don’t mind if I do! But Gillian’s anxiety doesn’t seem to be lessening.
Over at the hotel in Cicero, Frank takes the stairs through a throng of thugs cracking wise about Pflaum apparently getting kneecapped last night, and another campaign worker who got his throat cut, Frank getting the laughs that the guy who hands out the money gets. He takes Van Alden in to check on "his highness" Al at his desk, snorting a not-insignificant amount of cocaine. Frank says he should give it a break. "What, like you ain’t been touching it?" says Al, who does some more coke, prompting a swat on the head from Frank. This, in turn, provokes Al to get pissed and draw his gun, which is not a proportionate response! Only then does he appear to take notice of Van Alden the galoot standing there, and is angrily surprised, only to come around when Frank reminds him that Al asked for him, having been impressed with the way he handled himself last night. "The woods!" says Al, suddenly remembering, and cackles, calling Van Alden "Daniel [sic] fuckin’ Crockett" and doing an amusingly stiff rendition of Van Alden shooting Stu.
Director Tim Van Patten’s really going to town this episode with the one-shots of characters occupying just a third of the frame, which empty space behind them. He uses it as Al talks about how it’s April Fool’s Day, and the joke’s on all the suckers out there or whatever. "You know who that includes?" asks Al, and Van Alden doesn’t want -- nay, can't -- guess, and is prompted with a hint from Frank: "He likes flowers." O’Banion, then. Al makes Van Alden come to him (he’s got two feet on Al) and then whispers, "You’ve done bad things."
He doesn’t seem upset by it, and Van Alden points out that in regards to doing bad things, he’s got company in this room. Al doesn’t pretend he’s an angel, but points out he hasn’t done bad things to the guy he works for. He grabs Van Alden around the neck and pulls him in closely, asking "You’ve got a little wild streak, huh?" Al wants to see how Van Alden does today, and then they’ll talk. He alludes to some unfinished business with the florist, and Frankie warningly says they’ll talk about that later. He’s got instructions for Van Alden: take the twenty best guys out there over to the main gate at Western Electric. "Help the voters make up their mind," he says. Al jokes that maybe Van Alden has to ask his wife, and that finally gets a rise out of Van Alden, who hotly denies it. "Respect the boundaries, huh?" Frank quietly tells his brother.
Luckily, the Capones have a bring-your-own-device policy, as Van Alden’s still got the gun from last night. They tell him to hold on to it. There shouldn’t be any need, but it might come in handy for advancing the plot later. Oh, and one more thing, Van Alden: why don’t you perk yourself up? Al offers Van Alden some cocaine. Van Alden declines that he doesn’t need perking up right now (you know, the kind of refusal where you imply that normally you’re not such a square but you’re just not into it right at that very moment) but this is the second time Al has offered and he’s not taking no for an answer this time, holding the little coke spoon right up in his face. That’s a long way for Al to reach, too! As much to shut Al up as anything, Van Alden dips in and snorts the coke, and his eyes go wide, and Al yells, "Who’s gonna fuck with us, huh?" Well, now that Van Alden’s there, people who can put things on high shelves won’t be able to anymore.
Over in jail, Willie’s telling his uncle what happened, how "the fellas" were having a party with some girls, and avoiding certain details. "There was liquor," he says, and this discussion could be sped up if Willie skips ahead to the "things his uncle doesn’t already know" section. Nucky wants to know where it came from. Willie doesn’t want to tell him, but Nucky says he has to. "Mr. Doyle," says Willie, eventually. He’s got a cigarette, filling the sunlit room with smoke. Nucky’s not happy to hear this, and asks Willie why he didn’t come to him. I didn’t want you to know, says Willie, in a voice that says that should be self-evident (which it kind of is). "But I know now," points out Nucky, adding, "The liquor came from me. I didn’t know, and now there’s a problem." Hindsight is 20/20, Nucky.
Willie’s apologetic, but still not admitting to having anything to do with the fact that by the morning, Henry wasn’t moving. Nucky asks if Henry drank a lot, and Willie says it was as much as anyone else. "But he was the only one who…" says Nucky. The only who died gruesomely, spitting up blood and providing his entire dorm with a tableau that will haunt them all the rest of their days? "Yes," says Willie, who says he didn’t know Henry very well at all. But Nucky remembers Willie rattling off the list of his friends at the dinner table, because when your dopey nephew says he has a friend named Henry, that’s not the kind of thing you forget. Willie finally admits he doesn’t have very many friends here at all.
Nucky says he’s going to talk to the district attorney, and if the DA’s just fishing, Nucky will know. But, he says, looking at Willie pointedly, he’s going to ask Willie again: Was he your friend? How much did he drink? Where’d you get the liquor? The answers are, respectively (and suitably steely from Willie), "Yes," "A lot," and "I didn’t bring any liquor." Nucky’s satisfied.
It's time to check back in with the continuing downward spiral of Gillian Dharmody. She’s in a judge’s chambers, zoned out enough that the judge’s words aren’t filtering through to her, until he finally gets her attention, and she says he hasn’t been getting enough sleep, what with worrying about Tommy. The judge is a little impatient, and gets back to it: The officer will submit a report, and the court will decide on custody. Gillian wants to know what she can do, and the judge says she doesn’t have to do anything; the officer will just want to a true picture of the home the boy would be returning to. Gillian starts talking about how she’s in a "time of transition," and starts to explain about how most of the furniture… but the judge interrupts to say the furniture doesn’t matter, which is good, because she might have blurted out that her furniture is going up her arm. And then she starts going on about her love life, and the man she’s seeing is really important but very discreet and wouldn’t want his name bandied about. She trails off when she realizes the look of consternation from the judge means she really isn’t helping her case any by blathering about the man she’s currently sleeping with/planning to sleep with. Well the one who’s not paying her for the privilege, anyway.
She asks the judge for a glass of water, which he pours from the pitcher on his desk. He hands her the glass. Her hand trembles, and then she squeezes the glass so hard it shatters. The shocked judge comes around to Gillian’s side of the desk to bandage her hand, while she babbles about how stressed she is by everything. "The thought that Tommy might not remember be at all, as if I never existed…" she says. The judge, who clearly really wants this basket case out of his chambers, tells her to take it one step at a time, and Gillian asks if there’s anything she can do to help her situation. "As I said…" begins the judge, and then Gillian puts her hand on his crotch. "I mean right now," she says, adding, "Is there anything I can do right now?" She looks up at him beseechingly, and the judge, after a moment, tells her it would be in her best interest to leave these chambers immediately. Gillian seems surprised that the judge doesn’t realize -- or doesn’t care -- what a total GILF she is, and she composes herself and says she’s late for an appointment, and leaves the room, pretending to have some dignity left.
Meanwhile, Nucky’s not pleased to learn that he’s meeting with a Eugene Mulhern, who is an assistant to the district attorney. He wants to know why the DA isn’t there, and Mulhern cheerfully says that he regretfully had other obligations. Nucky’s really got no choice but to play nicely, so he unloads on the ADA, telling him they’re making a mistake if they want to turn a "quirk of fate" into a manslaughter charge. Mulhern says ten separate witnesses say Willie brought alcohol to the party, so Nucky asks if that’s really worth their time and effort. "If that boy was poisoned, yes," says Mulhern, rapidly losing his good humor. He makes a good point, Nuck!
But of course this is the first Nucky’s hearing of a poisoning by anything more than excessive alcohol, and he can barely hide his surprise. With the stakes much higher, Nucky goes for the big guns, and tells the ADA that his boss and Waxy Gordon had a conversation this morning where they agreed that this thing, as tragic as it was, was nobody’s fault. Mulhern appears aware of how things work, so he’s not hostile when he points out that the couple outside of his office are Henry’s parents. "Mr. Gaines is a major contributor to the Pennsylvania Republican Party. He’s lost his son, and he doesn’t want to hear about life’s random misfortunes. Someone’s gotta answer for this. We just don’t have any choice," he says.
Speaking of someone answering for this, let’s check back in with Eddie Kessler, still sitting straight-backed in an empty room. Knox strolls in, impressed with how Eddie’s holding up, not to mention Eddie’s general sass. "Does he know how tough you are?" asks Knox, and Eddie seems genuinely puzzled as to who Knox means. (Pssst! It’s Nucky!). Eddie clams up, and Knox applauds the good soldier, but wonders if Nucky would do the same for him. He gets a little closer and informs him that Eddie’s been here all day, but no one -- not on the boardwalk, at the Onyx Club, at the speakeasies -- has been asking for him. "The world is going on without you. Nucky Thompson is going on without you," says Knox, who maybe overreaches a little by saying the only person who cares about Eddie right now is Knox. "You are my friend," says Eddie skeptically, more of a question. No, I am not, says Knox. "Then who are you?" asks Eddie, which earns him a punch in the gut. Eddie barfs on the floor. “That’s who I am. And I’m going to own every last bit of you,” says Knox. It’s a little more wordy than "Fuck you, that’s my name," but you don’t want to compete with Alec Baldwin on that one. Eddie struggles to catch his breath, and Knox gives him a handkerchief to clean himself up.
Back at the jail, Nucky is rehearsing with Willie again: Who was Henry Gaines? He was a friend of mine. Who brought the liquor? Beats me. How much did Henry drink? A whole lot. But Nucky’s got a new question: "Who slipped him the mickey?" Willie plays dumb or maybe doesn’t know the term, but Nucky explains it and gets the answer he needs from Willie’s discombobulating. He tells Willie not to lie right now, because it won’t help. "I need to know what’s true, so we can agree on the rest. Understood?" Willie finally owns up, and says it was just supposed to be a gag. He even admits to it being his idea." Just yours?" asks Nucky, and Willie reluctantly admits to his roommate Clayton helping him. Nucky asks what Henry did to deserve it. "He thought he was better than me. But he wasn’t," says Henry, looking at his uncle defiantly. Well, Nucky can relate. "Here’s what I’m going to need you to do,” he tells Willie.
We’re over to Cicero, where Capone’s thugs are outside the factory gates. The workers will have to go through them to get to the polling booth. Frank and Van Alden are in the car, discussing the plan. "Make sure they vote for Klenha, or don’t vote at all," says Van Alden. Wow, that’s a lot of moving pieces. Hope you can keep track of such a complicated plan! Frank says most people don’t want trouble, and don’t actually care who the mayor is, who the president is. They’ll control the burg and keep the green flowing, which is all anyone cares about. "And O’Banion?" asks Van Alden. "Lots of ways to do business," says Frank, philosophically. He says they’ll see how it plays out.
Van Alden gets ready to go outside, but Frank stops him and says not to worry about his brother; sometimes Al just needs a good kick in the ass. "Who’s going to do the kicking?" asks Van Alden, rhetorically. Frank’s got one other thing: a big wad of bills that he calls an advance. "Stick with me, I’ll put grass on your fuckin’ lawn," he says, and Van Alden does his best to approximate that thing that humans call a smile. He gets out of the car, and Frank drives away. Van Alden walks over to the factory gates, and turns to face the men. "There’s no reason for this to get out of hand," he tells them. They’re there to remind the workers that it’s in their best interests to vote in the Republican ticket. He tells them to, as each man passes, "inquire" as to who he’s voting for. The thugs are like, "you mean 'inquire' with extreme prejudice?"
But as they realize Van Alden doesn’t want them to crack skulls, they start jeering that they didn’t come for "no tea social" and Al wants them to give it to the workers good. "Al’s not in charge here. I am," says Van Alden. The men don’t like it, and grip their clubs menacingly, but Van Alden steps to the leader of the dissenters. Neither backs down, but before anything escalates, the factory whistle blows, the gate opens, and the workers start walking through. The thugs let them pass unmolested, and I have to admit to laughing at Van Alden jovially chatting up the workers, who are really pretty rude to him and refuse to answer his questions. One ignores Van Alden completely, which of course pisses Van Alden off, and he puts his hand on the guy’s shoulder. Then he has to dodge the guy swinging his lunchbox at him, and he slugs the guy, touching off a battle that sees the thugs force the workers back behind the factory gates.
Gillian -- the slightly blurry edges of the frame telling us, if her dead raccoon eyes don’t, that she’s not at all well -- enters a barber shop where Dunn Purnsley’s getting a shoeshine in the back. That’s who she’s directed to by the barber in response to her "I’m looking for someone, I don’t know his name" opening. She approaches Dunn, who looks intrigued, and a little wary when she says she knows this probably isn’t how he normally does business, but she made some inquiries, and here she is. "You far from home, Bo Peep," says Dunn, who sends the shoeshine guy away to ask her some more direct questions, such as who sent her his way. "I spent several years on the stage," she tells him. "You know how show people are." Always looking to score heroin? I guess? He wants to know how much she’s got, and she wants to "examine the preparation" first, but Dunn’s not letting that happen. As he’s the one metaphorically lording it over her from a raised shoeshine seat, she opens her purse and puts her money -- including, sadly, coins -- on the arm of her chair. It’s all she’s got, she says, rather unnecessarily. Dunn tells her to find her lost sheep somewhere else. So not for the first time this episode, Gillian offers herself up, suggesting "another form of payment." Dunn cocks his head and looks at her. "I’m having a difficult day," she explains.
She’s unsure what to call him, and he crosses his leg and prominently displays his shoe and tells her his last name is "Oxford." Anywho, continues Gillian, this is just one of those days where you need a little extra help. Look, you’re offering to bang the guy for drugs, so he knows it’s a little more serious than that. He looks at what little money she’s offered, puts it in his pocket and signals to one of his guys, holding his thumb a forefinger like a millimeter apart. His minion slaps down a little packet, and Gillian reaches for it, but Dunn stops her, and pushes her sleeve up her arm. He can’t be surprised by whatever he sees. "You’d best go easy now, little Bo. I like my lambs keep coming home," he whispers. Wait, is she Bo Peep or the lamb? Dunn, think your metaphors through a little better!
Willie has graduated from the jail basement to a meeting room with his Uncle now, with Nucky reminiscing about his own college days at State Normal in Trenton. That’s where he met Mabel, it seems -- which means, I believe, that Mabel has been referred to as often this season as Margaret. She was going to be a teacher, but Nucky didn’t like the idea of other dudes helping her with homework, so he decided to be a teacher too. This alternative future of Nucky Thompson seems to be new to Willie, who asks why that didn’t happen. Nucky says the commodore needed him, so he came back home. "There are more important things than what may or may not have happened at some party," Nucky says, and Willie wants to make sure again that his dad won’t know. Nucky says no one will, but that’s when district attorney Lawrence Isley (the ADA coming in behind him) strides into the room to shake hands with Nucky and apologize for the earlier "mix-up." He assures Nucky he’d feel the same way if it was his nephew. It’s pointless for me to ask this, but: And how would he feel if Henry were his nephew? Nucky wants to get this cleared up "before it turns into something." I guess "something" is when two people die.
Everyone sits down, with the DA saying he understands Willie can help them with this “unfortunate incident,” and Nucky tells Willie to say what happened as best he can remember it. Willie takes a long moment to think about this, and starts off with, “First thing I want to say is Henry Gaines was a pal of mine.”
We hear a school bell, and then cut to Gillian walking down a school hallway as grammar school-aged children stream into the hallway, including Tommy. Gillian’s high, of course, and Tommy doesn’t appear to recognize her, but she speaks very brightly to him and kisses him hello. It’s as squirmy and cringe-inducing as it can possibly be, as Gillian talks about how she hopes he’s learning lots, and she’s met a man and they’re all going to be so happy together. Tommy’s expression remains neutral the entire time. Maybe she should have brought some Oreos? She has brought an "Abba-Zaba," which was a chewy taffy bar with peanut butter in the middle, and Gillian admits to not even know what it is. I guess it still exists? Tommy doesn’t know how lucky he is that she didn’t tell it for an extra two molecules of heroin.
But that’s when Julia comes around the corner with a couple of male teachers, looking rather unimpressed. Gillian, ever the optimist, asks if the men are her "relations." She tells Julia she’s taking Tommy home. "He doesn’t live with you anymore," says Julia. Gillian says it’s for the judge to decide, and deceptively says he was "very forthcoming” during a chat they had today. But she reaches for Tommy, and Tommy takes a step backward towards Julia. Gillian’s getting upset! "This isn’t proper. It’s a beautiful day, and this isn’t proper," she says. Julia tells Tommy that they’re going to walk the other way and not look back. Tommy looks rather relieved, and that’s what they do, with the teachers stepping forward to give Gillian the bum’s rush out of the school, above her protests that she can’t be bleached out "like a laundry stain."
Back at Temple University, Willie shows Nucky into his dorm room, and Nucky picks up a ukulele that Willie admits he can’t play LIKE ARE WE NOT EVEN SAFE FROM THE SCOURGE OF UKULELES ON BOARDWALK EMPIRE? Nucky thinks Willie needs to find himself a girl to serenade, to give himself an incentive.
Now it’s time for Nucky to get serious. No lecture, he promises, but there are a few things he wants to say. Willie sits on his bed, Nucky on a chair. "Whatever occurred, it’s over. And every now and then you’ll think about the terrible thing that happened to a boy whose face you can’t quite remember. I promise, you can live with it," says Nucky. "Is that what you do?" asks Willie. "Careful, son" Nucky tells Willie. They’ll get him into another school, if that’s necessary, and it’s not important what other people say. "The only thing you can count on is blood. The blood that’s in your veins, and the blood that’s in mine," says Uncle Nuck, adding that the people who discount him doesn’t know who he is, and that the rage he feels is a gift, so use it. Isn’t that kind of what he’s just done, which has caused a metric ton of trouble? "But don’t let anyone see it," he adds. Ohhhhh. "Show me the person that you intend to be," says Nucky, and Willie kind of muffs it right away by asking how much Nucky paid the district attorney. He sounds genuinely curious. Nucky says one day they’ll talk about all that, but today is not that day. Willie needs to stick to what they discussed, and not worry about the rest.
Clayton enters the room like Kramer, and he’s a little surprised to see Willie there with (he mistakenly thinks) his dad, instead of in jail forever. He and Nucky exchange introductions, and Nucky leaves, reminding Willie once more to remember what they talked about, and saying it’s nice to meet him.
Once Nucky’s gone, a nervous Clayton closes the door and wants to know where the hell Willie has been. All Willie says is that he didn’t feel like going to class. I’m not sure how it is that Willie was arrested and that the whole school, never mind his roommate, doesn’t know that, but anyway. Clayton wants to know what they’re going to do. "It’s been taken care of," says Willie, and that’s all he’ll say to an extremely confused, extremely scared Clayton, beyond that he’s got a test in commerce tomorrow and he needs to study for it.
Back at Western Electric, where a growing crowd of workers is being held behind the gates, Frank and a livid Al Capone show up, wondering what the hell is going on. Van Alden explains it’s a "numerically disadvantaged situation," which enrages Al even more, but that’s because he doesn’t know that means they’re way outnumbered. Frank says there’s six carloads on the way, so they just need to keep the workers behind the gate until then.
As if on cue, the whistle blows, and the gate slides open, and some of the workers are already throwing rocks. Frank tries to tell the workers to cool it since it’s all sewn up anyway, but they don’t appear to be in the mood to hear it, especially as they have no idea who the hell the Capones are. That sets Al off, of course, and Frank tries to settle him down, speaking in Italian. This doesn’t sit well with Al either, since he’s the one in charge, after all, and he rips Van Alden a new asshole for suggesting that unless those six carloads of men get here, like NOW, they need to leave. Al screams that he’ll nail Van Alden to a cigar stand with a [something] on his scalp. Whatever it is appears to have baffled the closed-captioner, too.
But the workers are getting even more restless, and someone throws a chair that unfortunately misses Van Alden’s face, and Al starts yelling at the workers again about how they run Cicero legit, and if anyone’s got a problem with that, they can step forward right now. If they’ve got "the fucking balls," that is.
Well, it’s only a few seconds before someone yells "get those Dago sons of bitches!" and the workers rush forward for a full-on brawl that results in the Capones’ crew getting the living shit kicked out of them, beaten with boards and baseball bats. Al’s bloodied and crawling on the ground, which appears to be the workers' cue to leave him be. They’re not animals. A scuffed-up Van Alden whips out his gun to give himself a little breathing space, and then sees Al crawling a few feet away, his back to Van Alden. It’s nice that there’s a convenient little corridor in the midst of the brawl for him to have a decision to make and a clear line of fire. He slowly raises his gun, but he’s trembling. Frank takes this in -- despite having one eye already swollen shut from the pounding he’s taken -- and staggers to his feet from the car he’d been resting against. And then Van Alden sees Frank seeing him, Frank goes for his gun -- and then Frank gets shot.
As worker and thug alike hit the ground, a gang of men in dark coats and hats unload all the bullets and buckshot into Frank. He takes as much ammo as Tony Montana did at the end of Scarface. I’d like to think that even in 1924 this would have been seen as extreme from law enforcement. I mean, sure, they’re stylish and dapper in their co-ordinated ensembles.
The gunfire stops, everyone looking on in horror, and Frank falls to the ground. I think he actually died several seconds ago but the gunfire was keeping him standing. Al screams "Fraaaaank!"
The scream fades out as we go to the scene, with Gillian lying in bed, groggily fascinated by the bandage on her hand. Roy Phillips strolls in, and Gillian hazily says she called him ten times. Did she do something wrong? "Not to me," says Roy, adding that she was very cold when he found her. "I must have just fallen asleep," says Gillian, whatever kind of excuse that’s supposed to be. She’s feeling better now, though. "Rough day? Or shouldn’t I ask?" he says. Gillian doesn’t answer that, but asks what he was doing in the powder room. "Cleaning this up for you," he says, tossing her work on the bed. Quick, think of an excuse, Gillian!
She stammers, but Roy saves her the embarrassment and tells her he knows what it is. He also asks if it helps her. "Not anymore," she admits, and when Roy asks how that makes her feel, she admits to being terrified.
"I must repulse you," she says. Well, he’s still there, and he tells her he knows about weakness, and he knows about sin. "You don’t know about me," says Gillian. Roy puts his hand on hers and says, "Then tell me…if it’ll make any of this better." Maybe she can tell him something that might make this plot seem like it’s not its own show at this point? "Roy, I have done the most awful things," she says. Roy, you might want to back away now… oh, he’s putting his hand on her forehead.
Poor Eddie is still in that room, although at least he’s been able to move from the chair to the davenport. (Sigrid would be pleased). Knox and Selby come in, Knox speaking German and reading from a file that he says they’ve been waiting for. Eddie is surprised to learn that they know he was the assistant manager of a department store in Germany. Since Eddie knows what Knox and Selby are about to reveal, it’s kind of sad that he doesn’t seem to realize he’s being set up as Knox and Selby patronizingly talk about the loyalty and honesty required for a job like that. And then they lower the boom that they know Eddie left his wife and kids for the woman who worked behind the lingerie counter, with some money he stole from the store. Eddie seems to get an inkling of where this is heading and says he’s a legal resident of the United States. "You are what I say you are, and I say you don’t belong here," says Knox, and then he’s speaking German again. But, much to Eddie’s surprise, he's not reading from a file this time. He explains that he was army intelligence during the war. "I thought the language was very beautiful," he says. Oh, now you’re just making fun of him!
Then Knox stands up and starts jabbering about some sort of old folk tale about a father and son in the woods, and the boy says he sees a demon, the Elf King. He asks Eddie what the father says, and an entranced Eddie says "only a wisp of fog." But the father was wrong, because after all this is a German folk tale, the son is soon dead in the father’s arms. And this is one of the happy German folk tales.
Speaking of sons, Knox goes back to the file, and tells Eddie that his boys, Konrad and Lucas, are grown men, and Lucas has a son of his own now. They changed their last name to escape the shame of their father the liar, the thief, the traitor, the cook, the wife, the lover. Knox says in six days Eddie will be in the custody of the Hanover police, so he and his boys will be reacquainted all over again. Eddie looks destroyed, and asks what they want from him. "They want him to tell them something", says Knox. One little thing, and Eddie has their word he’s done for the day. "Call it a demonstration of loyalty," says Selby. The symbolism department earns its money by allowing some wind to briefly blow through the newspaper on the windows, allowing a little sun to shine through. Desperate and defeated, Eddie slowly tells them that the man he gave money to at the train station was Ralph Capone. Knox asks why. Eddie starts to shudder and sob. "Because that is what Nucky told me to do," he says. Knox stands up, triumphant, all, "See how easy that was?" Selby hands Eddie his cane -- and doesn’t yank it away this time -- and a broken Eddie hobbles out the door, Knox promises to see him again soon. Well, we know it won’t be for German language lessons.
Elsewhere, Van Alden sits on a bench in a hallway somewhere, Capone’s goons nearby, murmuring. Hey, Ralph’s back! He sits down heavily to Van Alden, and after a moment starts talking about how he gets off a train and right there in the newspaper. He doesn’t finish the sentence. What was it? Was it the formation of the Royal Canadian Air Force? Was it the sentencing of a young Adolf Hitler to five years in jail for the Beer Hall Putsch?
Ralph wants to know why they couldn’t have stayed in Brooklyn, where they were all happy. Van Alden’s got nothing to say. "He wants to speak to you personally," says Ralph. Van Alden gets up and enters what turns out to be a morgue. Al’s sitting in front of Frank’s bullet-riddled corpse, half-covered by a sheet. Van Alden says they don’t have much to go on, other than it was a special squad of Chicago detectives, brought in because they were told the Cicero police couldn’t be trusted. "He never got his gun out," says Van Alden. Apparently, in terms of the reality, that’s a matter of some dispute. At any rate, the grieving Al finally turns from his brother towards Van Alden. "Every fuckin’ thing that crawls is gonna pay," he hisses, sniffling. Van Alden resists the temptation to say, "So, you didn’t see me do anything? Okay, cool," but he does exit the morgue, leaving Al alone to cry.
Poor Clayton, studying in the library, when he notices a couple of men in suits asking questions at another table of students, one of whom turns and points at Clayton. He quickly adopts the "If I’m totally engrossed in my studying, maybe my life isn’t about to be completely destroyed" method, but the men come over to his table anyway and announce that they’re with the Philadelphia police.
Willie’s in his dorm room, plinking away on his ukulele, when there’s a knock on the door. He opens it, and a distraught Doris is standing there. Holy shit, the ukulele’s working already! He tells her she’s not supposed to be up here. "Then you better not let anyone see me," she says, and he steps aside to let her in. She tells him Clayton was arrested. "What do you mean?" he says, carefully. So she explains what “arrested” means, adding that they said he poisoned Henry. "Why would someone do something like that?" she says, almost crying, and she folds herself into Willie’s arms. Her face is in the light, his in shadow. But I think he might be starting to see the upside of dodging a manslaughter rap and framing his roommate.
It's now sunrise and Eddie returns to the Albatross, where he finds Nucky already eating breakfast. He tries to leave Nucky’s quarters before Nucky realizes he’s there, but he does kind of clunk around. Nucky, without even turning around, asks what the hell happened to him. Eddie plays dumb, so Nucky turns around, and notes that Eddie looks like he slept on a bench. It’s worth noting that Eddie looks more put-together than I did at my own wedding. Eddie says he spent the night with old friends, and there was too much drinking. Nucky says he shouldn’t have to worry about Eddie disappearing for a whole day, which is true, but it’s not like Eddie’s been anything other than ultra-attentive. Not to mention, you know, taking a bullet on Nucky’s behalf. "It’s a responsibility that you asked for," says Nucky, who turns back to his breakfast. He at least asks if Eddie has eaten, but Eddie says he’s not hungry and turns to go.
But wait! Nucky tells him to hold on. Eddie turns back expectantly. Will Nucky express concern for Eddie’s well-being? Apologize for being too harsh? Or pull up his pant legs to show Eddie that he had to put on mismatched socks today? "Here’s something else I’d rather not worry about," says Nucky. Eddie looks somewhat surprised, to say the least.
We close out as we began: music playing, birds chirping in their cage. Eddie sits at his desk, writing a letter in German. I think I recognize the German phrase for "fucking jagoff" in there!
Then he rolls a drawer full of socks and puts them in the armoire. He straightens his tie in the mirror, walks to the bedroom window, opens it, steps up on the sill, and with no hesitation, steps out. It appears we have just lost this series’ most likeable character, and yet there’s little chance that Nucky will grieve enough to declare that every fuckin’ thing that crawls is gonna pay. He’ll be annoyed at best.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. His daughter still has recovered from him telling her about Krampus. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.