While Nucky hunkers down (Narcisse is nowhere to be seen this episode), he's warned by Gaston Means that there's a "skunk" in his cellar, but Nucky doesn't learn who (partly because Means wants to charge him a small fortune) before Means is arrested. So Nucky asks Eli who he doesn't trust. But Eli being pressured by Knox to get all the main gangsters into a meeting together, is acting squirrelly enough — suddenly downplaying his former suspicions of Knox, and June doesn't help things by blabbing about the visit from that babyfaced insurance salesman — that Nucky realizes who it is. "I want out," he tells Sally Wheet at the end of the episode. It's probably either that or killing his own brother, right?
Chalky and Daughter are in hiding at the house of his mentor Oscar (Louis Gossett Jr.), and Chalky also wants to give everything up altogether and run away with Daughter. Instead, she disappears, and Narcisse's men have tracked him to Oscar's place. Oscar's men take them down, but Chalky certainly can't stay there forever, and with Daughter gone, there's not much point in running away.
And Gillian. Poor, poor Gillian. She has killed probably the fewest amount of people of any of the main series cast — and is finally clean and ready to make her peace with losing her grandson — but the murder of the guy who looked like her son finally comes back to haunt her. Roy Phillips turns out to be a detective under the employ of Leander Whitlock, and after Roy kills a man (in what turns out to have been a staged event) Gillian confesses the murder to him, at which point the house is crawling with Leander and Pinkerton men, and a screaming Gillian is carried away. Good lord, were those guys hiding there the entire time waiting for the confession?
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. He can't help but wonder what sexy assignment Roy Phillips is off to . Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
It’s the middle of the night and we’re on a dark road with Daughter and Chalky driving. Daughter is asking if they’ve "crossed over." Not into the spiritual realm, anyway. "Little ways back", Chalky tells her. "They’re getting close", he says. We see they’re actually sitting in the back seat and are being driven, two men in the front, and they pass a sign welcoming them to Havre de Grace, Maryland. Well, the name sounds promising! Chalky asks the men in front how "Oscar" is keeping these days. "Some and some," says the driver, with the guy riding shotgun saying nobody’s getting younger. Man, if people can’t even say "he’s well" about you in that vague social niceties way, you must be in rough shape. "Natural fact", adds the driver. We’ll hear it a lot from him this episode.
Shotgun asks Chalky how he came to know Oscar, and Chalky’s surprised that Oscar didn’t tell them anything other than to pick him up and get him some clean clothes. The discussion of how Chalky knows Oscar doesn’t happen, as the driver -- without headlights on, mind you -- abruptly turns off the road, freaking Chalky out a little bit with his apparent Daredevil-esque radar. They pull up at a dark house, and the men get out and go up to the house, leaving Chalky and Daughter alone. "You worked for Mr. Boneau?" he asks, and Chalky explains that he got himself in a "knockdown" with some corner boys. "The way I was then, looked for a fight any old how," he says. "Never even felt that razor", he adds. (And that’s the origin of that!) But he kept on fighting through the copious amounts of blood, and then this man came out, unlike anything Chalky’d ever seen. Folks just moved out of his way. The corner boys took off, and Chalky thanked him, but was too wounded to walk away. Oscar took him before the police came and put him to work. Taught him everything he knows. "That Oscar," says Chalky.
A light comes on in the house. "Haven of grace," Daughter explains to a puzzled Chalky (and to anyone else who didn’t take French throughout his time in the Canadian school system that that’s what "Havre de Grace" means). Another guy approaches the car from the house, telling them they can get out. Chalky’s still pretty wary, and the guy introduces himself as Winston, but everybody calls him "Scrapper," for reasons unknown. It’s not my experience that people are unaware of why they get the nicknames they do, so let’s assume he’s being a little bashful. He’s Oscar’s nephew.
I know it’s late Nucky, but both the drawl and the idiomatic way of speaking ("There’s a skunk in your cellar") clearly identifies this midnight call as coming from Gaston Means. So when Nucky says, "Who is this?" I imagined it the way Jerry Seinfeld would play dumb on the other end of a phone call from George Constanza screaming about his shenanigans. Gaston doesn’t identify himself, but asks if Nucky would like to know his name. "Means, is that you?" he asks. YES IT’S MEANS, WHO ELSE COULD IT POSSIBLY BE, NUCKY.
Means -- sitting in a darkened room, as we hear muffled voices of people nearby -- sets the price at $50,000, a fair price given "the incendiary nature" of the revelation. Nucky’s pissed at being woken up. As the voices and footsteps get louder and closer, Means says, "$75,000." Nucky’s all, "You just said fifty!" and asks if Means is drunk. "Sober as a judge," says Means, explaining he’s selling information on a certain individual he is uniquely qualified to provide. Now someone is hammering on Means’ door, yelling for him to open up, and he frantically raises the price to $200,000 and then to half a million, by which point a pissed-off Nucky hangs up. But that doesn’t mean he’s not concerned about what Means just said.
That’s when detectives or agents or whoever they are crash down the basement stairs, shining their flashlights on Means at his desk, pointing their guns at him. "Who has sent you grim-visaged thuggees?" he asks. Not that he can actually see their faces, given the flashlights, but that’s OK. "Was it Mellon? The attorney general? That un-weaned whelp Hoover?" One of the agents turns on the basement light. "United States Capitol Police," he says, flashing a badge. Means asks what the supposed transgression is. "Perjury before a Senate committee in March", he is told. "To what precise aspect is exception to my testimony being taken", he wants to know. As the men haul Means to his feet, the officer in charge simply says, "All of it," which is a pretty good line, too.
Back at the Albatross, Sid comes in and asks Nucky if everything’s OK. "Smell any skunks out there?" Nucky asks. Sid’s not the brightest guy in the world, but in fairness to him he doesn’t know Nucky’s question is metaphorical (and rhetorical), so he says he doesn’t think skunks walk on sand, which is kind of an odd dismissal.
The day is breaking in Havre de Grace, with Daughter on the porch looking out at what Chalky, putting a shawl over her shoulders, and tells her it is the Susquehanna River. In the growing daylight, we can see the white house where they’ve taken refuge is rundown and in bad need of a paint job. But that’ll have to wait until Daughter and Chalky are talking about the freedom of lucky water or whatever the fuck. Then an elderly man is being led out on to the porch by his men and assisted into his chair (he seems to be almost blind) by Scrapper. And it’s Louis Goddamn Gossett Jr.!
Oscar tells Chalky to come closer, which he does, pulling up a chair beside him. Oscar clasps Chalky’s arm and pats his neck. "I know what you’re thinking," he says. Oscar asks, "The fuck happened to him?" Sorry, Lou, but it works on many levels! Chalky and Oscar chuckle and jaw for a second about getting old, and then Oscar -- calling Chalky "Albert" -- asks when the last time he was here was. Chalky says it was when it was his youngest one was born -- nine years ago. "She the one getting married?" asks Oscar, and Chalky indignantly points out that you don’t marry off a 9-year-old. Oscar says he saw it happen over on Queen Street in Charleston. "They fought the war over that," says Chalky, and Oscar tells him that’s not why they fought that war, and that Chalky’s too smart to be that dumb.
Oscar squints in Daughter’s direction and asks her name. She tells him, and he’s a little taken aback. "I had a blue tick coon once. Didn’t call him 'Hound'," Oscar says. Oh, you’ll bury us all, Mr. Boneau! Then he asks her what she looks like. "I can’t see my hand in front of my face. You got to tell me," he explains. Daughter still doesn’t know what to say, and Chalky jumps in to say she’s a beauty. "I don’t doubt it", says Oscar, while Daughter demurely bows her head.
Oscar then calls for one of his men -- Weems -- and asks if "Ayleese" has shown up yet. "Her day off", says Weems, so Oscar asks "Bluetick" if she cooks. "If I have to", she says, warily, but not without a little humor. Oscar tells her she’d better get to it, and sends the rest of the men off with her. Scrapper asks his uncle if he wants him to stay, but Oscar points out that if he wants that, he says that.
Once everyone’s gone, Oscar asks Chalky why he came here. "What you told me," Chalky explains, and Oscar points out he told him a lot, but doesn’t know what he heard. "Never trust no buckras, no matter what," says Chalky bitterly. (I can add "buckras" to the list of old words I’ve learned from this show!) "Never trust no browns neither," says Oscar. Chalky tells him he was right on both counts. Through a window, Scrapper glowers.
At Gillian’s place, Leander Whitlock is telling her she needs to be realistic. Apparently there’s an offer on the house, but Gillian thinks $37,000 is too low for a house like this. Whitlock points out that her assertion that there’s not a house like it for fifty miles is not to its advantage, not to mention they need a buyer who’s not inclined to ask too many questions. She says the Commodore 64 wouldn’t have thought it a good price, and Whitlock counters that "Louis" would have made the best of a bad situation. For Gillian, though, she’s got to raise a child on it and support herself for the rest of her life. (Sounds like a job is out of the question?)
Whitlock delicately inquires about the new person in her life, and she tells him it’s none of his concern. "It’s not about love, it’s about finances", he says. "If that’s how you feel, Leander, I pity you," she says, and then checks with her lawyer, coming up the stairs to talk about the custody case. He tells her that if she loses she can appeal, citing concerns about the suitability of the Sagorskys, or a change in circumstances, such as the sale of the house -- the resources could tie things up for years. But Gillian’s not impressed with where Tommy will be while things are tied up in appeal -- with her, with the Sagorskys, or in a "benevolent institution." "The Trenton Home for Friendless Children", she scoffs, and I was going to make a joke about what a terrible made-up name that is, but nope, turns out that’s what they were often called back then. "Do you know what it’s like there? Because I do. I do," she says.
Whitlock harrumphs that this conversation is about the future, and Gillian starts going on about how childhood doesn’t last. Nothing lasts. "He won’t even remember," she begins, and then turns back to her lawyer to ask, "Years?" The lawyer might as well have dollar signs for pupils as he starts talking about time, money and persistence, and Gillian tunes him out and starts looking into the middle distance (which I guess really is just the wall along the staircase), and then closes the door.
Over to the coffee shop, where Eli is laying out for Knox the principals in the heroin smuggling up from Florida, and is at least explaining the other guys involved put the whole thing in place and left Nucky no choice. Eli talks about Narcisse, "this dinge they got," and how everything runs through him. Knox doesn’t believe that Nucky "takes orders from a colored." Eli explains that Nucky can’t walk away from the money.
"OK, so what about Chicago?" asks Knox, and Eli says they’re not part of it. That the $10,000 a month to Torrio and Capone is just paying off a debt. Knox accepts that, and muses about how New York, Atlantic City and Tampa will have to be enough. "I need them all in a room, Eli. Making plans to operate in collusion across state lines," says Knox, but Eli doesn’t think Nucky will bite. "He talks about peace. He doesn’t mean it. He never has," says Eli. Knox asks if Eli admires that, and Eli suggests Knox would understand if he’d grown up in their house, with newspapers for blankets and eating stolen potatoes for supper or no supper at all. "You’re not starving now," says Knox, and since that’s a good point, Eli goes back to how Nucky’s his brother. "He’s not the father of your son", counters Knox. Eli hangs his head, and says Eli did keep Willie out of jail. Knox reminds him that Clayton Davies’ trial is coming up, and wouldn’t it be a shame if Davies’ lawyer finds out about the evidence someone was paid to suppress? Once he’s done threatening Willie, Knox gets up to leave, but pauses to tell Eli he smells of whisky. "Lay off it. You’re no good to me like that," he says.
Gillian’s skulking about a residential neighborhood filled with bucolic sounds of birds chirping and children playing. She finds a toy soldier on the ground and places it with the rest of his unit, and the sound of something crunchy causes her to turn around. There’s Tommy, munching on some toast. "You know me, don’t you?" she asks. "You’re Memaw," he says, using a regional Atlantic City term for "crazy lady who tried to kidnap me from school." She presses him to be a little more specific. Is she his mother? "No", says Tommy. She’s gone. "How about your father?" asks Gillian. Tommy doesn’t know where he is. "I don’t know either. Isn’t it terrible?" asks Gillian. Nice of her to show up to remind Tommy he’s an orphan.
Gillian asks Tommy to come to her. It takes him a moment, but he comes, and she’s barely crouched and put her arms around him, when we hear Richard rasp, "Don’t touch him." Startled, and saddened, she steps back, and Richard pulls Tommy away, and steps menacingly towards her. "You wouldn’t. Not in front of him," she says, but she’s not completely confident. Richard tells her to leave, and she asks if this is how he planned it: to take away everything that matters. Richard says he didn’t plan anything.
Julie moves to go, but not before approaching Tommy while reaching into her purse. Richard grabs her wrist, and she’s holding dog tags. Jimmy’s, of course, that she wants to give Tommy, to remember. Richard can’t really argue with that, so he relents, and Gillian presses them into her grandson’s hand, telling Tommy to keep them safe. Then she notices and calls attention to the ring on Richard’s finger. "And you’ll both … take good care of him," she says, faltering a little. She takes another look at Tommy, then walks up the driveway, not looking back, looking like she’s doing all she can to keep from falling apart. I imagine at least part of her is thinking, "Even Half-Face can get married!"
Eli and his family pull up at the Albatross, which is guarded by several men with guns. "Are those men coming to dinner, too?" asks the young kid. (What’s his name? Shermy? Dink? Whatever.) Everyone enjoys a smile at the fact that Uncle Nucky is a dangerous and targeted criminal who needs goons patrolling the beach, and they get out of the car. June notes Eli’s pissy look and asks what’s wrong. His story is that he doesn’t like to have to haul all the way out there. "He’s making a gesture," says June. Eli notes it’s more of an effort for them than for Nucky, and June is all, "You two!" and disgustedly walks off. Nucky comes out on the porch to be charming with his nieces and nephews, and everyone goes inside.
In Havre de Grace, everyone’s sitting down for dinner (except Daughter, naturally, who’s slaving away in the kitchen) while Oscar rides Winston’s ass about fixing the roof or whatever else, since the house will be going to him. Oscar notes he keeps nothing in his own name, while the house used to belong to Winston’s mother, Eulalia, who died twelve years ago, after which he raised Oscar. "I’d have made a place for you, Oscar, you know that," says Chalky. Only it turns out that Oscar didn’t know that, but it doesn’t matter, because he came her because he wanted to. "When you’re done, you’re done," he says. "Natural fact", says Weems.
Oscar’s on a roll, lambasting Chalky for going into business with a smiling "ofay" and a "biggity-da-da-da" from New York. "Just a tangle of vipers", he says. Chalky tries to tell him that things are different now, but Oscar is in every way your cantankerous uncle who wants to tell you the world’s gone to hell. He won’t listen, telling Chalky he came down here with his "easy rider woman" (Chalky and Daughter exchange a glance here) because he didn’t know where to turn. "I come to you for help, Oscar," says Chalky, quietly, and Oscar gestures around the table and wonders where this help is that Chalky’s expecting. Scrapper suggests going down the river to "wash them boys away," but Oscar chides him for not having any sense.
Then Grandpa Charming here complains that the chicken’s as "dry as Grandma’s snatch," which is simile I hope to purge from my mind forever, and starts yelling at Ayleese and has to be reminded that Ayleese isn’t there today. Daughter icily reintroduces herself as "the easy rider," and Oscar starts laughing. "Sure hope she’s worth it, Arthur. She sure can’t cook worth a damn," he says, and the other men at the table snicker while Chalky says nothing and Daughter looks pissed.
Roy Phillips answers a knock at his apartment door to find a hyper Gillian excitedly babbling about how she’s been out walking around and visiting places she hasn’t been in years. Naturally, his first instinct is to politely try to find out if she’s high. "I’m free. I’m finally free," she says. She seems genuinely happy for someone who just gave up her grandson!
Nucky’s on the deck of the Albatross, watching the family frolic on the beach, when Eli comes out to stand around gloomily. Nucky apologizes for the inconvenience, but Eli half-heartedly says it’s not a big deal. Talk quickly turns to complaining about Chalky, and what an inconvenience it seems to be for Nucky that Narcisse is trying to kill him. Not that Nucky’s any happier about Narcisse ordering him around. "There is no peace," says Nucky. "We squeaked by last time. You ready for that again?" asks Eli. Nucky asks if he should just roll over, but Eli wants his brother to hear him out. "Let’s get everyone to sit down. Us, New York, Florida, work out terms," he says. Maybe now’s the time to work everything all out, like Nucky suggested when they were still at the Ritz. "I’m not at the Ritz anymore," says Nucky. "Don’t you want it back?" asks Eli. Eli does. "All of it", he says, adding that Nucky should set it up now while he’s still got a hand to play.
Nucky seems to be considering it, but in the meantime he wants to know who Eli doesn’t trust. Eli takes a moment before asking why Nucky’s even asking. "Because I’m curious," says Nucky, and Eli says, "Bader." Like, NO SHIT, BADER. Nucky says Bader’s nothing. "I’ll deal with Bader," he warns. Deal… with terminal prejudice! Then he tells Eli about Means’ warning about the skunk in the cellar. Eli dismisses Means as a "bunco artist" confirmed for him (not that he doesn’t have his own skin in the game, literally) when Nucky tells him Means wanted $200,000 for the identity (guess he didn’t hear Means jack up the price one more time). Eli tells Nucky to pay it if he thinks it’s worth it.
But Nucky already figures it’s "the prohi" reminding Eli of his own reservations about Knox. Eli chalks that up now to being during "the whole Eddie thing" now he says Knox likes the money like anyone else. Nucky says it’ll all be Eli’s headache one day. "You off somewhere?" asks Eli, but before Nucky can respond, Willie shows up because June wants to know where the chafing dishes are. Nucky goes inside to help.
Gillian and Roy are out for dinner. Gillian is jabbering on about the sale of the house, sounding like she’s trying to convince herself that she’s getting the best deal she can hope for right now, not to mention how she thinks Tommy will likely be better off. "And maybe someday…" she says, and then can’t let herself finish that wistful sentence, and chides herself for nattering, which she says isn’t an appealing quality. Aw, Gillian, I was kidding! Although you’d think Gillian would know that any guy who doesn’t like a woman talking a lot probably isn’t going to be any more thrilled when she starts shoveling food into her mouth, like she does here. My feeling is talking and eating are two of the greatest things in the world, so go nuts.
Roy tells her she made the right decision, and he’s happy for her. She tells him he doesn’t look happy, which he thinks is funny because he got what he wanted, finally. "Merger’s going through. A&P’s gonna buy us out for a pretty staggering price," he says. Turns out Buddy who Roy was trying to impress by being fake-married to Gillian was pretending to be in favor of the merger but was against it from the start, and he finally got the boot, and after that it was smooth sailing. "Big bonus for me," says Roy, and maybe now Gillian’s smaller sale price doesn’t seem like such an issue for her. Or maybe it is. She asks why they’re not celebrating then and he says it’s because he hates when things end, and what’s ending is what he was sent here for. Gillian asks where he’s going now. "Wherever they send me," he says.
Gillian’s finally clear-headed enough to ask, "Have you been lying to me?" She’s talking about his wife. "I didn’t lie about that", says Roy, who then starts talking about how she’s been through so much and she’s so brave and she’s so beautiful. It sounds like the preamble to an it’s-not-you-you’re-great-it’s-me dumping, and Gillian knows it too. "What an awfully gallant goodbye," she says. But Roy insists he’s not saying goodbye. (What then? "Smell ya later"?) But no, he’s doubling down! He does have to leave, he says, but he wants her to come with him, and marry him. For realsies this time! The camera pushes in on Gillian, not quite believing it yet. "What’s stopping you from asking?" she asks. Roy looks kind of hilariously discombobulated and shoots back "Hell, I thought I just did!" Now she smiles, and even laughs. Meanwhile, the audience gets an uneasy feeling, knowing Roy’s up to know good.
Over at the Albatross, everyone’s having a grand ol’ time in the dining room, apparently trying to get Willie to spill some secrets about what goes on in the mayor’s office. Willie looks to Nucky to see if he should dish any dirt. Nucky’s all pointedly, "I’d say we’re all pretty good at keeping things close to the vest." I’m half-surprised he didn’t add "Like not telling anyone about killing your school chum with poison." Then one of the little Thompsons indignantly says, "I can keep my mouth shut!" and everyone laughs at that, because snitches get stitches.
So Willie goes and blabs that the mayor will close his door and walk around without his pants on so as not to get them wrinkled, which I’ve seen everywhere from Casino to Seinfeld, so yawn. Nucky calls it a "winning campaign strategy." Eli cracks a joke about how Bacharach is going to "beat the pants off him" and is so adorably happy that his dad joke gets a genuine laugh from his family. And then he repeats the punch line half to himself which is THE EXACT SAME THING MY DAD DOES and you’ll have to excuse me because I have to go call my dad so we can long-distance-watch Field of Dreams again.
Then, like any good family dinner, it’s make-fun-of-Dad time, centering on Eli’s propensity for treating any little sniffle like it’s the end of the world, and June laughingly recounting how the insurance salesman played him like a fiddle, asking, "What happens to your family?" Nucky’s rather interested in June’s tale of the baby-faced insurance salesman, not to mention how Eli’s good humor has instantly become anger as he tells June to shut her goddamn mouth for once. June’s shocked, and the rest of the family sits still, staring at their plates. Eli desperately tries to soften it by saying, "Enough with the teasing, that’s all." Nucky looks thoughtful.
In Havre de Grace, Chalky strolls into the living room, where the men he’s put his hopes in are variously playing checkers, talking about a "rendezvous in Baltimore" and trying to get a nap on a couch. Not a fearsome bunch, it must be said, especially since it sounds like they’ll be down a man once Weems (who’s the one planning the Balmer Rendezvous) gets "all lushed" down there tonight.
I guess Chalky decides that not playing checkers won’t improve the situation because he sits down and plays, while getting questioned by Winston about how Chalky’s "the biggedy man" who Oscar talks about like he’s family. "Well, we go back," explains Chalky. Winston, looking hard at Chalky, says he’s not afraid of anything. Levi tells Chalky, "Your move." He’s talking about more than just checkers! Chalky sees Daughter going for a stroll outside, and elects to let Winston take over for him…
…so he can go talk to Daughter, who’s staring out at the Susquehanna. After he assures her that it’s not so much that Oscar doesn’t like her cooking as it is Oscar being from a different time (not the enlightened '20s). She wants to know what they’re doing, and he says they’re waiting. "For what? You got a family, a girl getting married," she points out. She’s not buying that he’s quit of Atlantic City like he’s saying he is, and when she asks if he doesn’t want those men dead -- the one he calls an enemy and the one he calls a friend, which gives us an idea of where things sit with Nucky as far as Chalky is concerned -- he can’t disagree.
But, after he harshly reminds her that the man who saved her is also the man who took her mother’s life, she says she wants to leave and never look back. "All you gotta do is say it," she says. They’re interrupted by Winston, who says Oscar’s really restless and looking for him.
A giddy Roy and Gillian stroll through a parking garage, making their plans for the future -- they’ll live in Japan! No, California! In a house that’s smaller than the one Gillian has now, but still big enough for her! Now they’re making out against the side of the car, like maybe they could at least try to get home before they start rutting? Just as Roy gets the car started, a drunken Hewson -- speak of the devil! Gillian and Roy were just talking about you! -- staggers into view, snidely asking if Roy is out celebrating with his whore. "I lost my job because of you!" says Hewson. Roy’s already pulling out a gun, when Hewson -- reaching into his own jacket -- starts ranting about how he’ll show Phillips what it’s like to lose everything. Roy shoots him, killing him. Gillian gasps, and then she urges a freaked-out Roy to get in the car and they peel on out of there, leaving a little vulcanized rubber behind.
At the Albatross, Willie’s outside having a cigarette, and Nucky jokingly busts him on it, and then uncle and nephew have a smoke together. It’s Willie who addresses the elephant in the room. "What do you think that was about?" he asks. Nucky advises him not to take it too seriously, because it’s always been easy to get Eli’s goat. "Just mention Mary Anne Nolan to him," he says. Willie doesn’t know what Nucky is talking about, so his uncle explains that she was Eli’s 8th grade crush. He even wrote her a poem. "Happy day when I found it," says Eli. Uh, we’re going to hear this poem at some point, right? And we can imagine Eli as a pimply squeaky-voiced teen delivering it, right?
Nucky tells Willie his dad is right to worry, since you have to worry about what’s going to happen after you’re gone. That’s Nucky’s smooth way of pressing for a little information about "that insurance fella" who "sounds like a real sharpie." Nucky asks if Willie’s ever seen him before (he hasn’t) and the tone of questioning creases Willie’s brow. Nucky says whatever Willie tells him is between them, like they agreed. Willie looks like he’s about to say something but hesitates and then they’re interrupted again by June on a little domestic errand, letting Nucky know everything’s put away. Willie reflexively hides his cigarette, and June announces that she hasn’t seen anything, but Willie tosses the cigarette aside and heads up the steps into the hotel anyway.
In Havre de Grace, Oscar is lamenting all the free time he has. Turns out he’s not up to much -- just a little moonshining, running some numbers, but it doesn’t amount to much. Chalky asks where all his money went, and Oscar says he never made as much as Chalky thinks. "I took in what the Commodore 64 let me take in. I had no choice," says Oscar. Chalky tells him the Commodore 64 (I just think that's funny) has been gone for three years, and then both men have a chuckle when Oscar says he doesn’t miss him at all. Oscar asks about Chalky doing his business with "the Thompson boy." Chalky bitterly says that he helped Nucky plenty, and Oscar asks how "that buckra" paid him back. Chalky’s silence is the only answer he gives, and then he asks Oscar what to do now. Oscar advises him to stay here and build something up, but Chalky says that’s for Oscar’s nephew. But Oscar says Winston won’t amount to anything, and Chalky should stay here and "cut that woman loose, before she do you in proper." Chalky says Daughter is not to blame. "Well, then you are", is Oscar’s retort. Then he gives up and tells Chalky to do what he wants, because it all ends up the same anyway; everybody runs out of road someday. You might even say, never say die, iron eagle. Nothing’s forever, now or ever.
At the Albatross, the family Thompson is loading back up into the car for the drive home (part of me had initially thought that Nucky and Eli had ordered them all to come stay there for safety). You’ll notice Willie may be a university dropout who killed a man, but he’s not grown up enough to thank his Uncle Nucky for dinner without prompting from his mom! Then it’s just June and Nucky and the porch, and June forgoes any small talk to just come right out and say Eli’s drinking again. She wishes he wouldn’t, since it puts him in a mood. "Willie quitting school", she says. It weighs on her too, I’d guess, but I think she’s citing it as the reason for Eli’s drinking. Nucky offers to talk to Eli, but June tells him not to. She thanks him for a day off (even though she apparently did all the work) and gets in the car. Eli’s already behind the wheel, but Nucky calls for him. Eli reluctantly gets out and goes to see what’s up.
Nucky slowly walks down the steps. "Tell me what you want to hear. I’ll whisper softly in your ear. All the things I’ll pledge to you, to prove to you my heart is true," he says. There it is! Aw, I was hoping it would be worse. Eli doesn’t go ape shit, though. He sort of chuckles and asks what Nucky’s bringing it up for. "To see how you react," says Nucky, which is true for reasons poor Eli doesn’t suspect yet. Eli protests that he was 13-years-old and she was cute. Nucky confesses that he might have been jealous. "I didn’t win the beach patrol cup," says Nucky. I don’t know what that is, but a beach patrol cup won by a 13-year-old sounds hilarious! Eli’s surprised at the possibility that his brother might have been jealous, and tells Nucky he was good at other things.
Nucky looks at his brother for a good, long moment, and then tells him he’s thought the meeting over. "You put it together, as soon as you can," he says. Eli says he thinks it’s the best way out of this, and the brothers look at each other some more, before Eli walks away. Willie looks out the window at his pensive uncle as the car drives off.
In Havre de Grace, Chalky sits on the bed where Daughter is sleeping, and he sighs heavily. She’s awake though, and sits up, saying it feels funny. "Like a cloud that’s looking for the sky," she says. Oh, God, here we go. Chalky says tomorrow they’ll do what she said, at first light. "We go. Don’t turn back." She caresses his neck, and leans in for a kiss.
At Gillian’s house -- on that majestic staircase, which is where everything happens -- Roy is sitting, head in his hands. Julia climbs the steps and tells him she thought she heard a car, but there was nothing there. "No one saw us. I’m sure of that," she says. She notes he hasn’t touched his drink. "Go ahead. You need it," she says. He drinks his whiskey, looking inconsolable, and asking what did he do. "He was going to kill us," points out Gillian, but Roy says she doesn’t know that. He didn’t actually see a gun. "I killed a man. I took his life," he moans, and wonders if he should call the police. Let’s just say Gillian puts the kibosh on that idea, despite Roy’s wailing that the guy’s just lying on the pavement. "You can’t go away, you hear me?" she says.
He tells her that it’s too late, and she kneels in front of him and assures him that no one was there. No one knows, and he can just let it go. Get away with it. "I saw me. God saw me," says Roy. She tells him he can live with it…and then it’s confession time for Gillian, who says there was no one coming to save her, and there were things she had to do to survive. Roy asks what she’s saying, and she tells him it wasn’t her son who died here, but an innocent boy she drowned and passed off as her own. "You and I are here, together. That’s all that matters. Don’t leave me," she pleads. Roy asks who the boy was, and Gillian says his name was Roger. "You can make yourself live with anything," she says.
Roy looks at her for a moment, while she stares up at him beseechingly, and then says, "You get that?" At which point some suit comes up the stairs. "I did", he says. "David?" asks Roy, and then there’s the formerly dead Hewson standing at the top of the stairs. "Loud and clear," he says. Roy tells an extremely confused Gillian that he’s with the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and these men are his associates who heard her confession for first-degree murder. Wow, the days before wires, huh? I like the thought of these associates of Roy’s hanging out every single day since he met Gillian, just waiting for this confession.
While Gillian continues to babble that they’re going to California, Roy explains he was hired to do a job…and Leander Whitlock appears at the top of the stairs. "I owed Louis something. I’m sure you can understand that," he says, and Gillian starts backing away in horror. "You really are a courageous woman," says Roy, who reeeallly might want think about shutting the fuck up right now. Perhaps not surprisingly, Gillian lunges for him, and then she flees down the stairs, wailing, and it takes three Pinkertons to subdue her, and the whole time you can’t help think, "I know she killed a guy, but damn, she doesn’t get a break."
Moonlight. Havre de Grace. Everyone’s asleep. Things creak. The dog stirs. Let’s call the dog Iron Beagle! Chalky rolls over, restless, sits up, and then notices Daughter’s not beside him. He creeps through the house, not finding her -- and Oscar’s not on the couch -- and then out on the porch, where he finds Oscar sitting in a rocking chair with a shotgun. Oscar says he can’t sleep. Chalky points out that doesn't exactly explain the shotgun, and Oscar tells him that his blue tick's gone. Chalky asks how he knows that. "I know every sound this house makes, including the leavin' kind," says Oscar. Chalky’s all, "You didn’t stop her!?" and Oscar asks why he would. One more person for you to criticize, Oscar, if nothing else.
Then he starts pacing the deck, which naturally concerns Chalky, who asks what he’s doing. Oscar starts walking up the driveway. "Weems ain’t go to no Baltimore," he mutters. Chalky is telling him not to go walking off in the dark -- not that it would really make much difference to a blind man -- and then a twig snaps.
"What you want? This ain’t your place!" yells Oscar. He keeps yelling, demanding to know why these unseen people are here -- and then, chillingly, yells they’re there for the girl. "She’s not there", Oscar yells, and someone yells they’ll take the other one then. Oscar cocks his shotgun, but then he’s shot and goes down. Chalky gets his gun and shoots the one who emerges from the bushes, and then thing we know there are three men shooting at him while he retreats to the house. "Your nappy head on the doctor’s desk!" yells one, who’s then cut down by Scrapper, who’s got a shotgun of his own, and then there’s Levi running out and shooting the other two.
Chalky looks on while Winston goes to his uncle’s body and rolls him over. Oscar’s dead. Levi kneels beside the corpse. "I told him how I was," Winston tells Chalky.
The audio from a phone call between Nucky and Sally comes in while a grim-faced Chalky is still looking out over the driveway. Then we see the long-distance lovers themselves, Nucky having called in the middle of the night again. Nucky says he’s been thinking. "The later it gets, the worse that is," sighs Sally, who still asks what’s on his mind. Nucky sighs and takes a moment to answer, and finally says, "I want out." Blood in, blood out, Nucky. You know this!
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. Against all odds, he’ll come out on top, because he never learned the meaning of what meant "stop." Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.