Boardwalk Empire

I am finally caught up on this, the hurricane really screwed with my TV watching since I didn't have cable and therefore my DVR didn't record anything.

Prediction on Richard: Nucky finds out who told Gyp where he was meeting Rothstein/Luciano and tells Richard if he helps him he'll give him Tommy to raise as his own (I think it's pretty obvious Richard despises Gillian and genuinely cares about Tommy). Richard's been having visions of raising Tommy with his new gal pal and Nuck will give him the avenue to doing that: kill Gyp.

Nuck doesn't know it yet, but he's in a two-horse race. I have no idea how they have Nucky find out, but he will and it'll let his balls drop again, start devising a plan and he'll make his move.

Maybe it's just because I love the actor and character, but my gut tells me Eli does something wild to win his brother's good graces again (which he's started to do, but I feel like he still thinks unappreciated and like Nuck is holding something against him) and it is the move that sways the war with Gyp.

They better have Chaulky do some diabolical stuff. They had that build-up with his daughter/her fiance that basically said "Chaulky is a gangster, he'll always be a gangster, and he likes it that way," and then....nothing.

That's my only complaint this season, storylines that just kind of....die. Or at least drop off the landscape for a month at a time before coming right back to the forefront.

I really hope someone kills Gillian, though, her character is insufferable.

And excellent point on dying storylines. One of the only drawbacks of such a large, diverse cast. I'd completely forgotten about Chalky's daughter and that whole thing. There's also the birth control storyline that seems to have disappeared (but you have to imagine that'll get picked back up, and that storyline was boring anyway).

Yeah, Richard wouldn't hurt a woman. He has more of a tendency to over-idolize women, worship the idea of the woman, and sometimes this unnerves me a little.

Chalky needs to be brought back into the action. Stat.

I'm not sure you should be counting the feds as part of Nuck's backing. Mellon made it very clear that there is to be no contact and he's just backing the distillery operation, nothing more.

To expect Mellon to aid Nuck's war against another bootlegger, though? Can't see that happening.

Just a clarification: Remus is based out of Cincy, but he has ties to Torrio & Chicago organized crime. He was the one who supplied Chicago with the booze, so the rest of the theory about Capone taking the place of him still stands.

I forgot he lived in Cincy. I just associated him with supplying Chicago, so I just went with him living there.

Loving this show. Have avoided the thread because of being behind. Didn't watch last night but all the episodes so far have been fantastic. I love Richard and Van Alden. I'm hoping that at some point Richard kills Gillian.

I think something more likely to happen would be drunk vet dad kills Julie/Julia and then Richard kills him. Maybe the dad pushes her down the stairs or hits her and she cracks her skull on the table or something.

Either way...I don't see Richard ending up happy and going off into the sunset. Something will trigger him to kill again.

^AHHHHHH!

It was both. I thought you knew what was coming. LOL. You were right about everything else with Margaret.

I don't think she'd do that though. Dangerous times then to be getting one of those and all.

Strap in, folks. This will probably be long even for me.

The idea of Margaret ending up with an abortion makes a ton of sense. I was thinking about the entirety of her storyline this season, and one of the main themes of her character is her forced reliance on males. Nucky gives her all her money. She had to get the bishop's permission to hold her class and only after she found the doctor who was willing to help. She needed the doctor to get her diaphragm. Owen was her only way to escape Nucky's oppression. She can't hide the pregnancy from Nucky, and he has certainly figured out that something was going on. A child could potentially push him over the edge to kick her out which would leave her a single mother of three (one of which has disabilities). This is a rough road now much less in the mid 20s, so she is suddenly beholden to Nucky again now that Owen has died. The abortion could serve to help her avoid Nucky's wrath and keep her and her kids in the house. As karosko stated, an abortion at this time would be super dangerous. She could end up seriously ill or dead. I doubt the death due Nucky needing a female relationship, and a new one is unlikely due to Billie dying so recently.

Moreover, thinking about this today has made me think on the role of children in the show. They seem to be present in most of the households in the show, and they tend to be rather important to some of the main character's development. Tommy at once anchors Richard to Gillian while also serving as a symbol of the potential life he can have as a family man. He also serves as a surrogate for Gillian to pretend to be young again as his "mother". Al's son being deaf forces him to realize he has a need for some compassion despite outwardly wanting to be the straight crazy gangster (side note: the scene where he sings to his son is top 5 for this season easily). As mentioned previously, Margaret's kids (especially her daughter) make her increasingly reliant on Nucky despite hating him more and more. Chalky's daughter illustrated how a powerful man can be made to be felt inferior in his own home. Eli's son working added to the depth of Eli's feelings of worthlessness after returning from prison. Van Alden screwed up his whole life over his kid and is currently putting himself at great personal risk to provide for his new family.

Ok, back on topic, I thought Means was totally done for as well. The suicide makes sense but was still surprising. It was nice to see Means squirm a little after so consistently looking in control for the entire season. It also seemingly wraps up that part of the storyline in a neat bow. The AG and Nucky should be safe for a little while at least.

Owen dying off-camera was totally okay with me. It kind of sucked for me because it was one of the times in which history spoiled what would happen a little. Even so, i stated last week that Margaret and Owen would not end well and Owen's body being delivered in a box certainly qualifies as such. The reason for doing it off-screen is probably due to wanting to leave the fate of the Treasury Agent up in the air. He is a shady guy, so it wouldn't be surprising for him to turn on Nucky. On the other hand, he is kind of a dumbass and certainly a tertiary character, so I could also see them killing him and just dumping the body somewhere and not showing us since we don't really care about him.

Eli going to Chicago does intrigue me. It will be interesting to see how he interacts with that crew. The most interesting portion of the story this episode was Van Alden's capture. They hinted toward Al making a deal with O'Bannion previously, but questioning Van Alden for information makes it seem pretty clear that he is just waiting for his chance to wipe O'Bannion out. Van Alden and Eli will have to play a role in this. Van Alden got involved with O'Bannion by chance, but he seemed honestly terrified of Capone which would be enough to get him to change teams for the coming conflict. Eli would seemingly have to help Capone in order for Capone's forces to later help Nucky.

Lansky and Luciano's jump to Masseria was surprising. It does play into the fall of Rothstein that has to happen before they can step up and which was probably sped along by him using caution were the pair of them wanted to rush forward re: the heroin trade. If it does come out, Rothstein could temporarily side with Nucky to get back at them though that does seem a little rash for the guy. One would also have to consider the long game for Luciano and Lansky. Masseria obviously loathes Lansky, so a long term partnership with him would undoubtedly require Luciano to break with Lansky which he seems unlikely to do. Side note: where the f*ck is Bugsy?

Is the guy who Nucky sent to spy on Gyp double crossing Nucky? I just ask due to the guy mentioning how Gyp's order was bigger than Nucky's. We hadn't seen the guy before to the best of my knowledge, so there's no real expectation of him staying loyal to Nucky.

Gyp seemed to be in a holding pattern this week. Another week. Another co-worker beaten to death for little to no reason. It didn't really seem to serve a purpose since the guy he killed was a nobody. Yes, the henchman was his cousin, but it seemed like a lot of screentime to devote to just setting that up.

There are two episodes left of this season if I remember right. Am I the only one who thinks that maybe this whole thing doesn't get resolved this season? Once again, they spend so long building things up that it feels like it would be a rush for everything to blow up and the dust to clear in two episodes. I could see them partially resolving the conflicts, i.e. Gyp/Nucky showdown waits while Capone/O'Bannion or Lucianksy/Rothstein get settled? I would certainly not be averse to Gyp being around another season, and Masseria seems too big for them to take down quickly.

Okay, okay. I got wind my buddy Rosko was getting mad that I was ignoring this thread. That's not the case, it was my bday on Sunday so I didn't watch the latest episode until last night. Don't worry pumpkin, I wouldn't forget about youz guys.

So much to discuss! I always knew Owen was going to die, he isn't based on a real person and therefore gets first dibs on being whacked.

Theory time: Nucky is playing Massaria for the fool. Luciano and Lansky get Nucky to get in on their heroin trade and in return they set up Massaria. Nucky knew thatt Owen and Margaret were fooling around and sent Owen into a buzzsaw on purpose. Probability that this is true: .00001%, but it was a cool idea I had.

There was a point in the show where Owen and Nucky were talking and I knew he was a dead man. I have to go back and re-watch to find it, but one specific exchange stood out and made me think this wasn't typical for Nucky ordering a hit. Granted the magnitude of the target, I still think something about the exchange was off. I'll try to find it and clarify.

Pretty much agree with everything Dave said about Chicago. Van Alden doesn't seem afraid of O'Banion, but rather he feels indebted to him. He's 100% pants-pooping scared of Capone.

Side note about Stephen Graham (the actor that plays Capone): is there a more hilarious turnaround from Tommy the half-wit in Snatch to Al f*ckin' Capone!? But I digress...

Van Alden is going to run into Eli and the two of them are going after O'Banion buddy-cop style! But seriously, they're going to do a tandem hit on O'Banion to get Capone's army, distribution and alliance.

Back to Lanksy and Lucky (too bad they're not going after O'Banion, that's a great buddy-cop show title), who I think are genuinely screwing Rothstein. I have a fantasy where Masseria gets whacked in the show the same way he did in real life (), and if that happens it'd be a tidy way to clean up the Nucky's growing troubles in NYC.

If my theory about Joe comes true, it means Gyp is a man without a country and it'd only be a matter of time before his glorious reign of auto-asphyxiation erotica, confusing & meaningless murders and thievery of historical artifacts will come to a close.

I think Margaret bangs it out with Nuck, then tells him the baby is his. Bingo bango bongo she gets a little Owen in her life ("I hope it's a boy"), Nuck gets his own child and they go back to the awkward existence they had before this season.

Side note: I have a DVD box set from National Geographic (no idea how I got it or when or from who or if it's even mine) about all the famous gangsters from the 20's (sometimes sooner) through the 40's. Half the guys on this show I have a DVD for, and they're all pretty fascinating. The way these guys are described in the DVDs is exactly how they're portrayed on the show in a lot of cases (personality wise-that is).

This is an interesting theory and I wish it would be true, but I just don't see it. Wouldn't Lucky and Lansky ask why the hell he's sending Owen to be killed? Do you really think Nuck would suffer the embarrassment of explaining to them that he's sending Owen to be killed because he f*cked his wife?

Not to mention, Nucky was still loopy right after that meeting. Do you really think he would've had the foresight to pull Lucky and Lansky aside and propose that idea? What would be the time frame for such a thing? And from Lucky and Lansky's (god that's fun to say) perspective, why would they go with Nucky for their heroin business instead of Masseria.

I do agree that it seems likely that Eli will be involved in the O'Banion hit to try to win Capone's allegiance for Nucky.