Boardwalk Empire ‘Ourselves Alone’: Flexing the Biceps

Last night’s episode of Boardwalk Empire re-established this season’s theme, which is the assault on Nucky Thompson’s position of power. We saw a number of characters reveal their alliances, and none of it bodes well for Nucky. Elsewhere, we learned of a similar plan that appears to be taking place in New York, and Jimmy’s possible involvement in that, in addition to the power struggle initiated by The Commodore, who not only wants revenge, but wants to prove he is the most powerful man in Atlantic City.

The scene with The Commodore lifting the tusk is representative of a number of trends we see in Boardwalk Empire: there are a number of men who like to flex power when they need to prove something (as he shows by lifting the tusk over his head), but it’s clear they are never really able to do it all by themselves – if you watched closely, the person the Commodore challenged to lift the tusk did the majority of the lifting, while the Commodore merely lifted from his shoulder to over his head. The Commodore knows he can’t do this alone – in fact, he’s only confident he can do this because of the boatload of support behind him at the moment. It’s an interesting idea that we’ll see play out over the rest of the season, as the many chess pieces on the board continue to align themselves.

Like many shows in their second season, Boardwalk is increasing their scope, including more characters in New York and AC, in addition to broader strokes, like the visit by the uppity IRA representative who came to Nucky (fresh out of his night in the can after being arrested for election fraud) looking for money, like anyone else. It’s not clear yet whether this IRA connection will prove fruitful later on, but for now, we’ll have a little more Irish in the show with his assistant Owen Slater hanging around.

This alliance with a certain nationality is another element we’re going to see play out this season. There is a lot of racial undertones to many alliances in this show, and with Nucky’s speeches to both black and white audiences last week, there are some unsteady feelings about the state of race relations in Atlantic City. More importantly, Nucky’s IRA connections could come in handy if the Commodore decides to reach out to the Italian households of Chicago and New York. There must be a larger purpose to bringing in the IRA then a simple meeting and check writing, and I’m hoping there are threads here to be picked up as the season progresses.

Speaking of Irish, Margaret’s mysterious background might be getting some well-deserved attention this season. She mentions her family is ‘apparently’ here, and it’s not clear if she is referring to her kin, or simply the children and her relationship with Mr. Thompson. There is a lot to be explained here, including the disturbing information revealed last season on her immigration papers from Ellis Island (which suggested she was pregnant and very sick upon arrival to the States). I also think we’re going to see Margaret struggle with her identity a bit. I never thought we’d see her talk down so harshly to the household help, and that, paired with her dangerous (if well-intentioned behavior) at Nucky’s office while it was being searched, leads me to believe Margaret is changing, and hasn’t really caught up to the idea yet. It may be an interesting struggle, or may merely remain a footnote during a very busy season.

The other major theme of this episode dealt with the flexing of power by the many other characters, from Lucky Luciano, to the Commodore, and especially Chalky White. Still in jail after the shooting in the last episode, Chalky had lots of on-screen time to sneer at a pesky fellow prisoner who continued to question everything about who Chalky was. While it was fun to see Chalky have a Game of Thrones moment (remember when Catelyn Stark calls out all the families in the tavern to arrest Tyrian Lannister? Very similar scene here), I wasn’t sure what else this scene showed about Chalky, except he knows every black person in Atlantic City, and is as brutal as he is educated.

So what did people think of last night’s episode? It was again quite slow, and had the obligatory throat-slashing and super gory beating scenes we’re growing accustomed to. There hasn’t been a lot of visual style this season, much of the time because the action is focused around long conversations. Michael Pitt continues to get a lot of screen time, and a lot of pouting lips comes with it – a trait I’m hoping it doesn’t grow into caricature in the following weeks. Overall a decent episode, but there needs to be some movement in the next few episodes to crank up the tension, because right now, it is sllooooow going.

Few other thoughts:

– Anyone miss Van Alden in this episode? I sure didn’t, although I am looking forward to his queasiness as Lucy Danziger gets more pregnant, and more attached to his weirdness.

– Had a hard time understanding Luciano in this episode a few times, where his accent and manner of talk mangled a few of his lines. Luciano always acts like an impatient and twitchy guy, but fuck, can I please hear the lines?

– There needs to be a petition made to replace both the “previously on…” track and the credits. Neither track fits the show (one is some electronica crap, the other a surfy, light California rock tune), and it really keeps you from entering the otherwise meticulously detailed world of 1920s New Jersey right as the episode begins.

– oh when oh when, is Chicago going to make their alliance known? I’m patiently waiting to see what happens there.