When we first see Agent Van Alden this evening, he’s quoting St. Augustine. Moments later, he’s smacking the living shit out of a potential new recruit and lying about Agent Sepso’s cause of death, claiming it was a heart attack rather than, y’know, at Van Alden’s own hand. Clearly, he’s losing it…oh, who are we kidding? He lost it long ago. One presumes, however, that a certain part of him knows he’s losing it, as he’s decided to depart the bureau. I can’t see him getting away with having murdered Sepso, however. Not with all of those witnesses.

Nucky’s pretty pissed off about the current state of affairs in the mayoral race of Atlantic City, with the democratic candidate, Fletcher, poised to take home the victory. In asking his team – which includes Chalky White – to hunt up as many potential voters as possible for his candidate, Bader, Nucky’s seething with anger over the goings-on his personal life is palpable, and it doesn’t help that he’s being constantly told that his decision to remove Eli was a wrong one. Chalky admits, however, that Fletcher’s people have approached him in an attempt to get him to use his sway with his “people” and get them to vote for him. In truth, however, he says he’s only doing it for the money, that he’s really doing it for Nucky…particularly if he can get a little bit more money out of the deal. In addition to the money, Chalky wants a new car and an invitation to the new mayor’s victory party. Nucky said it’s tough to promise the latter, but Chalky calmly suggests it’s probably in both their best interests if he comes through.

Although she’s evacuated from the love nest provided to her by Nucky, Margaret and her kids are still in the general area, hanging out with Nan, mother of Warren Harding’s love child. Nan’s still quite naive, the poor thing, expecting to hear from Harding any day now. (Yeah, right…) As such, she can only offer Margaret a place to stay for a few more days, focusing on her future as a resident of the White House. In the meantime, Margaret keeps her chin up as best she can, baking a barn brack but clearly worrying a bit about her new friend’s state of mind.

Wow, so the person trying to kill the Commodore via arsenic poisoning was his maid? Not that I can’t see why she’d do such a thing, given how he treated her, but in addition to feeling really predictable – shades of “the butler did it” – it was a real moment of deflation when it felt like we were going to be getting some fantastic payoff for this unexpected storyline. Instead, Nucky just paid her off (in fairness, it was kind of funny when he sympathized with her decision) and, for his trouble, got a Bible with a particular passage noted. Oh, okay, I do want to know what passage, so I guess they still managed to get me…

Cut to NYC, where Rothstein is giving his boys their final instructions before he hops a boat and heads for the UK. Personally, I thought the idea of visiting distilleries and learning to play the bagpipes sounded like a pretty good plan, but they weren’t having it, instead offering to “get their hands dirty” and try someone between New York and Chicago who might be able to assist in keeping Rothstein on American soil. He seems resigned to his departure, but I’m thinking otherwise. They wouldn’t have spent all damned season setting up this Black Sox storyline to have Edelstein just say, “Well, that’s it, boys, I’m out of here!”

Jimmy comes home, and it’s clear that he and Angela are still on frosty terms…which, frankly, is to be expected, given that she’d taken their son and hit the road, only to have to come back with her tail between her legs. As it turns out, she’s scared for a different reason than we’d expect: apparently, he’s been having war flashbacks while he’s been asleep, screaming and grabbing Angela. It’s scaring Tommy, and…well, given that she shares a bed with him, you can imagine Angela’s a little worried, too. But why is this the first we’re hearing of these sleepytime flashbacks? Seems pretty ham-handed to have them pop up in the season finale when they’ve never been mentioned before now, as it does for Jimmy and Angela to suddenly reconcile. Then again, Angela’s expression gives us a pretty good idea that she’s not entirely sure about Jimmy’s interest to simply let bygones be bygones. Later, when she receives the postcard from Paris from the disappearing Mrs. Dietrich, her sadness is palpable. It’s been a rough couple of days for poor Angela…

Into the graveyard we go, where Margaret finally learns that she and Nucky have something in common: the loss of a child. Once again, we’re presented with a woman whose expression speaks volumes about her thoughts, and Margaret’s reveals that she’s taking this new information and wondering if she’s been wrong about Nucky.

Speaking of the Nuckmeister, he’s on the phone with Torrio, who’s hopping the overnight train from Chicago to New York in order to meet with Rothstein, even if Nucky isn’t exactly aware of this. (I laughed at Nucky’s comment about already having bought the Brooklyn Bridge.) As he’s preparing for the costume ball, Margaret appears at the door. The conversation between the two of them proves to be a dramatic highlight of the episode, if not the season, as Nucky finally breaks down and tells Margaret…and us…everything about his wife and son. It’s a horrific tale, one which would inspire tears in anyone, but the telling is a watershed moment in the relationship between Nucky and Margaret, if not necessarily in the way we might have expected. No, she doesn’t go back to him, but she does acknowledge that, for the first time ever, she’s finally seen the real Nucky Thompson. She may not understand him, but at least she’s seen him.

Van Alden tells his wife how he’d been offered a full-time assignment in Atlantic City but has declined it in favor of joining the family feed business in Schenectady. She’s less than thrilled, but when she dares to suggest that she enjoys being the wife of a federal agent, he accuses her of undue vanity. She says he’s doing God’s work, he says that, if that’s the case, God needs to send him a sign. I expect we’ll be seeing that sign by episode’s end.

The meeting between Nucky, Torrio, and Rothstein starts off tense, but Nucky begins to see reason, no doubt considering the possible benefits of a relationship with Rothstein. Jimmy, however, is less than thrilled at the prospect, though he’s shut down the instant he dares to offer a dissenting opinion. Within moments, Nucky has made his offer, and after tacking on the information that he’s pals with the state’s attorney in Chicago, Rothstein decides it’s a deal worth doing, even with the high pricetag. What Nucky does with the information he receives from Rothstein is a masterstroke of revenge: his boys, including Richard Harrow, take down the remaining D’Alessio brothers, and – neatly tying up a bow from earlier in the season – he holds a press conference to say that they were involved with Hans Schroeder in the massacre but, now that they’ve been identified, are being “sought for questioning.” Boy, that barbershop scene was rough. Clearly, Jimmy’s the most bloodthirsty “questioner” of the bunch. Imagine how much worse he’d be with Angela if he wasn’t able to get some of his stress out via the occasional murder, eh? There’s a lot of blood on Nucky’s hands. I don’t know how much more sin the man can stand…

The look on Jimmy’s face when he sees Angela’s newly-cut hair is one of betrayal, though I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe it’s because he no longer feels that she’s even trying to put on a facade that she’s still the woman he once fell in love with. But it doesn’t matter: the Commodore has called and requested his presence, so out the door he goes…but not to see the Commodore.

Instead, he heads to Nucky’s place, where the win looks to be in, both for the Atlantic City elections and for Rothstein in Chicago. Nucky’s on cloud nine, but he’s the only Thompson brother who is. Even getting a share of Rothstein’s million-dollar payoff hasn’t done anything to make Eli less pissed at Nucky for dumping him as the chief of police. Nucky tells Eli that he has to trust that blood is thicker than water, resulting in Eli’s pointed response: “Yeah, well, why’d it have to be my blood?” Ouch. But Nucky comes through for him: moments after Bader’s election is confirmed, the new mayor kicks Halloran to the curb and gives Eli back his old position. Eli’s expression is one of befuddlement, but he doesn’t turn down the assignment. Shame about Halloran, but, hey, he stepped on Eli’s head to get the gig, so it’s only fair that he should get a kick in the balls on his way back down.

Jimmy’s drunk off his ass and talking out of turn, leading to a confrontation between him and Nucky over the circumstances that led Nucky to help raise him. Interesting how Nucky sees no immediate difference between guilt and duty. Meanwhile, Eli’s watching from the sidelines, seemingly bemused at the way his brother is being forced to deal with this awkward situation. In the end, Jimmy bolts, this time to visit the Commodore, closing by telling Nucky to stop pretending that he gives a shit.

Time for a bit of barn brack. Silly superstition though it may be, it nonetheless gives Margaret pause when she gets the rag and Nan, with her ridiculous belief that President Harding is going to invite her to live in the White House, gets the ring. We know from the historical record that Nan needn’t start packing now nor ever, but we don’t know what the future holds for Margaret…nor, obviously, does Margaret. Will her concern over this “silly superstition” worry her enough to send her back to Nucky?

Van Alden and Lucy are reunited, but as soon as Lucy said she was pregnant, the expression on Van Alden’s face made me think there was a very good chance that she wouldn’t be long for this world. I mean, he’s killed once. There’s no reason to believe that he won’t kill again, especially if he convinces himself that she’s a dirty whore who deserves to suffer God’s wrath via his hands…and, given his feelings on matters of religion (not to mention the way he looks at his Bible), that’s not likely to be hard to do. And yet when you consider that his wife isn’t happy with his change in job and she’s unable to bear him a child, the fact that this gorgeous sex machine is able to do what his wife couldn’t…well, you know, maybe this is the sign he was asking for.

Given how much alcohol Jimmy’s tossed back tonight, there’s really nothing good that can come of him continuing to drink…or, I’m guessing, of the Commodore sharing a snort with him. I was expecting him to drop dead before the end of the scene, but, no, there’s something about the possibility of revenge that proves to be a highly rejuvenating tonic. It’s pretty sad to realize that this is the first time this father and son have ever shared a drink together, but their bond grows as the Commodore spins a story which reveals a heretofore-unrealized bond between the two of them: a mutual festering anger toward Nucky Thompson. Moments later, we learn that Eli makes three. Yikes. Talk about setting up a storyline for Season 2…

The post-election celebration is underway, with entertainment provided by Eddie Cantor, he of the big ears and rather googly eyes. I got a good laugh out of the sight of Baxter walking into the festivities with Annabelle on his arm. While looking around for Chalky White and his boys, however, I was pleasantly surprised to see Margaret walk in. I half expected Annabelle to swoop in and embarrass him before Margaret could make her way over to him, but, no, they successfully reunite…in more ways than one, it appears. Guess the superstition was enough to bring her back. Will there be a happy ending for her? Maybe, maybe not…which is ultimately the most you can say for Nucky, too, given all of the glimpses we get of the goings-on happening behind his back, the repercussions of which we won’t see ’til next season.

So there you have it, folks: the conclusion of Season 1 of “Boardwalk Empire.” What did you think?

Angela’s drifting off in thought while sitting at the dinner table, which really apparently pisses off Jimmy. Fair enough: he’s still smarting from the situation with the photographer, clearly distrusting his wife despite her assurances that she never slept with the man…which is true insofar as it goes, but let’s not go there right now. What’s more important is that he receives a phone call. It sounds like business, but he says it was his mother, letting him know that his father is dying. Given that Jimmy seemed to have viewed Nucky as a father figure when the season kicked off, I think it’s fair to say that the bond between him and his real father must be pretty weak.

Agents Van Alden and Sepso are enjoying a spot of Chinese when Van Alden unsurprisingly turns the topic of conversation to that of Sepso having killed Billy, and it’s not exactly what you’d call a polite dinnertime chat. Sepso maintains his cool, relatively speaking, but it’s clear that this won’t be the last time Van Alden brings up the matter.

The evening with Hardeen continues beyond his proper show, as he entertains the troops back at Nucky’s place. Once again, Margaret and Annabelle are enthralled, while Nucky shrugs and Harry sweats. It’s pretty funny to watch Hardeen play up his reputation even as he plays down his brother’s, but the fun stops when Harry explodes and at least explains why he’s been looking so sketchy all night: he’s lost a huge amount of money at the hands of one Charles Ponzi…and if the name sounds familiar, yes, he is the one who gave name to the so-called Ponzi Scheme, which most recently came to prominence via Bernie Madoff. So much for the relationship between Harry and Annabelle, eh?

Rothstein gets word from Chicago that things ain’t looking good for him with the whole Black Sox situation. His attorney suggests that he heads to Chi-Town, but to make sure he knows someone in the city who’s willing to do him a favor. Will it be Capone or Torrio?

No, The Commodore’s not dead yet, but you can’t blame his maid for fearing the worst. I mean, the guy’s already sick, and then his dog dies…? Talk about the kind of thing to send a guy into a tailspin. But, wait, who’s the Commodore’s guest? Jimmy?!? Wait a minute: Jimmy’s the Commodore’s son? Did we already know this? I’m pretty sure we didn’t. (Given the predilection of the majority of this blog’s few readers to only comment when they have a chance to criticize or complain, I can only presume someone will quickly confirm if I’m wrong.) Boy, Jimmy’s really pissed off that he’s had to make this visit, and it’s clear that he won’t miss his father when he’s gone. How else to explain the fact that, when the Commodore says he’s dying, Jimmy’s only response is to say, “Well, then, I will call you a priest.” Still, when the Commodore adds that the wrong person is running Atlantic City, it causes such mixed feelings in Jimmy that he promptly pukes. Still, I guess it would be a little confusing to realize that a man you’ve loathed for decades could well be the one who holds the key to the future you’ve been seeking.

I admit it: I’m surprised that Angela is so seriously considering Mary’s suggestion that they run off together. Watching the way Mary kisses her husband, however, I’m wondering if maybe Angela’s going to make a break for it, only to find that Mary’s the one who’s gotten cold feet.

Sepso’s scared shitless about Van Alden’s refusal to back down on his accusations that he killed Billy without having had the provocation he’s claiming, so much so that he’s calling Nucky for advice. To help him out of a tough spot, Nucky offers up the location of an illegal distillery, so that Sepso can bust it, thereby ostensibly redeeming himself in Van Alden’s eyes. I can’t imagine it’s going to go down smoothly, though. That’d just be way too easy.

After hanging up with Sepso, Nucky finds Annabelle rushing into his office, complaining that Harry has swiped the money that she’d hidden in the floorboards. Of course, it was money she’d stolen from Harry, but even so, Nucky’s a soft touch…and, it seems, Annabelle’s even softer. When he tells her to “skip to the part where you say you’ll do anything for me,” she tells him to “draw the curtains and I’ll do it right now.” In a moment of brilliantly bad timing, however, he tells her that he’ll keep that offer in his back pocket just as Margaret is standing in the doorway. Nucky looks momentarily horrified, but he recovers well. She’s understandably still pissed, however, revealing that she’s accomplished her mission with the League of Women Voters by saying, “I’m glad to have been of use to you.” Two strong wills, to be sure. I don’t know if they’ll last the season as a couple or join forces and become the power couple of the 1920s, but I can’t wait to find out.

Gillian quizzes Jimmy on the state of The Commodore, but he’s just as curious about the relationship his mother maintains with his father, clearly bothered by the fact that the man took advantage of a teenage girl and got her pregnant. He also seems a little uncertain as to why Nucky would’ve stepped in to help her care for her child. Jimmy views Nucky as a pimp, but I’d guess that, at least to a certain extent, Nucky feels guilty that he’s the one who brought Gillian to The Commodore in the first place.

Sepso takes Van Alden to the woods in an attempt to curry favor by busting up a distillery, but what they find instead is a Negro church preparing to perform a baptism. I was surprised to see Van Alden grow so belligerent, but he changes his tune at the minister’s unbridled belief in his faith. A tense moment follows with Van Alden dismissing the Jewish faith with a withering comment, then dismissing Sepso himself just as easily.

Jimmy finds himself quickly swayed into favoring The Commodore after he hears the old man say, “You’re a good son,” offering to stay by his sickbed, and his expression shows that he’s beginning to dread the thought of losing a father that he’s never known or even tried to know. And speaking of beds, Nucky’s perched on Margaret’s as she prepares for their evening outing, but their conversation quickly devolves into sniping back and forth, with Margaret growing further upset about the fact that she’s expected to do anything and everything Nucky asks of her, even though he’s unwilling to entrust her with any information about his goings-on. He throws a small fit over the fact that she cleanses herself after their “close encounters,” and she counters by saying that she doesn’t want to have another baby, let alone his heir. He says he thought she wanted saving. She accuses him of killing her husband. A slap. A throwing of a bottle against the wall. Yeah, remember when I wondered a few paragraphs ago if they’d become the power couple of the 1920s…? Probably not happening.

Richard stops by to check in on Jimmy, giving him the update on the D’Alessio brothers and basically offering to kill anybody necessary if it’ll help the situation. Before anything can be decided, however, The Commodore’s doctor returns and reveals that someone’s been trying to murder him via arsenic poisoning. Clearly, we know Jimmy’s innocent, so there are really only three other possible suspects: the maid, Jimmy’s mom, and Nucky. Cue the dramatic music…

Angela’s all packed and ready to roll, despite Tommy’s uncertainty about the situation, leaving a note for Jimmy and preparing to sail off to Europe and, she hopes, to a better future than the one which waits for her in Atlantic City. It’s like I said earlier, though: I just don’t see this happening. This means one of two things is going to happen: Angela will return home and find that Jimmy has already read the note she left for him, or she and Tommy make it back before Jimmy but, because of Tommy’s previously established tendency to mouth off, he blabs to his father about where they had been going. Basically, this is going to be a lose-lose situation when all’s said and done.

The brothers Thompson, together again! We haven’t seen much of Eli since his shooting, let alone their father, but we get a brief glimpse of the latter wasting away on Eli’s porch before Eli and Nucky sit down for tea and conversation. If there was any question about which of the brothers is the classiest, I think we get a definitive answer when Nucky says that he didn’t deny his involvement in Margaret’s husband’s death because he wanted to hurt her and Eli responds by holding up his fists and asking, “What do you think these are for?” Nice. Eli’s pissed off about the current political situation and views Margaret as a liability, mouthing off to Nucky in a big way. In return, Nucky offers up one of the great comebacks of the season by making a comparison to Eli and Hardeen: if it wasn’t for his brother, nobody would give a fuck about him. Eli is left speechless…and rightfully so.

Jimmy visits Gillian and bumbles around with his suspicions about whether she might be the one slipping him the arsenic. Suddenly, however, we see his earlier vomiting in a different light: it wasn’t mixed feelings that caused the puking but, rather, poison cookies. Gillian doesn’t exactly look like a model of innocence at this news.

Nucky’s mood is less than giddy when he meets with Edward Bader and the rest of his boys, instigating a change in the way they’ll be approaching the future. Exit Eli, enter Halloran. Good thing he found his balls a couple of episodes ago, eh?

Meanwhile, back on the boardwalk, my theory was proven correct, but, unfortunately, that means that Angela’s worst fears were realized: Mr. and Mrs. Dietrich have vanished without a trace, leaving an empty store and a single photograph, one which Tommy presents to his mother with the words, “Look, Mommy, ghosts!” It’s a little too on-the-nose, that line, but it doesn’t change the overwhelming feeling of sadness you get when you see Angela’s face, the poor woman.

Sepso’s decided to bail out of his assignment and head elsewhere, having grown weary of being constantly badgered by Van Alden, but even as he announces his departure, Van Alden is still making him feel as guilty as possible and refusing to change his tune. So what does Sepso have to do to get Van Alden to trust him? Why, get baptized, of course. It looks at first as if it’s going to be too much for Sepso to handle, but, no, he decides to step into the waters and accept Van Alden’s challenge. As soon as I realized that Van Alden was going to do it, however, I knew what was going to happen…or, at least, I thought I did. I absolutely did not think that Van Alden was going to hold Sepso down until he had drowned. Wow. A “holy shit” moment…and a literal one, given the situation. Misguided faith is a dangerous, dangerous thing.

Nucky learns from Richard that Margaret and her children have departed, offering no idea as to where they’ve gone. Angela, meanwhile, returns home to find that, as I predicted, Jimmy’s already read the note that she’d left for him. Angela’s guilt is palpable, as well it should be. Cut back to Nucky, who visits the palm reader on the boardwalk to see what the future holds for him…and I guess we’ll all learn the answer at the same time, since, as I won’t be able to see next week’s season finale in advance, we’ll all be watching it together.

See you then!

They’re definitely going out of their way to underline the fact that Nucky’s still mourning his wife: this is two episodes in a row where there’s been a blatant cut to her picture that’s either been preceded or followed by a shot of Nucky looking sad and lonely. Still, he instantaneously transforms into All Business Nucky when Agent Van Alden bursts into his office, easily finding a smirk to accompany his question about whether Van Alden would like “coffee…or something stronger.” Still, the agent’s skepticism about Hans Schroeder’s connection to the shooting is clearly weighing heavy on Nucky’s mind, as evidenced by his extremely limited tolerance for George when he encounters him early in the episode. I mean, seriously, he barely even tried to mask his distaste for the man.

When we first see Margaret, she’s still recovering in the hospital, but her spirits instantly rise at the announcement that Mr. Thompson has come to pay her a visit. What disappointment we see in her eyes, however, when it turns out to be Elias Thompson. Though it seems at first that he’s there to offer his sympathies, it quickly becomes apparent that his agenda is to railroad her into backing up their story that her husband is a murderer, and although she refuses to believe it, you have to give Elias credit for his hurtful yet valid reminder that he was responsible for the death of the child in her womb. Elias no doubt thought he was helping seal the deal by giving her the money, but I’m sure the more literary viewers chuckled to themselves over the foreshadowing offered by Margaret’s choice of reading material: Henry James’ “The Ivory Tower,” which revolves around what a corrupting force money can be.

When she returns home, looking utterly shell-shocked, she’s only been inside for mere seconds before Agent Van Alden knocks on the door, feigning ignorance of her having just arrived. Yeah, right: like he hadn’t either been casing the joint or following her all the way from the hospital to her residence. He tries to play the good cop, telling her that her husband was a fine and decent man. What, has he not even looked into her enough to know why she was in the hospital?

Whatever the case, she’s struggling with her conscience over telling the truth, supporting her family, and sullying her husband’s reputation, but in the end, she decides that she’s willing to work with Nucky, just so long as he can permit her to actually do something to truly earn the money he’s giving her…or, at least, that’s how I saw it, anyway. (As we know, I’m off with my perceptions sometimes.)

It should be no surprise that Nucky’s concerned about Margaret to do whatever he can to help soothe her conscience. We’d already seen him asking about her condition earlier in the episode, immediately before he began complaining to Elias that he didn’t dispose of her husband the way he’d intended. He doesn’t seem overly pissed off about it, but that doesn’t mean his annoyance won’t increase if Van Alden keeps nosing around about the situation. From there, Nucky heads over to the hoosegow, where he informs Mickey that he’s out and that Chalky – who, oddly, never actually appeared during the episode – is in. It’s adding insult to injury for Nucky to leave Mickey behind bars (though it makes sense), and I expect Mickey’s anger over the situation is going to come back to haunt Nucky sooner than later.

Agent Van Alden’s opinion that Nucky Thompson is a far bigger fish than Arnold Rothstein is clearly changing the thrust of the revenuers’ investigation, and it’s affecting ours as well, thanks to the nicely-cut sequences which shone a light on all of the various activities in which Thompson is involved. I also thought it was interesting that they showed how Thompson was ingratiating himself to voters who were being ignored by other candidates, thereby keeping his local reputation high and mighty.

By the way, the sequence where Van Alden writes a letter to his wife…well, the narration was straight out of Ken Burns’ “The Civil War,” but there’s something about his expression and mannerisms as he writes it that shows that he’s a good-hearted man. “Boardwalk Empire” may be a show designed to embrace the anti-hero, a la “The Sopranos,” but we’re clearly meant to respect this guy and the work he’s trying to do for his country.

Jimmy seems thrilled by his new station in life, instantly getting a swelled head and turning into a big spender, buying a toy for his son and jewelry for his wife. The decision to buy a vacuum sweeper backfires somewhat, however, and you can see the disappointment on Jimmy’s face…or if you didn’t spot it then, you surely caught it when he convinces the missus to “do it the French way” in bed, only for her to be interrupted by their bawling child. Fed up with being underappreciated in the homestead, Jimmy slips off to visit the one person he knows will be thrilled to see him: his mother. I’m sure I’m not the only one, though, who was at first under the impression that he was seeking someone else to help him, uh, relieve his stress, if you take my meaning.

Jimmy’s seriously self-absorbed, having little idea or concern about the effect his actions are having on other people, as evidence by his apparent shock over Nucky’s reaction to him when he comes in to work like it’s just another day. Jimmy assures Nucky that Torrio only sanctioned his maneuver after the fact – it’s funny to hear Capone referred to as “the chubby kid” – but despite countless apologies, Nucky’s not having it, offering him this brilliant line instead:

“You want to be a gangster, kid? Go be a gangster. But if you want to be a gangster in my town, then you’ll pay me for the privilege.”

Oh, yeah, Nucky’s pissed: not only does he demand a further $3K from Jimmy, but he doesn’t even bother to look up when Jimmy leaves…not that Jimmy notices. He can tell that Nucky’s serious, and if he’s pissed him off already, he knows he’s a dead man if he doesn’t make good on the $3K. The frantic search for the money was nicely done, particularly that bit with Capone coming as close to laughing in Jimmy’s face as one can manage over a telephone line, but it revealed the depths to which Jimmy will sink that he swiped the money from his mother. (That was who he got it from, wasn’t it?) Also great were the Rothstein-related sequences, including that charming cueball anecdote as well as the phone conversation between Rothstein and Nucky. As a writer, though, the scene that made me cringe the most was when the guy from the Chicago Tribute went to visit Frankie at the bar, telling him that he’s going to be linking Torrio to the Big Jim murder. Seriously, how stupid were journalists in the ’20s?

A few other random moments of note:

* The look on the midget’s face after Nucky went looking for the punchline to the question, “Can you lend me a few bucks?” I’d imagine that joke would get a little old.
* How Nucky had regained his composure when he met up with George later in the episode, going so far as to try and help the poor bastard get laid by making claims of a beauty contest that clearly never would have come to pass.
* The Commodore cruelly calling Luanne into his library solely to mock her intelligence and show Nucky who his female constituents would be.
* Nucky trying to prove the Commodore wrong by telling Margaret, “I want you to vote Republican.”
* Paz de la Huerta getting naked again. Always a highlight.
* The arrival of a blood-soaked man to interrupt George’s blow job. I guess that fifth guy got better…

To wrap up, let’s talk about that last scene with Nucky and Jimmy. I haven’t seen such a power play on TV in awhile: talk about a “fuck you” to Jimmy for Nucky to take that hard-earned $3K and then bet it and lose it right in front of him. Nucky Thompson really is a bad-ass…but, somehow, I don’t think Jimmy’s going to end up being anything but pissed off. Revenge would seem to be in the cards in the very near future.

Let’s get started, shall we?

Meet Enoch Thompson, known to his friends…and, indeed, some of his enemies…as Nucky. Described by HBO’s website as “equal parts corrupt politician and gangster (and equally comfortable in either role),” Thompson is the much beloved treasurer of Atlantic City, New Jersey. And why wouldn’t they love him? He’s the kind of guy who promises everything to everyone, even if it involves telling complete lies to make them happy. Indeed, when we first see him, he’s lecturing before the Women’s Temperance League, praising the beginning of prohibition…and, minutes later, he’s having dinner with the mayor, the city council, and several key law enforcement officials – one of whom is his own brother – and telling them how he’s found a way to keep Atlantic City “as wet as a mermaid’s twat.” I’m sure that joke would’ve gone over like gangbusters amongst the suffragettes.

Speaking of the suffragettes, during his speech, two faces stand out in the crowd…or, rather, one in the crowd and one on the outskirts.

First, there’s a young lady in the audience who’s eying Nucky quite intently. That’s Margaret Schroeder. She’s a good Irish girl who’s married with two children and a third on the way, but her husband’s going to be out of a job come the end of tourist season, and she was so affected by Nucky’s speech about how he and his family once had to eat wharf rats to survive (a tale which was either heavily embellished or, more likely, completely fabricated) that she later decides to venture forth to Nucky’s office and ask if she can find work for his husband when the time comes. He agrees, hands her a wad of cash to get her family through the hard times in the interim, and provides her with a ride home. The end result: her husband gets pissed, takes the money, knocks her around, and goes off to gamble at Nucky’s establishment, ostensibly just to rub it in his face. In turn, Nucky rubs his face into a table. Repeatedly. So what does the guy do in response? He heads home and beats his wife to the point that she loses the baby. As soon as word gets back to Nucky, he has the bastard killed…and, frankly, it’s hard to imagine anyone mourning the son of a bitch.

Now, let’s get back to that Women’s Temperance League meeting, so we can address the identity of the young lad hovering in the shadows.

Meet Jimmy Darmody. He’s been part of Nucky’s inner circle for many moons, and after fighting for his country in World War I, he’s now back at Nucky’s side. Once he was a boy, but now he is a man…and he’s looking to be acknowledged as such. Unsurprisingly, it’s hard for Nucky and his guys to see him that way. Jimmy’s tensions rise to the surface when he and Nucky visit a bootlegging operation in the basement of a local funeral home. After Jimmy takes a swig of some formaldehyde-laced liquor, fists and bullets start flying, with one of the latter going through the basement ceiling and straight into a funeral. (I laughed really hard at that, by the way. And after I realized that the bullet hadn’t actually hit anyone, I laughed even harder.) Upon exiting the premises, Jimmy and Nucky finally have it out, with Nucky breaking out his wad of bills and Jimmy dismissing it, saying that he doesn’t want money, he wants an opportunity. After being picked up by the revenuers, though, Jimmy decides to make his own opportunity, teaming with some of Johnny Torrio’s boys – one of whom is a young up-and-comer by the name of…wait for it…Al Capone – to step in and swipe a shipment of Canadian Club intended for Nucky. Later, Jimmy meets up with an understandably pissed-off Nucky, and Nucky is left dumbfounded by the cajones of his former protege, who informs him that he “can’t be half a gangster anymore,” then gives him his cut.

Now that we’ve looked into the lives of these three main characters, let’s discuss “Boardwalk Empire” as a whole. Not unlike what “Mad Men” did for the late ’50s and early ’60s, this series is dropping us into the 1920s and leaving our jaws on the floor with the way they’ve reproduced the era. I mean, just look at that Atlantic City Boardwalk on the eve of Prohibition, with a New Orleans styled funeral for John Barleycorn (complete with the band in blackface), couples holding their baby and toting their alcohol in the baby’s carriage. Babette’s is a work of art, too, for that matter, as are the various stores that we see as the characters stroll down the street, including the place that sells baby incubators…which, of course, confirms what we suspected during Nucky’s initial meeting with Margaret: that he once lost a child. (We’d already discovered that he’d lost his wife to consumption.)

We get glimpses at lots of other interesting characters during the course of tonight’s premiere: Agent Nelson Van Alden, who’s keeping a close eye both on Nucky as well as Jimmy, even trying to sway the latter into his camp; Commodore Louis Kaestner, the man who ruled Atlantic City before ceding the throne to Nucky; Arnold Rothstein and Lucky Luciano, who try to start some shit with Nucky by winning so big in his casino that he can’t afford to pay them everything they’ve won; Lucy Danzinger, Nucky’s girlfriend, who – based on her comments during coitus – may grow up to be Dale Evans; and Mickey Doyle, the bootlegger who gets Jimmy to take that swip of formaldehyde-laced liquor. And who was that African-American gentleman sitting in Nucky’s office when Margaret first came to see him? Oh, don’t worry: we’ll get to him soon enough.

As with any good Scorsese production, we get a nice killshot to the back of the head before the end of the proceedings, giving us a good idea what kind of violence we can likely expect to see in “Boardwalk Empire” in future weeks. I don’t know about you guys, but I was sucked into the show almost instantly, in no small part because of Steve Buscemi. I mean, it’s not like I haven’t been a fan of his work for years, but it’s great to see him in the lead role for a change. He’s perfect for it, too: Nucky’s a guy who’s got a lot of power but isn’t necessarily the most intimidating fish in the pond. I’m not entirely sure about Michael Pitt’s performance as Jimmy, though. Here’s a guy who’s convinced he’s already going to hell and therefore figures it doesn’t matter what he does anymore, but he still looks like a tousled-hair kid to me. If he wasn’t holding a gun, I wouldn’t find him the least bit intimidating…but, then, maybe that’s the point.

Can’t wait for Episode 2.

America in 1920: The Great War was over, Wall Street was about to boom and everything was for sale, even the World Series. It was a time of change when women got the vote, broadcast radio began and young people ruled the world. From Terence Winter, Emmy Award-winning writer of “The Sopranos” and Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese, “Boardwalk Empire” is set in Atlantic City at the dawn of Prohibition, when the sale of alcohol became illegal throughout the United States. The new HBO drama series kicks off its 12-episode season Sunday, Sept. 19, at 9:00 PM EST / PST.

On the beach in southern New Jersey sat Atlantic City, a spectacular resort known as “The World’s Playground,” a place where the rules didn’t apply. Massive hotels lined its famous Boardwalk, which featured nightclubs, amusement piers and entertainment that rivaled Broadway. For a few dollars, a working man could get away and live like a king – legally or illegally. The undisputed ruler of Atlantic City was the town’s treasurer, Enoch “Nucky” Thompson (Steve Buscemi), a political fixer and backroom dealer who was equal parts politician and gangster and equally comfortable in either role. Because of its strategic location on the seaboard, the town was a hub of activity for rum-runners, minutes from Philadelphia, hours from New York City and less than a day’s drive from Chicago. And Nucky Thompson took full advantage. Along with his brother Elias (Shea Whigham), the town’s sheriff, and a crew of ward bosses and local thugs, Nucky carved out a niche for himself as the man to see for any illegal alcohol. He was an equal-opportunity gangster, doing business with Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg), “Big Jim” Colosimo (Frank Crudele), “Lucky” Luciano (Vincent Piazza) and Al Capone (Stephen Graham).

As “Boardwalk Empire” begins, Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt), Nucky’s former protégé and driver, returns home from the Great War, eager to get ahead and reclaim his rightful place in Nucky’s organization. But when Jimmy feels things aren’t moving quickly enough, he takes matters into his own hands, forming a deadly alliance with associates of Nucky’s that sets the Feds, led by Agent Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon), on his mentor’s tail. Complicating matters further is Nucky’s burgeoning relationship with Margaret Schroeder (Kelly Macdonald) a woman in an abusive marriage whom he tries to help. The show also stars Michael Kenneth Williams as Chalky White, leader of the city’s African-American community; Dabney Coleman as Commodore Louis Kaestner, Nucky’s mentor; Paz de la Huerta as Nucky’s girlfriend Lucy; Aleksa Palladino as Angela, Jimmy Darmody’s Bohemian girlfriend and mother of their three-year-old son; Paul Sparks as Mickey Doyle; Anthony Laciura as Eddie Kessler; and Gretchen Mol as Gillian, a local showgirl with whom Nucky shares a long and complicated history.