In terms of generic scenes, we also get Nucky meeting personally with the cop that is going to be on his case for a good part of the show, Agent Nelson Van Alden. Agent Alden has decided to focus on Nucky instead of Rothstein and starts by questioning Margaret Schroeder about her relationship with the gangster.
The main plot of the episode deals with Jimmy and how his relationships with the people in his life have changed. First, Nucky is not pleased with his theft and murder from the previous episode, despite the money Jimmy gave him. He asks more from Jimmy and establishes himself as the boss. The, Jimmy tries to woo his wife Angela and his mother with expensive gifts, but they seem to be empty gestures and he does not exactly seem sure as to how he is supposed to act, whether that be because he just came back from the war or because he is now a de facto gangster.
The subplot of the episode deals with a businessman named Baxter trying to sleep with a girl he met in Baltimore and finding one of the men from the hold up last week alive. This will complicate things for Jimmy, and probably Nucky by extension.
I liked this episode a lot more than last week’s episode. It still largely seems to be setting up relationships and building up the mythos of the characters, especially with the scenes of Nucky’s wealth. This is certainly important considering how good Rothstein was looking in the last episode and because of the way Jimmy was talking to Nucky, as if he was going to school him on how to be a gangster. Nucky certainly did not seem weak, but he seemed a little unsure of himself. There was none of that uncertainty in this episode. He is not cold per se, not the way Rothstein is, but he has good instincts and a good way with people. When he meets with the Commodore and they discuss the women’s vote, the Commodore makes a point about how most women have no notion of politics by using his uneducated maid as an example. Historically, the women’s suffrage in the U.S. did not change any trends in voting as women largely voted the way their husbands were voting. As for those women without husbands, one can see Nucky working his magic in his scene with Margaret, playfully asking her to vote Republican.
Why this episode is better than last week’s is due to the smoothness of the dialogue. Last week’s was mythos building but expository. This week was mythos building, but it felt more natural. Less happened in this week’s episode, it felt and was shorter, but in a good way. The characters felt more relaxed, and the setting was more relaxed. The touches of the 20s (except for the KKK moment in the beginning) feel more subtle. Money is established with prices with certain items, but because money is shown so often and between people of such different means, it does not seem like another tool to showcase the time, but just a way that people interact with one another.
The other thing that I enjoyed about this episode, and unfortunately it was only briefly, was Jimmy. Right before he meets with his mother, he sees her on the stage. I cannot tell if it was the acting, the actor, or the lighting, but there was something hungry, something haunted in the way Jimmy looked at his mother. That could mean many things, from him wishing for a time when he was younger, to detesting seeing his mother half naked before him, to a manifestation of the person he is going to become or has already started becoming as a gangster, but it felt like a really powerful moment in the darkness for Jimmy. There were little hints in the previous episode that were similar, but they were too brief to really be noticeable. Here, the camera flitted back and forth between him and his mother a few times so I was able to see it. Last week I talked about character building and how interesting I found Nucky. Now I am starting to see that it will not just be Nucky that I will be watching with anticipation every week.
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