In Chicago, Jimmy meets another war veteran, Richard Harrow, while he is at the doctor’s inquiring into the pain in his leg. This pain is new and suggests to the doctor a mental reason, so he prescribes a personal inventory (psych test) that Jimmy and Richard blow off; (perhaps this and other scenes this episode imply PTSD, but since this is way before official diagnoses of the disorder, and since I am not a psychologist, I would not be able to tell you). Jimmy takes Richard to the brothel he is staying at for some complimentary service, and then later uses him to kill the man who slashed Pearl.
In Atlantic City, Chalky gets offered money from New York (Rothstein) for his services, which Chalky assumes was a test from Nucky. Whether Chalky would have accepted had he known it actually came from an outside source remains to be seen. Louis, Rothstein’s man, is seen with Lucky Luciano as they approach Doyle and the Italians with a plan to set up a competitive business in the city. From this, we find out that it was the Italians that robbed the man from last episode, and while Luciano was not involved, he had a good idea who did it when he was speaking to Nucky about it.
Margaret has befriended the mistress from last episode as well, and gets advice not to get close to Nucky, which she takes and then chooses to ignore as the episode progresses. Through this, we find out that Nucky had an abusive relationship with his father growing up. His father fell and hurt his leg at the beginning of the episode, prompting the Thompson brothers to get him out of the house. Eli, implied to be the favored son, decides to take care of their father, and Nucky gives the house to a friend. When he sees his father in the restored house at the end, Nucky burns it.
On the side of the main stories we also find out Angela Darmody is a lesbian (I was completely wrong two episodes ago when I said she went to see the photographer instead of the photographer’s wife). One of the men that was part of Jimmy’s raid confesses to Agent Van Alden. The Commodore is sick and might be dying. Finally, Lucy watches a movie alone showing that Nucky did not hold to his promise to go with her.
There a lot of interesting parallels in this episode, although I was not sure exactly what to make of them. Jimmy’s leg hurts which leads him to meet Richard Harrow and Nucky’s father’s leg hurts which leads him to leave his home. The two do not seem to really be that similar, but perhaps they are more representative of the way individual pain affects others. That still seems to be a somewhat tenuous link though, and I feel like I am missing something.
On the other hand, Nucky’s toaster gift to his dad is a much clearer reference to Jimmy giving his wife a vacuum. Both men do not understand the people they are trying to give gifts to, and both men try to fix things with gifts and money rather than actions. In Nucky’s case, the lack of effort is justified since his father is a terrible person. In Jimmy’s case, it is not really justified. Perhaps if he had spent time getting to know his wife, he might realize that she did not love him, and he might even be clued in to the fact that she was not straight.
This last point relates very well to what is probably the theme of the episode stated by Richard Harrow: “It occurred to me the basis of fiction is that people have some sort of connection with each other, but they don’t.” Jimmy’s connection to Angela is his son, but he does not even send money for the boy’s care. Nucky has a blood relationship to his father and vice versa, but his father abused him as a child and Nucky burns their family home out of spite. I think the point of the message though is that we try to form these connections but inevitably fail. Mr. Harrow does not seem to take his own advice as he tags along with Jimmy, and so Jimmy uses him to murder someone. Whether or not Jimmy and Richard’s relationship stays friendly and positive remains to be seen, but if that quote is going to be a theme of the series, I would not bet on it.
One other thing that did not quite make sense to me was the scene of the murder of Pearl’s attacker. The audience knows who shot the man almost immediately, and any doubt they may have had is gone when they see the bullet hole beneath the man’s eye, yet we are still shown the scene of Richard packing up his gun and leaving as music from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde plays. Perhaps this was the only for them to make a transition to Lucy, but the scene still felt odd. Was I supposed to connect Richard with Jekyll and Hyde? That does not seem likely as the man seems more troubled than possessing a split personality.
Either I am very dense, or this episode felt very clunky to me. Perhaps this is better. If the metaphors and parallels are too clean then the show would probably get unrealistic. Still, I felt that some things were off this episode. I enjoyed it, and I find that I really like the storytelling aspect to the show; it makes everything feel older, as if your grandfather were telling you a story. But something did not quite click with me this time.
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