Episode Title: “A Return to Normalcy”
Writer: Terence Winter
Director: Timothy Van Patten
Previously On "Boardwalk Empire":
Jimmy came to terms with his mother’s relationship with the Commodore and Nucky’s role in the affair. Margaret also did some soul searching and found that she could no longer stand by Nucky and his unethical business dealings on the boardwalk.
Angela plotted to leave Jimmy with Mary Dittrich but found it was she who was left behind, when the Dittrichs fled Atlantic City for Paris in the middle of the night.
Van Alden, consumed with breaking down Agent Sebso after the questionable death of a key witness in his case against Nucky, drowned the young Jewish agent at a riverside Church gathering, in an attempt to baptize him.
Story:
After the death of Agent Sebso, Van Alden (Michael Shannon) plans to get out of the Prohibition business but his wife implores him to stay on, claiming he’s doing God’s work. Van Alden resolves that if he’s to stay, the Lord will show him a sign.
Nucky (Steve Buscemi) and his political pals discuss the upcoming Mayoral election and their plans to put the fix in for Republican candidate Edward Bader. Chalky (Michael Kenneth Williams) asks for a new car, ten grand and a post-election party invite in exchange for securing the black vote. Nucky reluctantly agrees.
Margaret Schroeder (Kelly Macdonald), saddled with Warren Harding’s naïve mistress, Nan Britton (Virginia Kull), adjusts to life without Nucky. Meanwhile Jimmy (Michael Pitt) and Nucky confront the Commodore’s maid after Jimmy and his mother uncovered the can of “Paris Green” poison she was putting in his food. Instead of having her arrested, Nucky hands her a wad of cash and tells her to leave town, leaving the Commodore (Dabney Coleman) miffed.
After passing by the headstone of Nucky’s deceased wife and son, Margaret pays him a visit, asking to meet the real Enoch Thompson. Nucky tells her about his frail son, who died shortly after birth and his wife, who committed suicide soon after.
With an inevitable indictment for fixing the World Series on the way, Torrio (Greg Antonacci) arranges a meeting for Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlberg) with Nucky, who he is sure can quash the matter with his political influence. The two sides call a tentative truce and Nucky makes the deal in exchange for a million dollars.
Jimmy and Angela (Aleksa Palladino) have a heart to heart after she confronts him about the silent treatment he’s been subjecting her to. But after Jimmy returns to find Angela’s cut her long locks which he was so fond of, he looks at her in shock, clearly displeased.
Nucky’s efforts pay off when Bader is elected mayor. He quickly reinstates Eli (Shea Whigham) as Sheriff but the move doesn’t smooth over the situation between Nucky and his brother. In fact, by episode’s end, Eli, Jimmy and the Commodore discover they have a common interest – taking Nucky down.
Agent Van Alden also makes a discovery when Lucy Dazinger (Paz de la Huerta) shows up at his office with the news that she’s pregnant, perhaps the sign he’d asked for.
As for Margaret, she returns to Nucky’s side after the realization that life without him would leave her destitute, as predicted by a slice of Irish Barmrack cake.
Breakdown:
It appears that Margaret Schroeder has been yearning for the same thing I was throughout this first season of “Boardwalk Empire” – to meet the real Enoch Thompson. We’ve caught glimpses of the man here and there, for example the visit to the old house of horrors he grew up in. But as Jimmy told the boardwalk puppet master before storming off to plot his demise, Nucky is totally devoid of emotion. Even after losing Margaret and her children, who Nucky revealed brought him great happiness, he’s unable to truly bear his heart. And as we left things in this season finale, that may prove to be his undoing.
It’s not that Nucky is a bad person, in fact we saw a great stroke of kindness when sent the Commodore’s maid off instead of having her arrested. We’ve seen Nucky be more than just in both his business and personal dealings. Killing Hans Schroeder worked out for everyone didn’t it? Margaret got away from the man who abused her and was able to start a new life with her children and Nucky found a scapegoat for the shootout in the woods. You could apply the same logic to his arrangement with the Commodore and Jimmy’s mother, Gillian and the reinstatement of Eli as Sheriff. It all worked out for the best, on paper. It’s the flesh and blood, the heart and soul that Nucky consistently fails to factor in. Not everyone’s bottom line comes with a dollar sign.
At least that can be said for Jimmy, Eli and the Commodore. Sick of suffering the humiliation of serving as pawns in Nucky’s political plays, the three come together to engineer his downfall. As for Margaret, her revelation about Nucky’s past may have swayed her to his side but it’s the prospect of living a life of poverty that brought her back into his arms.
After one season, which overall was quite good, the main hang-up I have with “Boardwalk Empire” is it’s attempt to straddle the line between an intricate tale of criminal enterprise and political ambition and a “Mad Men-esque” character study. In the season’s later episodes, the mixture begins to meld. “A Return to Normalcy” was a move in the right direction, with Nucky’s political plays having great personal effect on the trio of Jimmy, Eli and the Commodore, the consequences of which are finally set in motion.
Van Alden’s dilemma with Lucy is another very twisted plot twist is his struggle between sin and salvation, one that may ultimately tear the man the apart.
As season finales go “A Return to Normalcy” wasn’t jam packed with shocking revelations or jaw-dropping cliffhangers. Aside from Lucy’s baby bomb and Jimmy’s inevitable betrayal of Nucky, the finale was a bit understated but nonetheless enjoyable. With the boardwalk closing up for the winter, we’re now left to wonder what freakish attractions and hair-raising rides Terrence Winter and Martin Scorsese will have for us next season.
Crave Online Rating: 9 out of 10.
