Boardwalk Empire

Episode Report Card
Joe R: B- | 1 USERS: B
Nucky and Margaret's New Year's Rockin' Eve
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description!

Previously: Some shit went down. Jimmy Darmody bit off way more of Atlantic City than he could chew, pissed off Manny Horvath to the point that Manny went and killed Jimmy's wife, and then was finally done in by Nucky in the finale. Nucky, meanwhile, married Margaret and -- more importantly -- signed the deed for valuable highway land over to Margaret to keep it away from the Fed... only when Nucky was cleared, Margaret signed it back not to Nucky but to the Church, because marrying a murdering gangster is one thing, but you probably ought to hedge your bets with God while you're doing it. Oh, and Agent Van Alden had a baby with Lucy Danziger (who's not in the cast anymore, FYI) and then went on the run for murdering Agent Sebso, settling down with his daughter and nanny/wife Sigrid in Al Capone's neck of the woods.

We kick things off in Tabor Heights, in the great state of New Jersey, where the recognizable mug of Bobby Cannavale looks out over the ocean. He's traveling with something of an entourage and his car's got a flat and they can't change the tire because the lugs are stuck. An old man stops his car behind them and gets out with his Uggie dog and approaches them. He's appraised of the stuck-lug situation and says he's got some "3-in-1" in the glove box of his car that might help. Bobby looks annoyed and says he doesn't know what that is. "It's oil," says the old man, almost reflexively, "what else?" He retrieves the oil and gets to work on the wheel.

From behind him, Bobby butts in: "It could have been a tool?" The old man is confused. "Could have been a wrench." He means the 3-in-1. The old man doesn't know he's in an HBO show about gangsters, where even the most unintended slight against one of the main characters will get your head caved in, without exception, so he actually says he doesn't see how "3-in-1" could imply "wrench" to someone. Bobby says maybe a solvent, then. The point isn't what it might have been. The point is that he wants it clear to everybody that not knowing 3-in-1 oil is not the mark of an imbecile. He explains some more, this time saying he grew up in Sicily, where they had olive oil, not this bullshit 3-in-1 business. Finally, the old man twigs to his insult and apologizes, saying he didn't mean anything by it.

Bobby's face breaks into a most unconvincing smile as he says he was pulling the old man's leg. He pets the dog, whose name is Regina. "It means queen," the guy says. Boy, you just don't know when to slink away quietly, do you, old timer? Obviously, Bobby Cannavale knows Regina means queen! How dare you? The old man returns to his car, and of course Bobby runs up from behind him and bashes his head in with the tire iron, hollering about "What else?"

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12Next

Boardwalk Empire




Get the most of your experience.
Share the Snark!




The Latest Activity On TwOP