Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...
"Tell Nucky, Old Pop Collingsworth says hello!"
The violent hair-trigger temperament of Gyp Rosetti that was established last week in the Season 3 premiere helped a great deal in carrying us through "Spaghetti & Coffee," adding a extra layer of tension to every single scene he was in. From his dealings with the young man at the gas station to the scene in the diner, you just could never tell what might set Rosetti off. And honestly, it made for some very great, nerve-racking scenes. But the Rosetti we saw in this episode was a much more restrained, plotting gangster, with enough smarts not to just fly off the handle and kill innocent people in public. And with enough intelligence to actually figure out a plan to thwart a giant booze shipment headed to Rothstein. I'll tell you this though: The next time Rosetti is actually alone, with no witnesses, with a guy who's pissed him off, the crimson's gonna flow!
But even though Gyp stepped up a few notches on the crime boss evolutionary ladder by actually hatching a devious idea, "Spaghetti & Coffee" was a quieter episode than last week's. And it was also the first time that I specifically missed Jimmy. Perhaps it was because Harrow and Gillian took this week off, or maybe it was because one of the side stories involved Eli returning home, prison-gaunt, to his family. There is sympathy to be found in Eli, but not too much. He backed the wrong horse and was complicit in the plot to murder his own brother. Seeing him humbled seems like a natural progression, but Boardwalk needs to be wary of not overloading itself with "fallen" characters. We've also got Van Alden over in Chicago, trying to make his way through life by looking into mirrors and self-motivating himself through psychotherapy.
"How the f*** are you still alive?" Eli says to Mickey, as his new life now involves answering to Nucky's oft-inept gigglepuss. But work is work and Eli's ready, eventually, to lend a hand to Nucky's transport operation. The most interesting thing that developed here though was, at the end, when Owen trusted Eli's advice over Mickey's when confronted by Rosetti's "everybody got guns" battalion of thugs. So it looks like it takes about, oh, one episode for a disgraced character to climb back a few rungs and become useful again. I say this assuming that Van Alden will also take O'Banion up on his job offer.
Although there sadly was no Harrow this week, we did get a peek back inside Chalky White's world and got introduced to Stephen Root's cryptic Special Investigator, Gaston Means. Means, the money-drop go-between for Smith and Daugherty, already fits in well on this show, being both someone who's direct and puzzling at the same time. Chalky, however, is having a bit of trouble at home when he discovers that his daughter, Maybelle, doesn't want to marry the extremely do-right future-doctor, Sam. Even after Chalky vetted him ("How bout you doctor me?"). No, being Chalky's daughter has given her a penchant, and attraction, to a more secretive, gangster life. Even though she doesn't fully know the gruesome details of his work and legacy. "Am I interesting now?" Chalky asks her after Sam's face gets slashed at a juke joint, which then leads to the assailer's face getting stomped in by Dunn Purnsley. Chalky's story didn't have anything to do with Nucky, or the bootlegging biz, but it's always awesome to visit his world. And it's touching to know how much he wants his daughter to elevate her position in life. He could easily succumb to pride, thinking that the paid-for-in-blood life that he's provided her is plenty good enough. But he's done the things he's done so that she never has to.
Margaret, meanwhile, is still on Dr. Mason about prenatal care education. It's a good story, but I have a little trouble latching onto giant, historical issues like this when I know that there're so many more years of research and work and protesting involved in evoking eventual change than this series can dare to encompass. It's a lofty undertaking, which at this point seems like a bit of a burden for a character that many are still straining to appreciate. And Nucky? Well, Nucky's off and under the spell of follies-performer, Billie Kent. His very own White Rock Girl, as he references. But Billie is anything but something that reflects the crystalline purity of White Rock beverages. She's a good-natured, but flighty, actress. And Nucky mistakenly thinks he can curb her flirty, secretive ways. And for a guy who's so direct, and expects honesty in return, it's a bit foolish of him to get wrapped up in her allure. But from their time together we were able to learn that all Nucky wants, more than anything, is for "everything to run all by itself." Which is close to the life he could have had with Margaret if she hadn't thrown all his money at the pediatric hospital.
I do miss Jimmy, and I still haven't found a "not-Nucky" story that can match up with Jimmy's former side of the Boardwalk Empire coin. Eli's not going to cut it, and while Chalky and Harrow are fascinating to watch, they're still mostly "the frosting on top." Rosetti, and the tension he brings, is already a great addition, but stretching him out over a whole season could be a tricky endeavor. This episode felt a bit shallow, but perhaps that's because Nucky was busy dipping his feet in the shallow end, hoping his hummingbird wouldn't fly too far away.
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and IGN. WARNING: No Nudity!
Source : ign[dot]com
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