While Matthew Weiner was busy trying to give Mad Men lovers exactly what he thought they wanted on Sunday night -- Don with Megan and not the chemistry-less Faye; Betty miserable and cornered -- Terence Winter was attempting to do the same thing for Boardwalk Empire's burgeoning fanbase. That meant concentrating on a central storyline that almost connected the sprawling cast, while at the same time giving Mucky 'shippers the big kiss they've been waiting for. But did "Nights in Ballygran" actually work?
For me, yes. This has been a tough show to recap: When I'm hard on Boardwalk Empire, the haters come out in full-force, telling me how stupid my opinions are; when I'm pleased with the show, the other haters tell me how stupid my opinions are. It's a vicious cycle really: Never have I seen a television show inspire such vitriol on both sides so quickly. It even took Mad Men a while before it became fully beloved.
There's a reason for this, I think: We're all busy looking for the "next big thing;" the next television show that we can claim as the best of the medium (or at least the best since The Wire). For many, that show is Boardwalk Empire and it was anointed as such before it even started.
Anyway, I bring this up because "Nights in Ballygran" could very well be a polarizing episode. Bringing Nucky and Margaret together will certainly have some people proclaiming shark jump, even if the show telegraphed this union from four episodes away. That aside -- and like I said, I'm on Team Mucky, so win -- this was a special episode of Boardwalk Empire because it showed just what can happen when all the diffuse plots converge.
That Jimmy was off in Chicago smoking opium and watching his hooker girlfriend commit suicide -- and that Chalky was nowhere to be found -- is incidental. If you were to list the five most important factors about Boardwalk Empire, those five were on full display last night: Nucky, Margaret, bootlegging, politics, Agent Van Alden. In the end, that's the series -- the stories aren't going to be told through Jimmy (who I initially and incorrectly thought was an audience surrogate); they're going to be told through Margaret. And if that means more Kelly MacDonald and, by extension, more Michael Shannon, count me as excited.
I know: You're getting impatient. What happened last night? Well, to keep this brief: Margaret used all the feminine wiles that she had in her arsenal to get Nucky's attention. That meant baking soda bread, dressing up, appearing at his office and, eventually, ratting him out to Agent Van Alden. It worked, finally: The Nuckster wound up on Margaret's doorstep for a late night booty call. How this relationship will make Agent Van Alden feel, of course, is another matter entirely.
(Shannon hasn't had much to do on Boardwalk Empire just yet, but he seethes lust at Margaret in increasingly aggressive and hilarious ways. Well played.)
There were seeds planted for other future conflict, too: Nucky's brother Eli is finally tired of playing second fiddle, which makes you wonder how long before he goes to the New York mob in an attempt to curry favor and position himself as the next ruler of Atlantic City; Jimmy's mother and girlfriend at fighting over who should raise Jimmy's son; and, well, that was about it. But as Mad Men has proven: A little goes a long way. Boardwalk Empire has found itself a groove -- let's all hope it stays on course.
Some stray bullets:
· Michael Stuhlbarg might be playing Arnold Rothstein like Lee Strasberg played Hyman Roth in The Godfather Part II, but I'm still loving it.
· Question: When will Jimmy and Al Capone make it back to Atlantic City?
· The best Boardwalk Empire scene thus far? The conversation about wages between all the little people poised to perform as Leprechauns.