'I Can't Complain, But It Doesn't Mean I Won't': Boardwalk Empire Recapped

And with nine little words, Nucky Thompson gave me a new personal quote for Facebook. Though for the second week in a row, Boardwalk Empire itself has left me with very little to actually complain about. Coming on the heels of last week's outstanding episode, the series has officially hit what we here in the biz call a stride.

In the same way that "Home" managed to flesh out the tortured souls of Nucky and Jimmy, "Hold Me in Paradise" fleshed out the gathering storm surrounding Nucky's heavily cloistered life amongst the wicked. Lines are being drawn, bodies are slowly starting to pile up and finally, finally the band is back together: With Jimmy's pending return to New Jersey, all of Boardwalk Empire's protagonists will be in one place by the time next week's episode starts up.

(I was talking with a friend about Boardwalk Empire's decision to separate its characters, and we both came to the same conclusion: It happened too early. When series usually do this -- think: Lost and its endless, Lord of the Rings-like character groupings -- it usually happens in the second or third season, when everything is more established. Boardwalk Empire shipped Jimmy off to Chicago in the third episode, and it was a decision that severely hampered the first half of the season; fracturing the main conflict and characters so quickly was a mistake that has been happily rectified.)

What happened in "Paradise"? Nucky went to Chicago for the Republican National Convention, boxed out the back-stabbing Senator Walter Edge, backed future president Warren G. Harding, picked up another lost soul in Harding's mistress and love child and even found time to vaguely reconcile with Jimmy. As the young protege accurately said when Nucky made his late night booty call my-brother-just-got-shot-in-the-belly-and-I-need-an-enforcer call, their first meeting went about as well as stepping in dog crap; Nucky doesn't necessarily want Jimmy back, but he needs him. And as Nucky accurately said, the Torio clan isn't going to have use for an Irishman like Jimmy. Both Jimmy and Nucky have gone about as far as they can without the other. Hey, whatever it takes to get the protagonists in the same time zone! Just as long as Richard Harrow gets to come along for the ride, too.

Back in Atlantic City, Eli got shot -- if you didn't see this coming from the first minute of the episode, I'd like to welcome you to America -- but thankfully survived (Shea Whigham is really wonderful in a tricky role; getting ride of him so soon would deprive us all of the further familial conflicts to come). And who shot him? The Philly mob, naturally, and they will soon join forces with the New York mob (and probably Chalky) in an attempt to bring down Nucky. Like I said last week, with Michael K. Williams, Vincent Piazza and Michael Stuhlbarg in the credits, it seems unlikely they'll be taken down by Nucky and Jimmy...but Max Casella and the Philly boys better not get too comfortable in their Boardwalk Empire dressing rooms.

"Hold Me in Paradise" was also the longest look we've had at Agent Van Alden since his self-flagellation episode a few weeks back. Michael Shannon did his best work here, making Van Alden both terrifyingly unreadable and strangely sympathetic. Whatever code of honor he's following, Van Alden remains an unnerving presence -- was I the only one who thought he was going to get uncomfortably physical with his wife? -- and with Nucky and Jimmy now gunning for him, you wonder how long he's going to be able to keep his hands clean(ish).

Speaking of keeping clean: As the episode ended, Margaret finally flipped open Nucky's ledger...and found that he's involved in gambling and alcohol. Gasp! This was another Boardwalk Empire reveal (see: Van Alden finding out Jimmy was involved in the truck shooting) that was not a reveal. Does anyone believe that Margaret didn't know what Nucky was up to? Sure, she's gotten wrapped up in the "Nucky treatment," but that doesn't mean she's a babe in the woods. Bear in mind, she did have him nearly arrested three episodes ago.

There has been a lot of writing here on the interwebs recently about the way Boardwalk Empire treats its female leads. (Between Empire and The Social Network, this fall has been relatively unkind to women on film and television.) Margaret has always proved to be one of the smartest people in the room, but her blindness last night took me by surprise and felt like a large step-back for her character. Alas, let's just hope it was a momentary complaint in an otherwise complaint-free episode.

Now...where did I put my 1920s nun-fetish porn? While I look for that, let's hear what you thought about the episode below.