'Spaghetti & Coffee' - Boardwalk Empire, Season Three

Boardwalk Empire

Season Three

Episode Two

'Spaghetti & Coffee' - 6.0

Boardwalk Empire has already entered that period of wavering activity as the story continues to add layer upon layer of complex plot points and meaningless data that I find both intriguing and over-bearing. Sure, there isn't exactly a horde of new characters, but in the year we missed allegiances, relationships and connections have began, been modified or destroyed, and to be honest I'm already beginning to have trouble keeping track.

Mr. Rosetti is of course the important character we know the very least about. Entirely insane and irrational, the apparently small-time mobster is still fuming over Nucky's decision to cut him out of the operation in favour of only supplying liquor to Arnold Rothstein. Tonight he facilitates a plan to halt the first delivery in Tabor Heights, the very same town near which he murdered that random good Samaritan last episode. It's devilishly simplistic, as the convey of liquor needs to stop there to refuel along the way, since it has the last petrol bowser until Stratton Island. Rosetti discovers that Mickey Doyle and his crew have bought off the Sheriff so that they can make their way through the town without any problems, so after meeting the officer in a local diner he somehow convinces him to turn the tables on Nucky's operation. When they come through, they find the bowsers locked and of no use, as Rosetti reveals himself in the darkness, approaching the men, before presenting dozens of other armed men at his disposal, forcing the convoy to make a u-turn and head back to Atlantic City.

In New York City, Attorney General Harry Daugherty has set up some sort of protection fund, forcing many powerful figures to pay him money to avoid... something. Anyway, his middle man in charge of physically collecting the cash is a Mr. Gaston Bullock Means, a paranoid but well-spoken and intelligent individual, who empties a fish bowl to act as the drop point, while hiding behind a door with a hole drilled through it so he can see what is going on. When Nucky arrives to pay a whopping $40,000, he is insulted by this lack of sincerity, and cajoles Means into letting him into the room and breaking this anonymity. I've watched the scene a few times and I'm still not entirely sure about what they are really talking about, but I enjoyed Stephen Root's almost excited portrayal of the wise-and-therefore-paranoid middle man. As he and Nucky discuss whatever-the-fuck, they get a brief peep show from Mr. Remus, the weirder, third-person only guy who pops up for little reason other than to say his own name as often as he can. Remus delivers his money to the fish bowl then leaves, followed closely by Nucky.

Nucky's other reason for visiting the Big Apple (was it known as that then?) is to visit resident and lover Billie Kent, who lives in a Rothstein-owned apartment building with a leaky radiator. Over the course of the episode, Nucky begins to worry that Kent is not being entirely faithful due to her interactions with another man at a dinner they attend, as well as the occasional call that Nucky isn't allowed to ask about. This concern is not helped by Rothstein himself, who is smart enough to connect the couple when Nucky inquires about the radiator issue in her building. Nucky never actually confronts her, rather he admits to her that all he wishes for is to hang up his bowtie and have his empire run itself, making him free to spend his life with her, and her alone. This makes her oddly uncomfortable, and last we see them they'd engaged in a period of pointed silence.

Back in Atlantic City, Margaret continues to fuss relentlessly over the doctor's comments at the hospital last episode. She visits the unfortunate woman who suffered the violent miscarriage right in front of her, receiving a cold and irritated reaction despite her only wanted to learn more about the woman's circumstances. Her later conversation with the whiny doctor was quite well-scripted, as the longer it went, the more wound up and infuriated Margaret became, as the man did little other than question how effective she could be at bringing about change at the hospital. Eventually she stormed out of his office, before turning on her heel, barging back in and going on a long and beautifully handled tirade about how much she does want to help and how tired she is of his insinuations about her wealth and motivations. The day refuses to get much better for her, and when she arrives home she discovers that Nucky has turned down an invitation to a ceremony in which he was supposed to receive an award from the Catholic Church. Nonetheless, she ignores his refusal and tells her maid to prepare his suit.

In what will probably be big news, Eli Thompson was released from jail early in the episode. Eli's imprisonment almost necessitated a jump forward, in retrospect, as it means we don't have to wait an entire year before seeing Nucky's pathetic and beaten down brother again. However, it seems our favourite foil has grown while in the can, becoming a much angrier and less irrational human being. Shea Whigham's actually done fantastically in contrasting the original version of his character with the one who walks out of the prison door to find his brother had sent Mickey Doyle to pick him up. It would piss me off royally if someone sent that clown to pick me up, and it certainly takes its toll on Eli. However, while the last Eli would have thrown a tantrum, this one is fairly blasé about the development, though he gets worked up when Doyle asks him to work under his employ, which means lending a helping hand on the deliveries for Nucky.

We get a few pleasant establishing scenes of Eli with his family, though I have to question what relevance they will have to the greater story here, though I'm thinking that perhaps William Thompson may serve an important purpose later. We meet Will when he holds back from really embracing his father, instead offering a genial handshake, displaying his rough hands and establishing him as the family member who earned the bread while the patriarch was away. Later, Eli tries to make amends by presenting his son with a present meant to be given to him two birthdays prior, only to be largely brushed off as Will heads to work. I'm not sure where this relationship is going, or if it was simply a factor designed to motivate Eli to start trying to earn some serious money again, either way it honestly wasn't that interesting.

Lastly we have Chalky, who is visited by Samuel Crawford, his daughter's suitor last seen in 'What Does The Bee Do' last season. In a scene as typically enthralling as all of Chalky's, Samuel asks for Maybelle's hand, only for her father to request the doctor-in-training perform a brief examination of him. When he diagnoses Chalky with an easily remediable deficiency he's largely impressed, and openly and gracefully admits him into the family. 

It's not that simple of course, this is television, as Maybelle worries that she does not truly love Samuel, and that the boy is far too boring for a girl like her. She wants someone more like her father, a thought that clearly pains Chalky, who orders her to accept the proposal, if only to acknowledge the hard work of her mother. Later on, Maybelle drags Sam off to a sleazy jazz-club for a drink and to watch the band, where he pesters her about her feelings towards him until he's interrupted by some dancers. When he confronts them, the male pulls a knife and does a quick slash of the boy's cheek, just as Dunn Purnsley runs in and beats the attacker to the ground. Chalky follows in a second later and asks Samuel to escort his distraught daughter home, only for him to disobey so that he can assist his beaten assailant. 

Boardwalk Empire is insistent on providing complex and well-rounded characters, almost to a fault. Yes, it is always good to have realistic people populating shows, but it can be exhausting to have to remember that many real-sounding characters in that dense an environment. In fact, I'd posit there are no weak personalities in this show at all, even Lucy Danziger grew into her clingy and hypersexual gold-digger persona. Damn.

There's honestly quite a lot to love about this world, but the writers and directors appear to assume that because they can start and end strong, the middle will be of the same quality. It is nearly impossible to have a show have every episode be consistently amazing, but Boardwalk Empire seems to thrive on the belief that theirs will be, simply because their best episodes are undoubtedly some of THE best episodes of any show, ever. Yeah, whatever, it looks great, it sounds great, the acting's great, blah blah blah great great great, but this episode in the end offered little new or advanced, and presented the same perfect universe and tone that this show has fallen in love with. One thing you might take away from Boardwalk Empire is this; perfection gets surprisingly dull after a while. Perhaps this really has turned into a really long film rather than a series, and perhaps that film should have ended a couple of hours ago.