Boardwalk
Empire
Season Three
Episode
Seven
'Sunday
Best' - 6.5
 |
| We are just so... Nineteen twenties-y. |
Happy Easter
everyone, apparently. That's right, back in the nineteen twenties they did the
entire Easter Sunday ritual, just like us, with a pleasant family lunch or
dinner and an egg hunt, even if it is for money. At points 'Sunday Best'
actually felt like filler, namely the scenes featuring Nucky and Margaret
spending the evening at Eli and June's house or Richard Harrow at the veterans'
lunch, as other than a few character and relationship points nothing was
really raised or modified. Especially not when compared with the Gyp Rosetti
storyline or whatever went down at Gillian's house.
I think
Gillian's rendezvous with her Jimmy-lookalike is a good place to start, as it
managed to be a strange mix of the episode's best and worst parts. First of
all, it was horrendously creepy. Gillian is a complete nutcase, definitely
suffering from the grief of her son's loss, while also having to actually admit
to herself that he is dead. To do that, for some bizarre psychological reason
she decides she has to dose her lover with heroin then drown him in the bath.
Seriously, after only two episodes with us the surrogate son/incestuous affair
is killed. Nonetheless, his presence was felt, even if he was there just to
make Gillian Darmody out to be bonkers. She even tells the poor lad that Jimmy
was actually her husband instead of her son.
Luckily for
us, once she's done the deed and made it look like an overdose she sits down on
Richard Harrow's bed and finally realises the truth for herself; Jimmy's dead,
and he's not coming back. This storyline was both disconcerting and
fascinating, though my biggest issue stemmed from the drowning of the lad; it
was just so dramatic! Yeah, conflict and murder and death are always good
twists and stuff, but I just didn't really believe it, did Gillian have to be
so extreme about it? I don't think there are that many nutcases so close to
each other anywhere in the world. Maybe Boardwalk Empire is reaching its
expiration date if they have to resort to such manipulative and outlandish tactics
to keep us invested.
While she
has her day of sex and homicide, her assistant Richard Harrow takes Tommy to
his Easter lunch, which takes place at that father and daughter pair we met in
the last episode. Have to say though; did anyone give a shit? Yeah, Harrow is a
fantastic character who inspires pity and respect, managing to be both a tragic
victim and an amoral killer. But love? Once again, I'm wondering if the show is
reaching a point where it's run out of ideas, because that is such an obvious
direction to take the character that it is absolutely uninteresting. I do
believe it more than I believe Gillian's murder of Roger, but at least THAT was
endlessly fascinating. Harrow and Julia is just boring.
Similarly,
Margaret and Nucky spend Easter Sunday engaging in family play with Eli and his
family. There were the odd points in this story that were a bit alright, namely
Margaret admits to June that she is not happy with the state of her marriage,
and that Nucky has a mistress in New York. Of course June tells her husband
once it's all over, though I don't know if this will have any significance at
all. There was also a kind of reconciliation between the brothers, but this was
after Eli practically asked Nucky to shoot him because he's 'tired of waiting'.
This must have been an admirable act in Nucky's eyes, as he offers his brother
the position of partner in Doyle's warehouse.
There was
also implications of remaining affection between Nucky and his wife, as she
comes to discover that he is a proficient juggler and entertainer. When he
offers to teach her how to juggle though, she simply tells him that it's 'too
late', with the double entendre being about as explicit as Gretchen Mol's tits
earlier in the episode. To be honest, I'm conflicted about putting these two
back together, as they were a terrific couple and are one of the few evenly
matched pairs on the show, but I also don't want the show to go back on their
developments simply because another option is better.
I follow
Steve Buscemi on Twitter, and I knew from there just how funny the man is
(seriously folks, @TheRealBuscemi, follow that shit) but his brief comic
display during his family talent show was quite hilarious. He may have some of
the best comic timing that I've seen in a long time, as well as a plain, old
funny voice. Great stuff. Also, he can clearly really juggle, which is also
impressive.
Finally, Gyp
Rosetti also does some stuff. Good stuff, in Italian. Just as hilariously as
Nucky's egg routine, Gyp actually beats up a priest in a church after calling
God 'fucking sick' and then goes about stealing all the collection money. Later
he approaches Joe Masseria with the money and is able to appropriate a bit of
support in his quest to 'kill them all', as in Rothstein and Nucky. Terrific!
And now a mob guy with actual power is in on the action as well, so hopefully
we will see an old-fashioned mob war erupt along the Eastern seaboard. Honestly
though, does Masseria believe he can defeat two of the most powerful criminals
in America?
If 'Sunday
Best' taught me anything, it's that Easter Sunday is not a day for action,
except for the reflective, dramatic murder of Roger by Gillian, though that
just bordered on scarring. After last episode's absence it was good to see Gyp
Rosetti back on the scene and making a few power plays to reassert his
dominance and take his revenge. With only five episodes left we have to start
seeing the action ramp up as we head towards the finale. What will happen?
Who'll fall in the crossfire? My guesses; Gillian's just gotten too insane, I
think the writers are moving to cut her out, and put her more in the middle of
the action. Run or the other. If Margaret isn't with Nucky then they are going
to have to go to bizarre measures to keep her involved, so it might just be
easier to kill her off. I'm getting kind of bored of Richard Harrow, as he
hasn't really changed that much since joining the show two years ago, but I
wouldn't put his odds low. I think he'll do fine. Eli and Mickey Doyle would
both be expendable, probably the former less so than the latter, though I doubt
Eli's gonna get bumped off first. Billy Kent, even though she didn't
appear tonight, is in definite danger, especially now that more and more
people are becoming aware of her fling with Nucky, and she also gets between
him and Margaret. I for one wouldn't care if she got tapped on the shoulder.
We will see
though, it might end up like the first season which kind of shrugged as it
finished, and no one important might die. I hope not though, there's been a few
snooze fests this year and I want to see all this exposition lead to something
worthwhile.
No comments:
Post a Comment