Written by Howard Korder of several season four episodes, and Cristine Chambers who was show creator Terrence Winter's assistant on The Sopranos and has worked as a producer on Boardwalk. This is her first writing credit. Congratuations!
Directed by Tim Van Patten. Here he is talking about Tony Soprano, "Don't Stop Believing" and the end of The Sopranos
It's not surprising that one of the most Chalky-centric (if not the most) is one of my favorite. Of recent note, Chalky has fallen to Narcisse's alluring, but planted, singer at his club. Distracted by the girl just as neighborhood denizens are distracted by upstanding front Narcisse puts up, and the young men in the neighborhood are distracted by Narcisse's heroin, Chalky's unaware of the problems under his nose, like the heroin craze being led by his confidant, Purnsley.
Purnsley's always been rash. While Narcisse succeeded in pulling the frustrated Purns away from Chalky, he hasn't tempered his violent way of being. Unsurprisingly, Purns kills the deacon, a community leader and attracts heat. This in turn gives Chalky a wake up call when he attends the deacon's funeral and feels the stares from those he watched over until recently. So Chalky goes on a thuggery expedition to a known heroin house to find some answers, though his prime person of interest is gunned down (by Purns, out of Chalky's sight, so to not implicate Purns) before he can ask him anything. He does recover a flyer to Narcisse's play, which points him in the right direction.
The unrest leads to other consequences including the mayor's re-election chances, which leads him to seek out Nucky for help and Nucky's response initially is one of many bosses out there which is "you figure it out, this is your job". But ultimately, Nucky checks in on Chalky and how things are sitting. He doesn't mention the mayor's re-election, or that the mayor is the reason he is there, but inquires more generally about how Chalky is doing. And while Chalky's initially defensive, I think he can see that Nucky is sincerely coming to him as a friend and that there is room for improvement in his house. Nucky's been playing a sage-like role all season, with a gentle, wise and confident touch.
Chalky crashes and burns next. He crashes Narcisse's performance (which seems to combine the old timey-ness of Boardwalk with the pretentiousness of Narcissese). He slow claps everyone out of the theatre with a stick and garbage can lid in a bit of Michael K-awesomeness. When the patrons come out, he stands there like Bill the Butcher, calling out Narcissese and implicating him as the bringer of heroin. Ever the recycler, Chalky uses the lid as a pan to hold the heroin and then light it on fire, giving off an impressive, badass flame. It looks the entire time like violence is going to erupt but the staredown that takes place instead is worth any number of bones broken by bat wielding thugs.
Narcisse dispatches back-stabbing enthusiast Purns to take out Chalky while he's distracted by the Narcisse's stage heroine But more lucid now, Chalky picks up that everything is not okay, so when Purns shows up like Tessio setting up Michael for Barzini, he knows it's been Purns all along. And the violent struggle that ensues is one of the most graphic in recent memory, mostly due to the stabbing of Purns in the face. IN THE FACE! He has the upper hand until, under "comes around, what goes around", he is stabbed in the back, and wow is that knife deep.
Chalky finally managed to have Narcisse meet him in the open field of battle, something he could not do previously. This arena favors Chalky.
- Knox pressuring Eli about Nucky via Will, who's interning in the mayor's office, who needs Chalky for the black vote
- And the plot lines are slowly being tied together
- Mickey is annoying even for Mickey in this episode until, again, he's whacked on the head in public. Nothing like being thrown from a second story onto a table, but significant enough that he stops annoying Nucky
- It speaks more to Nucky's awareness of exactly how much pressure to apply
- Time check: a newspaper references storms in MS and AL, but I'm not positive it's these, which seem to early in the year. It seems not enough time has passed since the last few episodes for that to be right. Also, everyone is fanning themselves in the church, but the weather does not seem particularly hot. So...no idea.
- Purns orders Moses to cut the heroin because if shit is weak they gonna sell twice as much, but if the government do better it don't mean no nevermind
- String would directly contrast this in later episodes, perhaps due to his economics education
- Body count (2 - 19 total)
- RIP Moses - Purns in Moses' office with the pistol. Shoots him thrice in the chest and once through the head to keep him from telling Chalky who (Purns) was running things at the house. Purns plants the sawed off in time for Chalky to see but still gets an earful about how quick he was to shoot and his lack of interest in taking names
- RIP Purns - Daughter (had to look this name up) in the bedroom, driving a giant freaking knife into his back. She has a change of heart and defends Chalky despite setting him up. Chalky with the assist for stabbing Purns through the cheek and wow was that gross
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