"The Good Listener" & "What Jesus Said" - Boardwalk Empire

Episode 5-02 and 5-03

Much like Game of Thrones, there are many characters, stories and locations, which means it often takes pairs of episodes to check in with characters.  This episode touched on several Sirs-Not-Appearing from last week as they are often wont to do.  Game of Thrones will go so far as to use the same director for 2-3 episodes in a row, which is rare for a television drama.

Signs of the Times
So we check in on Chicago and Eli and Van Alden are not getting a ton of respect from their Capone overlords.  We're starting to see a lot more fedoras on people, noticeable as the men remove their hats in the elevator.  

When this series began, the country was still feeling the Great War, about to recoil into an isolationist shell with the election of Warren G. Harding and lots of drinking.  World War II is still ten years away but feeling the Great Depression taking hold as well as the rise of Roosevelt makes you think about the people who live through those thirty years.  Had Jimmy survived, he may have been young enough to rejoin the Army and fight in two world wars.  And I highly suggest reading that obit. 

Speaking of Roosevelt, we hear what would be his campaign song.  This is timed perfectly with PBS' new Ken Burns series released last week, "The Roosevelts".  It is worth every minute of the seven parts and fourteen hours it takes to watch.  

The song plays during the call between Nucky and Sally and she can hear it over the phone in the background from his radio, so they pause and listen to it...one in Jersey and one in Cuba.  To think it was late in the first season we heard the first commercial radio broadcast reporting election results.  The crowd gathered in the theater to listen to a radio that was placed up by a microphone.  The world has gotten a lot smaller in five seasons.

Whiskeys and Scotches

• Had to chuckle at the feather in Eli's face, which reminded me of people with giant backpacks on the subway
• Line of the night - "Why must there always be pandemonium?!"  Van Alden delivers it in his Van Alden way.  This may surpass his "Take care and God bless" telephone farewell to his wife.  
• The actor playing the commodore has the timbre of his voice down perfectly for these flashbacks.  I wonder if the original actor recorded the lines for the new actor, like Kathryn Joosten did for Kristen Nelson's flashback scenes in "Two Cathedrals"
• Chalky brawls with his accomplice and kills him, much like his time with Purvis

Can't Be Half a Gangster
Jimmy posed the question to Nucky a lifetime ago about what he wanted to be.  Nucky eventually answered by shooting him in the face.  But he eventually removed himself from public office and took on more of an emeritus role, collecting residuals on the boardwalk empire he created.  His self consciousness with Joe Kennedy, who comes from a similar background and carries himself with more legitimacy, is palpable.  He mirrors Joe's tetotaling in an attempt to build some common trust, but eventually only finds contempt from the man who, after see the club and its patrons and getting to know Nucky a bit more, responds with "What are you?" to Nucky's "Those men are gangsters."  

So Nucky wonders, has he accomplished anything?  Just in time for Margaret to return.  The relieved and pleased look says it all.