Margaret's still trying to wrangle Nucky to show up and accept that dumb St. Gregory award from the bishop. Nucky hasn't been sleeping well, having nightmares, obviously feeling the guilt of killing Jimmy and feeling anxious about the fact that he hasn't been able to reach Billie by phone. At the St. Gregory mass, under the watchful eye of God, Nucky starts to hallucinate dead children and the like, but he manages to pull himself together enough to get out of the way while Margaret does her thing. Because Margaret is GANGSTER AS SHIT this week, approaching the bishop and Dr. Landau together and then pitching a women's health clinic to the bishop like it was Landau's idea. She gets the bishop's permission -- nay, encouragement -- all right there while Landau's trying to pick his jaw up off the floor.
Meanwhile, Van Alden is getting hazed at work and peer-pressured to go out for drinks with his awful co-workers. A terrible night gets worse when the prohies bust up the bar. "George Meuller" has a lot to lose if he's processed, but lucky for him he gets a crooked cop who recognizes him from around Cicero and then shakes him down to keep the arrest off the books.
Nucky hits Tabor Heights to meet with Rosetti. He's in no mood for a war, so he offers Rosetti a month's supply of rum, plus invites him to AC for a dinner at Babbette's. Afterwards, he drops Rosetti off at Gillian's brothel, though he doesn't go in, because guilt is not conducive to boners. Too bad, because Rosetti pulls Gillian aside and sows the seeds of dissent against Nucky. Later, after being handed his month's supply of rum from Nucky and a message -- "Bone for Tuna," i.e. "Bon Fortuna," i.e. "good luck" -- Rosetti manages to take offense (I KNOW!) and steams about it enough that he decides to continue to squat on Tabor Heights, and when the local sheriff makes the mistake of wishing him luck, Rosetti sets him on fire. Sigh.
Lansky and Luciano are still having trouble running anything downtown because of the Masseria organization. They send their little buddy (and probably Bugsy Siegel) Benny out to make a delivery, he gets jumped by Masseria's guys and Lansky has to save him.
Finally, Mickey Doyle is being an ass and taking credit for Manny's murder just to push around underlings and feel like a big man. This boast gets back to Richard Harrow through some awfully contrived means but whatever. Richard ambushes an amorous Mickey at home with a lady, then takes him to Nucky's at gunpoint. After getting Mickey to admit he's a liar, Richard takes credit for Manny's death himself, explains to Nucky why and the two actually have a nice conversation about killing and guilt and who has it coming.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Is it me or do the opening credits get longer every episode? They do, right?
As we begin, Nucky's in his office, trying to phone Billie, to no avail. He tells the operator that he's been trying for hours, and the operator responds, "The only thing to worry about is when you run out of company." Okay, so dream sequence, then? Really? I honestly can't believe any HBO show persists with dream sequences anymore, since The Sopranos pretty much wrote the book on the whole "window into the closed-off protagonist's psyche" trope (and kind of ran the concept into the ground, to be honest). Anyway, so Teddy's there, Nucky calling him "slugger," and suddenly he's got a pan full of frying bacon in his hand. The phone rings, distracting Nucky for a second, and a gunshot sounds. Nucky looks up to see Teddy dead on the floor and a smoking gun in his hand. Nucky starts to freak out when Eddie wakes him and tells him Mrs. Thompson is on the phone. When he picks up, they are both annoyed with each other, Nucky for her bothering him, Margaret for Nucky skipping their meeting with the bishop's advance man about his receiving the St. Gregory medal. As expected, Nucky doesn't even want it, but Margaret insists it's an honor he can't turn down. "You said appearances mattered," she tells him. "Do you write down everything I say?" he snarks back. Marriage! After he hangs up, he asks Eddie if Miss Kent called, but she hasn't. And Nucky has a meeting to get to. Probably not with the bishop, though. He stops for a second and looks puzzled -- he asks Eddie, "Is somebody frying something?" And did that big-mouth Billy Bass say something to him?
Margaret returns to her meeting with the bishop's advance man, Father Schuck, and makes apologies for Nucky. She gives him the credit for donating the land to the church, and they start to go over the particulars. She looks at the schedule and notices that there's no time for a private audience with the bishop, as she'd requested. The bishop's schedule is rather tight, Fr. Schuck says. Margaret obviously wants this to happen; she suggests the bishop is purposefully avoid the Thompsons, a statement that gets vigorously refuted. "So you'll see to it?" she asks, pointedly. She even threatens to go over his head if he doesn't. After two episodes of Margaret looking unsure of herself, it's nice to remember what a bulldog she can be when she wants to.
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