He starts off making small talk about the interior décor, but it's only a pretext to bring up Lucky, who he knows is Gillian's partner and whose belly, he says, "will never be full." That also, per Rosetti, applies to Nucky Thompson. Gillian is decidedly tight-lipped on the subject of Nucky, but Rosetti openly resents the fact that everybody has to pay Nucky in order to do business, and in particular the way Nucky gave Gillian the cold shoulder earlier. Gillian smartly says that every business has its costs, but Rosetti presses the issue. She finally divulges some dirt, on the pretense that she "heard" that Nucky's own brother tried to have him killed. That is an intriguingly selective way of looking at it, but okay. Rosetti is more than intrigued. "You lose your own flesh and blood, what do you have?" he asks, Gillian looks super pained at this and finally says, "You don't have anything." OH BECAUSE ~SHE~ LOST HER OWN FLESH AND BLOOD I GET IT.
Margaret and Nucky are at church, with Nucky complaining about his suit, which must've shrunk. He reminisces about the last time he was in church -- their wedding day. Margaret has no patience for him right now -- "as they say on Broadway, the show must go on." They walk down the aisle behind the bishop and take their seats at the front of the congregation. As they sit, Nucky looks up at the children's choir singing and sees a child, much like in his dream, with a tidy little bullet wound trickling blood just under his left eye. Maybe he's just about to flow into "Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg"? At first I thought he was hallucinating Teddy, but looking at the real Teddy sitting right next to him in church, they look nothing alike. You'll have to forgive me for not remembering what one-off child actors look like, but I guess this is supposed to be young Jimmy Darmody? Young Nucky? Leave me alone and quit giving me homework, Boardwalk Empire. Nucky has to shake it off and look up again -- it's another kid entirely. He grabs for Margaret's hand.
Meanwhile, the bishop is going on about Nucky's "generosity of spirit." Totally. Nucky is called up to receive his St. Gregory medal -- a big garish thing that hangs around his neck like at the end of the first Star Wars. Nucky keeps staring at Young Jimmy/Nucky in the choir, and I know this was a different time -- and the Catholic Church besides -- but no one seems to be taking much note of Nucky staring a hole through grade-school children.













Comments