Gyp Rosetti and the Queen of the Harpies

Boardwalk Empire

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Joe R: B | Grade It Now!

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Gyp Rosetti and the Queen of the Harpies

By Joe R | Season 3 | Episode 7 | Aired on 10.28.2012

In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description!

It's Easter Sunday, and various characters are celebrating the holiday in their own ways. Nucky, Margaret, and the kids attend an all-day affair at the home of Eli and his family, to the weepy delight of Mrs. Eli. The kids get along, the wives bond (though Mrs. Eli gets a clear picture of how unhappy Margaret is), Nucky even juggles for the children. More pertinently, Eli once again asks his brother to let him back into the fold. They go another round about how Eli kind of tried to have Nucky killed that one time, but after a full day of the families being so happy together, Nucky calls Eli at the end of the day and tells him he'll be co-running the warehouse with Mickey, starting tomorrow.

Richard and little Tommy have dinner at the Sagorsky place with a few other vets, all of whom get to be very uncomfortable when Sagorsky goes off on his increasingly drunken rants. He catches Tommy snooping in his dead son's bedroom, so he angrily grabs him, leading to a confrontation with an angry Richard and an upset Julia. It's terribly uncomfortable, but it leads to Richard and Julia bonding later.

Gillian clears the brothel out for a day and ends up spending it in and out of bed with Roger the Fuck Stallion. He talks big talk about her selling the mansion and them going on a cross-country spending spree, so he's reeeeally surprised when, during your standard "let me bathe you in my marble bath house approximation" role play, Gillian sticks him with a mother lode dose of heroin and drowns him in the tub. She then places Jimmy's dog tags on him, so that when he's found, she can finally have her son declared dead. R.I.P. Roger the Fuck Stallion.

Finally, Gyp Rosetti's depressingly pedestrian home life is put on display, while he focuses on making his case to Masseria that they should eliminate Luciano, Rothstein, and whomever else stand in their way. He also stops by church to rage against God, beat the local priest, and steal from the collection coffers. Delightful as ever.

Want more? The full recap starts right below!

It's a calm Easter Sunday in New Jersey. I know because I've seen the whole episode and life is too short to pretend otherwise. But while we're supposed to be in the dark about that fact, this opening scene of Eli Thompson skulking about the front yard of a house is supposed to be ominous. Is he planting explosives around Gyp Rosetti's house? Retrieving stolen cash he buried before being sent to prison? No, no. This is the New Eli we're talking about: devoted family man and humble striver. He's simply hiding Easter eggs around his yard, in preparation for the day's events. That's our Eli!

Elsewhere in town, Gillian Darmody does not share Eli's early-bird gumption. She answers Richard Harrow's knock at the door with a barely audible "...open," and doesn't remove her sleep mask as she speaks to him. Apparently, she's already had him clear the house of all the girls for today (Easter, it turns out, is a terrible day for business in the whorehouse community), and now she wants him to dismiss the cook for the day. In addition, Richard is taking Tommy with him to Easter dinner with the Legion men at the Sagorsky household, which promises to be an utterly non-traumatic outing. Gillian doesn't want Tommy overhearing any crude language. She then sends Richard away, as the very act of speaking has made her lightheaded. So is this grief or something? No, it's just Gillian's time of the month, and she insists on perpetuating every awful stereotype she can before this season is over. Then again, as soon as Richard is gone, Gillian pops up off the bed, removes her mask, and starts moving with some purpose.

At the Thompson house, Teddy and Emily are dressed in their Sunday finery (including a lovely hat with pink ribbons for Emily) and waiting for their parents. While they do, Emily practices reciting the names of all eight (!) cousins they're going to meet today at Uncle Eli's house. Teddy kind of sneers and asks how she can remember them all. Well, Teddy, Emily has a head start in that she recognizes that other people exist because she's not a budding little sociopath. Emily brags to Nucky when he and Margaret walk in about being able to remember all her cousins, and he says she'll make a fine politician someday. "Girls can't be politicians!" Teddy brats (really not feeling Teddy at the moment). Nucky just smiles and says, "Doesn't England have queens?" ...Okay, kind of fudging it with the "politician" angle of the English monarchy, even in the 1920s, but points to Nucky for sticking up for feminism in front of his children (a far cry from his angry retorts about that Amelia Earhart woman from the season premiere). Margaret just puts on a determined smile, plays the happy wife and mother, and says let's go meet your cousins.

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