Boardwalk Empire: You’d be Surprised Recap

Gyp is One Kinky Mad Dog. Wow, did we call it or what? In the last paragraph of Nucky’s Costly Detour, we picked up on the significance of Gyp Rosetti’s plans to do the redhead, only Gyp didn’t die! He used the poor redhead as a human shield when Benny Siegel shot the door open and she was indeed collateral damage, as was the poor paperboy. It sure was a surprise, though, that Gyp was into auto-eroticism. The episode opened with Gyp getting choked by the redhead to the point where she thought he was dead (You okay? Mr. Rosetti??  Gyp???) and he had a belt wrapped around his neck when all this went down and then there was that bloody full frontal nudity.

The Tabor Heights body count in Blue Bell Boy was revealed at Arnold Rothstein’s. Eleven of Nucky’s workers were killed. So Nucky actually lost 13, because two of his guards were killed over at Rowland Smith’s. But Nucky is not losing any sleep over that or bumping off Rowland himself, for that matter. No, Nucky continues to be preoccupied with his lady love, Billie Kent.

Arnold Rothstein calls him out on this at their meeting, but Nucky is unfazed. “Who the bleep are you, Arnold? A weasel with a good poker face,” and the arguing continues while Owen Slater and Lucky Luciano wait, smoking in pregnant silence, in the anteroom. We know it must have been hard for Lucky to keep his foul mouth shut. LOL! An agreement was apparently reached where Rothstein would pretend to do business with Gyp. Luciano went with him to Tabor Heights to arrange this.

Nucky attends Billie Kent’s rehearsal where his jealousy and possessiveness of the “frisky little pony” rears its ugly head, although Eddie Cantor and Billie tell him the guy she’s dancing with is gay. Nucky takes it upon himself to prove Billie’s father wrong (she’ll never get anywhere), first attempting to bribe Cantor to join up with some passover vodka (That’ll get you through 40 days in the desert). When that fails, he sends Chalky White (whom Eddie remembers as Milky) and Dun Purnsley to put on the pressure, but Eddie has the last laugh (at least in the episode) when he asks Billie as they go onstage if she’s ever heard of Lucy Danziger. “And the next one won’t know a goddam thing about you,” he snipes.

Take a hint, Margaret. Madame Jeunet made a return appearance when Margaret got it into her head to enlist the aid of her former employer at La Belle Femme in distributing her prenatal clinic pamphlets. They are blowing all over the boardwalk after people toss them away. The ladies attending the class find it hard to get out in the evening. The sister won’t accommodate a change to a better time, and even Dr. Mason’s appearance is subject to the call of duty. What’s more, the lady who walked in the door wasn’t a candidate for class, she was Dr. Mason’s fiancee, Helen. But the worst is yet to come when the Madame Jeunet lightbulb goes off in her head. Who should be there but Nucky buying Billie Kent fancy fancies. Why Margaret should care who Nucky is sleeping with, since she doesn’t want him herself, is beyond us, but Nucky himself admitted it was “bad form.” Margaret claimed humiliation and used the incident as a reason to keep Nucky away from her children.  There were hints in both the episode and coming attractions that violence will be coming the way of the Thompson household.

Leander Whitlock was back , too, advising Gillian that she ought to get a grip on reality. Jimmy ain’t coming back and her dreams for Club Artemis will never come true unless she has her son declared dead.

Is everything hunky-dory? This was by far the best part of the episode. Sigrid is as nuts as her husband. FBI Agent Coughlin has been trying to get a hold of Van Alden, supposedly about an iron Van Alden sold him as George Mueller. Why then the big ? on the back of the card he slipped under the door? Because a simple note would have lessened the paranoia? But Van Alden still thinks he doesn’t know squat and just wants more money. Well, whatever Coughlin really was trying to get out of that bag, we didn’t find out because Sigrid put the hurt on him. Middle America’s oddest Odd Couple then had to do him in altogether. How fortunate for Van Alden that he is on the good side of Dean O’Banion. It might even do wonders for Van Alden’s outlook on life. His Faraday co-workers didn’t have much luck in getting him to lighten up. If anyone can do it, we’re betting on O’Banion. (Well, well! It’s the iron man. Hey. This must be a pressing issue.)

We might not see Van Alden next week though. At least he doesn’t show up in the “Ging Gang Goolie” preview, and is that Eli being beaten to a bloody pulp?