The Pony Recap: Boardwalk Empire

The title of 8th episode of the 3rd season of Boardwalk Empire had a dual meaning, referring to a pony being bought for Emily’s birthday, as well as a show business term to describe one of the girls in the chorus — but not the lead. Fresh from his visit to Italia, Johnny Torrio had a new outlook on life after seeing the ruins left by Vesuvius at Pompei. Another explosion will claim a life, but not the one that was intended.

Gillian Darmody, with the able assistance of attorney, Leander Whitlock, has managed to get the cause of death on her son Jimmy Darmody’s death certificate changed to “Accidental Drowning.” No one is spilling the beans that the body about to be cremated isn’t even her son, but is poor Roger McAllister who had the dual misfortune of resembling Jimmy Darmody to some extent and becoming entangled in Gillian’s sticky web of deceit just when she needed a corpse. It’s most peculiar how Gillian never went far in her own stage career. No one can deny, she’s an awesome actress. It must be that deranged streak of hers that stood in her way.

It was just a great scene when Eddie Kessler entered Nucky’s office to tell Nucky about Jimmy’s unexpected death. We haven’t seen a lot of the comical interaction between Nucky’s man Friday, Eddie Kessler, that makes you love Eddie, but here he was “yammering away.” The looks on the faces of Nucky, Eli and Owen, three of the four men present when Jimmy Darmody met his maker, were priceless.

Nucky then pays Gillian a visit to find out what she was up to, interrupting another meeting with Whitlock on how to get legal guardianship of Tommy Darmody while living in a whorehouse — uh, health resort. That didn’t go well, with Gillian throwing her drink in Nucky’s face and Nucky reminding her that she exists because he allows her to. Hmmmm. Nucky must have something really good on old Gillian.

In Chicago, Dean O’Banion has something really good on Nelson Van Alden, or George Mueller as he is known in Cicero. In return for helping him dispose of the body of the Prohi Van Alden and Sigrid killed, Van Alden must make moonshine for O’Banion in his home. There’s  a quota and O’Banion also prevails upon him to act as his muscle when needed. And he needs him to stand there with his case of irons when he meets with Torrio and Al Capone. O’Banion also brought along Hymie Weiss, played by Will Janowitz. If you were a Sopranos fan, you may recall him as Meadow’s boyfriend, Finn DiTrolio, who outed the gay mafioso, Vito Spatafore.

Gaston Bullock Means meets up with Nucky and Asst. U.S. Attorney Esther Randolph. Means means to earn the $40K he is charging Nucky for information by providing him with enough to get him into the Union Club to talk to Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon. Means tells Nucky that the Treasury Secretary happens to own a distillery himself and he will leave the manner in which to use that tidbit up to Nucky’s resourcefulness. Nucky offers Mellon the head of Attorney General Harry Daugherty on a silver platter via the arrest of George Remus. Nucky suggests to a skeptical Mellon that if arresting Remus doesn’t get Daugherty the first time, he’s bound to get some information to use against the Attorney General in the future. (Is that what he did to Gillian?). Nucky for his part will front Mellon’s distillery. After letting Nucky make his proposal, Mellon dismisses him as an “interloper,” in a most undignified manner — without even directly speaking to Nucky.

Quotes from Boardwalk Empire: The Pony

In the meantime, Nucky’s showgirl, Billie Kent, is auditioning for Clifton King, a movie director, out in Queens. She’s quite the ad-libber as she does a scene with an actor named Gilbert, making a terrific impression. Billie and her friend, Viola, go back to celebrate and bring Gil along. Gil is displaying his comic flair, dressed up like the Sheik of Araby while making fart jokes. The girls are laughing their butts off when Nucky arrives unexpectedly. Nucky’s bad mood over the Mellon fiasco and his jealousy of anyone getting close to Billie combine and he unloads his anger on Gil. He calls Gil a “bleeping interloper” and punches him in the face for calling him “sir.” Gil fights back and ends up with a broken nose. Nucky expresses his dissatisfaction with their “don’t ask don’t tell” arrangement. He wants more but Billie needs her independence, explaining that she’s already escaped from a domineering father.

Nucky might want to look at what’s going on a little closer to home. Owen is not only helping Margaret with the pony purchase, they are bonding over memories of Ireland. They follow that up with some hanky panky in the car. Notice how Owen doesn’t make a move though without getting “the signal” from Margaret.

At the Faraday Iron Company, Van Alden continues to be the biggest butt of the jokes and pranks they like to play on each other, but this time it goes too far. Teased beyond endurance in a mock sales pitch, Van Alden goes off the deep end and assaults the jokester (Ryan Woodle) with a hot iron to the face! Then he wildly rampages through the office while everyone cowers in fear. Sigrid awakes to find him packing their clothes but she has already figured out a solution to their problems. They can make more moonshine than O’Banion needs and sell it themselves. Her Norwegian roots will serve them well in selling to the local immigrants.

In other Margaret news, Mrs. Shearer is having a problem keeping her husband off her. She admits to Margaret that she drank tainted milk to abort the child she was carrying because she can’t go through childbirth again. She begs Margaret to get her a diaphragm from Dr. Mason. Margaret goes one better, and asks the good doctor for two diaphragms, obviously making plans to continue shagging Owen. The birth control may be a little too late this time, foolish woman.

It was a little weird to see Gyp Rosetti at the Artemis Club. Where does he get the nerve to show his face in Atlantic City and don’t they have brothels in New York. We know they do (we know Lucky Luciano used to frequent Polly Adler’s) but it must be that red hair that draws Gyp to Gillian who drops a loaded hint about where Nucky, Lucky and Arnold Rothstein will be dining later on: Babette’s Supper Club.

Later that night, Nucky and the gangsters head to Babette’s with Billie Kent in tow. A guy from Season 1 interrupts to chat up Nucky and he sends Billie ahead. As Nucky tries to extricate himself from this unexpected conversation, he watches Billie stand in the doorway of Babette’s, while Rothstein moves the other way. Suddenly a bomb explodes inside the supper club and the entire area is engulfed in flames. A stunned Nucky tries to process what has just happened but passes out on the boardwalk. The viewer can see that Billie is the only one to take a direct hit.