Nucky Knew about the Lysol the Whole Time

Boardwalk Empire: Paris Green, Season 1, Episode 11

Here’s our very first observation: showing that many clips from previous episodes before getting down to business is bad. Memo to HBO: Don’t do it no more.

Our second observation is how can anyone say that Boardwalk Empire is predictable? We actually saw someone say that last week, but I doubt if they or anyone else could have predicted Agent Nelson Van Alden DROWNING Agent Sebso in a religious fury at a baptism right in front of the horrified deacon and his equally frightened congregation.

Read Shall We Gather By the River

In the opening scene of “Paris Green,” Margaret is finally getting to see Hardeen (Houdini’s brother) in action. Margaret and Nucky are again double dating with Anabelle and her sugar daddy, Harry. Margaret even gets to be part of Hardeen’s act and her bracelet ends up on Anabelle’s arm. Later, while chit-chatting with Hardeen, Harry blurts out that he is financially ruined — the victim of the first Ponzi scheme cooked up by none other than Charles Ponzi himself. When the significance of this revelation sets in, Anabelle storms off, presumably to find someone with better financial sense, but it turns out that Harry is not entirely devoid of same. He uncovers Anabelle’s “secret” stash of $3,682.00 (she counted it every night) and takes it back, since it was his to begin with. She goes to Nucky for financial assistance, which she offers to repay in the same way she has shown her gratitude to Nucky in the past, and Margaret walks in and hears the tail end of this conversation (unless she was eavesdropping the whole time because we all know how sneaky she is).

Anabelle leaves, shooting a cold look at Margaret for spilling the beans about giving her $50, too. Nucky thinks Margaret is being snooty because she overheard Anabelle’s offer to “do anything” Nucky wants. Nucky’s attempt to smooth that over fails because it is not the real reason for her bad attitude, as he is about to find out. Margaret says she hears (from Nelson Van Alden) that Nucky is capable of anything. She says what she heard made her sick to her stomach and “this whole arrangement does.” She complains about having to “accept what you tell me and ask nothing more, that I aid you in the business you conduct and pretend I don’t know what that business is.” Nucky calls Margaret on her hypocrisy, saying she makes a little noise every now and then to remind him of what a good person she is, but “a good person wouldn’t be here right now.” Margaret says: “You don’t know what I am.” Nucky goes over and pulls the bottle of Lysol from it’s hiding place and says: “This is what you do. After you lie down with me, you go in there, wash your body with this poison, like any whore.” Margaret says adamantly that she won’t have another child. “By me?” asks an insulted Nucky, but Margaret says “by any man,” and asks why he cares, did he want her to provide him with an heir? “I thought you needed saving,” Nucky says. Then she drops the bombshell that she knows what happened to Hans. Nucky warns her to be careful, and tells her that she hasn’t said a word about her husband, the man who beat her and murdered the baby she was carrying, and says he hasn’t lost a second of sleep over what was done and neither has she. Margaret hauls off and slaps Nucky in the face. Nucky smashes the Lysol bottle against the mirror and tells her “You won’t be needing that anymore, will you?

If we thought Boardwalk Empire was predictable like that other person, we’d say, no, she won’t because she’s probably already pregnant.

Later, Nucky finds out from Richard Harrow that Margaret packed up and left with her kids and there’s a glimpse of her in the coming attractions wearing her old duds.

Will they get back together and on whose terms? Or will Margaret set out to be a woman of integrity in a town where that virtue is harder to come by than the best scotch from Britain.

Whatever she does, let’s hope she steers clear of Agent Van Alden.