Boardwalk Empire: Angela Darmody

Boardwalk Empire character Angela Darmody appeared in almost every episode of Boardwalk Empire of Season 1 and Season 2, except she didn’t make the last two episodes of Season 2. The first major character to die, she was shot in her own home by her husband’s enemy, Manny Horvitz.

Angela was portrayed by actress Aleksa Palladino, also known for her roles in:

Find Me Guilty (2006)
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007)
Acts of Mercy (2009)

Relationships:
Baby Daddy, Husband:
Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt)
Son: Tommy Darmody
(Brady and Connor Noon)
Mother-in-Law: Gillian Darmody (Gretchen Mol)
Lover in Season 1: Mary Dittrich (Lisa Joyce)
Mary’s Husband: Robert Dittrich (Josiah Early)
Lover in Season 2: Louise (Kristen Sieh)
Killer: Manny Horvitz (William Forsythe)

We first met Angela in the premiere episode of Boardwalk Empire at the apartment she shares with Jimmy, who has returned from WWI with a leg injury. She and Jimmy discuss whether he should return to Princeton to finish college or take the job that he has been offered by Nucky Thompson. In the “Ivory Tower,” Jimmy offers his family a better Christmas than they have seen in a while because he has lots of money after committing robbery and murder. In Broadway Limited, Nucky gets Jimmy out of town by sending him to Chicago, where he takes up with a prostitute named Pearl but sends money back to Angela. Agent Van Alden intercepts his mail, trying to get evidence against both Jimmy and Nucky.

In Anastasia, Angela wants to know why Jimmy’s mother, Gillian, has her grandson Tommy calling her by her first name. Gillian thinks she too young to be called grandma. In “Nights in Ballygran” Gillian has been spiking Tommy’s milk with whiskey while she babysits. Gillian also offers to take Tommy off Angela’s hands permanently. Angela goes off to visit the photographers. Up until “Home,” viewers and Jimmy suspect Angela is sleeping with the photographer because Jimmy became suspicious of a photo album and Tommy’s desire to run into the shop whenever he was on the boardwalk. Angela’s lover is revealed to be Dittrich’s wife, Mary. She doesn’t want Nucky to find out.

In “Trouble in Paradise,” Gillian gives Angela a hard time about her painting and advises her to get a job selling perfume door-to-door or become a stenographer. Jimmy returns in “Belle Femme” and interrupts a 3-way love affair that is about to happen at his apartment with the Dittrichs. In Emerald City, Jimmy gives Robert Dittrich a severe beating, thinking he has slept with Angela. He still wants to stay with Angela, but she makes plans to go to Paris with the Dittrichs and her son. In Paris Green, the Dittrichs desert Angela. In the Season 1 finale, she gets a note from Mary, asking for forgiveness and Jimmy still wants to make a go of their relationship.

Season 2:

In the Season 2 premiere, 21, Angela and Jimmy have married and are now living at a beach house in Ventnor. Gillian continues to be a dividing force between Jimmy and Angela. In What Does the Bee Do, Angela takes an interest in Richard Harrow and sketches him without his mask on. In Gimcrack & Bunkum, Angela, Jimmy and Tommy attend the Memorial Day Services in Margate. Nucky blindsides Jimmy, introducing him as a speaker. Angela expresses surprise that Jimmy didn’t say anything. He admits he didn’t know himself. Later after an encounter with Atlantic City’s inner circles, Jimmy comes home injured but doesn’t tell Angela the truth about how he got hurt. In the Age of Reason, Angela and Jimmy stroll the boardwalk and talk about the wireless radio. Angela wants to introduce Tommy to classic music. Although she takes a call from Manny Horvitz, Angela is not aware of how deep Jimmy’s criminal activities go. In Two Boats and a Lifeguard, she finds out when she overhears Jimmy speaking angrily with Al Capone about the assassination attempt on Nucky that went wrong. Angela takes Tommy to the beach where she makes a new friend, Louise. Returning home, she confronts Jimmy about their marriage. Later she attends a party with Louise and they become lovers. Although we don’t see Angela in Battle of the Century, her ultimate fate is a direct result of a decision made by Waxey Gordon at a meeting at her home: to kill Manny Horvitz. Like the attempt on Nucky’s life, it does not go off as planned.

In Georgia Peaches, when Angela learns that Jimmy will be out of town, she invites her lover Louise over. Manny Horvitz comes to Ventnor to kill Jimmy, who he thinks is in the shower. Louise is shot dead when she comes out of the shower. Manny brutally murders Angela, telling her it’s Jimmy’s fault.

Season 3:

In Resolution, Richard Harrow avenges Angela’s death by killing Manny Horvitz. He also attempts to preserve her memory by telling her son Tommy about her, but he is threatened with losing his job by Tommy’s grandmother, Gillian, who has the little boy believing that she is his mother.