Boardwalk Empire: Georgia Peaches Recap

In Boardwalk Empire’s Episode 22, Owen Sleater is at the Port of Hoboken overseeing the arrival and distribution of the Irish whiskey he  and Nucky traded for Tommy guns. Owen brings some to Atlantic City to dangle before the depressed manager of the Ritz Carlton, navigating through the striking kitchen workers from the black community. They don’t want to let him through. One nod from Dunn Purnsley and Owen’s in and offers the amazed manager a deal of $30 a case. He orders 400 cases and asks who’s going to serve it. Owen says the workers will be back. “You an expert on labor relations?” the manager asks. Slater says he knows what an empty stomach feels like.

Nelson Van Alden compliments nanny Sigrid on her way with his baby Abigail. Sigrid reveals she’s the oldest of seven and always helped her mother. Indeed, she tried to breastfeed her baby sister when she was only 6, she laughs. Van Alden’s mood turns sour when he discovers mail from his wife Rose. It’s a divorce petition. He reads Rose’s note: “Nelson, please attend to this as soon as your activities allow” and crumples it up, as Abigail begins to wail.

With Teddy in tow, Nucky Thompson and Margaret Schroeder visit Emily in the children’s hospital. Dr. Holt indicates he wishes to speak to Margaret alone by sending Nucky and Teddy in to Emily. He informs Margaret that Emily’s heart and lungs are fine but he fears the damage to her legs could be bad. He’s seen children in worse shape make a complete recovery, but he will know more later in the week when her test results arrive. He tells her how his own daughter prays for his patients every night. As she enters Emily’s room, Margaret spies a young boy on crutches coming up the hall. She puts her brave face on and gives Emily a new doll. Emily wants to know where her doll Mrs. Wheatley is (burned up in the bonfire last week). The new doll is Mrs. Wheatley’s sister,  Margaret says, blind to Teddy, sitting silently watching his mother give all her attention and care to Emily.

Mickey Doyle is also dealing with liquor — the medicinal liquor Jimmy Darmody received from George Remus. Doyle tells the workers not to water the product down too much: “We’re not making popsicles here,” he informs them. Darmody, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Al Capone arrive. They discuss getting the product re-bottled faster and problems with Arnold Rothstein, Johnny Torrio and Manny Horvitz. In an about face, Jimmy tells Doyle to pay Horvitz off with the watered-down booze they won’t be able to give away in Atlantic City before long. Lucky shows Jimmy a new product — heroin. Jimmy wants to worry about selling off the booze first.

Nucky is very dissatisfied with attorney  Icky Ginsberg and his inability to get his trial venue moved back from Camden to Atlantic County. Ginsberg also thinks Nucky will do time: “You’ll get five years… Out in two.” Nucky fires him.

Jimmy meets with Eli Thompson, Leander Whitlock and others at his father’s mansion to discuss getting the “colored situation under control.” Eli wants to use violence. Jimmy wants to negotiate a nickel raise. Ward Boss Neary squeals on Deputy Halloran and his visit at Esther Randolph’s. The ever helpful Leander Whitlock tells Jimmy that Nucky knew how to handle “the colored.” The Commodore embarrasses Jimmy by telling him in front of everyone (as best as he can since his speech is still impaired) to show them his female parts — just lift up his dress and let himself get bleeped.”

Margaret listens to Teddy’s bedtime prayer and asks him to pray for Emily. As she leaves, Teddy says he can’t move his legs. Margaret goes into a panic, testing his legs and feet. The feet tickling makes the child laugh and she goes into a rage, slapping him. Teddy’s cries brings Nucky to the door and she runs out of the room. Nucky goes to comfort her, not Teddy. “God help me but he has his father’s cruelty,” Margaret complains but Nucky points out the child just wants attention. “What am I to do,” she cries, “Abandon my sick baby girl to attend to my healthy son?” Nucky takes Teddy off her hands when he goes to New York to see if Arnold Rothstein’s lawyer, Mr. Fallon, can perform the miracles Icky Ginsberg couldn’t.

Fallon has a Ty Cobb (“The Georgia Peach”) autographed baseball on his desk. When little Teddy checks it out, Fallon gives it to him. Teddy has heard of Ty Cobb’s reputation (from his father?) and says he’s a bad man, but still takes the gift. When he leaves, Fallon takes out a replacement signed baseball for his desk. He assures Nucky that he has a way with juries and and “uncanny ability to make friends with judges.” That costs $80 an hour.

Eli’s plan to end the labor strike with 50 men with billy clubs is implemented only somehow, Deputy Halloran is an instant target of a bat-wielding bruiser and is beaten to a pulp. Later, Eli, bearing gifts from his wife’s garden, goes to visit Halloran in his apartment where he can barely talk with a wired jaw. Eli tells Halloran he should think over what he did to deserve the beating and what he should make sure he never does again. An angry Halloran decides to really drop a dime on Eli and calls up Esther Randolph as soon as he leaves.

Falling back on her superstitious brand of Catholicism, Margaret is praying in church. She tells Father Brennan about Emily’s illness. The priest says that “God is with her.” Margaret feels God shouldn’t have let it happen. Brennan wonders if she is still burdened by the temptation she confessed to recently (having the hots for Owen). Margaret clams up and the priest points out her one-sided relationship with the Almighty. She says he offers her devotion, but Brennan says devotion must be demonstrated. Just how is up to Margaret.

Jimmy Darmody and Harrow meet with Chalky White and Dunn Purnsley to discuss ending the labor strike. Jimmy is willing to meet Chalky’s demand for $3,000 for each family that lost a breadwinner in the KKK ambush. He’s also willing to talk to the governor about Chalky’s murder charges, but he won’t deliver the three shooters to Chalky. “That’s the deal,” Chalky says, “There’s always next tourist season, right?” He gets up and leaves with Purnsley.

Alone with Teddy, Nucky tries to make him understand that Margaret loves him by sharing a story about a sick little sister named Susan. He and Eli were pretty jealous, he says, over Susan getting all the attention but they knew their mother loved them. “What about your Dad?” Teddy asks. Nucky lies and says his father loved him too. The boy asks if Nucky is in trouble, and Nucky responds: “Some people said I did something wrong but it’s not true.” Teddy wonders if it’s because Nucky burned his dad’s house down. Nucky can’t believe his ears. He tells the boy it was an accident. “”Don’t worry, Dad, I won’t tell,” Teddy promises solemnly.

Having found out about the Irish whiskey, Jimmy and his crew have no market for the Remus hootch. They decide to split up the booze and sell it in their own towns. Jimmy gets angry because his town is Atlantic City and he can’t sell his share there. “I’ll head north,” he fumes, kicking a crate a booze and stalking off.

After listening to Van Alden rehearse his testimony, Esther Randolph and Agent Clifford Lathrop decide they have enough to arrest Eli. Randolph drops by to taunt Eli as he sits in a cell. She informs him that Halloran has turned on him and hints that information on Nucky could be his ticket to freedom.

Margaret’s act of devotion involves sacrifice — her jewelry and her money stash. She takes it to Father Brennan, who is listening to some music and having a drink. He slides the drink out of view and stops the music. Taken aback a bit by the large donation and Margaret’s pathetic attempt to buy a miracle (“I’m looking for my daughter to be made whole.”), he directs her to pray with him. What did he really want from her?

Doyle visits Philly gangster Manny Horvitz at his home. He’s recovering from the bullet he took in the shoulder courtesy of Waxey Gordon and kind of sanctioned by Jimmy. When Horvitz refers to his injury, Doyle tells him Jimmy had nothing to do with that. “That was Waxey all the way…” Doyle has a bottle of watered down whiskey and tells Horvitz it’s to settle the debt, but that’s not going to cut it. Horvitz is convinced Jimmy is behind the attempt on his life:  “He tries to kill me and fails and now he sends $5000 of piss water to get out of it.” Horvitz strong-arms the information he wants out of Doyle: Jimmy’s address.

At home, Jimmy longs for the peace of mind and freedom that a man sitting on the beach seems to have.   He also confesses his guilt over Angela’s unhappiness to her and vows to make it all up to her but first he has to go out of town a while. Angela shares a lame joke and makes secret plans to have a guest over while Jimmy’s away.

Margaret and Nucky get bad news about Emily”s test results. She has spinal damage and will need to be fitted for leg braces. Margaret asks if Dr. Holt’s daughter prayed last night, probably because she thinks her own prayers and belated devotion aren’t worth a damn. Back home, Teddy adds the Ty Cobb baseball to his cigar box of things that are important to him, which includes a family photo of his parents and sister.

Manny Horvitz slips into Jimmy house as the shower is running and Angela dozes on the bed. As she stirs slightly, he clamps his hand over her mouth and pulls her in front of him. He aims his gun at the door, seemingly expecting to shoot Jimmy in the stomach and kill Angela in front of him before finishing Jimmy off. But a woman emerges from the bathroom and the shot hits her higher, killing her instantly.  Horvitz is shocked enough to let loose of Angela who runs to her lover Louise. She begs Horvitz not to kill her, too, but he can’t exactly leave a witness, now can he? He tells her Jimmy did this to her and shoots her. Then he shoots each woman an extra time.

Unaware that he has just lost his wife and the mother of his son, Tommy, Jimmy Darmody heads into Princeton with a truckload of liquor to unload.