Boardwalk Empire: Nucky is the Lonely King in Season 4

Are you excited for the return of Boardwalk Empire? We were — very excited — until we saw Terence Winter talk about what will be going on in Season 4 with characters, old and new, in his “Invitation to the Set” video.

Nucky, he says, is ‘very much the Lonely King,” living at the end of the boardwalk at the Albatross Hotel. The Albatross??? Ugh! Not exactly your positive symbol there, is it? In Boardwalk Empire, so far, Nucky has always been beset on all sides by traitors and enemies. Is this going to be another season of that?

One thing that Winter says will become clear: Margaret and Nucky are still estranged. Not exactly sure who he thinks gives a hoot. The more important question is, where’ s Eddie?

But in another teaser and in the latest trailer, we see Nucky does not stay totally lonely but takes up with a showgirl. The real Nucky Johnson married a show girl named Flossie, by the way.

The season will begin in February 1924. Chalky and Nucky are in a partnership with a club on the Boardwalk where Babette’s was before the explosion. They encounter problems with the head gangster from Harlem, Dr. Valentin Narcisse, and Nucky still has to watch his back because of Arnold Rothstein, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Joe Masseria.

Excuse us, while we scratch our heads. Why, we ask, does everyone from New York take such a big interest in what goes on in Atlantic City? Bootlegging was just as prevalent and profitable in Newark and, yeah, it just makes you wonder why none of the Newark bootleggers show up. But, on with the show:

Richard Harrow is roaming around on his own, headed to “parts unknown.” So that must mean he doesn’t have Tommy or his girlfriend from Season 3. Gillian, still living at the Club Artemis (formerly the Commodore’s mansion), is addicted to heroin (that must’ve been some shot Gyp gave her), so she can’t have Tommy, can she? And a new man gets involved in her life when he comes in as a potential buyer for the property.

Dun Purnsley apparently has a bigger role this upcoming season and we do hope he doesn’t end up being one of dead bodies that will surely litter the landscape, but he’s kind of the logical choice.

Van Alden finds himself in the middle of the war between Al Capone and Dean O’Banion. As we have pointed out elsewhere, the real O’Banion got plugged in November 1924 in his flower shop. With the season beginning in February, he’s got plenty of time to give Capone more than a few headaches.

Real Life Bootleggers: How and When They Died

And just because Margaret and Nucky don’t reunite, does that really mean we won’t see her at all and find out what’s become of her young’uns, Teddy and Emily? Probably not.