Boardwalk Empire: To the Lost Recap

— “Et tu, Eli? — Shakespeare: Julius Caesar.” ~ Nucky
— “There’s a character named Eli?” ~ Eli

No, there’s not! But there should be. In the Season Two finale of Boardwalk Empire “To the Lost,” Nucky goes to see both Jimmy Darmody and his brother, Eli. He asks them both to be honest. Only one is.

Jimmy Darmody cleans his slate: The episode opens with a man with a mask limping towards a Ku Klux Klan meeting, joined by another masked man we know as Jimmy and Harrow. Jimmy kills a Klansman and demands to know who the men were who killed Chalky White’s men. Harrow punctuates the necessity for a prompt response with a bullet in another Klansman. They give up the culprits who are then delivered to Chalky with more money for each family than was asked for. Jimmy asks Chalky to deliver a message to Nucky.

Leander Whitlock paid a pretty penny to have the Commodore’s death ruled an accident. Gillian must think she’s the beneficiary of the Commodore’s Last Will, but Whitlock informs them the Commodore left the bulk of his estate to the maid, Luann Pratt, in a 1914 will he never revoked. Jimmy rips the will up after learning that he will inherit if the Commodore died intestate, and ascertaining it will then pass to his son, Tommy, when he dies. Is this more poor planning on Jimmy’s part, or has he made a will himself to prevent Gillian from being appointed Tommy’s guardian? Jimmy meets with Nucky and asks for a chance to make things right. Nucky pretends he doesn’t know that Manny Horvitz was behind Angela’s murder but he does. Jimmy and Harrow force lone holdout, James Neary, to recant his testimony against Nucky.

Margaret weighs her choices: Nucky arrives home to find Lillian and Katy helping Emily practice walking. Margaret, accompanied by Father Brennan, went off to see Esther Randolph. Brennan tries to do all the talking for Mrs. Schroeder who decides she wants to talk to Randolph alone. Randolph seems to be making a bit of headway until she tells Margaret that her kids’ well-being don’t trump other people’s needs. When Nucky proposes to her, making no pretense of his need to stay out of jail, Margaret makes a little show about how she’d rather be loved than needed but later makes arrangements to make a confession and marry Nucky. We’re sure she got that Owen thing off her chest this time. Owen and Katy (who know each other in the bibilical sense, not to mention Owen knows Margaret that way, too) witness their marriage.

Boardwalk Empire: Season Two Fatalities

Nucky gets a mistrial: All Esther Randolph’s practicing of her opening argument goes for naught as her case against Nucky goes up in smoke. So does Deputy Halloran’s deal and he’s off to prison.  Nucky then spends his wedding night getting drunk with his attorney Fallon.  Upon his return home, Margaret informs him that he is welcome in her bed again.

A Plan in Motion: Nucky puts in a call to Rothstein, who was busy planning a Chinese import business (heroin) with Luciano and Lansky. Rothstein says he will have no opinion if Manny Horvitz should end up dead. Jimmy and Harrow are reliving war-time memories when a call from Nucky comes. He’s located Horvitz and tells Jimmy where they will be meeting. Harrow wants to take care of it, but Jimmy says it’s something he has to do himself. After he leaves, Gillian discovers that little Tommy is wearing Jimmy’s dogtags. As Harrow watches, she tells Tommy what a big man he’s going to be in this town one day.

Horvitz is paraded in front of Jimmy, an apparent prisoner of Owen. Horvitz gives a little speech about how the “boychik” can get his revenge — but a rifle is cocked behind Jimmy as Eli appears. Jimmy is patted down and Owen is told to check his boot. Jimmy knows this is his swan song and says he is unarmed. He asks who is going to do it. Nucky tells him that he is going to do it and Jimmy mocks him. Knowing it will be the first time Nucky actually kills anyone himself, he tells Nucky how he vomited for days the first time he killed someone. Nucky’s hand shakes but, incredibly, he pulls the trigger in front of his traitorous brother, a man who has slept with the woman who is now his wife and Manny Horvitz. His opinion of Nucky? “He would be nothing in Odessa.”

Cui Bono? The Catholic church. When Nucky returns home, Margaret questions his whereabouts all night in the rain. He says he ran into Jimmy and “cleared the air.” Margaret feigns surprise and Nucky tells her that Jimmy reenlisted and has already left. After he leaves, she goes into the office and takes out the deed Nucky signed over to her for all that land. Disregarding his previous request to sign it back over to him, Mrs. Sch Thompson signs it over to the church. At the same time, Nucky is celebrating New Jersey’s road-building grant with Mayor Bader and other officials.