Boardwalk Empire: Under God’s Power Flashback

“Under God’s Power She Flourishes” opened in a flashback of Jimmy sleeping in at Princeton with Angela waking him up, explaining she has to go to work. She shows him a drawing she made of him while he slept. He says his mother’s coming and he wants Angela to meet her.

At an improv class, Jimmy reads lines from John Webster’s revenge tragedy, “The White Devil.”

“… My father prov’d himself a gentleman,
Sold all’s land, and, like a fortunate fellow,
Died ere the money was spent. You brought me up
At Padua … where, I protest,
For want of means …
I have been fain to heel my tutor’s stockings,
At least seven years: conspiring with a beard,
Made me a graduate; … and shall I,
Having a path so open …
To my preferment, still retain your milk
In my pale forehead? …”

They discuss the meaning of this son’s words to his mother. Jimmy’s explanation pleases instructor Pearson the most, and he says they will read “The Revenger’s Tragedy” next week. One student says he will be on maneuvers and Jimmy unintentionally insults a student whose brother died on the Lusitania. Jimmy apologizes and Mr. Pearson speaks to him about his approach and his situation. “People like us,” Pearson says, “need to be clever.” As Jimmy leaves, Pearson quotes another “White Devil” line: “What! Because we are poor, shall we be vicious?” and Jimmy rejoins with the first part of what he was previously reading.

When Gillian arrives at Princeton, she questions her son about Angela.  She asks Jimmy what they are going to do for fun. Later, she meets Angela, kisses her and tells Jimmy to pin a corsage on her gone back. At the party, Jimmy watches his mother flirting with Mr. Pearson. Angela informs him apologetically that she is pregnant. He says they will get a place and be together. He goes outside, Angela joins him and they watch Gillian stumble out of a door fixing her clothes. She says she thought she and Pearson were just flirting. Jimmy beats the daylights out of his instructor.

Jimmy takes his drunken mother back to his room and their closeness gets incestuous. The next day, Jimmy enlists in the army. When asked why he wants to join, he says he wants to stick a saber in the Kaiser’s gut because he lost a brother on the Lusitania.

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