Erlkonig Recap: Boardwalk Empire

Erlkonig*, Episode 5 Season 4, deals with Uncle Nucky helping Willie Thompson escape a manslaughter charge; Agent Knox breaking down Eddie Kessler to get the goods on Nucky; how Gillian Darmody’s heroin addiction and prostitute mentality guarantees she won’t be getting custody of her grandson; and the Cicero mayoral election of 1924.

Willie Thompson, a quick learner

After being brought in for questioning in the death of his fellow college student, Henry Gaines, Willie wakes his Uncle Nucky in the wee hours with a desperate phone call for help. Nucky finds out that Eddie Kessler never came home and his bodyguard Joe must drive him to Philadelphia.

Nucky meets with Willie and gets a half-assed story out of him — he admits to supplying the booze he got from Mickey Doyle, but claims he had nothing to do with Henry’s demise who wasn’t even his friend because he doesn’t have a lot of friends at Temple. He says Henry drank no more than anyone else. Nucky manages to convey what the truth will be when Willie speaks to the district attorney and Will is a quick study. Henry is now his friend, Henry drank a lot, and Willie didn’t have anything to do with supplying the booze.

Nucky is pissed to have to speak to an assistant district attorney Eugene Mulhern, after he already fixed the problem by having Waxey Gordon talk to the district attorney. It was agreed that the whole thing would be chalked up to a “quirk of fate.” The coroner, Mulhern informs Nucky, says Henry was poisoned, Henry’s father is an important man in Philly and someone is going to have to answer for this crime.

Nucky makes Willie admit that he slipped Henry a “Mickey Finn,” and also learns that Clayton, Willie’s roommate, helped him do it. Now we have a fall guy. When they meet with the District Attorney Lawrence Eisley, Willie is prepared, gets off and Nucky takes him back to his dorm. He has already assured his nephew that his father, Eli, will never hear a word of what happened and sits him down for some mentoring. He wants Willie to know that he will be watching over him but it’s important to him that Willie graduates college, regardless of which one. He advises Will to channel his rage to his advantage without letting anyone see it, and tells him blood is the only thing he can count on.

Enter Clayton. Nucky leaves with a cordial farewell to Clayton, who asks Willie what they are going to do now. Willie tells him “It’s been taken care of,” but won’t explain what he means and kicks the confused kid out, claiming he wants to be alone to study. Later, as Willie strums the Hawaiian farewell song “Aloha Oe” on his ukulele, Clayton is hauled off by the Philadelphia police. Doris comes to Will’s room and tearfully tells him of Clayton’s arrest (not that he didn’t already know). “Why would somebody do something like that ,” she laments over the poisoning of Henry and seeks comfort in Willie’s arms.

*In this storyline, Nucky is the Elf King of Goethe’s poem, Der Erlkönig (see, we know about the umlaut), in coming between Willie and Eli. He obviously has plans for his nephew in his outfit, but as for corrupting Willie — well, that would seem like a short trip. The kid has shown a penchant for dishonesty and deceit this whole season. Regardless, we think we can safely assume that following Nucky will not bode well for Willie.

Gillian’s Bad Day:

At the Artemis Club, Gillian Darmody keeps trying to call Roy Phillips but he’s MIA. She obviously needs a fix but the heroin cupboard is bare, so she must go to her meeting with Judge Varick with no moral or pharmaceutical help. As the judge tries to explain the custody officer’s role in the battle over her grandson Tommy Darmody (who has been living with Julia and Paul Sagorski), Gillian becomes increasingly jittery. She asks the judge for a glass of water that somehow shatters in her hands, cutting one. The judge offers assistance, wrapping his handkerchief around the wound to stop the bleeding. Well, what’s a pro to do when a man she needs something from is standing right in front of her? Gillian asks him if there is anything she can do to help her situation in the custody case, and makes her meaning plain by sliding her hand over the judge’s nether region. Judge Varick tells her it would be in her best interests to leave immediately.

Gillian winds up at a barber shop on the other side of the dividing line where Dunn Purnsley sits on a shoeshine throne. After ascertaining that he is dealing with a real junkie, Dunn decides Gillian (whom he refers to as Bo Peep) is a broke-ass one to boot. But the ever resourceful madam suggests some other form of payment. Dunn obligingly gives her the heroin and lets her leave with a warning to take it easy, after looking at the track marks on her arm: “I like my lambs keep coming home,” he purrs.

Gillian gets high and goes to little Tommy’s school where she tries to talk the kid into leaving with her, offering him an Abba-Zaba candy bar but Julia Sagorsky shows up with two teachers in tow. She takes Tommy away and the teachers toss Gillian and her Abba-Zaba out.

Next time we see her, Gillian is in bed and Roy is letting her know that he’s on to her drug habit. Gillian thinks that will spell the end of their relationship but Roy assures her he is familiar with weakness and sin. “Roy, I’ve done the most awful things,” she says, which may or not be a preamble to a future confession.

*There’s a very loose connection, we guess, with the Goethe poem here, in that Gillian and Tommy will be separated forever, but unlike the poem, that separation is not a bad thing.

Eddie’s Worse Day:

Federal Agent Warren Knox and his partner Agent Selby set out to break down Eddie Kessler’s loyalty to Nucky Thompson, taking him to an abandoned hotel. They begin with a friendly act that makes no big impression on Eddie, but does get him to show off his English knowledge. Agent Knox knocks his loyalty to his boss, pointing out that Nucky hasn’t been looking for Eddie. He punches Eddie so hard in the stomach that the poor guy throws up and coldly gives him a handkerchief, telling him to clean himself up. Later, Knox appears with a file, informing Eddie that they are aware of why he left his homeland. Eddie had a respectable position but got involved with a lingerie clerk, stole money and absconded.

Knox then astounds Eddie by speaking in German, reciting the first two lines of Der Erlkönig and asks Eddie what happened to the boy in the poem, the last line. “In seinen Armen das Kind war tot,” Eddie recites fearfully (in his arms, the child was dead). But Knox tells Eddie his two boys, Konrad and Lucas, are very much alive. Lucas has a son of his own, and they have changed their last name to escape the disgrace he brought on the family. Knox tells him that unless he gives up info on Nucky Thompson, he will be deported and reunited with his sons. Such a prospect is so horrifying to Eddie, he gives them the name of Ralph Capone, the man he gave $10,000 to at the train station and admits he did it on Nucky’s orders. Eddie is sent on his hobbled way.

When he returns to the Albatross Hotel, he thinks he can go off to his room without Nucky noticing him, but Nucky feels his presence and admonishes Eddie for not letting him know he would be away for two days. He shows Eddie the mismatched socks he’s wearing, saying this is another thing he doesn’t want to be bothered with. Eddie goes to his room and begins to write a letter to his son, Lucas, that says he just learned he was a grandfather. He stops and goes off to organize Nucky’s socks. He straightens his tie in the mirror, turns and jumps out the window of his room.

*Don’t ask us what the connection to the poem is in this context. Eddie’s been separated from his sons a long time because of his foolish acts. The knowledge that his sons disowned him and he could cause them even more grief, if deported, leads to his betrayal of Nucky, through whom he sought redemption with fierce dedication and loyalty.

April Fool’s Day 1924, Cicero

Election Day fell on April 1, 1924 in Cicero, and Sigrid Mueller is watching the campaigners drive by while her husband George feeds their son, now in a high chair. First time we’ve seen little Abigail since she was an infant. (Mueller’s daughter with Lucy Danziger was born when he was Agent Nelson Van Alden in Atlantic City). She’s now an adorable toddler. Frank Capone shows up and takes Mueller to see Al Capone, who is snorting so much coke he forgot he sent for Mueller. As Capone teases him, you see Mueller’s dislike building. Frank gives him a big wad of cash and says: “Stick with me. I’ll put grass on your lawn.” It’s not to be, however. In the Election Day melee that takes place in front of Western Electric, they do manage to keep the workers from voting, and the Capone puppet, Joe Klenha is elected, but Frank Capone is shot to death. We see George Mueller take out his gun and point it at Al Capone who is crawling away after being beaten by the crowd. A beaten and bloodied Frank Capone sees it, too, and rises. He goes for his gun to take out Mueller, but the Chicago police show up right then and annihilate Frank Capone. It didn’t exactly happen that way, but it did happen on April 1, 1924. Al Capone later sits with the bullet-riddled body of his older brother and vows revenge on “everything that crawls.”