Lucy Stands in for Margaret: Boardwalk Empire

Emerald City Subplots:  Season 1, Episode 10

Wow — We really didn’t see that coming! Agent Nelson Van Alden ends up in the sack with Nucky’s former mistress after he strikes out with Margaret.

Van Alden’s visit to Margaret turned out to be a big failure, although he did have Margaret a little off guard by whipping out her picture from Ellis Island. At first she thought she was going to get deported! Van Alden tells her she’s consorting with a murderer, “the man who killed the father of your children.” Margaret is not prepared to believe that yet and says it’s not true.

“It is true,” Van Alden replies, “He’s a panderer and a criminal.” He cuts Margaret off as she begins to defend Nucky and says her life does not have to be this way and he knows she doesn’t want it to be like that.

“You don’t know me at all,” Margaret says. Van Alden then tips his hand by saying with a particularly creepy smile: “I can see into your soul, Margaret, “every night when I look at this picture.” Margaret instantly divines the import of this revelation and tells him to give her the photograph. She asks him where he gets off lecturing her after gaining entrance to her home under false pretenses, when his true intentions are obviously “quite different.” Van Alden gets all self-righteous and insists he only came to save Margaret’s soul. She asks him to leave. Van Alden gets ugly: “I came here to save you — not from prosecution — but from the fires of hell that will surely await you should you fail to repent.” The fires of hell probably aren’t half as scary as Nelson Van Alden, judging by the look on Margaret’s face!

Later when Van Alden appears at a private speakeasy, instead of snooping around and doing any investigating for his government, he downs two shots of whiskey and goes over to talk to Lucy. Lucy accepts a cigarette and asks for a drink. The next thing you know, he’s in the sack with Lucy who’s calling him “daddy” but he won’t let her kiss him. He’s taking his sexual frustrations with Margaret out on Lucy. He can’t seduce the woman Nucky is currently sleeping with, so he shtups Nucky’s former bedmate, then goes into his tormented choir boy pose. Does it get any sicker?

Al Capone’s practical joke of giving Johnny Torrio an exploding cigarette backfires. Torrio is not amused at being the “butt” of a joke in the middle of a business meeting. Later at the bar mitzvah of a friend’s son, Capone is asked to put his cap on as a sign of respect by an elderly Jewish man. Catholic Capone brings up how they’ll box your ears if you wear a hat in his church and seems perplexed at how a 13 year old can be considered a man at the bar mitzvah. This scene really didn’t ring true here at Fikkle Fame — Catholic children, although not told they’re men and women, receive the sacrament of confirmation at about the same age, and you’d think that Capone would see a similarity. The Jewish man asks him if he thinks 13 is too young to be responsible for your actions. Catholic children receive the sacraments of penance (now reconciliation) and the Holy Eucharist at age 7, and were taught they were responsible for their own actions, i.e., they had to confess everything wrong they did after age 7. Maybe Capone was in reform school when he was 7 instead of making his first confession and First Communion — he only connects the information to reform school. The rabbi tells him he should wear a yarmulke. “What’s wrong with this,” Capone asks, pointing to his cap. The rabbi says Capone is a man and that ‘s a boy’s cap. Later, Capone apologizes to Johnny Torrio and he’s wearing a man’s hat. Awww … what a good boy.

Another ‘awww’ moment is when Richard Harrow tells Margaret’s children that he is the Tin Woodsman from the Wizard of Oz. The Emerald City episode opened with a pair of lovers strolling down the beach and one of them is Harrow, before he was injured. When the woman turns around and looks at his face, she begins to scream. Harrow is dreaming, but the scream is very real. It’s Margaret’s daughter Emily, who has happened to come across the sleeping veteran without his mask. Margaret and Nucky run downstairs and are less than sympathetic, while all Richard Harrow can do is mutter “sorry, sorry.”

Margaret’s not liking having Harrow there, but it’s for her own protection, Nucky says. Who doesn’t want their very own sniper? Just kidding, but how Harrow’s major skill will be put to use in Atlantic City has not been revealed yet. When Margaret is reading more tales from the Wizard of Oz to her two children, Emily and Teddy, she has a change of heart and invites Harrow to join them. The children are still obviously repulsed by his appearance. Teddy tries to hide his face, but Emily cannot help staring now. Seizing the moment when Margaret shows him the Tin Woodsman drawing in the book Harrow both dissipates the children’s fears and endears himself to Margaret in the process.

To be honest, we’ve not been liking Margaret that much ever since she delved into the ledger at the end of “Hold Me in Paradise“, but we’re not delving into analyzing her character too much. We don’t find her ‘now what’ moments to reflect serious soul-searching on her part at all. What’s interesting is how she calls Nucky on being an opportunist in this episode with the exchange about the Republican’s backing the woman’s vote. It was reminiscent of Jimmy saying Nucky was a murderer in the last episode. Both of them seem to think they are equal to, if not better than Nucky.

As for Jimmy’s subplot, he puts a serious whupping on Mary’s husband, after little Tommy runs to the photo shop and points to a photo of Robert and Mary and says it’s Mommy’s ” kissing friend.” Well, what was he supposed to do, ask which one? Robert is in the studio telling little Wendell to sit as still as a statue in a museum when Jimmy appears in his camera (upside down natch). Jimmy proceeds to beat Robert much to the horror of Wendell’s mommy. Jimmy throws the hapless photographer out the door through the glass and tells everyone on the boardwalk why he is about to put Robert in the hospital (watching his language, of course, since he knows he’s in a public place): “This man had relations with my wife while I was in the war.”

“That’s not true,” Angela exclaims while little Tommy cries. Later an obviously depressed Angela goes to visit Mary, who doesn’t seem to be half as upset. “I should have left him months ago,” she says, “I don’t love him.” She works on persuading Angela to go to Paris with her, who says Jimmy will never let her go. “Imagine little Tommy growing up speaking French by the Seine,” Mary rhapsodizes. Angela likes that idea — her son won’t be anything like Jimmy. Isadora Duncan has a school where the children wear togas and are encouraged to find their muses. Mary continues, “nous devons aller à Paris,” she says, “we must go to Paris,” and coddles Angela into repeating the phrase. Hmmm … Isadora Duncan, Mary? Will she turn out to be the Mary who gives Isadora Duncan that fatal scarf?

Next week’s episode is entitled “Paris Green” so we’ll get to see if Angela makes it to the ship with Tommy.