Recap: Havre de Grace – Boardwalk Empire

Hankering for a big shoot out, are ya? Well, there was a small one in Boardwalk Empire’s Havre de Grace, the 11th episode of Season 4. Two women, Gillian Darmody and Daughter Maitland, made their exit, both of them still breathing, though we don’t know for how long (they’ll continue to be breathing, that is). Another woman unwittingly gives a clue to the skunk in Nucky’s cellar.

Chalky White and Daughter went on the lam and got as far as Wilmington, Delaware. Chalky’s mentor, Oscar Boneau, sent Weems and Levi out to drive them to his home in Havre de Grace, Maryland. Chalky tells Daughter how he came to work for Mr. Boneau, who worked for the Commodore in Atlantic City. Boneau, it turns out, is blind as a bat and not at all happy that Chalky has brought his “easy rider woman” with him. He makes fun of Daughter’s name, calling her “blue tick.” Wasn’t he calling her a bitch in a way, since the reference he made was to the blue tick coon hound? Boneau puts Daughter on kitchen duty then mocks her cooking, while Weems and Levi laugh. Daughter is hurt and especially because Chalky does not defend her.

Later, Chalky catches up with her on a walk. She reminds him of his family. She knows he still wants revenge on Narcisse and Nucky. Chalky brings up her rescue in Storyville (the red light district of New Orleans), and demands to know who killed her mother. Daughter can’t bring herself to say, but says she didn’t even know her own name. Dr. Narcisse called her Daughter and that’s who she is. She plaintively asks Chalky to leave with her and never look back.

Before bedtime, Oscar tells Chalky to cut Daughter loose before she totally destroys him. Chalky defends her then, but Oscar says if it’s not her fault, then it’s Chalky’s fault. Later Chalky tells Daughter they will leave first thing in the morning. When he awakens, she’s not next to him and Chalky finds Oscar on the porch with a loaded shotgun. Oscar tells him that Daughter is gone but before Chalky can even process that, Oscar is on his feet yelling into the woods to find out what unknown intruders want. One says they want the girl. Oscar says no girl is there so they want Chalky’s nappy head on the doctor’s desk. Oscar Boneau runs out of road with a shotgun blast to the chest. Winston and Levi take out Dr. Narcisse’s men.

No telling yet if we will find out what happened to Daughter or if she was in on betraying Chalky’s location — but Executive Producer Howard Korder states in “Inside the Epidode” that the Chalky / Daughter love affair is totes over. No one-year gig at the Onyx Club. We’ll miss you, Daughter!

Quotes from Havre de Grace

Gillian discusses selling the Commodore’s mansion for $37,000, while her lawyer Mr. Ferry talks about tying up Tommy Darmody’s custody case in court for years. Gillian does not want to run the risk of Tommy being sent to an orphan’s home like she was. She visits Tommy but Richard Harrow orders her off the property. He allows Gillian to give Jimmy’s dogtags to Tommy, and she in so many words surrenders her custody battle.

Feeling a weight lifted, Gillian meets up with Roy Phillips to celebrate. Roy has good news and bad news. The A&P merger has gone through despite Mr. Hewson who has been fired. Roy has to leave town. He does want Gillian to go with him, so he says, as his wife. After dinner, he and an overjoyed Gillian prepare to go home, when Hewson shows up acting wild. Roy shoots him. Acting is the keyword there, since both Roy and Hewson turn out to be Pinkerton detectives who came up with this elaborate setup to manipulate Gillian into confessing to the murder of Roger McAllister. Oh,what a beautiful scene shot from above as Gillian is captured and pinned down by the Pinkertons. Well, that seems to be one sentiment. Ours is meh. Did you see the way Roy stalled getting the keys to the car out, while waiting for Hewson to show up? Heh. The description of the season finale indicates that this is not the last we hear of Gillian.

Eli is playing more serious footsie with Agent Knox/Tolliver, filling him in on the Tampa, Atlantic City, New York connection. Knox wants Eli to get Masseria, Luciano, Lansky, Petrucelli and Nucky all in a room so he can prove his collusion across states lines case. But Gaston Means has in the meantime alerted Nucky to a skunk in his cellar. At a family dinner at the Albatross, June Thompson unwittingly lets the brat (Knox – you know he looks like a brat) out of the bag when she mentions the blue-eyed baby-faced insurance salesman who came to their home, and Eli has a fit.

There were actually more fatalities in this episode than there were in the 11th episode of Season 3, Two Imposters, but surely not as many as there will be in this season’s finale, Farewell, Daddy Blues.