William Wilson Recap: Boardwalk Empire

Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “William Wilson” provides the title of the 7th episode of Boardwalk Empire’s Season 4, in which the title character murders his doppelganger or his conscience, depending upon which analysis of the tale you prefer. The direct reference obviously has to do with Eli’s son, Willie, well on his way to becoming a sociopath like the rest of the Boardwalk Empire characters.

“Well this is chummy. Dean O’Banion and John Torrio.”

The episode opens in Chicago with a policeman reading the newspaper headline “Leopold and Loeb Grilled in Child Murder,” referencing the May 21, 1924 real-life crime when Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two wealthy and exceptionally intelligent Chicago teens, kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks, inspired by Nietzschean superman theories. Al Capone runs straight up to the officer and shoots him dead in the face in broad daylight. He jumps into a waiting vehicle that speeds away. When Capone’s boss Johnny Torrio gets wind of the story, he orders Capone to his office.

Capone sneers that maybe the cop has a couple of brothers and a mother bawling her eyes out, and rants about killing Dean O’ Banion, believing the Irish gangster is behind his brother Frank’s murder. Torrio says he has nothing to prove that, but Capone insists that the way Frank was the only one gunned down in a crowd of people speaks for itself. Torrio refuses to start a war with the Chicago Police and has business with O’Banion that Capone will not impede.

Torrio questions O’Banion about his involvement in Frank Capone’s murder but O’Banion swears his innocence on his mother. Torrio agrees to buy the Sieben Brewery from O’Banion for half a mil as payment for the muscle provided in the Cicero election. O’Banion also wants a few blocks of territory in Greektown but Torrio refuses. They meet at the brewery and right after closing the deal, the police bust in and arrest both O’Banion and Torrio.

Johnny Torrio is well aware that this is his second arrest and he could be facing harsh jail time. When he learns the charges were dropped against O’Banion because he no longer had an interest in the brewery, it’s the last straw. He gives Capone the okay to take out O’Banion.

“There’s something cockeyed about this guy.”

Eli Thompson shares his concerns with brother, Nucky, over the JTM monogram on the handkerchief Agent Warren Knox gave him last week. Nucky doesn’t see undue cause for alarm but calls in Sid, Eddie Kessler’s replacement, to put in a call to Supervisor Elliot. They find out that Elliot is no longer with the Treasury Bureau.

At the Onyx Club, Nucky meets Dept. of Justice special investigator, Gaston Means, who continues to turn up zilch on Agent Knox, and makes a dumb joke about the monogram possibly standing for the John Muir Trail. Means also says that Supervisor Elliot retired, sold his home and left no forwarding address. It’s no surprise to us that Nucky has a vague feeling of unease, but he could put his finger on it if he reached over and touched Means!

“You leave school. You leave this house.”

At Temple University, Willie Thompson and co-ed Doris have been getting it on in Doris’s room. She brings up the Leopold and Loeb case, says she read Zarathustra in high school, and all that “God is dead” malarkey. She asks Will if he believes in God but Will is not in a philosophical mood, particularly when it comes to murder. Doris can’t take a hint and brings up Clayton, presumably sent away for such a long stretch, his parents donated his things to the Salvation Army. Will must have had other post-coital topics of conversation in mind. He says she is too morbid and splits.

In lit class, the professor questions the students after reading an excerpt from “William Wilson.” Will is so preoccupied, he doesn’t even hear the professor call his name to answer a question. The professor answers the question himself and Will picks his books up and leaves.

At home with his family, Eli laughs off his daughter’s college ambitions, but Will says she can have his spot. He knocks everyone for a loop when he reveals that he dropped out of Temple. Eli is furious, and it gets worse when Will points out that Uncle Nucky did quite well without a college degree. It gets even uglier when Will throws up his man-of-the-house status while Eli was in jail. The last straw comes when Will demands that Eli take his hand off his shoulder. Eli begins to knock his son’s brains out and Nucky has to drag him off the kid. Eli says he will have to leave the house if he’s not in school, but Will is cool with that, and runs out the door.

Eli goes off and gets drunk. When he returns home, Nucky is waiting on his porch, but Eli is not grateful for his intervention. He tells Nucky that his home and family are his domain and rails about Nucky’s childless status. Nucky refuses to take offense: “I’m going to chalk this up to whiskey and bad timing.” He goes back to the Albatross to find his nephew sitting on the steps. Nucky tells Will that if he is thinks this is the way to impress him, he’s mistaken. Will doesn’t want to go home to his drunken father so Nucky allows him to sleep over, promising a morning lecture.

“I am of anywhere the Libyan makes his home.”

At The Onyx Club, Chalky White watches approvingly while Daughter Maitland does the Charleston onstage and sings “Everybody Loves My Baby” to a highly appreciative audience. He later meets with Dr. Valentin Narcisse, sliding over a big fat envelope of money. Chalky wants to extend Daughter Maitland’s run at the Onyx but Narcisse says she’s already booked in Louisville. Chalky says he can send someone else. “And what will you do for me?” Narcisse asks. “I already offered you a whiskey,” Chalky says. Narcisse talks about opening a chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association on Atlantic City’s Northside and Chalky agrees. Louisville will have to do without Daughter for a month.

Dunn Purnsley acts as a representative for Chalky at the Shiloh Baptist Church, where the congregation expresses its alarm at the sudden influx of heroin in the community. Deacon Cuffy plans to find out who is peddling dope and tell Chalky, who has been MIA for 3 meetings. Dr. Narcisse seizes the opportunity to lament lax leaders and apathy. Chalky’s leadership, he opines, has been clouded by misguided ambition and now it’s (what else?) Narcisse to the rescue, with Deacon Cuffy’s assistance.

“Home is wherever you be, darling.”

After a romp in the hay, Daughter learns that Chalky got her stay extended and Chalky learns a bit about how Daughter Maitland came under the auspices of Dr. Narcisse. Her mother was a prostitute who was choked to death by a man she burned with lye. Narcisse found her and kept his wings around her ever since. Chalky wonders if there is a sexual aspect to their relationship but Daughter says no, Dr. Narcisse is a decent man. Testing Chalky’s power further, she asks for a year engagement at the Onyx and compares Chalky to a pharaoh. Chalky mentions his partner, Mr. Thompson, and says he likes Nucky as a partner because he’s the silent kind.

“A guilty man will say anything to save his skin.”

Dunn Purnsley comes looking for Deacon Cuffy at the Shiloh Baptist Church after dark. Cuffy now knows Dunn is pushing the dope and is on his way to tell Chalky. Purnsley admits he’s the one, but claims to have seen the error of his way. The deacon isn’t buying it, but Purnsley asks him to take his hand in prayer. He stabs Deacon Cuffy while reciting the beginning of the Our Father.

“I see an immediate fiscal gain in your future.”

At her Wall Street job, Margaret is going by her maiden name, Rohan, but pretending to be married when her boss, Mr. Bennett, needs some assistance in persuading a victim — er, client – to buy into The Anaconda Realty Trust he’s pushing. Well, we already know what a good liar Margaret is and her blarney skills are as sharp as ever. Margaret gets a $10 tip for her efforts. The next time she is called in, however, she is thrown for a loop when the prospect turns out to be Arnold Rothstein using the alias Abe Redstone. Rothstein, on the other hand, is most amused to find Nucky’s wife working at the brokerage. She blows her role in the sales pitch and hightails it out of there, pleading illness. Her boss later chides her strange performance but says AR invested $150,000. This time, her tip is $100, only it’s from Rothstein, not her boss.

As she stares at the hush money in horror, Rothstein rings her up and asks if she received his gift. “As lovely as it was to see you again, I want to thank you for your discretion.” he says. He assumes that she wants him to keep her true identity under wraps as well, and she agrees. On her desk, we see the alligator Nucky gave her to give to Teddy for his birthday.

“There’s a different deal. Very lucrative.”

Joe Masseria has called Lucky Luciano to a meeting with Frankie Yale and Tonino Sandrelli. Lucky is surprised to see Yale in attendance. Joe and Tonino tease him about having some “color” in his face. “Cut the crap,” Lucky says, “I’ve been down in Tampa and you know it.” He assures Masseria that he turned down any involvement in the Tampa rum operation but Masseria knows it. He sees another angle in the whole thing and wants Luciano to get back to Tampa because Joe the Boss wants in on some of Petrucelli’s big heroin market.

The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

Warren Knox (real name: James M. Tolliver), J. Edgar Hoover and Asst. U.S. Attorney Esther Randolph get nowhere trying to get useful information from Federal prisoner, George Remus. Remus gets pancakes. Hoover waffles over the wisdom of proceeding with Knox’s undercover operation, since he is about to be sworn as director of the Justice Department. He doesn’t want to end up with egg on his face right off the bat. After Knox/Tolliver has to leave to take a call, Randolph informs Hoover that the new Attorney General thinks shutting down the nationwide criminal conspiracy of bootleggers is swell, and Hoover might want to jump on that bandwagon. Hoover does in a big way, after being sworn in. At his celebratory dinner, he takes credit for the undercover operation, discovering the network of bootleggers and vows to shut it down. His shocked and disgusted colleague (and ex-friend, no doubt) storms out and pours out his troubles to Gaston Means, who turns out to be in Knox/Tolliver’s pocket since the agent has info on him that can put Means in jail.

“I dreamt I died.”

Piggly Wiggly salesman, Roy Phillips helped Gillian Darmody get the monkey off her back. While she suffered through agonizing cramps, complete with the sweats and vomiting, Roy stayed by her side the entire time. When she is out of the danger zone, Gillian feels embarrassed and rueful that Roy has seen her in that condition and that she has taken him away from his business affairs. Roy confides he has come to realize that business doesn’t mean a damn thing without the people you care about, and he now cares so much about Gillian, that they finally have sex and share some “secrets” that don’t even approach the need for absolution: he filed for divorce the day after he met Gillian; she is experiencing happiness for the first time in a long time. Gillian probably meant hope, since the wheels are no doubt already going to work in that scheming skull of hers.

“These hands set her free and set you on your path.”

In Daughter Maitland’s dressing room, Dr. Narcisse listens to Daughter Maitland praying. She comes to him and opens his shirt to reveal burn scars on his chest. Narcisse wants info on how it is going with the seduction of Chalky. Daughter says Chalky is pleased with her but she doesn’t think he’s pleased with having to answer to Nucky Thompson. Their conversation further reveals that Narcisse murdered Daughter’s mother.

See More Quotes from “William Wilson”