There was a small flurry of snow on Tuesday morning 19th November 2013 but the sky quickly cleared into a clear blue with a low lying sun that made it difficult to drive as it grew colder and remained overnight so I kept the heating on and thought Wednesday so far. I am not sure that the problem with my teeth has been sorted although i have not had the nagging pain so far to day which continued after the visit and treatment yesterday and also interrupted my night. To take my mind off the problem I concentrated on fishing the update on the series Atlantic City in between experience the episodes of the brilliant series Borgen that i have not seen before.
The third season of the Boardwalk Empire ( see 0038 for Seasons One and Two reprise) commences with everyone recovering from the shocks of the deaths of Jimmy and his wife, and Doyle and with Richard Harrow seeking revenge. The season begins on New Year’s Eve 1922.
Gyp Rosetti is introduced as a violent, easily offended Sicilian mobster from New York City. During a meeting with Nucky Thompson, the boss of Atlantic City who has survived a major attempt to dethrone him by the man he once dethroned and who joined forces with War veteran and former right hand man Jimmy Karmody, and Nucky’s brother Eli, former Police Chief, who went to prison to save Nucky and who has a large family which Nucky has envied at a distance.
Rosetti receives some bad news regarding his new exclusive partnership with Rothstein from New York who gives the impression of being the sophisticated and aloof from the other mobsters, especially Capone and those from Chicago. In retaliation, Rosetti racially insults everyone in the room and storms out.
Nucky attends meetings and deals with his mistress and now wife‘s Margaret's past actions, which made him an involuntary philanthropist when she donated millions of dollars worth of New Jersey landholdings to achieve her social welfare projects.
Van Alden former prohibition agent sent to nail Nucky and who slid th slippery slop committing fraud, then murder from his sexual passions, divorcing and living with a former mistress of Nucky, now works as a clothing iron salesman in Chicago when he stumbles into a dispute between Al Capone and Dean O'Banion, the latest mob leader on the scene.
Jimmy's death has left Richard Harrow, (the War hero sniper now with half a face and a mask who became hit man for Jimmy) in charge of his son while Jimmy‘s mother Gillian who bore him when 13 years of age, refuses to let the boy learn the truth about his parents.
Eli gets out of jail and has trouble accepting his brother's plans for him and the new reality at home. Nucky meets 'special investigator' Gaston Means, acting as Harry Daugherty's bagman in New York. Displeased by Nucky's refusal to sell alcohol to anyone but Rothstein, Gyp takes over the strategically situated small town of Tabor Heights, New Jersey and blockades the alcohol shipments between Atlantic City and New York. Margaret's interest for the sanitary conditions at St. Theresa's hospital is met by resistance from both patients and doctors, and Chalky White, the leader of the black community and who manager a local still, argues with his daughter over their conflicting plans about her future, especially her involvement with a young man from a good family.
Owen from Ireland with IRA background and where Nucky has made a visit to gain fresh supplies of whisky has established an increasingly prominent role in the bootlegging operation which is met jealousy from Nucky when they both end up hiding out in the house of a precocious liquor thief. Nucky’s has become suspicious of the friendship between Owen and his wife and their children(by marriage)
Capone, whose son is being bullied at school, takes out his frustrations on one of O'Banion's men. Charlie Luciano sits down with Masseria, who muscles a high tax on Lucky's growing business and tells him to be wary of his Jewish partners. Mickey receives a menacing phone call from Rothstein and, over Eli's objections, ignores Nucky's instructions not to transport liquor through Tabor Heights, which leads to “grave” consequences.
Van Alden comes clean with his latest wife, but this backfires when they are visited by a Prohibition agent, forcing him to return to O'Banion's place. Margaret suffers setbacks while trying to promote her Women's Health clinic. Gillian seeks Leander's counsel in financing her bordello, for which she must either change her business model or let go of the past. Nucky enlists a reluctant Eddie Cantor to help a Billie Holiday type singer move up in the world. An attempt is made on Gyp Rosetti's life.
Nucky manoeuvres to avoid taking a political fall for the Attorney General, getting arrested in the process. Eli and Mickey visit Tabor Heights. Richard Harrow befriends an older veteran and his daughter, Julia. Gillian takes on a young lover, who she names "James". While her grandson longs for a male presence in the house, Margaret rekindles an affair with Owen.
Nucky, Eli, and their respective families bond over Easter dinner. Richard takes young Tommy to dine with the Sagorskys, and Julia accepts Richard's invitation to the local Carnival. In danger of reprisal over his actions in Tabor Heights, Gyp brokers a deal with his boss, Joe Masseria. Gillian comes to terms with the death of her son Jimmy.
Arrangements are made for Nucky to attend a private club, where he makes a proposal to the Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon. Torrio, fresh from an Italian vacation, gives Al a larger role in business operations. Van Alden, now indebted to O'Banion, is forced to work for him after hours, while at the same time facing problems in his day job. Nucky and Billie argue about the nature of their relationship. Margaret decides to take a stand on birth control and looks for a birthday pony with Owen's help. Gillian cuts ties with Luciano, giving Gyp a tip in the process. The result is an attempt on Nucky's life in which Billie is killed
Taking refuge in the Ritz, a wounded and feverish Nucky struggles to be the man in charge with the help of his family and closest accomplices while they plan his next move. Gyp returns to Tabor Heights and starts his own importing operation with the blessing of Joe Masseria. Richard takes Julia to a dance and Gillian blames him for Tommy's latest misadventure, firing him.
Nucky and Owen plan a move against New York, pursuing Masseria first. A middle-man who could expose both Nucky and the Attorney General is targeted. Van Alden’s new sales job gets him into trouble with Capone. Richard and Julia's relationship takes a step forward. After being rejected by Rothstein, Luciano, and Lansky go into business with Masseria. Margaret reveals to Owen that she is pregnant with his baby, but before they can run away together he is killed by Masseria's men.
Gyp and his crew move into Atlantic City. Nucky goes on the run while his wife disappears with her children; She has taken a trip to New York previously to meet her family of hard worker brother and sisters who have now idea of her life when coming first to the USA from Ireland.
Nucky and wounded Eddie turn to Chalky for help, and Chalky has a standoff with Rosetti. Lansky advises Luciano to be cautious in their new heroin operation. Gillian turns on Richard, evicting him from the house. Eli brings Capone back from Chicago with him as a major ally in Nucky's fight to hold onto his empire.
It's a full-scale war in Atlantic City, and bodies are piling up on both sides. Operating out of a lumber yard, Nucky seeks to weaken the Rosetti/Masseria alliance while struggling to keep peace between Capone and Chalky. In New York, Luciano is framed by Masseria and Rothstein with the aid of corrupt police. Gillian makes a failed attempt to woo, drug and presumably kill Rosetti. Nucky strikes a deal with Rothstein to break Rosetti's strength. Chalky and Capone's army massacre Masseria's men as they are retreating to NYC. Richard storms Gillian's house and kills many of Rosetti's men. Rosetti escapes. Nucky then uses his political connections to settle a score with Rothstein.
Richard gives Tommy a new home at Julia's, sacrificing his own relationship with her in the process. Rosetti meets with his three remaining henchmen but, on orders from Nucky, Gyp's main assistant stabs him to death while he is urinating on a beach. Nucky tracks down Margaret, who ends their relationship. A depressed Nucky then proceeds to walk the boardwalk where he is recognized by other pedestrians. While he is lonely, he has finally retaken control of Atlantic City bringing to an end Season three,.
The latest season, the fourth begins on February 1924 with Nucky in a hotel suite rarely venturing out and cared for his by his now disabled but devoted German background valet who has been with him throughout the series and a great keeper of secrets. The valet has great difficulty in carrying out his role, insisting on pouring tea with a very shaky hand and putting out the daily changes of clothing all with increasing difficulty. Nucky suggests getting a helper which is furiously rejected.
As Nucky recovers his zest for life after doing a deal with the New York and other mobsters, at a price to let sleeping dogs lay, he plans a trip to Tampa Florida to do a deal on more bootlegging with an associates who he owes. He plans to travel alone but before he sorts something out with the valet giving him powers and offering him promotion as well as an assistant to undertake the chores. While Nucky is away the valet meets up with the brother of Al Capone to make a payment and then takes the gangster on a night out of a meal and the to get drunk sing with his German cronies.
Down in Tampa he befriends a woman bar owner Sally having resisted offers of female entertainment from his hosts and tells her about losing contact with Margaret’s children who he came to regard as his own and who has gone to New York to her family. My impression is that she is not out of the series yet.
Nucky’s associate is desperate for the deal to go ahead to pay off debts accrued after custom’s men captures three ships laden with illicit alcohol. He finds out that the man behind the deal has great connections and is in control of the local situation but he declines the deal because of knowing th plans fo the area to be developed which means that it will become difficult to impossible for the ships to bring their illicit cargo offshore and to be unloaded on quite beaches and for the trucks then to head north without being noticed by the new good citizens who have bought holiday homes or moved in the district,
After listening to Sally he decided that the best approach is to buy up the investment land and go ahead with the deal because the location enables cargo to be delivered from new areas of the world, thus increasing the volume of alcohol and drugs available. He contacts his associate to give him the good news, but too late as the associate has inserted a meat type cleaver into the head of the local gangsters as th man had attacked him for failing to find a way to meet the debt incurred when customs apprehended three of the whisky laden ships. Nucky does not like the way Rothstein behaved and decides to make Lanksy the other New York boss accompanying Rothstein his partner in the Tampa deal.
Talking of customs a new prohibition agent Warren Know is introduced on a special commission from J Edgar Hoover to infiltrate posing as a corrupt official.
Rothstein visit Atlantic City to discuss the suggestion that he joins Nucky in the Tampa expansion by making a substantial cash investment. Rothstein’s way of responding is to insist that Nucky’s plays him at poker with increasing stakes and where Nucky proves he has not lost his winning abilities at cards.
In New York Van Alden is being used to deliver flowers by his boss and bumps into Capone who is visiting an associate in hospital. Capone then insists on Van Alden assisting him in some strong arm visits as he decided to go debt collecting for the man in the hospital. This involves growing a man through a glass window on the roof of a car below in one instance. Returning they spot one of distribution vehicles of Van Alden’s boss in an deserted street and decided to drive away to a secluded spot to remove the valuable goods only when they hear knocking as the driver who had gone to sleep at the back wants to be let out. While it does not matter to Capone and his companion that the driver recognises them, the drawing attention to Van Alden that his boss O’Banion might be concerned and gives the former prohibition officer a hand gun. Just to make sure that the man is dead after Val Alden has shot him in the back as he rushes away, Capone takes a machine gun and fires a clip at the poor man. Van Alden has not alternative but to accept the offer of Capone to work for him as a hard man. Van Alden had recently been employed by his boss to break heads stopping a political candidate gaining votes in an important election.
The first episodes of the fourth series have also features the club the night club that Chalky White has opened as he attempted to move into a “respectable”. The cub is daily managed by an assistant who when a white booking agent, accompanied by his white wife calls bringing two black male tap dancers the wife sets her cap at the manager and who obliges. However when he is the midst of passionate sex the husband enters and wants to watch while he masturbates, having first feigned anger and demanding the manager makes a humiliating acceptance of continuing to serve the white as a superior beings. The manager then beats the agent to death before the horrified wife who runs off an cannot be found after Chalky is called into sort out the mess.
Chalky and the manager are then visited by a new character from New York who appears to be in control of Harlem having a financial piece of everything going, while also controlling all entertainment acts and also heading a campaign/movement for black power. The man has the window of the agent with him and demands compensation. Against the wishes of the manager Chalky gives the man ten percent interest in his club after the man has stopped all his entertainers from performing in the club. The man then has some of his assistants killing the widow and dumping her body in an secluded spot on their way back to New York. He also makes overtures to a disgruntled manager, codifying that Chalk had offered to sacrifice the manager as part of the compensation deal.
Another regular character also featured is Richard Harrow the World war one veteran, who return to the family home where his pregnant sister is trying to keep the holding going having recently lost her husband and getting into debt. Richard has called in at the family home having obtained a commission to kill dome one in the nearby ton. However when he makes he visit he decides not to kill the individual.
Whether he had experienced too many killings or whether something has triggered within him he has lost his appetite for killing. He is continuing to grieve for the deaths of Jimmy’s wife and having to give up the boy leaving the child the care of young women with whom he would have been able to have a meaningful relationship despite his facial disfigurement if he had not become a hired killer. He is also affected when his dog kept at the holding by his sister needs to be put down and he cannot use the hand gun she has found that he has to do so. She kills the dog.
The sister has what used be called a Gentleman caller who is willing to make friends with the brother and wants to provide a home for all of them, something the sister begins to warm to. The man who hired Richard then turns up seeking retribution because the contracted killing has not been carried out. He gets the better of Richard when they fight and it is the sister who uses a shot gun to save her brother, This underlines Richard‘s inability to lead a normal life so he moves on.
Gillian, (Jimmy‘s mother turned into a whore by the man who wronged her with the help of Nucky and who owned and ran the bordello before the massacre of clients and staff to prevent her gaining control of the boy), survived and is attempting to sell or rent out the property, offering herself to enquiries if they decide the property is not for them. One of the visitors is a chain store owner who wants the property short term and then hires Gillian to show him around and then to pose as his wife when he meets someone and his wife to a dinner which will hopeful seal a deal bringing the two businesses together in a common enterprise. Gillian does so well that that the man takes an interest and is at the point of buying an engagement ring when they run into one of her former former clients.
Eli’s widest son is now going to university college and as with younger brother Michael in the Godfather or Soprano and his son and daughter, Eli wants his son to make something legitimate of his life, become a lawyer and keep out of the gangster business. Taking him back to college he tells the boy to stay in the car when he make a call on a whisky storehouse on the way. The son finds himself a social fish out of what among the sophisticated and old money other students and tries to ingratiate himself by offering to find alcohol for a party and eventually gets away with a case after being caught trying to take one with the threat of his father being contacted.
At the party his standing rises as he finds himself alone with one of the old money young girls only to be interrupted by the arrival of the main local social leader and his cronies and he feels humiliated. To get his own back he laces the drink of the tormenter in such a way that the young man can not get to the toilet in time and spends the rest of the night there to be discovered in the morning that the substance has proved lethal.
That the series so far continues to demonstrate that nothing lasts and that there is a high price to pay for the villainy although a few of the principals live on, at least for the time being.
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