For as much guff as we give Boardwalk Empire about being too slow, when it wants to (so, pretty much the final four episodes of every season), it’s as fast and thrilling as nearly any show on TV.
There were moments throughout this season and especially “Friendless Child,” Boardwalk‘s penultimate episode, that could have been stretched out, like the opening montage of violence. But it’s not like a Ryan Murphy show, where things are rushed because of REASONS (I imagine him writing in a windowless room with a strobe light). There’s a lot of story to tell, and all the small (and quick) things that Terence Winter & Co. pieced together led to something big: the fall of Nucky’s empire.
To save his nephew Willie, Nucky gives Luciano and Lansky everything, save for whatever illegal shenanigans he’s cooking up with Margaret and Mayflower Grain Corporation and, if I’m remembering correctly, Mickey Doyle’s life insurance policy that he bought from Rothstein way back when. Which reminds me: R.I.P. Mickey Doyle. That magnificent bastard (and his laugh) will be sorely missed. He’s one of many characters who didn’t make it out of this episode alive, including Archimedes and Maranzano, stabbed and shot to death by Eli, so his boy would be freed. (Willie’s a much better character now than he was last season, but if he had only walked a few more feet to his right or left…)
About that showdown scene: it’s one that Boardwalk has seemingly staged a million times, and it’s always effective, from both a visual and storytelling perspective. With only a lone train whistling in the background, oh, and dozens of friends (or at least guys with guns behind him) and enemies, Nucky gets down on his knees and begs Luciano and Lansky to not let business get personal. But it is personal, and if one side can whip Bugsy “My Girl’s Pussy” Siegel, the other can take back their offer and demand it all. And so the episode ends with Nucky’s mansion looking the way he feels inside: empty.
But there’s still one person who needs his help: Gillian, the girl who he couldn’t save so many years ago. Her entire life has been a prison without bars, and now she’s seeking the assistance of the man who gave her up the first place. (By the way, give ALL the Emmys to the casting director who found Young Nucky and Young Gillian — those actors nail Steve Buscemi and Gretchen Mol’s mannerisms.) OK, here’s the part of the recap where I make a terrible prediction about the finale: Nucky frees Gillian, it turns out Gillian has also been writing to “Joe Harper,” “Joe” is Tommy Darmody (the way he asks Nucky about what it’s like to see someone get killed is evocative of the way Nucky disposed of his father), Joe and Gillian kill Nucky, Joe and Gillian have a gross threesome with Jimmy’s ghost, THE END.
(I recently joked about Boardwalk Empire keeping certain actors around only because their contract demanded it, including Mol, but I’m still surprised Gillian would play such a major role in the finale, or presumably will. She’s the reason for Nucky’s empire, after all — without her, he’d have nothing to lose.)
I take it back. That’s definitely the way the show is going to end. But no matter what happens, if Eli will look like any more of a caricature of a wino than he already does or Nucky’s off the sauce for good or Capone gets arrested for tax evasion and goes to jail for 20 years and comes out a changed man who now reads Little Women at the homeless shelter every Wednesday night (probably not this one), I can’t wait to see how it plays out. Boardwalk Empire always saves its best for last.
And next Sunday is its last last.
