Boardwalk Empire: Complete Episode Guide
Boardwalk Empire – A Man, A Plan…
Season Three: Episode Ten
Directed by: Jeremy Podeswa
Written by: David Flebotte
The Spin: A man a plan a canal panamA…frontwards or backwards…the fate of those on the boardwalk is the same. Not a single plan went down as planned…from Means’ double-dipping hit-turned-suicide (with Stephen Root giving a delicious performance), to Nucky’s attempt on Masseria (Ivo Nandi) involving Owen (Charlie Cox), to Owen’s own plot to flee to St. Louis with Margaret (Kelly Macdonald). NOTHING went right. No matter who the man or what the plan, in this world, people’s fates are sealed by the beds they’ve made and now have to lie in with the evil beside them. In the shadows, Gyp (Bobby Cannavale) was Gyp (and continues to find creative ways to kill those who offend him), the Muller formerly known as Van Alden (Michael Shannon) saw his decent into private Norwegian bootlegging lead to a brush-up with Al Capone (Stephen Graham), and Chalky (Michael K. Williams) gets rebuffed for trying to open a new club. Women’s rights and minority rights mean nothing when bottles of (symbolic) poison wash up on the pristine shores turning everyone into smiling or hysteric drunks.
And yet in this criminal cauldron of greed and despair, hope and goodness fight to shine through…from Margaret’s crusades (now mired by – SURPRISE! – her own misbegotten bun in the oven) to the burgeoning love between Julia (Wrenn Schmidt) and Harrow (Jack Harrow) – two lost souls grasping for something true and pure. Someone has to break free of the chains of bondage on the boardwalk…someone please…HAS TO MAKE IT OUT ALIVE.
Meanwhile as dead lovers are shipped home in boxes and human heads are turned into mush on the beach…the audience waits with bated breath.
Things Learned This Week: Don’t open up a special delivery at four in the morning.
Wait Until Next Week: Can things get any stickier for Nucky? Will Van Alden realize the importance of his new ill-founded position?
Commentary by David H. Schleicher
To my readers and Boardwalk strollers: Thoughts, reactions, comments?
The Schleicher Spin 
The two theme songs for this episode:
Really sad to see the character of Owen killed off, but Charlie Cox has a lot of star potential now. I hope he can capitalize on it. Might’ve mentioned it, but I just finally saw Stardust the other week and thought highly of it.
I think Angela Darmody’s death was maybe a little harder to take, for me at least.
LMAO yet again at your uncanny song accompaniments to the episodes! The Owen thing was inevitable – but I was surprised how it went down – and the little twist with Maggie’s bun in the oven – very soapy and very well done. I agree – Angela’s is still the MOST SHOCKING death to have happened in the series…and there are only two characters I can think of now who would be as equally shocking and heartbreaking to me as Angela’s death, but they shall remain nameless to protect their innocence.
It’s probably for the best. My two are Harrow and Margaret. Those are deal breakers. They’re the main reason to watch the show, IMO.
The way Jess Smith went out was sheer dark comedy, the way he interacted with Stephen Root doing the whole “who, me? what, this gun?” routine. Reminded me of the cartoon making fun of Boulanger’s suicide : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Boulanger.jpg
btw, you never answer your tweets!
The Stephen Root stuff was great – his character had been “meh” for me until this episode – but this was great black comedy as you said.
And LMAO – twitter is for the birds – ain’t nobody got time for that! 🙂 I’m just not on there very often and the app on my iPad always freezes us when I do try to use it once in a blue moon. But yeah, funny tweet – I was traveling, so I just got around to seeing this episode tonight. It’s funny when real life interferes with scheduled blogging! Doesn’t my life know this is appointment blogging, damn it!?