Boardwalk Empire – Marriage and Hunting

Season Four: Episode Nine

Directed by: Ed Bianchi

Written by: David Matthews, Jennifer Ames and Steve Turner

The Spin:  With the help of Roy (Ron Livingston) acting as her lover and confidant, Gillian (Gretchen Mol) has cleaned herself in her attempt to win the Tommy custody battle, but a shady phone call hints at Roy not being so forthcoming.  Meanwhile, Julia (Wrenn Schmidt) suspects her father’s terminal illness and gets married to Harrow (John Huston), who now comes crawling back to Nucky looking for steady work to support his family.

In other marital news, Muller (Michael Shannon) gets tired of being berated by his wife and bullied by Capone and regains some of his old Van Alden bad-assery.  Of course it comes out in awkward lurches and weird twists of fate, leaving three men from his past dead and O’Banion (his actual target) conveniently taken out by some other dudes.

False domesticity fuels the fire in Chalky’s world as his family prepares for his daughter’s upcoming nuptials, he has to deal with the aftermath of the Dunn/Daughter/Narcisse incident and wrestle his own desires to take out Narcisse in public.

Meanwhile, a strapped Rothstein comes to Nucky with an odd deal involving a life insurance policy on that moron Mickey Doyle, Eli appears to have chosen Willie over Nucky (making it the second time he’s about to rat on his brother!), and Nucky hints at developing true feelings for Sally (Patricia Arquette) – a woman a thousand miles away but perhaps the only person in the world (other than maybe Harrow?) he can trust at this point.

Best Line of the Night:  Harrow, to Julia, when she asks him if he is sure he wants to get hitched while waiting outside the county office for various official documents, “It’s just a hunting license.”

Wait Until Next Week:  Will secrets bubble over for Roy and Eli?  Will Mickey Doyle finally bite the dust?  Will Chalky start his real war with Narcisse?  Things are starting to steam up for what should be an exciting three episodes to close out the season.

Commentary by David H. Schleicher

To my readers and Boardwalk strollers: Thoughts, reactions, comments?