Boardwalk Empire – King of Norway

Season Five: Episode Five

Directed by:  Ed Bianchi

Written by:  Steve Kornacki

The Spin:  The title of tonight’s episode refers to the picture of the king the Norwegian Mrs. Muller hangs in the kitchen.  Turns out she’s been having drunken afternoon tristes with Eli (Shea Whigham) who can only barely remember a thing.  Too bad his memory gets jogged by the mustachioed regent, and Mrs. Muller chose to reveal the tawdry details at a disastrous dinner where Eli’s pregnant wife had come to visit from Atlantic City, a dinner that could only have gotten worse if say, I dunno, the Feds had shown up.  Oh, they did.  The Muller formerly known as Van Alden (Michael Shannon) and Eli have been paired as a some sort of tragic comedy team this year where they try to one up each other with their sad, ironic life events.  Two former law men nabbed by the feds who now want their help getting the books on Capone so they can nail him on tax evasion – what a joke.  And sadly it was about the only interesting turn of events tonight.

Elsewhere:

• An on the lam Chalky White (Michael K. Williams) returns to Atlantic City seeking refuge, then goes up to Harlem and finds Daughter Maitland there.
• People keep trying to kill Nucky and he keeps getting madder.
• A suspicious young lad seems to be getting cozier in the inner circle of that dope Mickey Doyle (and by proxy closer to Nucky)
• Margaret (Kelly Macdonald) makes a new deal with her frazzled employer after settling up the Widow Rothstein mess.
• Gillian (Gretchen Mol) witnesses more brutal treatments at the asylum and tries to convince the mad doc she’s cured, only to realize she might never get out with him in charge.
• In Nucky Flashback Land we now find him as a teenager, played by an actor who does a bang up job mimicking Buscemi’s mannerisms but for some ungodly reason has been saddled with the most obviously fake and distracting teeth I’ve ever seen in a serious production.

Wait Until Next Week: Ho hum, it better get more interesting.  There are only 3 episodes left!

Commentary by David H. Schleicher

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