Synopsis:

After a cautious reunion with Margaret (Kelly Macdonald) in New York City, Nucky heads to Tampa to work out details of his land deal with Bill McCoy (Pearce Bunting) and reconnects with Sally Wheet (Patricia Arquette). Richard Harrow (Jack Huston) returns to Atlantic City and makes a confession to an ailing Paul Sagorsky (Mark Borkowsky), who encourages him to get over the past and return to Julia (Wrenn Schmidt) and Tommy. Having lost J. Edgar Hoover's (Eric Ladin) confidence, Agent Knox finds a new way to gain Eli's (Shea Whigham) trust. Meyer Lansky (Anatol Yusef) decides to go it alone on the Tampa land deal when Lucky Luciano (Vincent Piazza) gets spooked by Vincenzo Petrucelli (Vincenzo Amato), an investor with ties to Joe Masseria (Ivo Nandi) in New York. Chalky (Michael Kenneth Williams) takes out his frustrations on Daughter Maitland (Margot Bingham).

Written by Eric Overmyer and Howard Korder; directed by Allen Coulter.


Episode 6 of 12

Looking forward to watching how things unfold. I have been enjoying S4 quite a bit, despite the lack of posts here.

Does any show on TV look more like a feature movie every episode?

I found this episode quite boring.

I fast forwarded through the singing parts in the club.

seemed like a filler episode - wasted time seeing Margret again, Richard story line is dragging along.

I hope they get back to Chicago next week.

Not that I can think of, the budget for this show has to be outrageous.

I like the signing parts, that girl has a great voice. Thankfully little margret, and no impressions she will be returning any time soon. I'm wondering if they are making an exit for richard (a happy one at that). Not sure where else he could go in the story.

Kelly MacDonald is still listed second in the credits so I'm sure there will be more Margaret.

Because of Tommy, Richard's story is still very much tied to Gillian. I'm assuming they brought in Peter Gibbons for a reason.

Who's more dangerous:

Narcisse and his dictionary

or

Mouzone and his library card?

I'm just not feeling the Florida storyline. They have enough on their plate without adding yet another venue populated with colorful local characters.

It wasn't a bad episode, but there's a lot of spinning of wheels here. We're half-way done with S4 now and what's this season been about? Nucky keeping a low profile? It just feels a lot less satisfying so far than the previous three (except for the Narcisse/Chalky storyline that seems pretty delicious).
I am curious where the FBI stuff goes. Geez Eli, could you help him out any more if you tried? And I wonder if that's what the letter really said -- it's an important thing, Eddie's suicide note and we didn't get a single clue if that's what he wrote or not. Frustrating.

And it's not the biggest deal or anything, but that was the fifth straight episode without any nudity. That has to be some sort of a BE record.

Interesting, seems like not much has really happened yet in 6 episodes but I like it. Not sure BE needs a "big bad" every year. And they have a lot of storylines to juggle now.

I don't get how anyone can find this show boring or uneventful. There's so much happening in every scene and every line of dialogue. It's a pleasure to watch.

I don't think it's boring or uneventful, just meandering, aimless and scattershot. The hamster can have a very busy day, he still doesn't go anywhere.
Think about BE for a second : every season has an overriding story arc. Season 1 was Nucky's rise from corrupt local politician to mob boss with the advent of prohibition and bootlegging. Season 2 was the battle for control of Atlantic City against the Commodore and his surrogate son Jimmy. Season 3 was an all-out mob war against Gyp Rosetti and found Nucky at his most desperate point.
This season is about what? Nucky lives alone in a hotel and tries to deal with the loss of his servant, bails his nephew out of prison and tries to buy land in Florida. After the premiere episode (and maybe his card game in All In), he hasn't even acted like a mob boss this season. I've become pretty frustrated with the lack of direction and how all-over-the-place the stories have become this season.

I agree. I'm still extremely entertained by the show but it doesn't seem to have much cohesion this season and doesn't seem to be going anywhere in particular.

The main story arc seems to be the feds building a case against Nucky while he is dealing with personal issues and trying to expand his business.

Perhaps because he's not a mob boss. Maybe he wants to be one, maybe he doesn't, who knows. But we have the benefit of knowing history, so we know capone, luciano, rothstein, lanksy and bugsy siegel end up as well known gangsters. I think we are seeing a story about a (obviously fictionalized) middle tier corrupt guy/wannabe, who is never going to rise to be a player. Thats kind of the way I approach it.

Agent Knox: Closed for inventory?
Eli: Death in the family
Agent Knox: Was it sudden?
Mikey: Just the last few feet.

Mickey is one of the biggest weasels in TV/movies, but he has some of the funniest lines in the show. He's like the Roger Sterling of the prohibition era.

But yea, 6 episodes in and the set up is very slow. Hard to see what the payoff will be by seasons end right now and I'm not seeing it be anything major - or even enough to make up for the very slow build.

I almost forgot the best exchange of the night :

Margret : There's not some creature in there, is there? We've no room for it.
Nucky : I wouldn't put something alive in a box!

Awkward!

lol, that exchange was gold..poor owen..

Also, I assume the monogram on the agents handkerchief doesn't match his cover name? Obviously made it a point for Eli to focus on it.

I don't understand how if the FBI guy was working undercover, why was Eli asking him to see his badge in order to get access to the bank deposit box? So Eli knows he's really a cop?

They think he's a prohibition agent (treasury?). He was introduced by the crooked agent (now dead) at the distillery in episode 1.

I just tonight reallized that Agent Knox was in The Sopranos as the obnoxious bakery worker who got his toe shot off by Christopher.

Uhh why isn't the hd version of this on Charter OnDemand yet?

I agree - I read a book about Atlantic City's history and NJ as a whole is more of a 'political machine' than a city run by a mob boss who operates under the nose of the government.

Nucky was the MAN!!! he was at a level above gangsters - he was untouchable!!

AC's political leaders had no obstacles.

They could do what every they want - Gambling, booze, prostitution, allowing gangsters to operate, etc

- The republican party ran EVERYTHING.. prosecutors would not enforce laws on the books (federal or state), if they did - judges would not allow evidence, if that failed local jurors would find 'not guilty' (because the Republican party gave them jobs, got family members out of trouble, provided food to them when they were tight on $, etc - the party was the social safety net. and 'good guys' looking out for the best interest of AC's tourist business)

This corruption was even at the state level, some AC officials were also state legislatures.

On Directv you can only get the HD version on demand.

It seems Van Alden and Harrow rotate episodes so maybe next week it will be a Van Alden episode though he was not in the previews.

The Patricia Arquette character is into some really freaky sh*t like alligator wrestling and punching Nucky before making out with him.

They cast that role perfectly. Arquette looks like she took a lot of punches to the face already and looks big enough to wrestle an alligator.