bluetoast

The show skipped ahead 8 years to 1931, Prohibition ended in 1933.

slop101

Oh, okay - I had no idea this season skipped so far ahead. Instead of a flashback to Nucky's childhood, they should've flashbacked to what happened during those 8 years. Would've been interesting to see what happened during the stock-market crash.

JasonF

Dion O'Banion died November 10, 1924 (depicted in the next to last episode of Season 4).

Joe Masseria died April 15, 1931 (depicted in this week's episode).

So they skipped from some time in late 1924 to some time in April 1931.

bootsy

Not sure what this means and probably don't care bout MICHAEL K. Williams is awesome.

slop101

He is awesome, but, more in this show than elsewhere, he's always got this downturned mouth thing going one, a perpetual scowl, i.e. a sourpuss.

MikahC

I don't mind the sourpuss when Chalky at least talks and gives us the reason for the sourpuss. But being a black man in prison in those days and looking at your guards in that way is just silly. It may play well with people in 2014 watching it, but it makes no sense in context.

It reminds me of a black comic who talked about how black people today (at the time of the routine) make like they couldn't have been slaves. Like they'd have stood up and said, "F*** you, Massa," or something. The routine goes on to say the first person who got off the boat had that idea, was promptly introduced to a whip, and reconsidered -- as did the people disembarking afterwards.

Now granted, this is post-emancipation, but still, I don't care how much pride Chalky has, he'd have been at least a little more aware of his situation. The flagrant defiant sourpuss was just a little too much over the line of believability (or enjoyability, really).

slop101

It's more like he's over doing it with his scowl, like he's straining himself too hard trying to look glum.

That was Eddie Murphy in Delirious.

Coral

The Rothstein/Margeret story line last season... was very minor where Margaret provided Rothstein with insider information on stocks - he gets out of his financial bind while Margaret gets better living conditions. That's how it ended. Now it's 8 years later and Rothstein is dead and Margaret still works at the same company. So what was the point to that story line?

Jackskeleton

the way they handled the Rothstein story just feels like it was the fat that was trimmed to fall in line to this whole massive year jump.

Neil M.

The point was to keep Margaret in the show.

andicus

Did they know that this would be the final season before last season was written?

They could have planned more for some storylines, but when finding that they only had 8 episodes to conclude this show, those storylines were either trimmed or removed.

Bill Needle

Since they are already being generous with the flashbacks, who is to say we don't receive a visit from good ol' AR at some point?

andicus

I'm still hoping that will be the case, but the way they mentioned it sounded as though that would be all.

Decker

Yeah, I think these are all Young Nucky flashbacks. I wouldn't bet on seeing 12 year old Rothstein coming down for a vacation. We still have the death of Nucky's sister, mother and the rape of 13 year old Gillian (and subsequent conception of Jimmy) to look forward to, though.

Osiris3657

Rothstein is dead? Did we see that onscreen? Man I have a terrible memory.

Liked the premiere, I was unaware this final season was only 8 episodes though.

Decker

No. Only mention was Nucky in Havana telling Meyer that he hadn't seen him in a long time - since Rothstein's funeral.

We knew that the time jump would make Rothstein disappear since they're tied to real-life events for the non-fictional characters.

JasonF

Unfortunately for those of you who don't like the flashbacks:

barelypure

Remind me why Chalky was locked up?

Decker

We don't know yet.

bluetoast

And since we don't know, I think it's premature to assume that he shouldn't be a "sourpuss" under any circumstances whatsoever.

slop101

That's really too bad, as I'm far more interested in what happened in the previous 8 years they skipped than what happened during Nucky's childhood - I really don't want to see anymore of his abusive dad - I get it, he was an asshole and his mother a saint. Yawn.

stopgap

I only speak for myself of course, but I whole-heartidly agree with you. Especially after viewing the premiere ep.

CPA-ESQ.

Uhhh this sounds painful. The writers must have a hard on for these boring characters -- why else would they want to keep bringing them back again, and again, and again??

CPA-ESQ.

According to Chalky : "he got [himself] caught"

bunkaroo

I wonder if the flashbacks might be caused by less availability from Buscemi.