Here at the Мишка Bloglin we support our troops. We support Jimmy Darmody, who is pushed to the wolves right off the bat by his former ally Nucky Thompson. It’s Memorial Day in Atlantic City, and Nuck has no qualms about calling Jimmy out to bust out a speech off the top to an audience that’s bored as hell. He looks a bit panic stricken at first but gets a hold of himself pretty quickly and knocks it out of the park on some “I’m not a hero” type shit. The kid’s getting good at holding his own. Right after that, we get Jimmy’s second speech of the day, which Eli set him up to. I guess he had something prepared, but the crowd was tougher (the Commodore’s Society of grumpy elders) so the crowd response wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic (a cane handle to the face). Once again I feel like Jimmy handled it like a champ: “You just taught me plenty [about respect]” he says as he leaves the room. Eli isn’t quite as impressed by his fearless leading though, and soon enough defects to Nucky’s house, who in turn defecates in his mouth for even expecting about mercy.

Eli: “I’m your brother, Nucky”
Nucky: “Then I love you”

Love, though, is the last of these men’s worries. Eli breaks down in tears and while Nucky looks vindicated, that is clearly not enough. He has not digested the betrayal, and starts ranting and slapping his brother until the fight turns to fisticuffs in the greenhouse. Eli (who has a good upper hand in this fight, not sure what Nuck was thinking) tries to reach for his gun but Margaret comes in with the rifle to separate the two men. I assume Eli was going to tell Nucky that their father was on his last leg in lieu of parting words, but Nucky doesn’t give a shit and off Eli goes.

Here at the Мишка Bloglin we support our troops. We support Richard Harrow, the half-fallen war hero who is browsing his Un/Happy Family Bible in the early morning. He slides his knife in his sheath, packs a cute lunch, takes his rifle on the side, and hitches a ride into the middle of the woods. As he enjoys some solace amidst the pines, he gets momentarily distracted by a pheasant, and enjoys a slice of apple as well as the mouth of his rifle for lunch. Oh. Lucky for all of us, a puppy sneaks up on him to still his mask. Cue Yaketty Sax as he runs behind the dawg yelling “i need that mask!” in his wimpiest voice (so you weren’t REALLY going to kill yourself, were you Rich? Makes you wonder how often the man thinks about killing himself). The chase ends up around a campfire with some squirrels on the grill and big swigs of moonshine. The two men tending the fire are sharing their camaraderie with Harrow and the dog, an “old soldier” who “just comes and goes”, and “knows his mission.” Which makes Richard think that he probably needs a friend. And a mission. Which is exactly what Jimmy provides him with that very night. Avenging his honor by scalping an elderly French & Indian War vet is a pretty appropriate way for Jimmy to make his moves. It gets the point across.

Back to Eli, relegated to helping fix one of his kid’s toys in the musty garage. But even there no one will leave him alone, and when a ward boss come a knockin’, Eli’s boat starts a-rockin’. With a pipewrench to the collarbone (and some extra hacking of the face for lack of recognition purposes), he puts an end to all the discussions that was he shut out of that day. I’m not sure if that’s going to give him some extra strength for the future or just put a nail in his coffin, but that was a nice touch for a character that has been clearly falling apart since the middle of season one.

Nucky and Jimmy are certainly handling business, but both their private lives seem to be suffering. Jimmy’s still lying to Angela, and Nucky isn’t even thankful to Margaret who most likely saved his life at the buzzer. Eli has been trying to maintain a healthy private life, but it made him fall behind the business aspect and all he can do is mop up after himself, and Richard is basically all business to forget about his lack of private life. All business and no play make… A pretty colorful episode overall, with a good deal of blood spillin’ and cussin’. Nucky’s legal troubles are being resolved by the attorney general getting some head in the room adjacent to his office and a judge in his longjohns ordering more oysters and champers. At the end of the day though, we have no confirmation that Nucky’s going to make it unscathed. Maybe it’s his glass half empty character, maybe it’s foreshadowing troubles ahead. The Attorney General has been portrayed as kind of a loser before and honestly, Nucky has been getting off this whole ordeal pretty easily up to now. We do have confirmation however that Sleater is doing it with Katie (capo… status?), as she awakens Margaret with her screaming in the middle of the night.

Gillian’s appearance in this episode makes me wonder about her again. That look of Schadenfreude when Jimmy asks her whether she knows the grumpy elders… Could she be an eminence grise in all this? Since last week, we know that she didn’t reconnect with the Commodore out of nostalgia…

It’s been a strange day.

- Gnou