Well alright, that was fast. Nuck is arriving in the United Kingdom of England and Ireland to bury his father, with Sleater in tow. In the coffin, 12 of the Tommy guns with some extra ammo (couldn’t he get a few more in there?), he hopes to trade for whiskey with McGarrigle. The latter, old farty geezer that he is, has been affected by his son’s death in combat the month before and he is ready to sign a truce with the Kingdom of England. Nucky is hilariously awkward outside of his Atlantic City nooky comfort zone, and he is obviously having a hard time convincing anyone to have his guns. McGarrigle on the other hand is still smart as a whip, asking of Nuck: “what’s our cause to you?” Not that he has anything against profiteering but it should be a timely reminder to Nucky that money, power and bitches weigh little in the balance against freedom. As he leaves with his tail between his legs, Nuck hears shot fired: the Irish Republican Army’s had a sudden change in command, and Nucky’s back in business.

Chaos theory: an Atlantic City commodore’s rape of a little girl led to the separation of Ireland. So it goes. All this for what? For some schnapps? Are you for real Nucky? I still think he is either out of his mind or he has devised a crazy plan we are not privy of – and considering how jumpy he is of McGarrigle’s murder… I don’t know. This is a man whose daughter is sick, whose dad is being buried, who has just escaped an assassination attempt, who is under investigation for election rigging and fraud and murder and bootlegging… And he goes to Ireland to get some booze. He already has booze! Stepping down as treasurer, he’s probably not fighting for control of Atlantic City… Unless he wants the people chanting his name for a comeback. Unless he just wants revenge. “Let the real battle happen” as they put it. Also, he throws another double entendre at Sleater – can’t bode well for him but the IRA comeback might just have saved his life too.

On the Atlantic City side of the Atlantic, Jimmy and the boys are also gathered in a booze summit: since Doyle is out of commission (in a neckbrace and without a warehouse) their first meeting is with George Remus. Remus will not sell his booze to bootleggers, but he has no problem about double-dipping: once he sells his booze to retailers, he has no problem with Jimmy’s boys hustling them. Since they owe Manny Horvitz some booze, and since Jimmy doesn’t like him, they quickly decide that Horvitz has to die. Jimmy is still trying to cover all fronts, and he’s also making alliances with everyone he knows has had a fallout with Nucky so he starts talking with Waxy Gordon both to get some booze and to get rid of Horvitz, who has previously been described as a two-timing bastard, and who holds true to his name (which he won’t explain): he will sell booze to Jimmy (while still in business with Nucky through Rothstein), and he will take care of Horvitz. But since Waxy Gordon can’t do anything properly, his assassin botches the job at Horvitz, gets botched in the process. He’s also conveniently carrying a matchbook from Atlantic City, which is going to suck for Jimmy.

Cue to the odd sight of a bunch of people gathered in a community room to watch a radio receiver. This is the night of Dempsey vs. Carpentier, and I guess that’s the prohibition-era equivalent to a sports bar. Jimmy receives a note written all cutesy that someone is watching him closely; and he gets real paranoid for a minute. That doesn’t last long though, as a couple of girls come up to him and start stroking his ego real hard among other things. Harrow, right-hand man in chief, is sitting to his left, and still insecure about Jimmy’s stance; since Jimmy is a true friend, he gives him the redhead. If pride comes before the fall, Jimmy’s fall is due right about anytime now. He is the “new king” and he is getting really sloppy. Meyer and Doyle (fearful weasels, sure) proposed to cut Manny into their deal, but he decided to off him anyway – whether out of bloodlust or pride, he should have known better than to delegate that job to another dummy. You should give those jobs to Richard, I’m sure he would enjoy it just as much as the free pussy.

Also on our table for this week, a few side stories:

Little Emily has polio, she gets an old fashioned spinal tap and stuck in quarantine, while Margaret has to burn all her stuff and watch her staff leave for fear of contagion. She does end up sneaking into her daughter’s room while everyone is listening to the boxing match; really a tough time for her, but I’m not quite sure if that going to be relevant to her character. There is no vaccine for polio yet, so the little girl may die, which would probably prompt her to bear a child from Nucky…

Also, Dunn Pernsley returns! Since game recognizes game, he is now a stoolie for Chalky in a white kitchen, where he stirs the pot, and by golly is the pot simmering. Chalky places an order to “give them the word” and the kitchen staff embarks upon a 12 to 1 food fight campaign. Which I am to assume is how most strikes get started. Pernsley redefines “agent provocateur“, he gives me hope (and still bears the scars from his prison stint).

Finally, the Fed who was in charge of tailing Nuck is sleeping with Esther Randolph. Not that either of them is particularly excited about it, but hey, boobs. Their little investigation is still going on, and they get Eli’s simpleton deputy in to testify – or really, to plant some doubt among Eli’s ranks in order to get him to testify.

A lot of leads and misleads in this episode… End of the season is fast approaching and all bets are off at this point for the main characters, but they can’t keep us on our toes too long by getting rid of boring characters one by one.

- Gnou