Contrary to what one might expect from the episode’s title, it was about Jimmy. His story arc is the one that received the most cinematic and dramatic attention. And I’ll get to it in a bit because there is so. much. to say. But it’s true: Margaret is losing her marbles. By which I mean that she is finding refuge in her catholic guilt and that’s the most sensible thing to come of her situation. Her daughter Emily is outfitted with new leg braces at the beginning of the episode, and she is slowly starting her rehabilitation – but obviously can’t be good to see your child unable to walk. But she’s grasping at straws, offering more donation/bribes to the Church and rejecting any kind of help from Nuck and Sleater. Maybe she is just mirroring Nucky’s behavior, just with a higher authority (no Nucky, not the Federal government): and we, un/knowing audience, are witnessing their looking glasses through our own idiot boxes, not knowing with whom we should side. Well, obviously I side with Nucky since I have a hard time seeing a direct correlation between polio and promiscuity.

BUT at the end of the day, Nucky’s indictment is certainly deserved, you can’t go around paying your way out of everything; and Margaret probably should not have been banging Sleater or pinching Nuck’s pennies. Donating her material possessions were just one of her burdens: Sleater, ever helpful, joins her in the basement to fix a rivet in Emily’s leg brace and possibly debrief about this whole sexual tension they have going on – only to be overheard by Katie, who promptly leaves with her panties in a bunch. Margaret had almost (not quite) confessed her infidelity to Nucky, and it looks like that doodoo is going to hit the fan. Just when she is scheduled to testify for or against Nucky with Esther Randolph – who will eat her alive if she shows up. Anyway, if my experience with believing bitches teaches us anything (why should it? because it’s my re-up, that’s why) this couple will dwindle into oblivion sooner than later and it may just be for the better.

Also in the sin department: Nelson Van Alden, whose adulterous ways are not sufficient to disqualify him as a reliable witness (if only they knew what legal drama from the 90-00′s have turned into); but score one for coincidence! Nucky’s waiter Harlan just so happens to be a member of the Church community that witnessed Van Alden’s drowning of his deputy. I guess that’s the only valid reason for Eddy not be there. Van Alden is from upstate New York and he gets his crazy from his dad, by the way. But he is also trying to get his life in order, to turn a proverbial page, which is why he signs his divorce papers and refuses to collaborate with Doyle on a possible bust in upcoming meeting he is having with with Capone and Luciano & Lansky. Doyle – by the way – is getting fudged by his more thuggish accomplices and he may not make it out of this season alive (crossing fingers). Van Alden, on the other hand, shoots Randolph’s boy in foot as he rushes out of his erstwhile place of work. (Wanna put some money on who he’s going to go to in order to get out of Atlantic City?)

And so, we need to talk about Jimmy. We get to enjoy some of his backstory when he appears in the form of vignettes about his past in Princeton. Just about what you would expect, he’s a smart dude, even though he couldn’t really read too well. He looks like he would have been wearing Mishka (please someone read this and make the connection happen for next Fall’s lookbook). But one day he gets a visit from his mom, who was already a conniving bitch back then: we see her getting cozy with one of Jimmy’s teachers (who, to be fair, spoke way too fancy for his own good – calling Jimmy a Jacobian – last person who called me that was a priest) and when Gillian get caught with her pants down (ahem) she complains to Jimmy which leads him to put a beating on his professor. And apparently get kicked out of Princeton.

But that’s not all. Earlier that night, Jimmy had learned that Angela was pregnant (the change in his facial expression upon learning that news… whoa). Later that night, Gillian had not stopped drinking and once Jimmy helped her undress and lay down, she goes for the kiss and tells him there is “nothing wrong” with having sex with his own mother. The WHOLE time I thought… No… Noo… Nooo… and SHE STILL WENT FOR IT. She is “the loneliest person on earth” she says! “Nuck will fix it” she says! AND She’s gone in the morning! So tough. So so tough. Right there and then, Jimmy joins the army. He lists Angela as a his fiancée, and his emergency contact. Second whoa moment is the transition to the current storyline, with Jimmy getting seriously drunk (and high on his own supply of heroin) as he mourns the death of Angela.

Back in Atlantic City, we see Gillian casually embroidering whilst masterminding Angela’s disposal. Jimmy snaps and starts strangling her, until he is interrupted by the Commodore’s lance stabbed in his shoulder. A tug of war starts with the Commodore, until it is interrupted by Jimmy’s faithful trench knife. His mom, who has been shrieking this whole time yells “finish it goddamn you!” and that is the end of the Commodore. Gillian has to leave. “It’s all going to be better now” she says. Jimmy’s all grown up, she says. Old boy Richard cleans up the mess, nods to Jimmy in acquiescence. Last week as I was thinking about how Angela’s death was going to play out (I do that) I thought about how Richard might be dealing with it – we just get a hint of it. Of course, we know that a lot of Boardwalk Empire is about this heavy-hinting, and this week’s episode was just a testament to the amazing storytelling and character development of the series.

The story of the Darmodys makes Margaret’s drama seem like iCarly, and makes her reaction all the more impossible to sympathize with. And as Jimmy’s reaction mirrors that of Margaret, we stare at our idiot boxes, not knowing with whom we should side: the parent who is taking it all on herself to try and regain the stability she lost, or the child who is giving in to the chaos and tries to find stability in a crazy world. There are no binaries in this world; ensconcing ourselves in dichotomies (practical vs. spiritual, hell vs. heaven, a brush vs. a wide-tooth comb) is only shielding us from the fact that we all deal with adversity differently. To me, the only question that remains is: how on earth are they going to top this episode with the season finale? Against the backdrop of “Under God’s Power, She Flourishes” whatever happens next will probably make too much sense and leave too much to be desired just so we can hang off that cliff for Season 3 – but it just may be crazy enough that it will work. All I knows is Gillian has dramatically increased her chances of dying next.

- Gnou