Every season of Boardwalk Empire goes through a slump right around the halfway mark. It’s more of a sign that the storylines are settling than a real misfire from the director’s part, but still, these episodes always appear uneventful by contrast. And this season has so many centers of activity that this week’s episode looked more scatterbrained than anything.

On the upside, it started and ended with a bang; indeed, a lot of bangs. Rosetti banging his redhead, as promised, though it turned out more of her banging him. See, Rosetti is into getting dominated – which is not all that unexpected, but unforeseen and still a very nice twist for the character. Later he receives a visit from Rothstein and Lucky Luciano, as the former offers to deal with Rosetti directly in order to get his booze… Was he two-timing Nucky or just trying to get the inside track on our Sycillian stud? Who knows – but at the end of the episode, yvng Bvgsy Sxxgxl barges into another bondage scene for a failed assassination attempt.

He does manage to leave 4 people dead in his wake, and a pretty pissed off terminator antagonist – who will probably look at Atlantic City for a culprit, since Rothstein was actually trying to be in business with him earlier. So that’s gonna suck, especially as we get news from Andrew Mellon in Washington that the Harding administration may not be all that honest in its handling of prohibition laws. And a small come-back from Gaston Means advising that Harding put some bootleggers in prison as a show of good faith. I assume that will put Nucky in hot water, which he will probably solve by delivering Rosetti to the Feds on a platter.

At least that’s what I would do. Nucky’s got bigger fish to fry, after getting fussed at for his lack of discretion by Rothstein early in the episode. Which he denies, of course, until he brings Billie Kent to the French fashion store on the Boardwalk, only a few steps from where Margaret is passing out fliers for her clinic. How he thought he would be able to get away with it is beyond me. His tail partially between his tails, he apologizes to Margaret later, not for being a cheating whore, but for being so obvious about it. And off he goes to hire Chalky & Purnsley to bully Eddie Cantor into starring with Kent into some random show even though he had a previous commitment. Talk about unnecessary roughing.

Margaret has had a tough episode, besides meeting her husband’s mistress – her own love interest turns out to be engaged, and also he flaked out on her for his clinic hour. Which doesn’t mean much at this point, but her disappointment is palpable. At least she rolled with it, unlike Gillian Darmody who has to prostitute her prostitution business: trying unsuccessfully to beg money from her former lover’s business partners, and then recommending that her girls start advertising their services in the front of the house. There’s one more pressing issue: she hasn’t dealt yet with Jimmy’s death, which she hasn’t reported to the powers that be. Also she writes him a letter begging him to come back from wherever he is because she needs help with the house (where the light is flattering though)(and it’s perfumed). OH MY LORD PLEASE TELL ME THEY DISPOSED OF THE CORPSE.

Finally, we have Nelson Van George Muller, who gets called up to the supervisor… because he didn’t file his tax return properly. Whew. But then the prohi who caught him at the speakeasy last episode left him his business card. Once at work, once at the house, with a question mark on the back. Of course he avoids returning the call, until the man shows up at his house… because his iron is not functioning! Whew! What a relie- Wait, the federal agent just got clobbered by his prentend-wife (hunky dory!) and now Nelson has to stifle the man to death, and we see him reach for Dean O’Bannion as he needs help disposing of the body.

Well here’s one loose end that’s getting tied up a bit, but it seems like that side of Chicago won’t see the most eventful of resolutions. Seems like heroin was getting shipped from China in little Buddha figures even back in the twenties, some things just don’t change. However the Luciano/Lansky pair might be in deep shit now that Siegel is involved in a murder attempt against Rosetti, as it seems there are some mob alliances that have been unspoken up to now between Rosetti and Maseria. So things are gearing up nicely before we get to the real meat. Next episode should start to see some characters unravel. Oh yes.

- Gnou