Boardwalk Empire – Jimmy is in way over his head

Ever since last week’s episode of Boardwalk Empire, I’ve been trying to stack this season up against the show’s first. I was thinking about last year and the events on the show around this time in the first season. I couldn’t help but think about big shocking events like Agent Sebso’s killing of the witness or his own death at the hands of Van Alden. In my own mind,  I couldn’t help thinking that the show hasn’t been living up to the jaw droppers of the first season … until this week’s episode.

We all knew that Manny Horvitz was going to be trouble, but I had no idea how much trouble he was going to be. Until he pulled the trigger, I wasn’t convinced that he was going to kill Angela, but it was certainly a stark reminder of just how bad these people really are. As frustrating and annoying as Angela and Jimmy’s relationship has been (and believe me, I was very annoyed to see them reconcile again in this episode — and so easily!), Angela certainly didn’t deserve this end. It’s hard seeing any innocent pay the price for someone else’s dirty dealings. It’s going to be interesting seeing how Jimmy reacts — and how Richard reacts, for that matter.

I have to admit that I did enjoy seeing Jimmy’s floundering in this episode. It was obvious that things were going to start piling up against him, and we saw it come to tragic head. He couldn’t handle the strike, and possibly just made things worse by caving in to Eli’s wrong-headed ideas of a riot. When he finally followed his own instinct to negotiate with Chalky, he couldn’t get the deal done. Then there was getting pushed out of the booze market by Nucky, who snuck in with his low priced Irish whiskey. It’s not difficult to see why even his inner circle is beginning to lose faith in Jimmy.

Then there is Eli, following the same path as his partner. After treating Halloran so poorly, and having him beaten, it was kind of nice seeing Eli sitting in a prison cell. He’s never been as smart or as capable as Nucky, and he certainly doesn’t know how to play this game. Unfortunately, it looks like the person who is really going to pay is Nucky himself, as Randolph seems to want him to flip and testify against Nucky. After all the bad blood between them, I don’t think Eli is going to have any problem doing it, either.

Nucky certainly seems to be in a lot of trouble with his legal problems. I’m not sure that a slick new lawyer is going to be enough to get him out of this. Randolph is doing well building a case against him, and with each passing episode things are looking more and more dire. I’m curious to see if his and Jimmy’s stories this season can come together and resolve, or if they will remain mostly separate. Things are so deep for the both of them at this point, I’m not sure how either of them are going to get out of it.

I am certainly more energized about this show than I have been in a while. There are only two episodes left in the season and I can’t wait to see how things fall. How about you? Are you sad to see Angela go? Can you believe that Jimmy let this happen? How do you think he will react when he finds out what happened?

Clacked by Bob Degon
on Nov 27, 2011 @ 22:32 EST5EDT