S05.E02: The Good Listener

[MyPeopleAreNordic]

Her scene was short, but the actress who plays Sigrid brought it this episode.

Edited September 16, 2014 by MyPeopleAreNordic

[Johnny Dollar]

The reasons for Eli being in Chicago with Capone for the past seven years don't really make a lot of sense.  Just because he's with Capone doesn't mean that the feds don't know where he is, and Nucky obviously isn't holding a grudge. 

 

I just realized that the actor who plays Johnny Torrio, Greg Antonacci, was on the 70's sitcom "Makin' It".  Google that show and you'll see that he really hasn't aged well.

[editorgrrl]

I'm still confused, since Nucky appeared to have been the one who brokered the deal to get Eli off the hook for the Knox killing, and who arranged his transport to Chicago.. So, if Eli isn't fleeing Nucky, and Narcisse's scapegoat got him off the hook with the Feds, I still don't understand why he couldn't have stayed in New Jersey.

 

I assumed Nucky exiled Eli to a menial job in Chicago (estranged from his family, reporting to Van Alden) as punishment for his betrayal. Didn't Eli get into Van Alden's car in the season finale?

[MyPeopleAreNordic]

I hope somehow Margaret's storyline brings us back around to a flashback scene with AR. He was my favorite gangster on BE, mainly because the actor was so good. I'd like to see what (if any) kind of relationship Margaret developed with him.

[hoodooznoodooz]

There are many things I love about this show. But I often find myself wondering if they made casting decisions based much more on the physical appearance of the actor and less on acting talent. A lot of the gangsters seem to be pushing too hard. They come across as caricatures to me. Maybe it is only the amateur regional accents?

[jordanpond]

I assumed Nucky exiled Eli to a menial job in Chicago (estranged from his family, reporting to Van Alden) as punishment for his betrayal. Didn't Eli get into Van Alden's car in the season finale?

Thanks -- again -- for helping me out. That makes sense that Nucky exiled him as punishment. He does take pleasure in humiliating and otherwise punishing Eli. And yes, Eli did get picked up by Van Alden in the finale -- the look of mutual amazement was quite funny.

 

MyPeopleAreNordic, on 16 Sept 2014 - 3:03 PM, said:

I hope somehow Margaret's storyline brings us back around to a flashback scene with AR. He was my favorite gangster on BE, mainly because the actor was so good. I'd like to see what (if any) kind of relationship Margaret developed with him.

 

Agreed!

Edited September 17, 2014 by jordanpond

[Fisher King]

I'm loving the flashbacks. Great casting for young Nucky, and the actor playing a younger Commodore does have Dabney Coleman's chin. Looking forward to the early Gillian years, but I'm sure the hookup with Commodore will be hard to watch. Guess we'll find out just how much Nucky was involved in that.

 

Nucky's dad is awful but Al Capone is the worst. Stephen Graham is killing it.

 

 

 

[editorgrrl]

Looking forward to the early Gillian years, but I'm sure the hookup with Commodore will be hard to watch. Guess we'll find out just how much Nucky was involved in that.

To show that they'd have to cast a whole 'nother Nucky—it happened more than 10 years after the current flashbacks.

[Fisher King]

I like that: --> a whole 'nother Nucky!

I'll have to trust they did cast someone who looks a little more like Steve Buscemi for 10 years later.

 

My heart goes out to Eli. I know he betrayed Nucky many times, but his true allegiance has always been to his family. If he's not reunited with them by the end, he will likely die very soon.

 

[editorgrrl]

I like that: --> a whole 'nother Nucky!

I'll have to trust they did cast someone who looks a little more like Steve Buscemi for 10 years later.

I'd rather have a good actor than a wooden dead ringer. I like Lil Nucky a lot. (I'm always distracted by the fact that Mad Men's Lil Dick has different colored eyes than Jon Hamm.)

[Neurochick]

I think Nucky exiled Eli because Eli didn't come to him first.   Knox threatened Eli with knowledge about what Eli's son did, regarding the classmate's death.  Instead of going to Nucky about it, Eli wanted to take care of it himself.  I think that's what pissed Nucky off; Eli betrayed him before and Nucky was like, "Fuck this," and shipped him off to Chicago.  

[BigMamaThorton]

 

I thought that caricature might be a little "too" recognizable as far as caricatures go.. turns out it's the exact same Billie we were first introduced to in the S3 premiere, at Nucky's New Years party.

Is it wrong that just seeing the caricature made happy she was blown up spectacularly all over again.  So very Happy…..What was that?  She was a great actress, our Miss Kent?  Yeah, um, no, but thanks.

 

Pleased to know that Nucky and Margaret are still married, somewhat….it's complicated. 

 

I'm thinking that somehow Margaret's involvement with wall street and money will figure at some point into the Nucky/Joe Kennedy arrangement.  In addition to being a bootlegger, Ole'Joe fancied a good deal of insider trading, and if I'm not mistaken, set about developing ways to prevent others from following in his footsteps by establishing said activity illegal.  Or am I imagining that?

[buttercupia]

Nucky exiled Eli because Eli betrayed him, yet again.  He would have killed him in the season 4 finale had Willie not blundered in.  It's only because of his family that Nucky let Eli live after all the times he's betrayed him.  And I'm sure Nucky knows that to Eli, it's worse torture than being dead, being without June and his children.

[A Boston Gal]

Loving this last season, loving the posts here. It's as if the whole series has gotten a new burst of energy. Where was all this sharp writing and character development for the past couple of seasons? Now I'm sad it's ending, where a few weeks ago, I just couldn't care at all.  And, who'duv thunk, Nucky has a personality again. Yay, I'm rooting for the show's main character once more.

 

Would love to see a teenaged Tommy (he'd be a teen in 1931, yes?) rightly inherit the Commodore's house. That would be an interesting note to end the series on.

Edited September 17, 2014 by A Boston Gal

[jordanpond]

A few random thoughts:

 

About the motive for murdering Tonino: I don't think that revenge for Billie's death was a major reason for Tonino's murder. I do think that Nucky probably still feels remorse for it because she was a complete innocent who got murdered because of him. But there were other, more immediate reasons to kill him. I think that he purposely chose that restaurant with her likeness on the wall -- and that particular table -- just so that once that waiter made the comment to Tonino he would immediately know that he was a dead man. I think it was just Nucky's way of being creative and feeling powerful.

 

I'm intrigued about Willie. During his interview, although I thought he was being a hypocrite to forget his past, I nonetheless thought that he was now someone who was earnestly in favor of upholding the law. But after seeing him with Nucky, I'm not so sure that his becoming an attorney wasn't a long-term plan for Nucky to get his own crooked protege into the legal profession.

 

I'm getting really disgusted with the amount of female nudity on this show. I feel like I am watching a very well written, directed and acted period drama with wonderful sets, costumes, and music that seems to randomly throw in naked women for no legitimate reason. It's beyond ridiculous.

Edited September 21, 2014 by jordanpond

[Mindymoo]

Jordapond, you should compare it with "The Knick." There was a scene there two prostitutes were introduced to a prospective pimp, and were told undress, but we only saw them from the behind, then they were whisked away from the room. There is nudity, but it isn't titillating in the last most of the time. I love BWE, but the HBO CEO of Tits sure loves his tits.