S05.E08: Eldorado

[Pallas]

Tommy is 13 (the same age as Gillian when she bore Jimmy). He was orphaned at 6, each of his parents murdered.  Even in 1931, he might be spared execution or life imprisonment, based on that.  

[hincandenza]

Well, I was completely off on my prediction, so... guess I shouldn't be playing the stock market, unless Margaret is there to help me. :)

 

I... hm.  I'm not sure how I felt about this.  It certainly wasn't the epic badness of Dexter's finale, but also it wasn't the Shakespearean heights of Breaking Bad's finale, and Nucky is no prince so I don't mind him not getting the happy ending.  I do like that this season really did feel like mostly a quieter eulogy, a meditation on Nucky's life, his sins, and his regrets- or the things he didn't regret and should have.  And the last few minutes, with the back-and-forth between flashback and his death, was decently done.  Plus, Gretchen Mol was excellent as always even in her brief appearance, and every important story was wrapped up, including bookends to the season of Nucky in the water as a child, reaching for that gold coin.

 

But some things really bothered me about Tommy killing Nucky, and I'd love to read some public commentary from the writers/producers at some point, explaining certain plot details. It felt like a slapped on, poorly thought out Darmody ex machina.  I get the symbolic importance of Nucky's past crimes literally "bearing children" (twice, if you also count Jimmy trying to unseat him) that come back to haunt him, but several of you have already pointed out a lot of oddness in that. 

 

As of this episode, Tommy is still only 14, and presumably spent the last 7 years being quietly raised by the Sagorsky family, who may or may not still even live in Atlantic City.  This episode tells us he had communicated with Gillian about Nucky at some point, but if it was from his early years would he even remember her talking about Nucky?  And if it was after she was committed... how?  We know from this season that she didn't even get pen and paper until a few weeks or months ago, so it's not like she's been communicating with Tommy for the past 7 years, and that bit of dialogue from the warden when Nucky finally visited implied Gillian has had very few visitors as well.

 

From Tommy's perspective he was very young when he was taken in by the Sagorskys.  We had that scene in an earlier season when Gillian had lost custody and went to Tommy's school, only to find him cold and acting like he barely knew her.  After everything that happened including Richard showing up covered in blood to leave Tommy with them, the Sagorsky's would have heavily discouraged him from communicating with Gillian or any of Jimmy's old associates like Nucky. Yet somehow, he's decided he hates Nucky so much he has to kill him... a man with whom his only actual interactions were by 1931 standards almost saintly in their generosity.  In those Great Depression days, if a boss told you you'd lost your menial job of a few weeks at some strip club, but gave you a thousand dollars out of his pocket (something like a year's wages today), most people would take a bullet for a boss like that.

 

We are shown that of course Tommy doesn't care about the money, so of course he tears it up, that it's an insult to be bought off just like Nucky always does to fix a problem- except again, there's no reason 14-year-old Tommy would have any such perspective.  He wouldn't even know Nucky except as a name, so either Gillian simply told him what Nucky had done to her and he decided to get revenge on his own, or she actively tried to convince him to get revenge on her behalf.  In either case, Tommy is awfully impressionable to be willing to tear up a year's wages in spite, and to throw his own life away by murdering a man in cold blood on the busy boardwalk, on the word of a few letters from his distant and apparently crazy grandma who's been locked away in an asylum on a murder conviction.

 

What then was Gillian's role in this?  Her pleading letter to Nucky implies that even if she hated him, she still held out hope he might be persuaded to assist her- it wouldn't make much sense to simultaneously send your grandson to kill the man who you're begging to basically get you out of jail (although Nucky waited so long to see her, she may have gone with Tommy as "plan B").  Plus, while she had more motive than anyone to want vengeance against Nucky- for her childhood rape, and for killing her only child who was the product of that rape- if we are to believe she actively tried to convince her only grandson to effectively forfeit his life just to kill Nucky, doesn't that turn her back into a monster at the end, instead of the somewhat sympathetic character of the last couple of seasons?

 

I guess I'm saying that Tommy showing up, seeking to avenge either Jimmy, Gillian, or both, just doesn't feel supported by any on-screen action or dialogue we've ever seen.  It feels lazy, like they tried to shoe horn in some symbolic payback, but didn't do the groundwork in their 8 episodes left to make it feel believable or earned. 

 

Good writing can surprise you, but after your initial surprise you look back and think, "Ah, of course! I should have seen it coming!".  That wasn't how this show just ended.

[terrymct]

Eldorado.   Nucky finally gets to catch the now mythical gold coin that eluded him as a child.

 

The ending made me more sad than I expected.  Nucky was getting out of the gangster and smuggling business.  He and Margaret were interacting on equal and adult terms.   I just knew that the writers wouldn't let him live happily ever after, though.  The thing that make me sad is Tommy.   Richard got Tommy OUT, away from his incestuous grandmother and the life of crime to a nice farm and family (Richard's sister).  I thought he'd be the only one in this series to escape the morass.  But no.   Of course that insane worm his grandmother put in his head had to eat away until he thought he had to go confront and kill Nucky.    For Nucky, it means that his devil's choice to hand Gillian to the pedophile Commodore in exchange for the sheriff's job became a long arc that ruined Gilllian, her offspring, and Nucky himself.   Nucky couldn't have saved Gillian if he'd wanted to do so, the doctor at the asylum had already started cutting parts out of her and she'd truly gone mad.  

 

Narcisse died a death that would have been humiliating for him.  Shot down by gangsters in front of the Church Ladies and respectable community people whose attention and respect he wanted.   Meyer, Bugsy, and Lucky will all get theirs, we know that from history.  I guess Margaret is really the only one who survives and prospers, working on Wall Street and doing deals with Joe Kennedy.   Deep down, I hope Sigrid was able to straighten herself and the kids out.

My fave part of the show was - besides seeing Narcisse get clipped - Capone talking to his son.  He's a murdering braggart gangster and still loves his son.   

 

I liked that, too.  It reminded us that these gangsters were real people, not cartoons.   

As of this episode, Tommy is still only 14, and presumably spent the last 7 years being quietly raised by the Sagorsky family, who may or may not still even live in Atlantic City.  

 

 

Tommy and Richard's girlfriend went out to Richard's sister's farm in the midwest, I think.

[hincandenza]

Eldorado.   Nucky finally gets to catch the now mythical gold coin that eluded him as a child.

 

The ending made me more sad than I expected.  Nucky was getting out of the gangster and smuggling business.  He and Margaret were interacting on equal and adult terms.   I just knew that the writers wouldn't let him live happily ever after, though.  The thing that make me sad is Tommy.   Richard got Tommy OUT, away from his incestuous grandmother and the life of crime to a nice farm and family (Richard's sister).  I thought he'd be the only one in this series to escape the morass.  But no.   Of course that insane worm his grandmother put in his head had to eat away until he thought he had to go confront and kill Nucky.    For Nucky, it means that his devil's choice to hand Gillian to the pedophile Commodore in exchange for the sheriff's job became a long arc that ruined Gilllian, her offspring, and Nucky himself.   Nucky couldn't have saved Gillian if he'd wanted to do so, the doctor at the asylum had already started cutting parts out of her and she'd truly gone mad.  

 

Tommy and Richard's girlfriend went out to Richard's sister's farm in the midwest, I think.

 

Oh, yep, I think you're right.  I couldn't remember when I was typing that up if they did or not; although now I do remember Richard had that hallucination as he was dying of joining them.

 

Still, it only strengthens the "How would Tommy know anything or been in touch with an incarcerated Gillian if he moved to the northern Midwest?" problem.  I'm torn, because Tommy's actions only make any sense if Gillian was pushing him, but it U-Turns on the more sympathetic arc she'd had the last two seasons, plus she wouldn't have a forwarding address in an asylum and wouldn't have the impact on his life to convince him.  14-year-olds living in the midwest simply don't just up and move to Atlantic City to kill a man they don't even know because their legally insane grandmother, locked away for murder for most of their life, tells them so in a few handwritten letters presumably sent very recently.

 

So confused...

[Neurochick]

I think Tommy should have had one line like, "Uncle Richard told me about you too," because that would imply that Tommy knew Nucky killed his father.  Richard made a huge impression on Tommy.  

 

In season 3, when Richard stormed the Artimis club and got Tommy out, when he told Tommy to close his eyes and blew the guy away who had a gun on him, Tommy ran to Richard and threw his arms around him.  Then when Tommy was living with Julia, at the beginning of season 4, Julia said that Tommy refused to talk, poor kid was traumatized.  The only time he started talking again was when he saw Richard.  Richard was very important to Tommy, and I think losing him probably caused irrefutable damage.  

 

To me, it would have made more sense that Tommy was avenging his father, rather than Gillian, who, according to season 4, he really didn't know anymore.

 

Narcisse's death though, was just awesome.  I loved that the Almighty "Doctor" Narcisse, died like a regular punk, while he was in the middle of one his long, big, over-elegant, flashy preaching, that he probably listens to at night, every time he went to bed.  And, it wasn't even for a big cause: it was all to make a point to everyone else that Lucky and crew mean business.  A fitting end, to a man with that ego.

 

 

I laughed when that happened, killing Narcisse just as he was giving one of those long winded speeches.  Lucky did what Richard and Chalky could not do, shut that fool up permanently.  

[HumblePi]

Gillian gets a pass from me for being an incestuous, murderous, manipulating woman. She was 13 when her life was decided for her. She came from an orphanage I assume, so who taught orphans morality back then, or even now? Growing up devoid of any social conscience or ethical guidelines by adults would leave her up to her own defenses. She took the only path she was led to in life. She grew up learning by example. Gretchen Mol was just superb in this role and kudos to her for those grape-size nipples, she could have dialed a long distance telephone call with those. Just a little side note about Gillian. When Nucky first apprehended her on the boardwalk, she had a book and inside the book it was written that it belonged to Nellie Bly. Gillian took inspiration from the life of Nellie Bly. But Nellie Bly was only a pen name taken by American journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochrane who wrote an expose after she had faked insanity in order to study an insane asylum from within. Now, I'll imagine that Gillian is the writer Elizabeth Jane Cochrane and was only faking her insanity. I know, it's far-fetched but I have to make Gillian survive victoriously somehow.

 

I was left at the ends with some 'huh' moments. Whatever happened to Mable for instance. We assume she died so I'll just have to make it up in my mind that she died following the miscarriage by some infection since she refused to see a doctor. The "mishap" passed quickly and I took care of it, it's not a baby, just a mishap". Was Mable mentally slow or what? The woman just always seemed to be simple-minded and not in touch  with reality.

 

I like the way Al Capone went out. He was a showman all the way to the court steps but the look in his face as he turned to face Elliot Ness said a different thing, he was scared. The way he talked with his deaf son made me think of how Joe Giudice would talk to Milania. "I'm going away for a while not like a couple of weeks. I did this all for you and that can't be for nothin."  All I can say is that Stephen Graham was just perfect in this role. He affected a wonderful tough guy accent for a guy from Great Britain. If anyone cares to see Stephen Graham in another excellent tough-guy role, watch the movie 'This Is England'.

 

I really don't like having to edit my posts so much but there's one small thing that I remember being confused about last night but now I think I understand. It was a brief scene with Nucky walking with his paper bag full of money to give to Eli. He meets a futuristic costumed platinum blonde wig woman on the boardwalk. She almost seems to know who he is when she asks "do you know who I am?" She tells him she's from the future and she has a message for him. He follows her to a booth with a purple velvet curtain. "what's inside" he asks. "the world to come" Then he asks if she'll be there, she smiles and says "I'll be there but I won't be there". She tells him "the only way to knowledge is through experience".  So he enters through the blue velvet curtains, it's dark in there but the sees something glowing and he's indescribably drawn towards it, it's a television and the same woman is there (but not there) singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The eerie music here made the scene seem surreal and foreboding. Nicky is speechless and intrigued by this revelation. This short scene made me wonder if it was sort of a secret joke between the producers of Boardwalk that we would one day be watching this amazing series on our satellite and digitally enhanced versions of their little pre-modern model of the everyday television set. I think Nucky was dumbstruck with the knowledge that he, with all his pre-depression smarts about bootlegging and ganstering, had overlooked something that was going to change the world, technology.

Edited October 27, 2014 by HumblePi

[Neurochick]

Gillian gets a pass from me for being an incestuous, murderous, manipulating woman. She was 13 when her life was decided for her. She came from an orphanage I assume, so who taught orphans morality back then, or even now? Growing up devoid of any social conscience or ethical guidelines by adults would leave her up to her own defenses

 

 

I don't know about that.  If Gillian was a man who raped his twenty year old daughter, I don't think most people would feel so sympathetic.  So, if a person who had a rough childhood goes on a murderous rampage, that's okay?  Having trauma doesn't give anybody a pass, plenty of people had shitty childhoods and don't murder or rape anybody.  

Edited October 27, 2014 by Neurochick

[Primetimer]

The final Boardwalk Empire is a series of goodbyes -- with one important new introduction.

Read the story

[alynch]

I guess I'm saying that Tommy showing up, seeking to avenge either Jimmy, Gillian, or both, just doesn't feel supported by any on-screen action or dialogue we've ever seen.  It feels lazy, like they tried to shoe horn in some symbolic payback, but didn't do the groundwork in their 8 episodes left to make it feel believable or earned.

 

I have similar logistical issues about Tommy's revenge, which is why I don't think Tommy killed Nucky out of revenge. I don't think he even knew that Nucky killed Jimmy. The only people who could've told him that are Gillian and Richard. There's no reason to believe that Richard would have. And I doubt that Gillian would have either, since it seems poor form to make five-year old complicit in your murder-phony-death-declaration scheme.

 

I think Tommy became estranged from his surrogate family when he only got vague answers when asking about his past and real family. His parents are people he can barely remember and his grandmother is probably the only person he has specific memories of, so he decided to seek out Nucky, a man whose name he must've overheard many times when he was a child. He was looking to forge some connection with his past and find his place in the world, but Nucky rejected him. At the moment of realizing that he's completely lost, Tommy kills him. I don't believe Tommy planned on killing Nucky until the moment he pulled the gun out.

 

While that might be a kind of thin motivation, I think it fits. It's not too hard to fill in the blanks on how Tommy would become a supremely messed up, desperate kid.

 

ETA: For what it's worth, in post-mortem interviews Winter seems to be implying that Tommy knew that Nucky killed Jimmy. Depending on how much stock you put in authorial intent, this might be meaningful.

Edited October 27, 2014 by alynch

[HumblePi]

One small note since no stone went unturned with this finale is when Nucky and Margaret are having their last dance in the highrise apartment building The Eldorado. I think that Nucky was planning to scoop up this apartment if not more than one, because the price was dirt-cheap at that time. Perfect location for his new endeavors whatever they might be. At the time of this dance in the empty apartment, the El Dorado only had eight stories.This is straight out of Wiki:

The name is an inheritance from the former El Dorado, a luxury elevator eight-story apartment block of 1902 that formerly occupied the full block-front site.

The stock market crash that followed the beginning of construction eventually overwhelmed its financing and by 1931 the building was in foreclosure and the builder, Louis Klosk, a Bronx-based developer, lost it. It opened, reorganized under the Central Park Plaza Corporation. Early tenants included New York Senator Royal Copeland and the prominent rabbi of Reform Judaism Dr. Stephen S. Wise and Barney Pressman, founder of Barneys New York, the retail clothing store. More recent apartment owners have been Alec Baldwin, Faye Dunaway, Moby, Garrison Keillor, Tuesday Weld and Michael J. Fox. Author Sinclair Lewis chose a tower apartment in this building because it had views which encompassed all the bridges of the city at that time. The building was also the fictional address of Marjorie Morningstar, the heroine of Herman Wouk's 1955 novel.

[Latverian Diplomat]

The flashbacks were specifically designed to give more insight into how Nucky arrived at a place where he did what he did to Gillian, an action were were aware of season 1.  There was a very strong focus here and it was about when Nucky really died.

 

Yes, but this episode in particular was too easy on Nucky. By making the betrayal of Gillian the key to getting the sheriff's job, it made the dilemma a little too stark and simple. I preferred the season one impression that Nucky got ahead by doing a ton of corrupt deals and vile procurement, and that what he did to Gillian may have been the worst, the thing that haunted him, but I'd prefer to think it happened on just another day at the office. Gillian was an emblem, a nadir, but not a turning point.

 

IMHO, it doesn't always pay to explore an interesting back story with explicit flashbacks, and this episode is an example. The temptation to boil the course of someone's past to the ONE KEY MOMENT that looks good on TV is just too tempting.

 

That's not to say the flashbacks weren't well executed (the casting and acting was tremendous) but the narrative arc ended up in a very hokey, cliched place.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Latverian Diplomat

[Neurochick]

I think Tommy became estranged from his surrogate family when he only got vague answers when asking about his past and real family. His parents are people he can barely remember and his grandmother is probably the only person he has specific memories of, so he decided to seek out Nucky, a man whose name he must've overheard many times when he was a child. He was looking to forge some connection with his past and find his place in the world, but Nucky rejected him. At the moment of realizing that he's completely lost, Tommy kills him. I don't believe Tommy planned on killing Nucky until the moment he pulled the gun out.

While that might be a kind of thin motivation, I think it fits. It's not too hard to fill in the blanks on how Tommy would become a supremely messed up, desperate kid.

 

 

Reading this, I have to agree; it was just ironic that Tommy killed Nucky, not out of revenge but just because he was rejected by him.  That makes sense.  Tommy lost his father and his father figure (Richard).  He probably would have been okay had Richard lived.

 

Oh, and shit, I forgot why the episode was called Eldorado.  Two of my friends in elementary school lived in the Eldorado.  

[NutMeg]

On Nucky's tomb, the epitaph shoud be "The road to hell is paved with good intentions".

 

Nucky is also a very tragic character - as is his brother and the whole Darmody family.

 

I find Mabel's words, as quoted by Gilian, very relevant - "he wants to do good but he doesn't know how".

 

If Nucky wanted to get ahead, I don't think initially it was for himself, but for his family - sister he could have saved, or he imagined as a kid he could have, if he had more powers (including money but not only), mother to save from brutish father, brother, as attested by another insightful quote: Eli: "Why are you always the smart one", Nucky: "because you need me to be" [quoting from memory, so might be a bit off]. Then later there's Mabel to add to the list of people he wants to get ahead for, plus the future family they plan to have. And that's when the need to get ahead become so strong that it overpowers everything else, even the reason why he wanted to get ahead in the first place.

 

From what we saw in this final episode, I guess that Mabel's depression (talked about in previous season, 1 and/or 2 maybe) was not only caused by losing her baby but by her growing disappointment in seeing the man she had loved become more and more distant from who she fell in love with. Very soon after the flashbacks, she may have stopped thinking he wanted to do good.

 

Anyway, while I could see Nucky's death coming from a few episodes now, I'm not very happy with the Darmody ex machina at the last minute. But kudos to those who called it.

 

The scenes with Capone were very powerful. Scene with son, I was misty eyed. Scene in the car, excellent, Capone as a celebrity getting ready for the papparazzi, but very tense and scared, then Capone the star in the limelight, playing "Capone", followed by Capone acknowledging it's not going to be smooth sailing, but still that exchange of what - salutations? acknowledgements of each other? - was awesomely done.

 

Many, many other things to say, some in regards to the big picture (I'm still not sure what I feel about this ending - fitting but somehow lacklustre?), some concerning small details (was  Kennedy hitting on Margaret there and impressed when she blew him off?), some about the whole season (if/when I watch again, I'm going to take a greater sadistic pleasure watching the Commodore be slapped by Gillian/poisoned by his maid and despised by all). So will probably be back after I process it a bit.

[Pickles Aplenty]

How did Tommy know that Mickey Doyle would be looking for people to work for Nucky that night, at that specific location?  If he sought out Nucky just to see what kind of person he was, without any kind of revenge in mind, why didn't he just knock on his front door and ask for a job?  That's the one thing that doesn't make any sense to me.  I can believe that Tommy remembered Gillian talking about Nucky from long ago, and I can believe that having yet another father figure "leave" him was enough to send him over the edge, but why hang out in Atlantic City and wait for some dude to ask if anyone wants to work for someone who may or may not be the most powerful man in the city?  The intro to the character doesn't make any sense, but whatever.  I guess TPTB had to introduce him in a way that wasn't anvilicious.

 

Anyway, I'm not sure how I feel about this finale.  I liked the fact that Eli and Margaret got out alive, especially since I was sure Eli would bite it at some point.  I felt bad for Gillian even though she did a lot of horrible things, herself.  I assume she had a hysterectomy in the asylum, since doctors back in ye olden days thought women suffered from "hysteria" thanks to their lady parts, but I could be wrong.  That's just my best guess.  Her final line about graciousness still being in the world actually made me tear up.  Even as a rough-around-the-edges kid, Gillian always wanted to be a lady.

 

 

Yes, but this episode in particular was too easy on Nucky. By making the betrayal of Gillian the key to getting the sheriff's job, it made the dilemma a little too stark and simple. I preferred the season one impression that Nucky got ahead by doing a ton of corrupt deals and vile procurement, and that he did to Gillian may have been the worst, the thing that haunted him, but I'd prefer to think it happened on just another day at the office. Gillian was an emblem, a nadir, but not a turning point.

I agree.  I think the season one impression made both characters more complex and interesting, and while the flashbacks this season were beautifully done, I don't think they added much to the show itself, TBH.  Re-watching the first couple of seasons will make it very different.

[SouthernGent]

I was left at the ends with some 'huh' moments. Whatever happened to Mable for instance. We assume she died so I'll just have to make it up in my mind that she died following the miscarriage by some infection since she refused to see a doctor. The "mishap" passed quickly and I took care of it, it's not a baby, just a mishap". Was Mable mentally slow or what? The woman just always seemed to be simple-minded and not in touch  with reality.

 

Nucky detailed Mabel's death at the end of Season 1. She had a baby boy, he died soon after birth, she went into "melancholia", Nucky was too busy with work to pay attention, she slit her wrists with his razor.

[kay1864]

I'm wondering since Margaret is still his wife if she'll get the money, or if the IRS will put a lien on that two million he made.  

 

Tax rate from 1925 to 1932 was 25%--so she'll still get about a million and a half (over $22 million in today's dollars)

[3 is enough]

I don't know, the whole Tommy scenario just seems messy to me. First of all, the playing fast and loose with the timeline.  No way that was a 14 year old kid.  And are they implying that Gillian told young Tommy that Nucky killed his father?  I have been trying to remember if Tommy saw or heard anything around the time Jimmy was killed. 

Other than that major flaw, it was a really good finale.  Just wish Eli had reunited with June.

[terrymct]

Oh, and shit, I forgot why the episode was called Eldorado.  Two of my friends in elementary school lived in the Eldorado.  

 

I think it was also because Nucky was chasing that gold coin in the water all of his life.

[NutMeg]

We should have threads for all characters so that we can discuss then ad nauseam - starting with Nucky and Eli :-)

 

Of course I'm assuming there'll be a lot of us mourning the show and wanting to extend the pleasure of discussion, but if there are no takers, I'll be ok haunting this last episode thread :-)

[Avaleigh]

There were a lot of things that worked for me and a lot of things that felt disappointing. 

 

I loved all of the scenes with Al. I was feeling pretty done with the character after the empire state/Gyp Rosetti moment he had a few episodes back, but the scene with his son was really well done and I even liked the scene with the lawyer. You could tell he really just doesn't get it at first and then the slow realization comes that he's just not getting out of it. Loved too the wise guys laughing about how they'll all have to make sure to pay their taxes from now on. 

 

I really enjoyed the scene with Margaret and Kennedy and would have loved a full season of this sort of thing. I would have even been fine with seeing a brief affair with Joe. They finally find an interesting story for Margaret and we only get about three episodes worth of it. Oh well. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

 

I liked Margaret and Nucky's little dance.

 

I was glad that Narcisse was killed but hated that it seems like he's going to be remembered as some sort of martyr by the community while Chalky has probably already been forgotten. Chalky was the guy who knew the names of his men and their wives, whether or not they had children; he'd give people money for medical reasons and all sorts of other things as we learned in that jail scene long ago but now Narcisse is the one who is probably going to be remembered because a bunch of people saw him being executed by some anonymous (white) men in front of a church.

 

I liked the fake out of Nucky taking a swim. I fell for it for awhile anyway until the scene with Eli where he mentions it.

 

I wasn't happy with the Nucky Eli parting. I can understand why they wouldn't be close but to sever contact completely after everything they've been through together was disappointing. I understand it from Nucky's end to a point but since Nucky was fond of Eli and June's kids, why not maybe want to keep up a holiday-ish type relationship? I know it's a minor thing in the grand scheme of the episode but I wish things had ended in a better way for the Thompson brothers. Still, I was happy that Nucky gave Eli money.

 

I like that the kid turned out to be Tommy but I thought they could have done a much better job of setting it up and giving us an idea of what he does and doesn't know. For example, what does he think happened to Angela? Could he have gotten certain things confused somehow and actually blamed Nucky for a list of things? What if he overheard Richard saying something one time or what if Richard told Julia about a bunch of things and she told Tommy in a moment of frustration or because he continued to insist and she decided that maybe he had the right to know after all? I feel like they should have answered a few more questions for it to feel like a real pay off. I did though appreciate that this was a problem that Nucky couldn't buy his way out of. One of Nucky's many problems has always been that he thinks money is the answer to everything. Finally we have a character who is flatly telling him otherwise.

 

Rather than getting that scene with the "Lady from the Future" they should have spent more time setting up the Tommy reveal IMO.

 

No mention of Jimmy whatsoever? Too true that Michael Pitt must have done a real number over there in terms of unprofessional douchebaggery. Now that all has been said and done I still feel that Jimmy was killed off prematurely and should have at least been around for 3 seasons since he really brought a lot of storylines and characters together and even in the series finale I sort of felt that absence. Ideally if we'd had a 12 episode season as usual I think I would have liked to have seen some flashbacks of Nucky with Jimmy as a young boy and Gillian in her late teens/early twenties. One of the things that stood out to me was that Nucky swore he'd always take care of Gillian and I don't think he kept his word at all. 

 

It was hard to believe that Nucky would want to prove himself to a man like the Commodore when the Commodore was always such an asshole to him. 

 

I absolutely cringed during the scene of the schoolgirls singing. It just shows what an awful man the Commodore is that he can with his presence completely pervert what would otherwise be a perfectly innocent scene. Ugh.

 

I thought Gillian's final scene was kind of a letdown. Nucky still wouldn't really take responsibility and the dialogue for her was mostly wasted IMO. I guess her spirit and desire to want to get out are gone now but I'm not sure. I'm not sure if she ever told Tommy anything about Jimmy but I don't feel like the show really gave us any sort of indication that what's ended up happening.

 

I put this right in the middle as far as finales go. Better than The Sopranos, *way* better than Dexter, but not quite as good as Six Feet Under and definitely not as good as Breaking Bad. 

 

Rothstein/Stuhlbarg wasn't in every episode during seasons 1-4 but wow was he missed this season. I so wish this show has been allowed the two full seasons they'd been expecting so that they could properly close things out. It's too bad because for me this could have been one of the great shows. It still is one of the great ones in a way, when it was good it was very good, but ultimately it fell short. It's too bad. It got short changed the way that Deadwood and Rome did.

[NutMeg]

Avaleigh, I wrote a long post then hit a wrong key and it got lost.

 

Basically, I agree with all you post, but with the Tommy reveal - althought I like 

Could he have gotten certain things confused somehow and actually blamed Nucky for a list of things? What if he overheard Richard saying something one time or what if Richard told Julia about a bunch of things and she told Tommy in a moment of frustration or because he continued to insist and she decided that maybe he had the right to know after all?

 

and while he's the embodiment of karma here, it doesn't make sense that he's to act on Mima's hearsay (Mima that he didn't even recognize when she came to give him Jimmy's army plaques and who we've seen talking to him about his dad, often, but never about Nucky). 

[ChipBach]

I don't know, the whole Tommy scenario just seems messy to me. First of all, the playing fast and loose with the timeline.  No way that was a 14 year old kid.  And are they implying that Gillian told young Tommy that Nucky killed his father?  I have been trying to remember if Tommy saw or heard anything around the time Jimmy was killed. 

Other than that major flaw, it was a really good finale.  Just wish Eli had reunited with June.

I with ya...  I don't believe the lady Richard left Tommy with would have allowed correspondence with the murdering, drug addled grandmother.  Especially at 14 years old.  I was disappointed with the finale.  Why not keep Nucky's story closer to the true Enoch Johnson?  Prison followed by being poor would have been a very apropos  ending for him.  And let the Tommy story end with him winding up with a great windfall of money from an unknown benefactor instead of jail...

[kay1864]

Gretchen Mol played that scene perfect. Just vacant enough to tell us that she was no longer all there 

Why was she no longer there?  Just recently Gillian was talking to the doctor about getting out, and appeared completely lucid (as she did in the bath scene and others).  Yes, she's been much more submissive than Gillian the powerful madam, but not out-of-it crazy.  Is it that the hysterectomy made her realize she was never getting out, and that pushed her over the edge?

Edited October 27, 2014 by kay1864

[terrymct]

I was glad that Narcisse was killed but hated that it seems like he's going to be remembered as some sort of martyr by the community while Chalky has probably already been forgotten. Chalky was the guy who knew the names of his men and their wives, whether or not they had children; he'd give people money for medical reasons and all sorts of other things as we learned in that jail scene long ago but now Narcisse is the one who is probably going to be remembered because a bunch of people saw him being executed by some anonymous (white) men in front of a church.

 

 

This is what bugged me about the whole Chalky-Daughter arc.  From the beginning, Chalky was built up as a man who loved and took care of his family by whatever means necessary.   He throws all that away after basically watching Daughter sing for the first time.   Head over heels in love, willing to risk everything for her.   I could buy that from other characters, but not Chalky.  He was much more realistic than many of the others and knew what was important to him.  His common sense and love of family and community all disappeared after meeting a pretty woman.   I never understood why Daughter was the person he'd throw his life away over, rather than any of the many pretty women he must have met over the years.   I don't know why Chalky would totally abandon his values and loves for her.    

 

Shooting Narcisse on the street was a quick way to get rid of him without dedicating more of the last episode to him.  That I can appreciate.

[kay1864]

$2100 is a lot of money right now, and I can only imagine how much it was back in those days.  

About $32,000 today.  He probably could have bought Gillian's release with that kind of money.

Edited October 27, 2014 by kay1864

[NutMeg]

About $32,000 today.  He probably could have bought Gillian's release with that kind of money.

 

Even more proof that he wasn't steered by [the current time] Gillian.

 

(Edited for typo)

Edited October 28, 2014 by NutMeg

[Neurochick]

Shooting Narcisse on the street was a quick way to get rid of him without dedicating more of the last episode to him.  That I can appreciate.

 

 

True, and Narcisse will be remembered as a martyr for about five minutes, until his men start talking about what a creep he was.  

[RealityGal]

This is what bugged me about the whole Chalky-Daughter arc.  From the beginning, Chalky was built up as a man who loved and took care of his family by whatever means necessary.   He throws all that away after basically watching Daughter sing for the first time.   Head over heels in love, willing to risk everything for her.   I could buy that from other characters, but not Chalky.  He was much more realistic than many of the others and knew what was important to him.  His common sense and love of family and community all disappeared after meeting a pretty woman.   I never understood why Daughter was the person he'd throw his life away over, rather than any of the many pretty women he must have met over the years.   I don't know why Chalky would totally abandon his values and loves for her.    

 

Shooting Narcisse on the street was a quick way to get rid of him without dedicating more of the last episode to him.  That I can appreciate.

 

The thing about Chalky is, I never thought he felt comfortable in his family life.  He always seemed to feel like the family was what he should want, and it should have fulfilled him, but it didn't.  I don't know if it was all about Daughter, or just about Chalky hoping that this is what would finally make him happy.  He always seemed like a cat on a hot tin roof with his family, just out of place.  I remember him fighting with his wife over him not being good enough or something like that, and it always just stuck with me that he wanted to be a good family man, he wanted to want that, but he just didn't.  I don't think that diminished his love for his daughter at all.  I just think he wasn't happy.  I think Daughter may have represented another dream for him.

[terrymct]

The thing about Chalky is, I never thought he felt comfortable in his family life.  He always seemed to feel like the family was what he should want, and it should have fulfilled him, but it didn't.  I don't know if it was all about Daughter, or just about Chalky hoping that this is what would finally make him happy.  He always seemed like a cat on a hot tin roof with his family, just out of place.  I remember him fighting with his wife over him not being good enough or something like that, and it always just stuck with me that he wanted to be a good family man, he wanted to want that, but he just didn't.  I don't think that diminished his love for his daughter at all.  I just think he wasn't happy.  I think Daughter may have represented another dream for him.

 

 

It also bothered me that his last thought was of Daughter and not Maybelle.

[HumblePi]

 

 

Nucky detailed Mabel's death at the end of Season 1. She had a baby boy, he died soon after birth, she went into "melancholia", Nucky was too busy with work to pay attention, she slit her wrists with his razor.

 

Oh thank you for the information. Now I can put my mind at rest about Mabel. She and Nucky were like a crazy busy couple, she was crazy and he was busy.

[Neurochick]

This is what bugged me about the whole Chalky-Daughter arc.  From the beginning, Chalky was built up as a man who loved and took care of his family by whatever means necessary.   He throws all that away after basically watching Daughter sing for the first time.   Head over heels in love, willing to risk everything for her.   I could buy that from other characters, but not Chalky.  He was much more realistic than many of the others and knew what was important to him.

 

 

One thing I have learned in life is that anybody is capable of anything.  People who are happily married have affairs, people who you never thought would divorce do, people you thought had it all together, get on drugs.  

 

I never felt that Chalky really wanted to be a family man.  I think Chalky thought being a family man would make him more respectable, but having a family wasn't something Chalky was really into.  I think he loved his children, but being married, not so much?

[BusyOctober]

I don't think Tommy had any contact with Gillian once he was taken to Wisconsin to live with Richard's family.  I think he was extremely affected by all the violence he witnessed as a little boy and he was smothered by Gillian and raised by her til he was 4 or 5.  Gillian had a big presence in his young life and I don't think he ever forgot her or the love & attention she showered on him.    Gillian always lived in a fantasy and used super extra strength Clorox to whitewash her past.  She probably told Tommy great, happy, quasi-fairy tale stories about her lavish life, Jimmy, his smart, handsome, brave soldier daddy, and the powerful men she knew.  I don't think Tommy wouldn't have forgotten any of those stories once he went west. I think hard times hit the farm.  Maybe Richard's girlfriend married and he didn't like the step-dad.  Maybe Richard's sister died.  He had no family except the ghost memories he had from Grandma's stories.  So, it's the Depression but he remembers he came from AC & his grandma knew rich & powerful men there, so he heads out to find Nucky and get a job.  I don't think he had any plans for revenge, nor do I think he visited Gillian in the asylum and she directed the hit.  I think Tommy was just looking to belong to a family and earn some cash. When Nucky tried to dismiss him with money & said to get lost, I think Tommy lost it in that moment and lashed out.  He had no family and the nearest person he remembered from childhood was denying him closeness and sense of belonging. I do think it's karmic justice that Tommy took down the man who initiated his family's long and depressing spiral of sadness.

Edited October 27, 2014 by BusyOctober

[HumblePi]

There was just too much that I had overlooked last night watching this last episode, so I watched it again. There's so much packed into this episode, it should win an award for Eldorado on it's own merit. Two of the little things I missed;

 

When the Commodore and his assistant were speaking together on the porch, as young Nucky was approaching to ask for the position of Sheriff, I hadn't heard what the two men were talking about. But today, I clearly understood that they were talking about buying off the parents of one of the little girls that the Commodore had used to keep them silent. The conversation went like this; Assistant: "we're not ceding anything, it can be handled expeditiously?" Commodore: "there's a problem we should be able to make go away. what's your suggestion?" Assistant: "$2000 should settle it" Commodore: "$1200 they can take it or leave it". Then a group of little girls all dressed up in their finest come with their teacher to recite some poetry for the Commodore. His lecherous face beams and I think I saw him salivating looking down at their little faces. Nucky watches this with distaste.

 

Then there was Nucky staring at the miraculous vision of a primitive television. He was speechless and at that moment I thought he knew for sure that his time was in the past and he won't be a part of the future.

[Psalm11]

Hmmm....Just not satisfied with that ending. Not after 4 seasons of exemplary writing, production and direction.
Here's what bugs me most:
     The Tommy Solution:  Contrived and "graspy" (as in straws); I thought it dishonored Richard, Julia, Jimmy and the artsy mother (I forget her name) 
     The Gillian Confusion:  I kinda feel like the writers read about women back in the day being treated for hysteria thru        unnecessary surgery and they said "Yeah, let's go with that"
     The Nucky Conclusion:  We all knew he was gonna get it, but I think rendering him poor and powerless and then dying (maybe by his own hand)  would have been more apropos and interesting
      The Young Sheriff Enoch Actor Selection:  Sorry, guys, but I think I'm the only one who DID NOT LIKE the choice of actor;  no judgment or criticism on him personally, but I thought he was awful.  What really bugged me more than anything was his height, or lack of... the guy was a shrimp...and I'm not gonna even mention the teeth.  He reminded me of a Keystone Cop. Most scenes with him I found cringe-worthy, except for the last one with young Gillian...good bit of acting there.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Psalm11

[arachne]

 

I do think it's karmic justice that Tommy took down the man who initiated his family's long and depressing spiral of sadness.

 

Just keep in mind that without Nucky's procurement, Jimmy Darmody -- and hence, Tommy Darmody -- would never have existed in the first place. I'm not saying what Nucky did was right, only that this kind of thing is never simple.

[Neurochick]

The Tommy Solution:  Contrived and "graspy" (as in straws); I thought it dishonored Richard, Julia, Jimmy and the artsy mother (I forget her name)

 

 

I don't think what happened to Tommy dishonored Richard.  It might have if Tommy actually went back to the farm to live with Richard and Richard actually raised him; but I think Tommy was deeply affected by Richard's disappearance/death.  Richard was Tommy's father and best friend rolled into one.  Interesting that Tommy never seemed to mind Richard's mask.  Maybe Tommy stopped talking again on the farm when Richard never came back.  

[BusyOctober]

exactly my point arachne.  Without Nucky pimping out Gillian, there would be no Jimmy, no Tommy, no Jimmy or Jimmy Look Alike murders, no Gillian's downfall,  no Richard making the sacrifice to save Tommy, and so on.  Two-thirds of the Darmody clan wouldn't have existed and they wouldn't have lead the sad violence-filled lives they did.

[monakane]

I think if Nucky had let Gillian stay at the house with Mabel, everything would have been different. Mabel would have had someone there to help her and be a companion to her following her loss and Gillian would not have been raped. Nucky might have become an honorable man. I was cringing when he took Gillian's hand. That was the moment when he sold his soul to the devil.

[hincandenza]

So, it's the Depression but he remembers he came from AC & his grandma knew rich & powerful men there, so he heads out to find Nucky and get a job.  I don't think he had any plans for revenge, nor do I think he visited Gillian in the asylum and she directed the hit.  I think Tommy was just looking to belong to a family and earn some cash. When Nucky tried to dismiss him with money & said to get lost, I think Tommy lost it in that moment and lashed out.  He had no family and the nearest person he remembered from childhood was denying him closeness and sense of belonging. I do think it's karmic justice that Tommy took down the man who initiated his family's long and depressing spiral of sadness.

 

The thing that just doesn't work for me on that- if that was the writer's intention- is that Tommy never actually told Nucky who he was, so how could he feel like he was being rejected by him, unless he was completely insane and narcissistic?  He only even met Nucky because he happened to be at some random hobo hangout and convinced Mickey Doyle to give him a job unloading booze, and turned that into a gig at the club.  At no time until just as he was shot did Nucky even know it was Tommy.

 

I'm not saying you're wrong by the way- just that even after a night's sleep, none of our various fan theories can seem to mesh with what we were shown.  Tommy's direct experience with Nucky was the polar opposite of someone you'd think was a horrible person.  Nucky was obscenely generous to Tommy, a random boy he barely knew; someone above did the math and he effectively tossed Tommy about $32,000 "severance" after what couldn't have been more than maybe a couple of months of employment as a lowly menial laborer.  What about Nucky's generosity to him as a near-stranger would would confirm in Tommy's mind that Nucky was some horrible bad guy as the stories he'd heard, and push him over the edge? 

 

Plus, the writers never laid the groundwork on what he would believe or know.  Richard doesn't seem like he'd tell a little kid he adored the details about Jimmy's death (Richard even felt it was not unjust; Jimmy had brought it on himself with his ambitions anyway), Julia would have zero actual knowledge to share, and Gillian would have had no contact with him in 7 years except maybe a few letters in the past few weeks.

 

If John Steinbeck had written that last episode, Tommy would instead walk away going "My god, adoptive mom/crazy grandma/long dead Richard must have been wrong, that Nucky Thompson is a great man, a goddamn living saint in these desperate times!"

 

Eh, the more I think of it, the more this doesn't work.  But I still very much enjoyed the ride for 5 seasons, this was a beautifully filmed and acted show.

Edited October 27, 2014 by hincandenza

[BensBritches]

I think Tommy was just looking to belong to a family and earn some cash. When Nucky tried to dismiss him with money & said to get lost, I think Tommy lost it in that moment and lashed out.  He had no family and the nearest person he remembered from childhood was denying him closeness and sense of belonging. I do think it's karmic justice that Tommy took down the man who initiated his family's long and depressing spiral of sadness.

 

I suppose this makes some sense, but why did Tommy come to Nucky under an alias?  If he was trying to reconnect with family, or find a family, why not admit who he was?  What did he think or expect Nucky to do  to help an "unknown" 14 year old, beyond offering him up money when he couldn't use his services anymore?   

 

Because Tommy hid his true identity from Nucky, there has to be more to the story... there has to be a reason he didn't just show up and say, "Hey, I'm Tommy, you knew my Dad, you knew my Grandma, my surrogate Dad worked for you- can you help me?" 

 

How do we think Nucky would have reacted if he had known the boy was actually Tommy? Would he have done anything differently? 

 

Edited to add: Oops, hincandenza said it better... that's what I meant!!!

Edited October 27, 2014 by BensBritches

[A Boston Gal]

I've read all the comments here, and gone back and forth over and over, trying to decide whether I "liked" this ending or not. I think I can safely say that what we saw, no matter all its good points, didn't do the entire series justice. But, as a season capper to the eight episodes, I think it did a solid A - / B +.

 

Specifically, I enjoyed the "glimpse into the future"; the knowledge that Margaret will - probably - be okay; and Narcisse getting his in public.  ("What are we gonna do about our 'friend'?" was a terrifically placed ambiguous clue, as we couldn't quite tell who the mobsters were talking about...could've been Nucky for all we knew.)  I also enjoyed Capone's scene with his son, because  we saw that he had come to terms with, and accepted, his son's disabilty (he even had learned a bit of sign language! Who'duv thunk??)  In turn, his son could not have been more loyal, wanting to help his dad, no matter what the consequences.

 

As far as Tommy goes, I agree with those who theorize that Tommy didn't go to AC with the intent of killing Nucky; he just wanted to find out more about his past (I don't care what the showrunners say in this case. ;) ) I also agree that if Nucky was willing, Tommy would have stayed with him indefinitely, although who knows when he would have revealed himself.

 

But what struck me most about this finale  was the almost inhuman stress Nucky faced the day he handed Gillian over to the Commodore. Mable miscarries, Dad beats up Mom once again and Nucky realizes Dad will always be a danger to those he loves, Gillian runs away (to be spotted soon thereafter), and Nucky gets cruelly and unjustly taunted and fired by the vile criminal who runs Atlantic City. That's it; game over. But wait...what's this..? A sheriff's badge...?

 

Yes, he should have grabbed Gillian and Mabel and split town, but he didn't. If he had, it would have been a very different series. Handing Gillian over was Nucky's Original Sin, and he paid for it emotionally for the entire run of the show, and eventually, with his life.

Edited October 27, 2014 by A Boston Gal

[Growsonwalls]

Here's something I'm thinking about: I think what Nucky did to Gillian was absolutely wrong and unconscionable, and considering its horrifying spiral effects, the show was right to devote so much time to the storyline. However, in 1909, would Nucky's actions have been seen by society (and thus Nucky) as THAT bad? Remember Gillian was an orphan -- I know that back in the 'good old days' abandoned children were considered to be born of sin, and the age of consent for sexuality didn't really exist in a very clearcut level. There was also this idea in Victorian times of "hypersexual" children, and considering that Gillian was rebellious, perhaps Nucky thought it would be a one-time "bad night" for Gillian but life would move on and he'd get his badge. 

 

Of course what he did was horrible, but I'm not sure he ever realized just how horrible it was. We all knew Nucky's views about women and their place were old-fashioned. We all knew that empathy didn't exist in Nucky's dictionary. The tragic thing to me about Nucky was that even when he saw Gillian dazed and desperate at the asylum, I'm not sure he ever really recognized his place in wrecking her life.

[dohe]

Yes, but this episode in particular was too easy on Nucky. By making the betrayal of Gillian the key to getting the sheriff's job, it made the dilemma a little too stark and simple. I preferred the season one impression that Nucky got ahead by doing a ton of corrupt deals and vile procurement, and that what he did to Gillian may have been the worst, the thing that haunted him, but I'd prefer to think it happened on just another day at the office. Gillian was an emblem, a nadir, but not a turning point.

 

IMHO, it doesn't always pay to explore an interesting back story with explicit flashbacks, and this episode is an example. The temptation to boil the course of someone's past to the ONE KEY MOMENT that looks good on TV is just too tempting.

 

That's not to say the flashbacks weren't well executed (the casting and acting was tremendous) but the narrative arc ended up in a very hokey, cliched place.

I couldn't disagree more.  There is something to be said for show over tell.  If people came away from last night's episode thinking anything besides Nucky committed an unforgivable act and got what he deserved than I am shocked.  I don't think the episode went easy on Nucky on at all.  I think probably more people came away disgusted with him than had ever been on the show.  We always knew that there was something different from anything else when it came to Gillian and Nucky.  I don't think anyone, after last night, was going I am bummed Nucky died.  Coming in to the season, yes.  Being confronted with that action, no. 

 

We knew the story.  But to watch what he did and how he had then spent the rest of his life continuing this cycle of the unspeakable followed by I am not so bad nonsense needed a moment.  And there are "stark and simple" moments when a decision mark the difference between two paths.  It can come at any time. An easy example is Joe Paterno not doing the right thing and therefore trashing his entire legacy.  Nucky wasn't perfect.  Nucky had already done something wrong when he did not attempt to arrest the Commodore when he saw the Commodore had abused that child. 

 

And while the desire may be for Gillian to be just an "emblem" or a "nadir", it is the turning point.  There are moments in life when people are given a choice and, yes, they can make all the difference. 

Edited October 27, 2014 by dohe

[Gudzilla]

Thank you hincandenza for saving me a lot of typing about the darmody ex machina situation, other than that I liked the finale.

 

So the whole "no one goes quietly" thing only applied to Van Alden.

 

Remus wants to know why no one misses Remus.

[Latverian Diplomat]

Tax rate from 1925 to 1932 was 25%--so she'll still get about a million and a half (over $22 million in today's dollars)

We have to presume the agents were there about unpaid taxes from previous years, not about the stock deal that just went down. Possibly something pointed to from Capone's ledgers? If that's so, then the estate would be liable for unpaid tax. It could be tied up for years and much diminished after all that.

 

I'm not super satisfied with that bit of the ending. Capone's tax problems were the result of a massive investigation with ledgers, witnesses, and a man who lived the most ostentatious lifestyle in Chicago. Nucky was too smart to make any of those mistakes.

 

Of course, the real life Nucky was smarter than both of them, he died in comfort in his old age. To see BE go with a "Crime doesn't pay" ending in not just one, but two respects, really bugged me.

 

ETA: Corrected below, the real Nucky went to prison for 4 years for tax evasion in 1941. He did live until 1968.

Edited October 28, 2014 by Latverian Diplomat

[Latverian Diplomat]

I couldn't disagree more.  There is something to be said for show over tell. 

Well they did both in this case, I just prefer the told version. It's a matter of taste. 

 

Ultimately every story has to tell some things, or else it has to begin at Creation. So, when a storyteller makes a conscious choice to revisit a piece of well-established backstory they succeed or fail by what they add or subtract in the second telling. Clearly I'm of the opinion that more was lost than gained. I prefer the version of Nucky who gradually sold himself piece by piece, and still thought of himself as a good man who who made some hard choices, but tried to minimize the damage (and the guilt) by looking after Gillian and Tommy. Boiling it all down to a 10 second, "I choose EVIL" moment on the boardwalk is a disservice to that rich backstory, IMHO.

[txhorns79]

Of course, the real life Nucky was smarter than both of them, he died in comfort in his old age. To see BE go with a "Crime doesn't pay" ending in not just one, but two respects, really bugged me.

 

The real life Nucky went to jail for tax evasion.  He may not have been a violent criminal like Capone or the fictional Nucky, but his choices weren't anything to write home about.  Though I would disagree that they went out with a "crime doesn't pay" message.  I saw the whole thing as being about choices.  Capone made bad choices.  Nucky made bad choices.  Nucky, at least, seemed to try to fix some of his bad choices, but he couldn't erase what he done.     

[Penman61]

Since TPTB felt free to reduce complex human behaviors to ONE CHOICE, a CROSSROADS with no turning back, I feel justified in doing the same for TPTB:

 

The tragic flaw in this season's conception is the 8-episode finale.  The main weaknesses--Tommy's underdeveloped motivation, Gillian's underdeveloped mental deterioration, loss of AR's story line, et al.--can be traced directly back to that fateful choice.  

 

I will now fantasize about what a 2-season wrap-up would have been like, with the show's typical nuanced, paced storytelling, punctuated of course by requisite gorebursts.  

 

Does anyone know for sure why Gillian was holding her abdomen, or are we just guessing?

 

Also, her "can't tell if it's a lady ladybug" was about the saddest metaphor for her own raped childhood I can imagine.  So desperately tragic.

Edited October 28, 2014 by Penman61

[hincandenza]

Does anyone know for sure why Gillian was holding her abdomen, or are we just guessing?

 

Also, her "can't tell if it's a lady ladybug" was about the saddest metaphor for her own raped childhood I can imagine.  So desperately tragic.

She had her uterus removed; it was foreshadowed in a previous episode when she saw another patient take off her shirt and show a huge scar across her belly and was informed it was removed as a hysterectomy to treat her "hysteria", then while at the end of the second-to-last episode when she was voicing over her letter to Nucky we saw her trying to escape through a door and looking scared, and finally confirmed this episode when she winced and grabbed her belly while trying to stand.

 

I don't think the "lady ladybug" was about her raped childhood, but about her now being no longer a "woman" because she's had her uterus forcibly removed.  It's like the last punishment her mind could take, and she's given up.  Hers is a tragic story, and I am glad it didn't get overlooked in the series, but in fact became a crucial and core part of the Judgment of Nucky.

Edited October 28, 2014 by hincandenza

[Latverian Diplomat]

The real life Nucky went to jail for tax evasion.  He may not have been a violent criminal like Capone or the fictional Nucky, but his choices weren't anything to write home about.  

I stand corrected. Though that wasn't until 1941. And I didn't say he was admirable, just smart enough to stay out of the kind of trouble fictional Nucky was always in. He was also gregarious and charismatic, unlike the dour Nucky portrayed in BE.