Hello, first time watcher here.

I am confused on the Luciano storyline from the end of season 3 episode 12

What does $100,000 mean? Did Rothstein or masseria take it all? How and why? I thought Luciano was close friends with rothstein, and who were those two “cops”? Did Luciano snitch?

Please no spoilers , I am barely starting season 4

First time watching this series! I’ve noticed sometimes Rosetti’s accent is more New York/Jersey (like Tony Soprano) and other times it sounds like his first language is Italian (like the first time he’s in the diner).

I know he is from Italy originally and his first language would’ve been Italian, but has anyone else noticed this and if so is there a reason he seems to sometimes turn the Italian on? Am I missing something where this is explained? I’ve watched all of season 3 but the finale.

Thanks!

So few shows have the profanity and specific dialects.

It’s crazy how quickly his mental health deteriorated at the end of season two right as he becomes like the “King” of A.C. Just shows how ready he was to take the mantle

The war in season 5 honestly feels like the writers didn't even know what they were doing.

First off, unlike season 3, were barely given any logistics or numbers, espically for Luciano's men. But it's obvious that Nucky has the advantage. Besides all the mercenaries and hitmen Nucky has (Shown in Devil You Know and Friendless Child), he also had maranzano on his side. Nucky clearly has the advantage, but the writers act like Luciano and Meyer have all the power.

For some reason at the start of Friendless Child the writers also imply that Maranzano isn't even retaliating back at Luciano (LIKE WHAT LOL)

The stand off in Friendless Child was also so stupid. Luciano and Meyer had so much plot armor it was insane. Realistically, as soon as Luciano fired a shot everyone would have just started killing each other. But they act like that they know they can't die lol. Their men even turned their backs to Nucky when they were leaving lol.

So I've finished the entire 5 season in 3 days , quite good storyline must say :)

Most lines have their sense,but one thing i can't figure out my self

In the last season, because Lucky Luciano came by Al Capone's house and saw Van Alden ,remind him of the old days ,which triggered the undercover feds in Al Capone's house awared who Van Alden really was, and this caused Eli and Alden were forced to steal the account book

So my question is : why the fuss?

1. Eli and Alden were already fucked and there was no way for these two man came back to normal life ,

2. considering what they've done and been these years , they shouldn't be afraid of feds (they were felony already , what they expect ? join witness protection ?) .

3. the account book is in Capone's HQ ,so why not just pretend to be cooperative, and once walk into the house just tell the rest they got a snitch problem? I assume this idea can't be worse than what they did?

Season 5 Episode 4 when Nucky and Margaret catch up over dinner, go over their history and discuss the Carolyn Rothstein problem. They get drunk and hang out on the boardwalk for a bit. At one point Margaret gets a little playful when asking Nucky about one of the adult themed theatres on the Boardwalk and he gets a little flustered.

Margaret says 'you're blushing' and when Nucky tries to deny it she says it again as if to say ' I know you too well, you can't deny it' with a playful grin on her face.

There's something about this back and forth that felt improvised, as in Kelly McDonald saw Steve's natural reaction and went along with it. In real life Kelly has a personality similar to Nucky (not a gangster obviously), she's very confident and playful. After 5 seasons of working together they clearly developed a good understanding of one another and this moment stood out to me as Kelly being out of character for a moment to tease Steve.

The director/editor decided to keep it in. It's these little moments that turn a good show into a great one.

Spoilers please don’t read below if you not seen season 2

In season 2, Nucky faced a lot of challenges and was betrayed by his close contacts what did he do to all his enemies in the end with the ones that were working with the commodore?

I'll give an example:

Eli 'I got 8 kids' Thompson

I wrote a lot of this in a comment already but I wanted to start a thread to get others opinion on just how evil Nucky is.

Nucky came from nothing and was willing to do anything to get ahead. He sold his soul to the devil. The Commodore is the living incarnation of the devil and there are tonnes of clues in S1, S2 and S5 pushing this idea. After losing his wife and child he had lost his entire life in addition to his moral grounding in the world, so he was willing to dive in headfirst to distract himself from his grief and trauma.

By season 3, the man is solidified as an evil, murderous mob boss who proves time and again he will use anyone and sacrifice anything in his quest to continue his headfirst nosedive. This is referred to heavily in the 4th and 5th seasons, where he talks about how he wants to stop but he feels the need to keep on going and making plans when he already has all the money and power he could ever want.

He spends his entire life doubling down on his decision to throw Gillian to the devil, trying to escape it. Meanwhile repeating his and her trauma by pitifully wanting to rescue different women e.g Margaret and Billie Kent in order to feel better about it in any way.

The product of his decision, his surrogate son Jimmy Darmody, deserves an entire thread on their relationship alone. There may have been the tiniest shred of redemption possible for Nucky until he made the decision to kill Jimmy.

Jimmy fell victim to the Commodore's (devil's) ensnaring trap in a very similar way to how Nucky did.

Nucky was pushed away and had his sheriff career taken from him, only to have it dangled back in front of him, only to be returned if he sold his soul to the commodore by betraying Gillian.

Likewise, Jimmy has his relationship with his father taken from him, only for it to be dangled back in front of him in return for him betraying his true father Nucky.

Nucky became one of the most powerful mobsters in the country as a result of his decision, but he could not forgive Jimmy for falling for the same evil tricks he did. The same decision he made which created Jimmy in the first place.

Overall, Nucky is one evil bastard who was a product of his environment and made the best/worst out of his terrible upbringing.

I am not sure how to word my thoughts here, but since it’s Reddit I’m going to give it my best! Just watched the final episode…. and there was the big part of me that felt bad for Nucky because he lost Atlantic City. However, I was happy that he had the stock $$$ to go start a new life somewhere….

Then came Gillian. The way I LOATHED this woman thru out the series…. But then you realize this poor kid never stood a chance. Watching Nucky a) wanting to return her to an orphanage, when she clearly would of taken care of herself but just needed a place to live b) turning a blind eye to a MONSTER and handing him Gillian. I obviously knew the story from previous seasons, but to see it in “real time” I can’t forgive Nucky. (And if deputy Nucky wasn’t the greatest casting of all time)

Richard Harrow said it best when Nucky asked him if his family was safe after jimmys death. Harrow said “Jimmy fought, and lost”. Pretty sure he meant Jimmy was a soldier and this was War. Everyone knew the risks.

Gillian was not a soldier. Gillian was TWELVE. She wanted to read books and wear pretty dresses. How many other girls did Nucky deliver into the Commodores “service”?

Series Finales are supposed to leave you wanting the characters to succeed and go on to live happy lives in this world you have been watching. I LOVED Nuckys character, but I look at his entire life now and knowing what he “built it” on…Good riddance.

Let’s not get this twisted however, Boardwalk Empire was some of the best TV I have ever watched. I would put it up with Mad Men, and nothing will ever beat Mad Men for me.

A talented foreign enforcer that falls in love with the bosses wife. I just described both of them with the same sentence.

Obviously there's differences like how Owen and Margaret actually confess their feelings and Owen dying but this whole story arc seemed like a worse version of the Furio Carmela storyline from season 4 of the sopranos.

Terrence Winter wrote "the weight" the first episode to show that Carmela wanted Furio and he also wrote "Eloise" which is the last episode with Furio. Was he just recycling ideas?

im currently watching it, at the scene where al capone is speaking with his son about doing time. anytime i read about big historical names, like napoleon or some former royal family, i'm curious about their descendants who live amongst us today. i find this on wikipedia:

"Capone married Mae Josephine Coughlin at age 19, on December 30, 1918. She was Irish Catholic and earlier that month had given birth to their son Albert Francis "Sonny" Capone (1918–2004). Albert lost most of his hearing in his left ear as a child. Capone was under the age of 21, and his parents had to consent in writing to the marriage.^([14]) By all accounts, the two had a happy marriage."

WHOA! thats a long damn time to be alive, but its not just about the age, but the eras that he lived through. this kid saw world war 2, all the way to the beginning of the iraq war in the early 2000s. it was cool how they showed the setting and characters adapting to new technology, like how nucky's early life had horse-drawn buggies and moved onto automobiles. how they dressed in that old paris fashion style, to sharp prohibition suits. i loved how they only had records as audio entertainment, A.R. talks about the future of wireless communication, and the later seasons have live radios become a thing. think about our world today, how it used to cost us money to send crude text messages, how the entire planet uses smartphones, how our infants can navigate an iPad, how we now have AI finally becoming prevalent and not just a sci-fi movie concept, and we don't bat an eye.

al capone's son lived through all of that... he lived through disco, 80's rock, 90s pop, commercial airliners, atom bombs, the space above filled with satellites, man-made probes physically reaching the edge of our solar system. fucking WILD.

who knows what crazy things are to come for the rest of us. let's hope life stays interesting

I knew it was coming honestly which is why i dragged the show out a whole year (i started in march of last year and got rlly fixated on it and wanted to make sure i dragged it out as long as possible) i cannot believe i cried over richard 😭 also i’m so glad theres an active subreddit for this show, i was starting to feel like i was the only one who watched it. RICHARDDDDD YOU DESERVED YOUR HAPPY ENDING but i suppose his narrative came full circle to fulfill jimmy’s own “haunting the narrative”.

Recently started this and already in S02. Attention to details is amazing and much appreciated. Kelly Macdonald (Margaret) sort of fits perfectly. She has a reaction for every line. Was thinking would be annoying in most other shows.

A bit bothered by fast pacing in S02 compared to S01. Although mostly excellently handled, some dialogs seem to be out of place. This one for example...Nucky trying to pacify Chalky's grievances. Always so political, surely calling an egotistical proud black man "good boy" is a no go. That's more Commodore's style. Don't see it coming from Nuck even in anger.

Also: Was it ever explained how Nelson was able to cover up the baptism murder so easily? He seemed to be resigning from the fear of discovery of his wrongdoing. Suddenly he is overseeing the new recruits in this episode. Wondered if they dropped a bit of his comeback story.

Watching S2E6 Age of Reason (18:45)

Right after Lucy goes into labor, Van Alden is in the hospital hallway waiting. He first stares at the infant the nurse is holding as she walks by, but eventually he looks down. I’m assuming he’s checkin the nurse out, cool little detail and Van Alden becomes slowly corrupted.

In S3E11 and E12, the two cops who were working for Rothstein tricked Luciano into believing that they were from the Magaddino family and came to NYC to buy heroin from him, then when they met him to buy 5 pounds, arrested him and intimidated him into giving up the other 45 pounds he had to avoid getting charged.

Sam Moceri pretends that he can't speak and shows Luciano a scar on his neck that his partner said he got in Italy for trying to steal someone's chickens or something like that.

What was the point of having him pretend he couldn't speak? I know Luciano had been working with Rothstein for a few years and might have known that he had dirty cops on the payroll, but if it was because Luciano might recognize his voice, he could have used another dirty cop, which there must have been plenty of during the first few years of Prohibition. Aside from the possibility that Luciano might recognize his voice, which didn't seem to be the case once the two started talking, is there any reason why he would pretend to be a mute?

After the scene in which Van Alden/George Mueller kills the three guys in the alley who he used to work with selling irons (“I am relaxed”), is there a separate scene later in the show in which he revisits the alley and the bodies are still there? Did I imagine that? Was it a deleted scene?

Back in my day we just had olive oil.

Are you at any point supposed to feel sympathy for Van Alden??? NOTHING goes this guys way. But then you remember he’s a murderer…. But then he has his “wife” and two adorable kids he just wants to provide for, and well…. We all saw how the iron Buisness went.

Such great casting for this character.

Edit- wrapping up season 5 and the pairing of Mueller and Eli…. Classic.

If he was not killed off in series 3, what do you think Nucky would have done if he found out about him getting Margaret pregnant & they both managed to run away ?

Boardwalk Empire S5Ep7 x The Sopranos Season 6

I watched BE when it first aired and loved it, rewatched it multiple times since. But it turns out my boyfriend has never watched it! He’s enjoying it, although it took him a minute to cotton onto that Gillian is Jimmy’s mom. He was definitely shocked, can’t wait to see his reaction to further revelations down the line!

When season three first aired, I really disliked it. It was such a tonal shift from the first two seasons, and I was missing Michael Pitt's presence. Over time though, it has become my favorite season. I think of it being what The Godfather Part III should have been if Coppola had executed it better. Nucky has become totally embittered by selling his soul to this business so it's interesting to watch him as both the villain and the main character. It's so much darker than the first two seasons and there's a general sinister atmosphere hanging over all the characters that add tension to their interactions, even while there are episodes that are just downright uneventful. Bobby Cannavale's completely unhinged Gyp Rosetti is also a surprise and the perfect counterbalance to Nucky. It's exactly where the series needed to go after what transpired in S2.

Currently re-watching Boardwalk Empire for the 3rd time and this little back and forth between Nucky and Eddie absolutely cracked me up.

"Eddie, why is this empty?" (referring to a decanter of Bourbon)

"Someone drank it..."

"You're cracking wise now?!"