Boardwalk Empire Season 3 Episode 3



Margaret Schroeder Thompson

 It looks like Margaret has taken a few pages out of Nucky Thompson's play book. Not only did she wo-manhandle her way into a meeting with the Bishop of the Catholic Church, but she flawlessly led the Bishop and the Hospital Director into making plans for a women's prenatal clinic. If only this country had Margaret to arrange today's current women's health care education and coverage!

This certainly has been the season for tough guys needing support from strong women. Van Alden has the new Mrs. Mueller. Eli was welcomed home from a year in the slammer by his wife. Gillian picked up the business where the Commodore and Jimmy left off. And Nucky is so far gone he needs two women: Margaret to manage business and politics and Billie Kent for motherly comfort.

None of the men seem mentally stable these days, and there isn't any hope for Gyp Rossetti either. "Bon For Tuna" sends him into a fire-setting rage that will stoke the embers of a most assured head-to-head battle with Nucky. I wonder if we are going to get to see any back-story on Rossetti. What caused his mental wires to go loose?

The hot-headed, half-cocked nature of the men in Boardwalk Empire remind me of my  own father. Did he choose the bootleggers life? Or did he slip into it accidentally? Was he lured by the money? Or just the love of excitement? I’ll never know.

My father didn’t have a wife like Margaret; far from it. My mother was so traumatized by my father's murder she ran away turning into a flapper and party girl until she lost her money during the Great Depression. Then she went to work and raised my brother and me the best she could.