Boardwalk Empire – Georgia Peaches

What to do when you’re caught in situations beyond your control? Pray? Pay? Create your own brand of justice? Limitations, both physical and situational have wreaked havoc on the residents of this little boardwalk town.

Margaret, desperate to have her little girl not become crippled by polio, goes to the only place she feels she can turn – her church. It was quite the stomach-turner to watch her priest guilt her into making a devotional by alluding to the possibility of a miracle. And Margaret falls for it! Yet, after giving all of her socked away money and new jewelry to the church, her daughter is still paralyzed. Margaret realizes that her prayers will go unanswered, and her priest used religion to not only take her money, but her hope as well. This may be the event that completely delivers her to the dark side.

Nucky is dealing with helplessness at home and in his public life. He cannot solve Margaret’s problem, nor can he make his legal troubles go away. Despite all of his bribing, payoffs, and efforts to deter attention from his illegal activities, Nucky’s trial for election tampering will soon commence, and he may have to serve jail time. Arnold Rothstein recommends the lawyer who is defending him for allegedly fixing the 1919 World Series. Even Nucky seems impressed with the sleaziness of this lawyer. Will more backwards dealings really help him to overcome this seemingly impossible situation? The way this story has unfolded so far, I suspect so. Until then, Atlantic City will continue to fall apart without his leadership.

As predicted, the African-American workers strike has brought the city to a standstill. Jimmy is ill-equipped to handle negotiations with Chalky White, so the strike drags on. His father, The Commodore, hindered by the affects of a stroke cannot even give his son advice. Their associates recommend strike breakers, but that approach only makes things worse. The demonstrators are only strengthened in their resolve. Would it be corny to say “strike one” on this issue being settled peacefully?

Poor Jimmy, not only can he not control the city, he cannot control his relationships. His failed assassination on Horovitz has manifested in the most unfortunate way. Despite Jimmy’s attempt to smooth things over by sending Horovitz cases of liquor, he fails to recognize the Yiddish butcher’s vengeful streak. This was a disturbing scene for me to watch, Horovitz murdering Jimmy’s wife and novelist female lover in cold blood. However, cold-blooded killing is nothing new in this series, it’s just usually Jimmy doing the killing. With the last two episodes of the season coming up, I fear the violence can only get worse from here.