Boardwalk Empire Season 3 Discussion

[DeeezNuuuts83]

We talked about season 2 a lot last year, but there hasn't been much talk about it, so I figured I'd bring it up again.  What do you think will happen in the last two episodes?

We just saw Owen's corpse, as he was killed trying to make his move on Masseria, who was likely tipped off by Luciano and Lansky.  It doesn't look like it was a setup on Nucky's part (though I'm curious what happened to the other guy who gave them the info on Masseria and took Owen to the steamroom), as Nucky wanted him to go with other people but Owen disagreed and preferred to do it on his own.  Nucky likely doesn't know what had been going on between Owen and Margaret, and I'm sure he was probably wondering why she got so emotional when seeing his body inside that wooden crate.  She was obviously far more bothered at that than she was when finding out that her husband had been killed early in the first season.  But she'll have some explaining to do, being prego with Owen's baby.

Since Masseria put Owen to bed, it's clear that he's aware of Nucky actually having made a move to eliminate him, despite Nucky's problems being with Gyp Rosetti and not Masseria.  But with Rothstein no longer backing Nucky's play while Luciano and Lansky are trying to form a business partnership with Masseria as well, Nucky's out-of-town alliances seem to be limited to just Torrio and Capone, and even they aren't shown to be behind him yet either, though Nucky did intend on sending Eli to Chicago to determine that.  The preview for episode 11 showed Rosetti's crew taking over Nucky's locations in Atlantic City while approaching Chalky to make his presence known while Nucky seems to be in hiding, trying to avoid them.  I'm sure that he'll still have Chalky's loyalty, but like at the end of the first season, he's going to have to give Chalky something in return, likely support to build that club that Chalky suggested to take the place of Babette's.

My guess is that Torrio and Capone will be on board (as the real Nucky and Capone were documented to have pretty good relations in the latter half of the 1920s, plus they were always on good terms since the first episode), but if they bring their crew to Atlantic City, that might force Van Alden to return, since in the last episode he pretty much had to switch his allegiance to Capone after having been busted selling booze in his territory while being identified as working for his competitor in Chicago.

The show does follow a lot of stuff historically, and I was reading that Luciano fucks himself over because of a botched large-scale drug deal, which sounds like what he and Lansky have been up to, referencing potentially bringing in the large shipment of heroin for $100,000 which involved Masseria as a partner.  It supposedly hurt his reputation within the criminal world, which prompted him to reach out to Rothstein for advice, which was for Luciano to save his reputation by making up for it through the distribution of tickets to the Dempsey-Firpo boxing match to a lot of key people involved in the underworld.  That fight took place in September 1923 -- the same year as this season.  So maybe we'll see a little bit of that too.

Also, I'm guessing that Richard Harrow will end up on Nucky's team, considering the recent opening along with Richard seemingly having problems with his current "employer" and wanting to really look after Jimmy's son's welfare while pursuing that girl he's been seeing.

[krzieg]

Well put. I agree with you.

Richard is a gee and I can see him playing an important role in the next season.

I can't wait for the showdown between Nucky & Rosetti. As for Margaret, Nucky should've off'd that bitch when she signed over all that land to the hospital/church.

[DeeezNuuuts83]

Well put. I agree with you.

Richard is a gee and I can see him playing an important role in the next season.

I can't wait for the showdown between Nucky & Rosetti. As for Margaret, Nucky should've off'd that bitch when she signed over all that land to the hospital/church.

Richard's character isn't likely to get killed off since he's well received while actually seeing his character develop, plus they just killed off Owen, which doesn't leave many regular characters at this point.  He had already made it clear to Nucky that he didn't have beef with him ("Your family was good to me"), but we'll see if the situation involving Jimmy ends up coming to light.  I think he'd be a much more effective right-hand man than Owen, who was always plagued with caving in to his desires, as he had always made gestures toward Margaret while treating Katie basically like a bottom bitch.  Richard has no vices, he just does his job and only desires the life of a family man, which doesn't make him fall victim to greed since his wants are just regular things and not the amassing of large quantities of anything (i.e. money or women).

The Rosetti situation is going to be a little unpredictable since he wasn't a real character in history, but rest assured he will not be going down until the last episode of the season.  Considering his manpower and overtaking of Atlantic City in the next episode, Masseria clearly hasn't withdrawn his backing of Rosetti.  For that to happen, Rosetti will pretty much have to really fumble things again.

Obviously Luciano and Lansky (who are both trying to get in bed with Masseria) were aware of Nucky's plans to make a move on Masseria while telling him about it as well, but I'm not certain if they were the ones to tip him off, especially since Luciano was only shown whispering into Masseria's ear and we don't know what he said.  The way Owen basically walked into a trap and got handled seemed like someone knew that there would be a hit that day... if Masseria was aware of an attempt but didn't know the exact moment, he'd have been accompanied by numerous guards, especially in a place like a steamroom where he is exposed to risk.

So who knew?  Nucky, Eli, Mickey, Owen and the federal agent on Nucky's payroll.  Like I said before, I don't see Nucky having done it, especially since the plan was more or less Owen's idea.  I don't see Eli double-crossing Nucky again, since he has no one else to choose over Nucky who has taken him back in, though he is the last remaining person other than Nucky to have witnessed Jimmy's shooting.  Mickey is a weasel who has been on both sides of the fence (remember that he was the one to supply info to Rothstein and the D'Alessio brothers when they made the attempt on his life toward the end of the first season), but he'd be too obvious of a mole.  We'll have to wait and see what happened to the federal agent since it was never revealed.

I agree that Nucky should've buried her for that, but remember that during the second season, she's been trying to cleanse herself of sin since she viewed her daughter's polio diagnosis as her fault.  Remember how she was giving all sorts of money to the church -- money that she had been skimming from Nucky -- in hopes of curing her daughter's polio.  But is he eventually going to regain ownership of that land?  Remember that he had mentioned before that a lot of his money had been invested in that, so it's not a small thing.

I'm wondering if this whole thing has been a big elaborate scheme, where Nucky and someone else (maybe Masseria or Rothstein) are faking their disagreements to weed certain people out and eventually kill them.  I have a hard time believing that Rothstein (a boss himself) and Luciano and Lansky (both ranking gangsters at the time) would forgive someone for almost killing them and just walk away from it.  Remember how Nucky bitchslapped Luciano in the first season?  Luciano clearly was pissed and jumped at Nucky, but Eli restrained him.  So for someone else to have set off a bomb that knocked his whole team on their ass with no repercussions is out of character.

[krzieg]

Can't wait for the finale.

[DeeezNuuuts83]

And juuuuust like I said, Luciano got busted from that botched drug deal.  Unless the fourth season is also going to be in 1923, I expect the finale to include the Jack Dempsey boxing match (which happened in September 1923) where Luciano buys a ton of tickets for it and gives them away to ranking gangsters to rebuild his tarnished reputation from the bust.  I'm guessing that as the boxing match occurs, the war between Nucky and Gyp will conclude, kind of like how at the end of The Godfather, the movie cuts back-and-forth between the baptism and Corleone's muscle eliminating his enemies.

I read a synopsis last night of the upcoming episode, and it talks about Nucky giving away one of his "most prized assets" to Rothstein to get him the upper hand, while Margaret "ends one relationship to resume an old relationship."  I'm wondering what the asset is... a person (maybe Eddie, who is fiercely loyal, but likely not Eli or Margaret, neither of whom Rothstein gives a shit about), place (I don't think it's the Ritz but what else could it be) or a thing (maybe his blue Rolls Royce, as Nucky has always been portrayed as having the fanciest car out of everyone).  Also, I'm wondering what Rothstein has the power to do to make things happen.  He's been known to play the role of mediator between two disagreeing sides for a hefty fee (according to history), so my guess is that since he and Masseria are generally on good terms (or at least have maintained a functioning work relationship), he will probably persuade Masseria to withdraw support from Rosetti (or at least to not go to war with Nucky) and let them finish their war and end it with whoever survives.  And with Margaret, her only "old" relationships to resume would be the one with Nucky, since her men before and after him are both dead, unless it's supposed to be in a different context (i.e. relationship with her brother or the church).

But Capone's line at the end ("We've been driving for eighteen hours -- I want a bath and some chow, then you and me sit down and we talk about who dies") was boss.

[krzieg]

I was happy to see that Eddie was getting better. I hope he doesn't get off'd.
The way Capone & Eli rolled in was gangster. Capone is straight gee and maybe he'll have a run in with Richard, while Richard is killing Rosetti's men.
Capone may work with Richard after finding out that he's trying to save Jimmy's kid (Capone & Jimmy had a good relationship).

I think Margaret is going to leave Nucky and it's clear that Nucky knows about the affair as well.

I can't wait for the season finale. The preview looks amazing. For sure it'll be the most watched tv show episode of the year.

[DeeezNuuuts83]

I was happy to see that Eddie was getting better. I hope he doesn't get off'd.
The way Capone & Eli rolled in was gangster. Capone is straight gee and maybe he'll have a run in with Richard, while Richard is killing Rosetti's men.
Capone may work with Richard after finding out that he's trying to save Jimmy's kid (Capone & Jimmy had a good relationship).

That's true... I forgot about that budding friendship between Jimmy and Capone in the first season.  The second and third season (especially the third) have been showing Capone's relationship with his family, as he really loves his son, so he'll probably want to help out Jimmy's son too.

I think Margaret is going to leave Nucky and it's clear that Nucky knows about the affair as well.

It's possible... with the title "Margate Sands," I was thinking maybe someone (possibly her) moves on from Atlantic City to Margate.  But in the back of my head, I was thinking that maybe Margaret leaves her life behind and changes her name to Margate Sands, as "Margate" is similar to "Margaret" and the initials are the same as her original name (Margaret Schroeder), which is something that they did before with Meyer Lansky's character when he first introduced himself to Chalky in the first season under a different name with the same initials.

[DeeezNuuuts83]

Well I ended up being wrong about a few things, but maybe we'll see some of those things next season.

The season finale wasn't as cool as I was expecting.  Richard taking everyone out at the brothel was pretty dope, but other than that, it wasn't anything crazy.  Episode 11 was better.  I mostly just want to rewatch the scene with Richard and probably the one of Luciano and Lansky talking to Rothstein and Masseria.

[Lunatic]

Nucky has balls, screwing over Rothstein like that is BIG.. he's definitely going to jail off this, which will lead to Lucky's rise..

Not sure what will happen to Masseria..

The Richard scene where he goes postal was easily one of the best scenes in ANY tv show, EVER.. Wow! Insane

I was hoping they'd find a way to keep Gyp alive, his character really saved this season that was boring at times due to Margaret's hospital classes story line & affair with Owen.. Gyp was a huge breath of fresh air to this season, but he was the tv series typical season long bad guy..

Capone is such a GREAT character, can't wait to see his rise, it's coming soon..

Chalky is awesome too

I thought it was a pretty good finale, surprised the closing scene was so "clean" though

it was like a 8.5/10 finale

[DeeezNuuuts83]

Nucky has balls, screwing over Rothstein like that is BIG.. he's definitely going to jail off this, which will lead to Lucky's rise..

Nucky didn't exactly "screw" Rothstein over.  I compare it to what Daniel Ocean did to Terry Benedict at the end of Oceans 13, where Benedict double-crossed Ocean first, as Ocean had expected, then he got what was coming to him for that.  Rothstein wasn't crossing Nucky, but he took the bait (as Nucky put it) and used it as leverage to gain control of the distillery.  Being equal partners is one thing (like what Rothstein did with Masseria with the heroin business that they took over from Luciano and Lanksy), but he demanded 99% ownership.  He didn't reach out to help Nucky, only to use what he perceived as a desperate man to his financial gain.

Additionally, he punked out earlier when his ass also almost got killed alongside Nucky when Rosetti's bomb went off and decided not to support Nucky, even though he too sustained injuries, though I'd get it if he didn't want to support Nucky but hadn't been injured in the attack.  Nucky made it clear -- Rothstein would regret making the call to not back Nucky's play against Masseria and Rosetti, and this is Nucky's way of evening the score and staying true to his word.

Not sure what will happen to Masseria..

Masseria has to stay true to his word and leave things alone, as withdrawing his men from Atlantic City was part of the agreement brokered by Rothstein.  Rosetti's corpse is an expected outcome and not really a message to him, especially when Masseria was almost going to have Rosetti killed anyway but gave him just one chance, and he failed -- partially because of Masseria's own calls to pull his men out of there.  Historically, he lives for a while longer.

The Richard scene where he goes postal was easily one of the best scenes in ANY tv show, EVER.. Wow! Insane

I feel like Richard is the one character who has never been touched.  I can't think of him ever even getting punched.  He's easily the most dangerous character because of his own capabilities.

I was hoping they'd find a way to keep Gyp alive, his character really saved this season that was boring at times due to Margaret's hospital classes story line & affair with Owen.. Gyp was a huge breath of fresh air to this season, but he was the tv series typical season long bad guy..

There's no way that the season would've ended without Rosetti dying.  It was an expected conclusion, and the only logical one.  Guys as reckless as him don't last long, and for him to still be alive beyond this season would've been silly, when the guys who are basically assassins or head-strong criminals have even been iced already.

Capone is such a GREAT character, can't wait to see his rise, it's coming soon..

It should be, considering the display of Torrio giving him more say over the Chicago Outfit, plus I think the real Nucky and Capone were always on good terms.  The fact that we had been given more glimpses at Capone's character (especially with his relationship with his son and sensitivity toward his disability), we'll definitely see more of him.  With the introduction of O'Banion's character this season, that conflict will definitely arise in the fourth season.  Ironically what Nucky did to Rothstein is a lot like what happens between them in the future, as I think O'Banion is aware of the feds going to raid one of his locations, which he sells to Torrio and Capone, who take ownership just before it gets raided.  I think that resulted in the real war between them.

Chalky is awesome too

Yeah, they all kept it G when they all put their guns down and were going to fight toe-to-toe.

I thought it was a pretty good finale, surprised the closing scene was so "clean" though

I agree that there was more closure than we had seen in the past couple of season finales.  So maybe they're not sure where they want to take the show.

[krzieg]

Great ending to the season imo. I'll put more specific thoughts later...

Richards no scope head shots were awesome!

[DeeezNuuuts83]

Yeah, like that last one... "Tommy, close your eyes."

[CrazyBetty]

Its no Sopranos but a great watch!! Have watched every episode at least 2 times. Weird i got this poster in the mail today from the show actually

http://www.catacombscds.com/product/Boardwalk_Empire_-_Atlantic_City_Poster.html

[O.G A.Geesta'z]

damn i probably shouldnt have read this thread since im halfway through season 2, but i just got into it and this show is bad ass, makes me wish i got into it a long time ago especially since i love the prohibition era and all the mobsters around it, i just wish my favorite mobster Bugsy Siegel had more of a prominent role in the show, but i really like this show