Boardwalk Empire season 5 episode 5, King of Norway, teaches Scarface 101.
Here is our review.
Come daylight, you dont know what youll find.
You might even catch miniature Mr. You know, the guys who dont vote Republican.
The little Ragged Dick is a slick operator.
Of course, hell be surrounded by deputies who are ready to see them off.
InBoardwalk Empires King of Norway, Nucky knows where hes going because he knows where the bodies are buried.
He may not have been born to mob rule, but he acclimates.
First You Get the Sugar.
Last weeks shocker was Sally Wheet (Patricia Arquette).
Shot dead on the street like she was some kind of peasant revolutionary.
There will be no inquiries into Wheets death and no one will be held responsible.
This doesnt necessarily mean the deals off.
Nucky shouldnt let the personal interfere with his business sense.
The wonder of Nucky is that everything he does is personal.
Sally was his lover, but Mr. Thompson, who came up through politics, is all about people.
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Chalky White (Michael Kenneth Williams) is back in town.
He is a muffled presence now.
Prison time locked up all his workings to the inside.
Hes got ulterior and interior motives.
He really does look like a gangster.
Chalky and Nucky have a very interesting relationship.
It is almost a real friendship.
Nucky looks positively deflated when he has to ask Chalky Doesnt anyone drink anymore?
He wants to share that drink and he wants to share it with Chalky.
There is warmth there that Nucky doesnt have with Mickey (Paul Sparks).
Mickey Doyle plays pretty fast and loose with Chalkys freedom.
One of the great things about theBoardwalk Empirestyle is that so many things are left ambiguous.
The look they exchange can go either way.
The King of Norway is not Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon).
Hes a figurehead in a matriarchal monarchy.
Van Alden will not allow himself to be ruled by fear.
Through it all, Van Aldens wit has been honed.
Although his jail-cell accident analogy breakdown was also a marvelous interpretation.
Shannon is having fun.
Eli (Shea Whigham) is still having flashbacks.
Something got into his head and its like a yodeling ear worm.
Sturgis is a study in swallowed emotion.
The camera gets very intimate with her to catch the glimmer of acceptance and understanding before repression takes over.
They play really well together.
Eli really does love his wife and really isnt on the prowl.
When he tells Nelson that the affair was an accident, he really sees it that way.
Then you get the power.
Eli and Van Alden are a good team too.
I cant believe theyre going to be the ones who take out Public Enemy Number One With a Bullet.
I mean I can believe it, but I cant believe it.
History doesnt repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
What is that supposed to mean?
Coked-out Capone isnt in the mood for riddles.
He can smell trouble in spite of his compromised septum.
He just doesnt know where its coming from.
The paranoia is real and its got him sniffing feds everywhere.
Not that hes going to let that spoil his good time.
Owney Madden is sending an actor friend in from New York.
Hes gonna play in a movie about Al Capone.
This excited me and the whole episode I waited for it.
I assumed it was going to be George Raft, who played Guino Danelli inScarface.
I was hoping for a payoff to this, but it never came.
Im hopeful for next week.
Alligator wrestler Al Capone (Stephen Graham) is letting that white powder lead him around by the nose.
Just because we can be shown people shitting on TV now, do we have to?
Can we be done with it?
Was there no better place to have that conversation?
Yes, everybody shits.
Al, shut the fucking door.
At least Torrio will still drink with him.
Maranzano (Giampiero Judica) also knows how to pour bold red vino on tap.
Straight out ofThe Roaring Twenties.Boardwalk Empiremodernizes the classics while never once forgetting their roots.
But history tells us that this wont play out well in the long run for Maranzano.
Then you get the women.
As illicit and lethal as the men are onBoardwalk Empire, the women hold more surprises.
She deals with Carolyn Rothstein (Shae DLyn) like she was born to it.
And then she gets her boss to back the fuck off with the sweetest of demure smiles.
It doesnt get past Mrs. Rothstein either.
Youre right where you belong, she says.
ARs wife doesnt miss a thing.
And shes certainly not going to miss that check, Old Rumpus Room or not.
Shed been at a party at Nuckys place and she sees Nucky in his wife.
Id been irked off and on by Margaret throughout the run ofBoardwalk Empire.
But now, seeing how she grew into this wonderful creature, it was worth it.
We knew she had it in her when she hid Nuckys ledgers in season 1.
She even began her own extortion racket on Nucky.
Though, I dont think shed ever go off the rails.
She has become a spitfire.
I think thats a twenties expression.
If its not, it should be.
Shes always given the signs.
She ran off with him knowing something wasnt right and defended her husband with lethal force.
It was her idea to make aquavit and sell it.
Shes no Nordic ice queen.
Gillian (Gretchen Mol) is witnessing some haunted happenings at the bug house.
Not that her own time is any less rosy.
Beware the villain stalks.
Did the doctor give that woman an experimental hysterectomy?
What sickness did he cut out of her?
That scene could be on eitherBoardwalkorAHS.
And then theres Daughter Maitland (Margot Bingham).
King of Norway was written by Steve Kornacki and directed by Ed Bianchi.
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Rating:
4.5 out of 5
