Boardwalk Empire - 5.02 The Good Listener - Review - Do You Understand Me?

It's mostly back to business this week, as the second episode departs from it's golden opportunity (also synonymous with Havana, Bacardi Rum, and working for The Commodore), as Nucky tries to find funds for his wanna-be Bacardi Rum gig and also seeks to get to the bottom of the hit on his life. We also catch up to a rather broken Eli, whose working for a more sordid Nelson Van Alden, whose working for a sleek guy named Michael D'Angelo, whom are all working for the now famous Al Capone, while simultaneously federal agents attempt close in on Chicago crime scene. And then we also get reantiquated with Gillian Darmody seemingly de-materialized through a mental institution for woman.

The episode itself isn't very action orientated, but it's full of revelations, fun turnarounds, and amusing dialogue; the kinds of things that make the underrated Boardwalk a brilliant series.

The Good Listener:
The episode title was one of my favorite things this week. It homes in on one of the series' strongest themes and motifs centered around the concept of disability and/or dysfunction, both mental and physical. It's through sensory information that beliefs and identity can be found or analyzed and where there is surely a distinction between hearing and comprehension or understanding, in which, in almost any case, can also point out disconnections between all things. It also feeds back into the series' debate about narcissism verses ethnocentrism and if hearing what one wants to, and/or ignoring others and/or going back on something one has already said, is ever really in one's control in being intentionally blatant or if miscommunication, misinterpretation, and denial are actually just a typical flaws of all humanity, let alone the concept of being able to read between the lines!


In The White Room

One of the stories told this week which highlights Boardwalk's ironic use of this psychological concept would be with Gillian Darmody. We catch up with the formerly tricked and broken Gillian in a mental institution (or rehabilitation center) for woman with all the woman taking straight-jacket-bathtub-like baths! They are listening to the radio, a program called, The Good Listener, when one woman voices her opinion on the subject of the program, only to have a female authoritative overseer turn it off, finding it disruptive. Almost all the woman get upset, all but Gillian. Her self control seems to be earning her points with another authoritative administrator, who surely has taken notice of Gillian's good behavior (and possibly other things), but like so many arrangements, it actually takes more than that for Gillian to get what she wants. In later scenes we see her exchange some of her former clothing for a pen and paper, but to whom Gillian will write to (and will it prove her even more bonkers?) and if the letter will be sent remain a mystery by the episode's end, --but I do suspect that Nucky Thompson is the intended recipient.

Keep Your Ear To The Ground
Another scene this week that plays to hearing and communication is the opening scene with Eli waking up on an upper warehouse floor from what might have been an unconscious sleep with the phonograph playing music from a night of drunken debauchery . The camera goes through parts of the phonograph and into and out of Eli's eardrum. This scene too is also an interesting scene, when one compares it to a scene from the premiere in which Nucky was attacked in Havana and where Nucky's new body guard kept the hit man's ear either as a souvenir or a proof of life.

The phonograph is also interesting in terms of Boardwalk Empire's honest look at change being inevitable ("All Empire's Fall") and provides a through line not only to Chicago in the pilot episode, where James Colosimo was murdered in his restaurant while listening to music on the phonograph, but also because Johnny Torrio took his spot upon Colosimo's death and now Torrio appears in a scene opposite to Nucky (now retired), where they discuss the hit on Nucky's life and Nucky's future plans...

Greetings From Old Friends
After catching up with Torrio, a meet is arranged, as it is assumed by the two men that Lansky and Charlie are behind the hit, considering that Joe Masseria's death was within the same 24 hour period, but also confirming that Luciano now works for the powerful Maranzano, whose acting as "Boss of All Bosses".

The episode also reintroduces Tonino Sandrelli, the man who killed Gyp Rossetti! Through a scene with Sandrelli we learn of Lansky, Seigal's, and Luciano's plan in wanting to also take out Marazano, as they debate with Sandrelli, if Maranzano is onto them thanks to the survival of Nucky Thompson.

However later in the episode, despite Maranzano's dismissal on Nucky's life, Nucky also sits down with Tonino Sanderelli and offers him a job, but also threatens him to give up the location of Meyer Lansky to his almost non-speaking body guard/right hand man or else be killed! It's unlcear what Toninio did, but Nucky sends a message to Luciano with one of their men stabbed in the back and delivered with a Havana post card attached.




Friend or Foe, Which Way Should I Go?
One of Boardwalk's more fascinating attractions is not knowing who's side someone is going to end up on, and if in switching sides will those in tow end up dead? Last season we saw Nucky also dance around his own allegiances to Chalky White, where early in on in one scene he told Narcisse that Chalky was his friend, where in a later episode he states that he has no friends. The premiere episode gives us the distinction that Nucky feels alone, but this episode with scenes opposite Torrio, the sentimentality between the two men could be felt, but trying to figure out Nucky Thomson is one of the things the series really plays with and the answer almost always reverts back to Jimmy's death in being either irrational, near-impervious, and completely duplicate.

But with whom I fear for the new rendition of that Jimmy-like relationship this season is with Willie Thompson. We catch up to Willie trying to get a job, (now a lawyer and wanna-be criminal prosecutor) and later taking in a meal with his Uncle. One might think that having a lawyer in the family would be a great asset to Nucky Thompson, but both scenes with Willie gave me the impression that Willie may also have the "spite" gene and could be the lynch pin that takes Nucky down in retaliation to the events of the end of last season leading to the repression of his father, but also he could be used against Nucky somehow by somebody else. I am rather suspicious of new character Robert Hodge, whom could end up as Willie's new boss.


Being Caught In Waging War
It took me a rewatch of the episode to really appreciate the 1884 flashbacks in this episode. My first viewing left me with an impression that the meditative quality of the previous episode had dissolved and Nucky was back to his more duplicitous self in the present time period disconnected again from his past, but on closer examination his scenes with Torrio, and even his bodyguard, show a sentimental or concerned Nucky, who seems to be taking Torrio's warning of retirement seriously, as he says one has to know when to be ready to "cash out", but, as I'm sure many viewers are, it still feels false to believe that Nucky Thompson won't fall on his sword, or someone else's, over this war with Luciano.

The flashback itself was still compelling, but it wasn't the death of Susan that stood out, but moreover the way a picture is painted with the Commodore looking like a saint in comparison to Ethan Thompson, whose either pride or spite makes an already bad situation worse, as he takes out his hate for the Commodore on his own son, whose forced to bury his sister by himself, as his mother must try to comfort Eli and where Ethan just leaves with the Commodore's charitable money, presumably to drink.




Other Musings & Observations:

Buona Fortuna Bone For Tuna:

There are really quite a few season three tie-backs in the episode. Tonino Sandrelli is the more obvious one now coming to a cross roads.  Charlie Luciano also mentioned Gyp Rossetti by name when speaking with Sandrelli. Additionally, the fun pun from season three, also pointing out the blunders of "miscommuncation" (as in Slaughter's mispronouncing of Bouna For Tuna and Gyp taking it the wrong way) is tied through another Gyp Rossetti theme, which is his association with "dogs". He gave Nucky an analogy that being in this business is never different, because it's just always dogs with a bone. Nucky seemed to pick up that analogy, as he says nearly the same thing when talking to Johnny Torrio. The dog theme is also subtly highlighted with woman and their dog in the elevator with Eli and Nelson. Remember Gyp Rossetti also continuously picked up and put down a dog named Regina through out season three, And lastly, Billie Kent is also mentioned by the waiter in the restaurant Sandrelli meets Nucky in. A caricature of her hangs by wall next to their table.

Going In Circles:
I also liked the story with Eli and Nelson. Both characters are working together now (something viewers had yet to ever see), but mentally seem to be in opposite places, as Eli pines for his wife and family and as Nelson seems rather discontent with his. But the story itself was fun since they were tasked with replacing the money lost in the warehouse raid, in which they basically stole Al Capone's money and gave it back to him!

Kennedy Connection:
Nucky seems down on his luck when a group of investors (including a Rockefeller) question his qualifications and denounce his "special relationship" with Senator Loyd when they reject his proposal with a Mayfair grain and Bacardi Rum and while insisting the Volstead Act would be repealed soon, but shortly after the meeting a fellow Irishman, Joesph Patrick Kennedy Sr. reaches out to Nucky just to say he understands his plight, having been in a similar situation. He suggests that perhaps he is still interested in Nucky's proposal, as he implies he may visit Atlantic City in the future...

There is also definitely a little parallel or tie back here to season two, as Nucky, like Joseph, also had made "exchanges" across the pond (guns for Irish Whisky) and where he used the death of his father, as a means of achieving this. It's also in the episode that Ethan Thompson dies that it's revealed that Eli and Nucky had a sister named Susan, who died of consumption and was shown in this episode's flashbacks. In addition viewers of season two also saw the leader of Irish side of things, John McGarrigle, get immediately taken out by his own men when he refuses Nucky's proposal. It connects because the season clearly is marking leadership changes and the dawn of new era!

Ironically there is also this connection the writers might be insinuating with The Kennedys, Nucky Thompson, and Cuba too. Many people believe that a conspiracy exists around the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Joesph Patrick Kennedy Sr's future grandson), where the CIA, Ant-Castro Cuban Mobsters, and perhaps Lyndon B. Johnson may all be responsible for the much beloved President's death and where the convicted Harvey Lee Oswald may have been a patsy. Depending on where the writers take this relationship between Thompson and Kennedy, could potentially make one rethink the origins of that future conspiracy possibly stemming to back to this, even if only forever in fictionalized television.

It also kind of dawns on me, thinking again to Billie Kent and that blond hair change, if she (and those that have commonalities with her in the series) are not meant to invoke the Marilyn Monroes of world?



-Susan's Consumption (Tuberculosis) juxtaposes Emily's Polio

-Money and Death: Ethan says Money never helped the dead--juxtaposes Johnny Torrio mentioning the Masseria is the richest corps.

-Eliot Ness
We also briefly see a famous prohibition agent speak in Chicago named Eliot Ness. Historians and television, novel, and film fans may know that Eliot Ness is also one of The Untouchables.

- Can't Buy Me Twice
1884 Flashback reveals that one reason Ethan Thompson is upset with the Commodore, is because he feels the Commodore cheated him out of a land deal, in which the Commodor must have bought a lot of land from Ethan. I find it curious since Nucky was trying to also make a land deal in earlier seasons.

- Dr. Cotton  The name of Gillian's yet to be visually introduced Doctor is Dr. Cotton. I like the potential wordplay on something soft and white in relation to however the character turns out to be and/or the way these woman are treated. Interestingly Gillian also happen to mention seeing a musician on New Year's Eve named Paul Whiteman. There is definitely a theme of white and/or a contrast to it.

-Micheal D'Angelo similar last name to D'Alessio. The D'Alessio Brothers were all named for Popes and characters featured in the first season doing business with Mickey Doyle. The name Micheal is the name for a saint and an archangel. D'Alessio means to defend or protect. D'Angelo means "angel".

Jimmy Allusions/Juxtapositions/references:

- Al Capone's Tailored scene: It was interesting to see this vibrant and exuberant reintroduction to Capone in this episode. A celebrity surrounded by many people in an upscale room, while getting his measurements taken, I was immediately reminded to a more intimate scene where Jimmy Darmody teaches him the value of buying a good suit for business.

- Nelson and Eli's robbery in the street juxtaposes Jimmy and Al's botch robbery in the woods from the Pilot episode.

- Nucky's Bodyguard Holding Coffee Cup Stance: The character himself has very little qualities with Jimmy, beyond the fact that he is in Nucky's services acting as a right hand man, but while in the resturaunt when Nucky is meeting Tonino there is this one shot of character holding a coffee cup and the stature reminded me of a scene with a similar stature of Jimmy, also in Nucky's presence.

- Unwanted Pregnancy. On the lady program the woman were listening to at bath time, one of the woman next to Gillian guesses that "heartbreaking" story was going to be an unwanted pregnancy. Gillian tries hard not flinch, even still in previous conversation potentially Gillian is still confused about previous events, as she may have referred to Jimmy as her husband, -and later admits that things are still jumbled. It's one reason why I am pretty sure she wants to reach out to Nucky Thompson. I think she either wants him to apologize to her and ask for forgiveness (something Nucky has yet to do during the whole series: "I am not seeking redemption", "I am not seeking forgiveness") or I think she wants to kill him for her whole life, since it was Nucky who brought Gillian to The Commodore, and it was Nucky who promised he would take care of James.

Other Miscommunication or nonsensical mishaps:
-Nucky's Bodyguard answers "Si" (yes), when Nucky asks if he understands his philosophy about staying alive long enough to be able to cash out. Nucky asks is that, "Yes, you do understand?" or Yes, you don't understand?" In the same scene, Nucky also tells his bodyguard/right hand man that Nucky would make more sense to him, if he were drinking.

- Eli is listening to radio show later at his apartment. The Radio show presents a skit where a little girl keeps forgetting not to roller skate in the house, despite that her father has told her a hundred times not to! She says, 'Well, it's because she can't count that high!'

- Al Capone is ragingly screaming for D'Angelo. but when he finally arrives Capone forgets why he wanted to see him. As it turns out, it was the other way around.

So what did you think of Boardwalk Empire's second final season episode? Favorite moments? Theories or Musings? Let us know in the comments below!!!!

*****EDIT: In case anyone has yet to read this, or has come back, I just would like to confirm a teaser from this episode that I wasn't sure about after watching this episode a few times. It IS Tonino Sandrelli who is sent to Lansky at the end of the episode! It's unclear if Lansky just happened to still be with Luciano and Seigel when his body arrives, and/or if Tonino gave the location and they killed him anyways...

About the Author - Darthlocke4

Laura Becker (Darthlocke 4) is a long time commentator, TV addict, and aspiring writer participating with other fans on SpoilerTV. She writes reviews and analytic type articles. Some of her other interests include philosophy, cultural anthropology, reading, drawing, and working with animals, as she grew up and continues to work on her family's horse farm.

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