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Now that Margaret and Nucky are married, an interesting question is who will be the "outsider looking in" character.

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Pretty sure after Nucky sees she signed the Deed over to the church... she's going to be the outsider.

I think not only was Jimmy ok with dying, he wanted it. His dad is dead (because he killed him) and his wife is dead. His mom tried to convince him that his son would forget his mom. He had a really f-ed up life. He said it himself, “I died in a ditch years ago” or something to that effect. I almost felt like he was daring Nucky to kill him, like he was asking for it.

I hope that Richard Harrow isn’t going to go away. I really like the character and the guy playing him does a fantastic job.

So it would appear that next season is the DA trying to get her ducks in a row, Chalky v the KKK, Nucky v Chicago and Nucky v Margret/the church

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He said it himself, “I died in a ditch years ago” or something to that effect

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He said "I died in a trench years ago," referring to WWI.

Such a great show, but after last night I may be done. Jimmy was such an integral part of the story thus far, and a truly fascinating character. Of course I'll give next season a chance, but I'm not optimistic about where they will take things from here. After what happenend with "Deadwood", where in season 3 they introduced an troup of actors to the town, I'm a bit skeptical about what lies ahead for Boardwalk.

[This message has been edited by meantime (edited 12/12/2011 2:31p).]

- jimmy making sure his father's estate would be passed on to his son
- last meeting with nucky letting him know the truth behind his assassination attempt
- telling his son at the beach how to hide like he did on the beach (play robinson crusoe) and "meema" didn't have to know
- asking richard to promise and try to "come back" mentally from the war
- his son wearing his dog tags
- going to the meeting unarmed and without richard

also, eli's dumb "there is a character named eli?" question to nucky after nucky quoted shakespeare on eli's front porch i think was a big factor in nucky's mind/decision process. just reaffirmed he could never match wits with nuck.

Rudy, excellent observation and one that I did not consider when I saw it. Up until then Nucky was feeling him out. If not for that statement Nucky would probably have viewed him as a threat and had him killed.

Nucky's WTF look when Eli said that was classic.

Et tu, Eli?

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I just don't think television writers are that talented anymore. For a complex set of story lines like the ones in Boardwalk they in my opinion would have to lean heavily on real life. If it is the same creative team that worked on Entourage then that would almost have to be the case.

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The only thing this has to do with Entourage is that Mark Wahlberg optioned the book. The writing is coming from Winter, the #2 guy on The Sopranos- a complete 180 from Entourage.

A lot of questions answered here with discussion about next season.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/12/11/boardwalk-empire-finale/?iid=rcfooter-tv-'boardwalk+empire'%3A+inside+a+shocker

[This message has been edited by LonghornHere (edited 12/13/2011 1:25a).]

[This message has been edited by LonghornHere (edited 12/13/2011 1:28a).]

hey horn, link didn't work.

really good article!

Thanks horn.

Thanks for posting the link. That is a great interview. I feel sorry for all the poor souls that haven't give Boardwalk a shot.

Such a great show, but does anyone else feel depressed after every episode? What a shitty life these gangster's lived, never knowing who to trust or when it's their time.

I feel bad for the guy jimmy threw off the balcony. He is everyone's betch and he just has to take it.

I'd throw him off a balcony if he laughed like that around me.

Doyle rules!

To me (and maybe overly obviously)the only reason Eli is alive is because he serves a purpose to Nucky (fall guy). Nucky basically says that he does nothing emotionally and everything with a purpose when he shoots Jimmy. Jimmy was given his chance to come back to Nucky before it was too late earlier in the series. He was written off as a business loss at that point. Jimmy was too bright to leave alive.

I agree, I completely think that there is supposed to be something not 100% right with Doyle's brain.

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It's messed up, Eli wanted Nuc dead Jimmy just wanted him retired and Jimmy's the one that paid the price. I hate that, he was my favorite character.

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What a cheap ending, the writers are going for cheap thrills. For me, I think the show jumped the shark with the Nuc/Jimmy scene.

Before, one of the show's compelling qualities was seeing each main character (schroder, nuc, jimmy, and agent nelson)deal with morality, remorse, and their conscious as the other ruthless characters and a decadent Atlantic City push them further into depravity. But every time they crossed a boundary, each would flash a redeeming quality.

Now, Nuc is 100% ruthless and the show is Sopranos: 1920's Atlantic City.

After all they killed arguably the most tragic character, Jimmy. He was borne of a pedophile and a loose show-girl, but tried to make it at Princeton. That was ruined by his incestuous mother, so he goes to the trenches of WWI, one of the ugliest and most horrific wars. He returns as damaged goods and spends the entire season trying to find his place.

the show centers around Nucky. That storyline was played. I think it would have been "cheaper" if Nucky would have let Jimmy back in with open arms.

Time to move on.

If you think the Jimmy/Nucky scene jumped the shark, you have a radically different definition of the term than I do...

I understand where you goes are coming from.

But the show was more nuanced, for the reasons I mentioned in my previous post, before that scene. Oh sure, it is going to be exciting to see a new Tony Soprano, but I don't think it will be as original and compelling as it was. Instead, tt looks like the show will be boilerplate gangster entertainment, which has been done.

Its now the Sopranos in tweed and club collar shirts, and before it was something unique.

I understand why they killed him off, but I'm still upset about it. I remember feeling sorry for Christopher (Sapranos) but no love lost. He was a loose end and a drug addict. I was literally screaming Noooooo at the tv when Nuc shot Jimmy. I was moved by the flashback of him in the trench during WWI and I just felt he deserved more than that. I thought after everything he's been through it can't end here, but it did.

[This message has been edited by IJones23 (edited 12/13/2011 4:57p).]

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I think it would have been "cheaper" if Nucky would have let Jimmy back in with open arms.

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Not really. There is less shock value, and it takes more time and thinking to write a cleaver script that keeps him alive, interesting, and believable.

[This message has been edited by hombre (edited 12/13/2011 5:02p).]

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There is less shock value, and it takes more time and thinking to write a cleaver script that keeps him alive, interesting, and believable.

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so well played

Hombre, I get were you're saying, and I really liked Jimmy's character as well, but I get why it was done. How can Nucky keep him alive? It needed to be done to show that Nucky will do anything to survive. Jimmy almost had him killed. There is no way someone like Nucky would just let him back in that easily. Too much risk for a cutthroat business man like him.

Jimmy was an emotional wreck that I could've seen dying from heroin overdose at some point in the show. This was far more entertaining and stays true to the type of person Nucky really is. It's a great show and I'm sure the next season will be just as awesome as this one.

I think also Nucky's transformation away from "part-time gangster" (as someone else stated) is really more of the story than what happened to Jimmy. Jimmy was fatally flawed.

To an extent, Nucky was able to keep his hands clean up until that moment. Pulling the trigger yourself is a much bigger deal, especially when it's towards your "son".

Im interested to see where they go with this. They have killed off so many people, many of them fairly big players


The one person im a huge fan of is arnold rothstein. That guy is a smooth operator.

don't get attached to rothstein. Lansky is a good bet.

[This message has been edited by LonghornHere (edited 12/14/2011 11:25a).]

The pointed discussion with his son at the pony rides and blurting out the question about his son inheriting his estate made it pretty clear that he was anticipating his own demise. I didn't think it would be quite so soon though.

What I also find ironic is that he got whacked because he wasn't smart enough to out-smart Nucky, but in the end he was smart enough to already know he was going to get whacked. Almost like he'd come of age, but it was too late.

Didn't have an issue with it at all. Nucky is the focus here and this is a significant item that goes toward the development of his character. Jimmy was a loose cannon with some big juevos - can't trust him or trust that you could control him. There is plenty of potential to expound on existing plotlines and introduce some new ones, and moving on without Jimmy will help facilitate that.

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Nucky is the focus here and this is a significant item that goes toward the development of his character.

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While I agree with the former, I can't with the latter. I think killing Jimmy and his callous response after, at the breakfast table in his house, limits his character development: He's a gangster and that's it. Before, the show was original in that its main character wasn't an outright gangster like Tony Soprano and consequently more compelling.

Maybe there could have been more to developing that final scene, but it is like HBO sloppily close everything at the finale.