- When a witness turns up who can link Jimmy Darmody to the woods massacre, the Feds get involved, Nucky banishes him, and Rothstein recruits Luciano to kill him.
- When a witness turns up who can link Jimmy Darmody to the woods massacre, the Feds, led by the ruthless Van Alden. get the incriminating information from the dying witness before Eli can silence him. Nucky banishes Jimmy from Atlantic City, and Rothstein recruits Luciano to kill him in revenge. Nucky uses his influence to get Margaret a well-paying job in an upscale French dress shoppe on th Boardwalk, where she meets Lucy. Chalky demands that his cut of the bootleg liquor operation be raised from 35% to 50% after one of his cohorts is lynched by local KKK members, and Nucky agrees in order to avoid a protracted race war in an election year.—duke1029
- Jimmy's future is clouded by an unlikely witness to the woods massacre; Margaret takes a new job; Chalky's team pays a big price for his success.—HBO Publicity
- The sole survivor of the Woods Massacre is wheeled on a stretcher into a hospital, barely clinging on to life. Nucky walks in with Jimmy after the stretcher, both of them incredulous that this man could survive three days in the cold while bleeding out. Nucky warns Jimmy that unless the man dies, he's going to be in a lot of trouble soon.
A man rides a horse carriage full of whiskey into a buggy warehouse where Nucky is waiting with Chalky White (Michael K. Williams), the boss of the Northside. As his crew unloads the liquor, Nucky offers an 80-20 profit split to Chalky, who balks at the lopsided profit. Nucky claims it's the same deal he gave Mickey Doyle. They negotiate to a 35 percent split, including an extra 10 percent Chalky charges for the fact that Nucky thought he'd be willing to take the same deal as Mickey.
Margaret splits a fried egg in a cast iron pan and serves one half to each of her children, while taking a visitor from her neighbor Edith. Edith scoffs and offers to take her and the kids in while she gets back on her feet, but Margaret declines. The conversation is interrupted when Jim Neary turns up at Margaret's door to deliver a job offer from Nucky. Nearly expresses his condolences for her husband's death. After Neary leaves, Margaret reads the offer: assistant at La Belle Femme, the dress shop at the Ritz Carlton. Edith is suspicious of Margaret's connection to Nucky and of the French, in general.
At the hospital, Eli stands over the injured man's bed while a doctor treats him. Eli insists he needs to question the man despite the doctor's protests that he's gravely ill and in need of immediate medical care. The doctor leaves the room. Alone, Eli closes the privacy curtain after the man's hospital roommate gets curious, and begins smothering the wounded man with a pillow. When the man begins to struggle, the other patient becomes more suspicious. He's forced to abandon his murder attempt when Van Alden arrives. Van Alden insists on questioning the man, but Eli protests. When another agent threatens Eli with obstruction, he's unfazed and demands a warrant. Van Alden leaves after asking his colleague to guard the wounded man.
Lucky Luciano receives a clearly painful and intrusive treatment for gonorrhea. Lucky explains to the doctor he's having trouble maintaining an erection. When the doctor starts taking notes, Lucky gets upset and tells him to stop. The doctor continues writing, saying he needs to document Lucky's recovery and course of treatment. Lucky abruptly grabs a needle and holds it to the doctor's throat, threatening him to forget what he said. He storms out of the room.
Back at the hotel, Nucky is on the phone donating $1,000 to the premature baby hospital while Lucy eats in bed. Lucy tells him he was "so smart not to have children." Nucky hangs on the thought for a moment. Nucky is surprised by Lucy's interest in a casting for the Ziegfeld Follies, but tells her she should do whatever makes her happy. Lucy offers to have a baby for him despite the fact that'll ruin her figure. She suggests they could move out of the hotel and buy a house in Cape May. Nucky believes it's a matter they can talk about after the election. Lucy starts to seduce him and although he lets her go ahead, he doesn't seem that interested.
Jimmy looks at new pictures of his son while Angela sweeps the floor. The vacuum sweeper scares their son, she says. When Jimmy talks about progress and says there's a new gun that can shoot 600 bullets a minute, Angela is visibly disturbed.
Madame Jeunet, the French woman who runs a dress shop at the Ritz, quizzes Margaret about her hygiene, insisting she bathe at least once a week. Margaret says she's never worked in a shop before. Madame Jeunet couldn't care less, and bitterly points out that Nucky made her fire her assistant of four years to give the job to Margaret. After giving Margaret a run down on her duties, she hands Margaret a dress to change into. Margaret smiles at her reflection in the mirror in the new teal dress.
Nucky pours himself a drink in a parlor filled with people laughing at singer Eddie Cantor, who is performing with a piano player. Eli walks in and Nucky pulls him aside to ask if the injured man is gone. Eli admits to Van Alden's interference. Nucky is annoyed, but Eli insists on deflecting the blame at Jimmy. Nucky turns to see Lucy dancing seductively while Eddie Cantor sings "The Dumber They Come".
At the hospital, Van Alden wakes Halloran, who's been left posted outside the wounded man's room. Van Alden hands him a falsified writ to take custody of the man, now known as "John Doe." Halloran runs down the hall as Van Alden and his men enter the room. As the wounded man is loaded into the car, one of Van Alden's agents questions the fake writ, saying "we just broke about a dozen laws." "Down here, what laws?" Van Alden says. He hands cash for "a hot meal" to the homeless men he and Sebso hired to pose as agents. They scuffle over the money as Van Alden and Sebso drive off.
Jimmy plays with his son on the boardwalk. Tommy runs into a photo studio, where he's clearly familiar to the husband and wife team who run the place. When the man says they're fond of Tommy and Angela, referring to her as Jimmy's "wife," Jimmy tells them they're not married yet, but will be soon. "I was away," Jimmy explains. The man refers to "thrilling tales" from the war and says he would've liked to have his "mettle tested like that." When the wife says they've heard Paris is lovely, Jimmy replies he didn't have a lot of time to "see the sights." Jimmy has a hard time convincing Tommy to leave the shop until the photographer, Robert Dittrich, tells him to be a good boy.
In the car, Van Alden is desperate to keep John Doe alive as they race to New York. They drag the wounded man into a dentist's office in Raritan Township, kicking a child out of the dentist's chair. Van Alden demands the dentist do something to John Doe to wake him up. The dentist injects cocaine into the man's cheek and gives him a larger dose when nothing happens. The man wakes up and replies with an insult in Yiddish that the boy's mother translates. Van Alden asks the man if he wants to die right there, then encourages him to say who shot him by jamming his hand into the man's wound. The man, screaming in pain, says it was two young guys. Van Alden asks if they said anything. He says, "One was Jimmy." The man manages to say, "Masked," before breathing his last breath. Van Alden begins reciting a Biblical passage describing the fate of those who "worship the beast." Local cops show up and Van Alden walks out, telling them, "He's all yours."
In New York, Rothstein plays poker. They take a break from the 14-hour game after Rothstein bluffs a man out of a huge pot. He tells Lucky news of his sister-in-law's nephew's death in custody, and sanctions a hit on Jimmy as revenge. He doesn't know who the other shooter was, but he tells Lucky he's "persuasive enough" to find out. Lucky agrees.
Nucky interrupts a Tarot reading with Jimmy's mother, Gillian. She tells Nucky he's not honoring his agreement to keep Jimmy out of trouble. They agreed Jimmy should've stayed in college but neither of them could keep him from going to war. "I'm not God, Gillian," says Nucky. "Now you tell me," she replies, before leaving the room.
Mickey Doyle meets with the D'Alessio brothers, the Italian men who bailed him out of jail. The men had financed his operation and -- with a gun on the table -- demand their investment back. Doyle complains that he can't do anything about it because Nucky turned over his business to Chalky.
Jimmy looks at a sexy photo of Angela while sipping a drink. He seems to be making a connection between the suggestive pose and the man who took the pictures at the studio -- Robert Dittrich.
At La Belle Femme, Margaret tends to a "very important customer." It's Lucy. She recognizes Margaret as a woman who came to see Nucky. Lucy stands naked with her arms over her head, staring at Margaret. She orders Margaret around and demands she dress her in a black lace negligee, after taunting her for not knowing the names of the garments and for hesitating before putting it on her. Lucy tells Margaret she heard Nucky on the phone getting her the job. "He's a soft touch for the charity cases," Lucy sneers. Margaret says nothing.
From the Atlantic City Post Office (the only federal building in the city), Van Alden calls his boss to say they lost John Doe. He tells him they believe Jimmy was involved in the shooting, reminding him that Jimmy is the man they'd offered a job. His boss says to wait on the arrest until he speaks to the local prosecutors, and orders him to go home and visit his wife.
Jimmy goes to see Nucky, who tells him John Doe fingered him for the murders. Nucky recounts a story from Jimmy's childhood when President William Howard Taft came to visit and Jimmy asked Nucky what it took to become President. "I used to think you'd own the world one day," says Nucky before telling Jimmy to leave Atlantic City (Eli suggests California as a destination). Nucky hands Jimmy some money before sending him on his way. After Jimmy leaves, Eli wonders if Nucky would be as understanding with him.
Jimmy's packing while Angela asks him if he's just going to leave her alone with a child. He asks Angela if she had sex with the photographer. Angela said the couple at the studio are "lovely people" befriended her and Tommy when they hadn't heard from Jimmy and didn't know whether he was dead or alive. Jimmy said he expected for things "to be normal." Angela says things were barely normal before he left and that they hardly knew each other.
"Well, you know me a lot better now," Jimmy says before walking out.
Van Alden sits through a silent meal with his wife, telling her only, "The roast tastes good."
Chalky goes around his warehouse telling his workers to make sure the bottle labels are on straight. He sends his driver out to fetch his car. Out of sight, the driver is lynched and killed, and the killers also scratch the words "LIQUOR KILLS" on Chalky's car. Chalky calls on Nucky and Eli to come and cover it up, as the last thing they need is a race war in an election year. Eli shoots the body in the head, and they agree to conjure a cover story that the victim was killed for sleeping with another man's wife.
The gunshots continue ringing in Jimmy's dreams as he sleeps on the Broadway Limited headed west. He wakes up and looks at a young girl with her mother, then he opens his book and looks at a photo of his son Tommy. The conductor calls out the train's destination: Chicago.
Back at the apartment, Angela drags the Christmas tree outside, then cleans up its remains with the vacuum as Tommy hides and peeks his head out from behind the wall to see it in action.
Margaret, meanwhile, lies awake in bed with her children, who are sleeping.
Nucky heads back to the hotel, gets into the elevator and turns to see his own dirty footprints all over the otherwise pristine lobby floor.
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