“I’m dying. There’s no time to be sentimental.’ – Kaestner
“Belle Femme” highlighted two very important aspects about Nucky Thompson’s (Steve Buscemi) reign over Atlantic City. The first is that it is immensely powerful. The second is that as powerful as he is, it can all crumble in an instant.
Let’s examine the first aspect, well, first. Jimmy (Michael Pitt) returns to act as Nucky’s second-in-command of sorts, but is almost immediately arrested by Van Alden (Michael Shannon) just as he is bringing Lucky Luciano (Vincent Piazza) to somewhere that “no one will find him.” Jimmy seems confident during his interrogation with Van Alden, but when he realizes that Billy the Witness is working with the feds. But Nucky assures him that he will have no worries and low and behold, Van Alden’s partner is apparently on the take and assassinates Billy while ironically escorting him to a safer jail.
In a less violent showing of power, Nucky becomes concerned that a new reformer mayoral candidate will clean a corrupt house and become a thorn in Nucky’s side. Kaestner (Dabney Coleman), closer to death every day, suggests replacing the incumbent mayor with a new Republican candidate, which Nucky promptly does, offering the position to a construction contractor who understands that he wont have any real power, but it could definitely help his business.
Alas, though, Nucky’s power is only as strong as what he’s aware of. The D’Alessio brothers (along with their annoying cohort, Mickey Doyle) begin working with Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg) to start importing real, honest-to-god <em>good</em> scotch from Europe. They need the Atlantic City harbor to make the process work. Normally Nucky would be offered a cut, but Rothstein was spurned by Nucky in the past and Rothstein simply wants him eliminated. And he almost gets his wish: on the crowded boardwalk, late in the evening, one of the D’Alessios pulls a gun on Nucky, but Kessler, of all people, is able to push the man away before Nucky is hit. Instead, an innocent woman takes the bullet and Kessler is able to fire his own shot into the assassin’s leg in return.
Again, with a violent weakness of Nucky’s comes a less violent one. While the mayoral race an issue, Nucky can’t forget about his own re-election campaign approaching. Knowing that the Nineteenth Amendment is likely to be passed, he turns to Margaret (Kelly Macdonald) to help sway the future women voters to side with the Republican party, realizing that public speaking is her strength following her conversation with Senator Edge on Nucky’s birthday. But no favor comes free, even if Nucky thinks it does. Margaret agrees to help with Nucky’s campaign, but only if he helps Madame Jeunet keep her haute couture afloat. The caveat is that she lies to Nucky and says she wants Jeunet still in business because she is an asset fashionably. But deep down, she’s manipulating Nucky — as well as Madame Jeunet. Knowing that she is the sole reason Madame Jeunet is able to stay in business, Margaret all but forces her former employer to supply her with free merchandise, even going so far as to ask for a dress instead of accepting one for her daughter.
All in all, “Belle Femme” was a Nucky-heavy episode with even the subplots that didn’t concern him directly (i.e. Jimmy and Angela’s strange relationship) featuring his presence anyway. And now with only three episodes left, it will be interesting to see how the man in power maintains that power, now that he knows just how serious some of the threats against him really are.
Lingering thoughts about “Belle Femme”:
* Jimmy has two conditions upon his return: 1.) Richard Harrow is allowed to come join their ranks. 2.) Every conversation Nucky and Jimmy have about the business, stays between them.
* Kaestner’s second piece of advice to Nucky is to replace his brother as county sheriff. As if on cue, Eli’s second-in-command, Halleran, seems ready to take over — at least in his mind.
* Apparently Angela’s relationship with Mary, the photographer’s wife, was also soon to include the photographer as well, that is before Jimmy returns. As the shutterbug puts it, “Everyone in Paris is doing it.”
* I have to wonder how far the writers of Boardwalk Empire will go to stick to a relatively honest historical structure. Jimmy was about to whack Luciano before Van Alden stopped him. In real life, Luciano lived until 1962. Does he get an automatic free-pass for surviving beyond the timeline of the show? And if so, does that take away any of the suspense?
* Nan Britton is nuts.
* Who else expected Harrow to snipe Billy the Witness as the Van Alden’s partner pulled over?
* “You have power you do not suspect.” – Madame Jeunet
* “I find Nucky Thompson to be greedy and unreasonable.” – Rothstein
* “If we only elected good men, we’d never have leaders.” – Nucky
* “I’m dying. There’s no time to be sentimental.” – Kaestner
* “My daughter didn’t help you, Madame Jeunet. I did.” – Margaret
Some stats and info about Boardwalk Empire, “Belle Femme”
TV SHOW – Boardwalk Empire
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1 Episode 9
AIRED ON – November 14th, 2010
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – HBO/Max
GENRE – Drama, Crime Dramas, Period Show
CREATED BY – Terence Winter
CAST – Steve Buscemi,Kelly Macdonald, Michael Shannon, Shea Whigham,Stephen Graham, Vince Piazza, Michael Kenneth Williams, Paul Sparks, Grechen Mol, Michael Stuhlbarg, Anthony Laciura, Jack Huston, Anatol Yusef
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.