(treating this as life, vs. fiction, which needs conflict) Nucky’s biggest problem is that he is a poor manager, forgetting the fundamental truth that people need to be acknowledged. He is always shitty and dismissive towards his underlings, and that’s no way to endear them to you, that just makes them chafe…and side with the Commodore or urge people to kill you.
Quite an episode! I am wondering what Margaret confessed before her marriage!
And could she possibly believe his profession of all out love for her and her children, after the previous episode’s “You will not sacrifice me!”?
I also wonder exactly when she decided to donate the property to the church.
They showed exactly when she decided. She started to write Nucky’s name on the transfer deed and then crossed it out and wrote the name of the church. If she had decided at any time prior to that, she wouldn’t had to have crossed anything out.
Oh. Here I thought she started to write “Schroder” and crossed it out and wrote “Thompson” and then she boldly wrote the name of the church. For me, this is where I thought things would get dicey. As Schroder and a widow, she would be the clear owner of the property, and Nucky really wouldn’t have grounds as a common law relationship in those days would not be recognized.
But as Thompson I thought Nucky as her husband would easily have the authority to get her “committed” and then take over all rights to property as her guardian and husband. He could, I would think at least threaten that type of action against her. I could see her running to Fr. Brennan for assistance, and in turn the Church gets cozy with Nucky so that they all benefit.
Hm. Maybe I’m the one mis-remembering.
I’m not sure myself, but it’s how I started thinking about the significance of her widowed name versus her married name.
You’re both right.
I just looked and she does cross out “Sch” and writes “Thompson” but she didn’t boldly write the name of the church. Instead she winks and blinks in hesitation for a few seconds, as if thinking about it or even coming to the conclusion to do it, then writes the church’s name.
Thanks for that. I don’t have it on playback.
I just read that the next season will jump ahead 16 months. I don’t know why I didn’t expect they’d jump ahead so far.
I want to see everyone’s reactions to Jimmy’s death and the land deed situation.
I really, really, REALLY don’t want this to become the Capone and Luciano show–but it’s inevitable. As a fan of True Crime, I know that all roads lead to Capone, and then the Mafia, the Commission, etc. etc.
So since the finale, one aspect of the ending has been puzzling me. Nucky saids “I’m not seeking forgiveness”. I don’t quite understand this statement. If anything, the entire episode was Jimmy making atonement for his wrongs against Nucky. If anyone was seeking forgiveness it was Jimmy, not Nucky. So I just don’t get what he meant here.
MeanJoe
I was wondering about that, too. Nucky might be talking for the benefit of Owen and Eli -he gives them both death stares afterwards- and I got the impression he was insinuating that he knows what they’ve done, and they should not do it again. But that doesn’t really jibe with the actual line.
Nucky was responding to what Jimmy was saying to him at that moment.
… and then? Nucky can still interecept it before she gives it to the church right? I don’t recall her putting it in a plate or under a door or anything.
I need to rematch it with this exchange in mind. My recollections from the first viewing is that Jimmy was talking to Nucky about how killing a man for the first time will hit him (48 hours of nausea, etc.). I don’t recall Jimmy discussing the morality of the action but I may have missed that.
Well, 48 hours of naseua would presumably be due at least in part to guilt. Not needing forgiveness is a way of saying he won’t feel guilty.
I think the wider meaning was that Nucky has been taking care of Jimmy for most of his life because he feels bad he facilitated his mothers rape. Obviously he’s over that now.
She called for the servant girl to take the deed to the church right then and there.
Kinda puzzled that people are positing there’s going to be some simple solution for Nucky to get the land back. It was the final scene of the season, I feel pretty confident that the writers are going to do more with it then just have Nucky point out that she didn’t fill out form 18-22-b and so he gets to keep the land on a technicality,. He may come up with a scheme to get the land back, but it’ll be something that takes more screen time then Nucky visiting the town clerks office and filing some paperwork.
Although I am not sure about that quote from Nucky, that line kind of reminded me of the exchange in the movie TOmbstone:
Doc Holliday: Make no mistake, it’s not revenge he’s after. It’s a reckonin’
I took this as a statement on religion, confession, redemption, etc… After his conversation with Margaret, stating his beliefs (or lack thereof), I assumed that Nucky was saying “I will have no guilt, I have no moral self, I have no moral authority…”
Exactly. I think it’s going to be some manoevering on Nucky’s part. The deed is Margarets until she decides to sign it back to Nucky, he reminded her to do it. I do think we’re going to see how the 1923 Catholic church gets it’s hands dirty negotiating with a gangster to get some taste of that land. Certainly Nucky isn’t above getting rid of Margaret, but I think it’s more interesting if she gets the threat of confinement in an asylum, and if Fr. Brennan pulls church muscle, I’m sure Nucky will respond. Neither Political types or the Church are above corruption.