Off The Reel

Boardwalk Empire Season 2 Episode 11 Recap

Posted by Lauren, Posted on December 07, 2011

How should I start this week’s recap? Oh, I know: ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww. We all kind of knew it was coming, but I don’t think we expected it to really happen, did we? This episode was all about Jimmy, and rightly so. I mean, his wife was just murdered along with her lesbian lover. It wouldn’t be right if they didn’t dedicate some time to explore Jimmy’s emotions.

I particularly enjoyed the flashbacks to Jimmy’s time at Princeton. That’s where he met Angela, who also announced her pregnancy at Princeton. Jimmy actually seemed quite pleased to become a father and start a life with Angela—that is, until his mother came and messed up everything.  First, you could sense her disapproval of Jimmy’s girlfriend for stealing her son’s affections, then, when both mother and son are sufficiently drunk, she took advantage of her motherly influence. Their inappropriate relationship jumped far across the line of what’s acceptable. Their act of incest wasn’t surprising; but that didn’t make it any less disturbing to watch. The next morning, Jimmy dropped out of school to join the army and fight in WWI. So, that explains it.

Back in the original timeline, Jimmy returns to Atlantic City to deal with the aftermath of Angela’s death. Gillian’s not very accommodating to her son’s grief, and talks of Angela’s murder have but a minor setback in Jimmy’s rise to power. Jimmy attacks his mother when she suggests that in a month little Tommy won’t even remember Angela. The Commodore, in turn, attacks Jimmy to spare Gillian. Father and son go at it, resulting with Jimmy stabbing the Commodore in self-defence. It’s Atlantic City’s version of Oedipus Rex.

The other plots in this episode took a backseat to the Jimmy business. I liked not having a cluttered episode with too many subplots to follow; this week was pretty simple. Margaret and Owen had their sexual tension, with a jealous Katy overhearing their conversation. Margaret still believes that polio can be caused by sins, and almost came clean to Nucky about sleeping with Owen.

Nucky is still trying to get the election rigging charges dropped. He gets a little help from an African-American servant who witnessed Van Alden, who was going to testify, drowning a man last season. Van Alden also helps Nucky by causing a gun to misfire, wounding Ester Randolph’s partner in the process. Nucky still has to deal with Margaret, whose guilt is leading her towards testifying against the man who pays her bills.

Yesterday in 1933 marked the end of Prohibition. Next week is the finale and the set-up couldn’t be more perfect. How do you think things will play out?

Boardwalk Empires airs Sundays at 9pm MT on HBO Canada.

Write A Review

To write a review please