Boardwalk Empire Review: "Devil You Know" (5×06)

After five episodes of slow, careful build-up, Boardwalk Empire explodes into a violent burst of chaos. By the end of “Devil You Know,” we are careening full throttle into an all-out gang war, and all bets are off.

This is one of those episodes that will be judged primarily for one or two significant sequences, rather than as a whole episode. And given the events of two very important sequences this week, that judgment shouldn’t come as any shock.

We’ll get to those sequences momentarily, but first, let’s talk about Nucky. He drowns his grief in booze at a local dive bar, beats up an old drunk, gets blackout drunk himself, and is knocked unconscious by one of the women he tries to sleep with. Throughout the whole ordeal, he’s just slightly out of character—loud, boisterous, and quick to violence, he even acquits himself better in the barroom brawl than I ever would have thought possible. That’s all intentional, of course. Nucky is very lost following Sally’s death, and this episode lets him wallow in that. What “Devil You Know” also does, of course, is let Sally’s death stand in for the many, many other times that Nucky has cause the death of a partner or a loved one.

Specifically, this episode draws a direct parallel between Nucky’s guilt over Sally and his guilt over Gillian Darmody. It’s not the first time the season has applied its flashback structure in this way, but it’s certainly the most effective. As the episode cuts back and forth between Nucky’s stay at the bar and his time as deputy sheriff, seeking out a pickpocket along the boardwalk, the connection slowly reveals itself. By the time Joe Harper happens upon Nucky as he returns to consciousness, Nucky is reminiscing about Gillian himself, and he’s shouting at, but not to, Joe, “why would you trust me?” There’s more yet to go with regard to Gillian’s youth, but we already know the broad strokes, and it’s clearer now than ever that something awful looms.

Not that it takes any great leap of analysis to determine that, given what else goes down this week. I’ve talked circles around it enough, but suffice to say that if you haven’t watched yet, you won’t want to read on.

We good?

Because this week features the sudden deaths of two regular cast members, as the season arc kicks into high gear all at once, finally launching us into Luciano’s war with Nucky and setting up Capone’s downfall. When it’s not waxing philosophical over Nucky’s soul, “Devil You Know” presents the viewer with two sustained sequences, each featuring an interloper, caught entering a room he shouldn’t be in. Each sequence is beautifully shot and paced, maximizing the tension, simultaneously building to inevitable tragic climax, while also maintaining reasonable doubt—maybe, just maybe, the terrible thing that must happen won’t happen. There are two episodes left, after all.

The first of these sequences features Eli and Van Alden, and begins much like their previous outings this season, rooted firmly in buddy cop comedy territory. The plan they’ve cooked up with the feds in Capone’s crew is laughably bad, and mostly involved passing off a bag full of newspaper clippings as a drop-off, hoping no one notices, and then making off with Capone’s ledgers to boot. It is monumentally stupid, and it instantly fails. They nearly lie their way out of the situation, but just as the embedded fed is escorting them away, ostensibly to “take care of” them, but really to scrap the operation and cut them loose to safety, Capone himself arrives, and things go from bad to worse.

Capone’s interrogation of the two lasts minutes, and their feeble lie (they wanted to steal from Capone to help Van Alden’s wife at home) doesn’t have a hope of swaying Capone, who instead puts a gun to Van Alden’s head and accuses him once more of being a badge. And then, in a glorious burst of anger, Van Alden completely loses his shit, swats the gun away, and tackles Capone onto his desk, wrapping his hands around his neck. Michael Shannon lets completely loose in what turn out to be his final moments on the show, as Van Alden announces himself. I’m just going to leave the entire speech here, because it is awe-inspiring, a fearsome callback to the character’s earliest days on the show:

I am Nelson Kaspar Van Alden! I am a sworn agent of the United States Treasury, and I swear by Jesus, our lord, that JUSTICE will rain down upon you if it is the last—

It ends there, interrupted by a gunshot to the back of the head that takes a chunk of Van Alden’s face with it. Of the episode’s two deaths, this is the big shocker, even if was an historical impossibility for Van Alden to make it out of that room alive. After years of pretending to be George Mueller, the mewling, milquetoast iron salesman turned low-level gangster, Van Alden finally re-asserts himself and his purpose in life, even if it is, indeed, the last thing he does. It’s a fitting send-off for the character, even more so considering that his outburst lands the ledgers in Mike D’Angelo’s hands after all, turning the mission into an unlikely success.

The episode’s other death is, sadly, no surprise at all. Chalky White arrived at Narcisse’s last week fully expecting and intending to die, What he did not expect was to encounter Daughter Maitland, there with her daughter, Althea—and his, as well. They talk for a while, never directly to each other, but more at each other, each speaking about the other, in that elliptical way that defines their brief relationship. Narcisse joins them, and rather than have Chalky shot immediately, suggests that perhaps they all have some things to discuss. Jeffrey Wright and Michael Kenneth Williams both give quiet, subdued performances in these roles, and never more than in this scene have their similarities been quite so on display. There is rage simmering within both men, who, in another situation, may have been allies. But now they are too far gone, and each is well aware of it.

Ultimately, Narcisse cuts a deal with Chalky: Daughter’s freedom, in exchange for Chalky’s service. Chalky takes it, even though Daughter insists he cannot trust Narcisse. Chalky knows that, of course, but he sends her away anyway, and he steps outside with Narcisse, who is now in league with Luciano. As Narcisse leaves, Chalky calls after him, “Ain’t nobody ever been free.” For once, Narcisse has nothing to say; he leaves, replaced by five bodyguards who open fire on Chalky White in the alleyway, as Daughter’s voice sounds once more in his head, before the record scratches as the shots are heard. Another fitting send-off, a sad, heroic, inevitable conclusion to Chalky’s story. Whether Narcisse keeps his word or not, Chalky dies choosing to believe that he will, and that he has, at least in some small way, kept another daughter from the fate of his eldest. One can only hope that he’s right.

When Joel Harper brings Nucky back to the club, Mickey Doyle is gathering the troops, and he asks Nucky if they’re gearing up for a confrontation. Nucky looks down upon his army like he’s Henry V, and says, simply: “We are.” Of course they are. The wheels have been in motion for too long now, and with the deaths this week, war is the only option left. In many ways, the whole of Boardwalk has been an exercise of narrative inevitability, and that is on full display here, in the best way possible.

Boardwalk has an exceptionally strong history of final episodes, and this, as the beginning of the end, is no exception. It does double duty of tying up tertiary arcs, while also setting the final confrontation into motion. That it manages to combine those plot necessities, while also maintaining suspense even in the face of historical certainty, is a feat not to be underestimated. This is easily a season-best, even series-best episode, making sense not just of this season’s arc to date, but of several season-long arcs as well. Stunning television this week from Howard Korder and team, and the clearest sign yet that their endgame is one worth sticking around for.

Stray Observations:
– I rejected the Tommy Darmody theory last week, and I continue to think that the show is throwing red herrings at us with regard to this. That said: Joel’s weird reaction to Micky’s “your mother” joke, and the way he reacts when Nucky is babbling to Gillian in his mind, are certainly evidence for it. If that eleventh hour reveal is on the way, it will at least have been foreshadowed—but I still don’t think it’s going to happen. Thematically, he might as well be Tommy, but it’s not generally the sort of thing the show will make literal.

– What happens with Eli now? I doubt we have seen the last of him, but he also doesn’t have a very solid reason for heading back to Atlantic City.

– Young Nucky hates the nickname, bestowed upon him by the Commodore and co. And yet it stuck with him his entire life.

– Margaret is absent from this episode, which has me wondering what her role in the final two episodes will be. Of course, now there’s much more room for the other characters.

– The casting for the flashbacks continues to be impeccable: Ryan Dinning is a dead ringer for Shea Whigham.