Boardwalk Empire Review: “King of Norway” (5×05)

How do you know what you are? That’s the question that the asylum’s doctor levels at Gillian Darmody, who claims to recognize the insanity that overtook her, and to have now overcome it. It ironically is the most rational we have seen her in quite some time. But the doctor doesn’t believe her. There must be something inside her, and they will find it and get it out. How do you know what you are? It’s a question that’s come up again and again throughout this season, and really, throughout the series. Is Nucky a gangster or isn’t he? He was supposed to have proven it by murdering Jimmy, but he’s in just as much doubt now as ever. Chalky is convinced that he’s unfit as a husband and father, a criminal to the bone—but surely he’s better than that? Van Alden has been living under an assumed name for years, long enough perhaps to have forgotten his true self. How do you know what you are?

Throughout “King of Norway,” it becomes increasingly obvious (if it wasn’t already perfectly plain) that Terence Winter and company are setting up a very long story in this final season. A smaller episode order and an impending finale are of no concern. On almost any other show, this downright luxurious pace would be a concern; but “King of Norway” proceeds with such confidence, such conviction in its own storytelling, that it’s basically impossible to do anything but look on, mesmerized, and wonder just how the hell this is all going to come together.

The plot may be running itself in circles now, creating new tangles and heretofore unseen complications, but unlike other shows (and, perhaps, unlike earlier seasons of this show), these are not stalling tactics, are not unlikely or even outright impossible complications that exist purely to extend narrative and mark time. Each and every complication is borne of character, borne of a decision made years ago, that only now is rearing its head and revealing its consequences.

This week Chalky returns to Atlantic City, and not a moment too soon. He stops to see Nucky first, but he has just one goal: to find and kill Narcisse. Michael Kenneth Williams remains one of the show’s greatest assets (though really, every actor on the bench is an asset), delivering his lines with a flat, hopeless affect that still does not hide the bloodlust boiling just below the surface. Nucky senses it, too. He offers Chalky money, “between friends,” and wonders why Chalky won’t return to his family. But Chalky knows better than Nucky, knows there is no going back to family after what he’s wrought. And yet, when he does arrive at Narcisse’s at episode’s end, he finds himself face to face not with the man himself, but with Daughter Maitland. Family, of whatever kind, is not so easily abandoned.

Obviously, the gangster life has done a number on all of the family units in this show, and not just Chalky’s. Nelson Van Alden’s family is a farce, invented to better hide himself as George Mueller, but even now, after living more or less comfortably in this invented skin for the better part of a decade, it’s past indiscretions that come forth to tear everything down. Sigrid’s revelation that she and Eli, “we fuck,” as she so elegantly states it, is crushing, especially since June is pregnant with yet another Thompson child. Sigrid’s quiet tension looms over the dinner table until finally she explodes, but her revelation coincides with another, even more dangerous one, as the feds from a couple weeks back have tracked down Eli and Van Alden, and they know exactly who they are. Now, the two have become complicit in the scheme to take down Capone for tax evasion, and we’ve seen more than enough of Capone to know that there’s more blood on the horizon.

As for Nucky himself, he meets with Maranzano, warning him that Luciano is not to be trusted. Torrio, of course, knows this already, and soon bullets are flying at Nucky once more. For a man who’s spent his whole life trying “to get himself ahead,” to ingratiate himself to the right parties, he’s found himself a target an awful lot. The guard is changing, and so far Nucky has survived the slaughter of the men he ingratiated himself to, but not for long. This is a process that began years ago, with Jimmy Darmody. When the Commodore fell, he was merely the first. Luciano sees the opportunity to kill all of these old men, and take everything for himself. Nucky’s been on the outside long enough; he sees the plan, but now he’s out for blood. He’s already gotten himself ahead, as far as he’s concerned, and now he’s determined to stay put.

What “King of Norway” is, chiefly, is a tightening of the noose. Perhaps it comes too late in the season; and yes, too little actually happens in this episode, which feels mostly like a pivot upon which the season will ultimately turn, making Sally Wheat’s death last week simply the last overture of the preamble. It might seem that it’s pace slowly, but there are some major revelations that happen in this episode, major enough to send a clear signal: the time for playing out is over. All that’s left now is reckoning, and, perhaps, understanding, even a slightly better sense of who these people are. It’s the type of novelistic storytelling that Boardwalk excels at, and to have the conclusion in sight empowers that storytelling all the more.

Stray Observations

– The actor playing Nucky as a young adult does a literally pitch perfect impression of Steve Buscemi. The dead-on voice and mannerisms, and even the similar eyes and sunken cheeks, all contribute to an eerie verisimilitude.

– The flash of recognition Nucky has with young Joe Harper is the kind of small link that makes the flashbacks feel, if not worthwhile, at least intentioned. They jump forward in time this week, and in doing so, restore the momentum that had flagged a bit last week.

– Speaking of the flashbacks, surely they are building to a reveal involving Gillian, no?

– Sigrid Mueller is a treasure.

– Of the speculation that Joe Harper is in fact Tommy Darmody, I say: highly unlikely. It’s not the sort of game the show tends to play.