- Jimmy forges new relationships in Chicago; Nucky fetes a U.S. Senator; Chalky fingers a lynching suspect; Margaret and Lucy clash.
- While entertaining guests for his birthday party, Nucky makes it clear to invited guests Senator Edge and Jersey City mayor Frank "I am the law" Hague that he wants the highway funds earmarked for Jersey to come to the Atlantic City area as prospective tourists have no choice but to travel muddy dirt roads to the resort center. When Luciano has no luck finding Jimmy's whereabouts from wife Angela, he dispatches a subordinate to use draw him out into the open by disfiguring his prostitute mistress. Chalky tortures the Grand Ctclops of the local KKK chapter and discovers the Klan is not responsible for the lynching.—duke1029@aol.com
- We begin in Chicago, where Al Capone heads upstairs at the brothel where Jimmy is staying and in bed with Pearl, one of the prostitutes who works there. As a prank, Al decides to shoot a gun into the pillow next to Jimmy's ear, temporarily deafening him in that ear. After taking Jimmy's car keys, he leaves, being dismissive of Jimmy's cries of pain. As soon as Al is gone, Jimmy laments to Pearl that this arrangement isn't working.
In Atlantic City, Nucky practices his surprised face for his party. Eddie wants to go over the guest list for Nucky's birthday party. Gov. Edwards, a Democrat, is invited but won't come. Nucky calls invitees Sen. Edge and Mayor Hague "visiting royalty -- Edge, especially." Edge is the key to appropriations money Nucky wants. Nucky tells Eddie to make sure "everybody gets laid."
Edith is reading to Margaret a news story about a woman claiming to be Anastasia, the daughter of the Russian czar, after having escaped her family's mass killing. Margaret thinks the story is "like a fairy tale." She reads the story to her kids.
Back in Chicago, Jimmy decides to try to get to better know Pearl. She's from Wisconsin and wants to know whether Jimmy really went to college because Al always calls him "Princeton."
"Where I come from, some people had an idea of what I was supposed to be," Jimmy explains. He refers to Nucky as having played father figure, and says he's "kind of like Torrio is here. "That's over now." He said "that's a good question" when she asked him what his own idea was about what he's supposed to be. She tells Jimmy she's been reading his book, Sinclair Lewis' "Free Air." She says she's headed west like the character in the book. He says she's going to be "in the pictures." She says she might let him come with her, because she thinks he needs "taking care of."
In Atlantic City, Nucky demands that Eli work harder to find whoever's behind the attempt on Chalky. This is in no small part because Nucky is dependent on the black community, who make up 20% of Atlantic City's populace, as their vote is an essential means to keeping Republicans in office. And lynchings won't help keep Chalky under his control.
Back in Jimmy's old apartment, Tommy calls Jimmy's mother "Gillian," instead of "grandma." Angela notices and tells Gillian that most women are proud to be called grandma. Gillian replies, "Not while the peaches are still in season," and gives a little jiggle. Angela leaves for work.
There's a knock on the door of the apartment. It's Lucky Luciano and he asks if she's "Mrs. Darmody." She says yes. Lucky asks for Jimmy and after telling him Jimmy's not there, she says, "Maybe he's up your ass. Have you considered looking there?" She continues mocking him, saying, "The roughneck bit, is that what the little girls are going for these days?" She slams the door in his face.
A KKK meeting is going on where the "grand cyclops" is giving a speech about how it is their duty to eradicate black people. Eli and Halloran crash the meeting. After Halloran's initial reaction of shock over recognizing the "grand cyclops", Joseph Earl Dinler, as the owner of the hardware store where he shops, the two take Dinler into custody.
Lucky waits outside Jimmy's old apartment building and watches Gillian leave. He follows her down the street.
Back in Chicago, Al is telling a Greek restaurant manager that he has to buy alcohol from him now. When the man resists, Al beats him up. This bothers Jimmy, who watches the whole thing.
Nucky throws a fit after seeing lipstick on one of the glasses that was on a table setting for his birthday party. He yells at Eddie in front of the wait staff, then turns the whole table over, sending plates and glasses shattering all over the floor.
Eli begins interrogating Dinler, who is tied to a chair and refuses to talk, claiming he didn't kill Chalky's driver. Eli puts the man's hood over Dinler's face and leaves the room.
At the dress shop, Madame Jeunet gives Margaret orders to work that night and take a delicate dress to Lucy. She's going to wear it for a "surprise" at the party. Margaret is told to help Lucy into the dress and wait until she's done with this surprise.
In Chicago, Johnny Torrio is upset with Al for his aggressive approach to negotiation. Johnny gets up to leave, limping and saying his foot hurts. He leaves Al to negotiate with Charlie Sheridan, the leader of an Irish gang who's been supplying Greektown restaurants. Al is excited that he might soon be moving up. Jimmy gives Al some advice -- negotiate for a portion at a time rather than trying to take everything at once. Sheridan arrives and is upset that Torrio isn't there. Al starts the negotiation in his gruff fashion, telling Sheridan to get out of Greektown. When Sheridan agrees to negotiate, Al asks for 25 percent. When Sheridan accepts, Al raises it to 50. Sheridan says he doesn't want any problems. After Sheridan leaves, Al tells Jimmy, "I knew he'd cave."
"That's one way of reading it," Jimmy says.
Back in Atlantic City, Chalky gets his turn to interrogate Dinler. He sits down with the man, and begins to describe the story of his father, an accomplished carpenter in Texas who was hired by a rich white man to build large elaborate bookcases for his library. It was one of the most beautiful pieces of craftsmanship that he ever made. However, just a month later, some white men approached Chalky's dad with the promise another job, which turned out to be bait to lure him to a secluded tree where they lynched and killed him. To conclude his story, Chalky opens a leather satchel with his dad's tools. As for what he'll do with them, "Well, I ain't buildin' no bookcase."
Lucky watches the burlesque show where Gillian is the star. He's intrigued.
Sometime later, Chalky's efforts to interrogate Dinler are unsuccessful. And ultimately, he concludes that the Klan are innocent in this matter. As he explains to Eli, there's a point where if someone is refusing to budge from their original story, they're probably being truthful. And they passed that moment ten minutes ago. He leaves, handing Eli a handkerchief containing Dinler's severed finger -- a ring still on it.
Nucky arrives at his party and pretends to be surprised. He eats with the Commodore, Mayor Hague and Sen. Edge and they all laugh and joke about how ignorant women are. The senator says he's for the women's vote, "on the record."
Al and Jimmy get fitted for new suits. Jimmy seems to like the feel of it.
Margaret arrives at the party and Nucky sees her from across the way. He approaches and chats her up a bit. The mayor and senator walk by and Nucky introduces them to Margaret, noting that she's a member of the Women's Temperance League, which Sen. Edge calls "a fine organization."
Margaret explains she comes from a country where women already have the right to vote. "In fact, in most civilized countries, women are afforded that privilege."
The senator says the American system is "simply trying to protect women from the harsh truths of life."
After a little more back and forth, they jocularly agree to disagree and Margaret heads to the dressing room. Nucky stops Margaret on the way, though, and dances with her. They smile as they dance together and folks around them notice. After the dance, Margaret says the pleasure was all hers. Moments later, Lucy pops out of a cake lit with sparklers as everyone cheers. Nucky smiles, but briefly turns his gaze toward Margaret, who is now standing on a balcony behind Lucy.
Sheridan's men show up at the brothel, with his right hand man Liam asking for Al or Jimmy. When the madame tells him they aren't around, Liam asks for a girl Jimmy recommended and she points out Pearl, Jimmy's new girlfriend.
Nucky meets in a back room with Hague and Edge, asking for appropriations money to improve the roads to Atlantic City. Nucky gets frustrated and finally asks how much of a payoff they'll want to get the roads fixed. The mayor says he'll crunch some numbers and get back to him. The senator asks Eddie for a Pimms Cup, but Eddie says they're all out of Pimms. Nucky is upset by this, but Sen. Edge tells him to relax, noting that you can't have everything (a lesson he was trying to convey to Nucky about the road money).
Liam has a post-coital chat with Pearl and tells her Jimmy has "good taste." He asks her to come over so he can have one more look at her, "something to remember you by." He holds her face, and then abruptly slashes a massive gash down the center of her face with his knife. Pearl's screams are heard throughout the place, and the rest of Sheridan's group shoot the rest of the place up, wounding a guard sending everyone fleeing.
Margaret, still beaming from her fairy-tale dance with Nucky the night before, walks along the boardwalk and sees a newspaper headline that reads, "Russian Princess Revealed as Fraud." She looks sad as she continues walking.
Elias tells Nucky about Chalkie's run-in with the Klan guy. He asks if he should return the man's ring, "or is that adding insult to injury?"
Jimmy tries to visit Pearl, but the madame says she needs her sleep. He gives her flowers for Pearl. Jimmy looks inside the room and sees Pearl with her forehead wrapped.
Mickey Doyle meets with the D'Alessio brothers and chastises them for killing Chalky's driver by mistake. The brothers don't really care, figuring that Chalky got their message. Talk turns to money as they demand that Mickey give them the $7K he owes them. One of them wants to know where he'll get it from and Mickey tells them about a big money drop Nucky does on a regular basis.
Sen. Edge is in his office when a stack of crates from Nucky arrives. The crates are filled with Pimms, and there's a note from Nucky that reads, "I do expect to have everything."
Lucky waits outside the burlesque theater when Gillian sneaks up on him from behind and asks what he wants.
"I think you already know what I want," Lucky says.
"No, dear," Gillian replies. "I only know what I want."
She grabs him and they kiss. She tells him to meet her there after the last show, and she goes back inside.
Margaret stands inside the dress shop and sees Nucky and Lucy talking and laughing as they walk through the Ritz lobby. The boss tells her to report back to work at 9 a.m. for inventory. When the boss isn't looking, Margaret grabs a negligee from a hanger and stuffs it into her bag before leaving.
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