- Nucky goes to Belfast and offers to trade the IRA machine guns for whiskey, Waxy Gordon plans revenge against Manny Horvitz, and Jimmy enjoys his new status as AC boss.
- Nucky arrives in Belfast with a coffin; he's come to bury his father. While there, he meets with John McGarrigle to make an offer. McGarrigle balks at doing business with Nucky and may favor a deal with the Brits. At home, Emily has fallen ill. Jimmy serves up Manny Horvitz to Waxey Gordon. Chalky gives the word for Black workers to walk off their jobs. U.S. Assistant District Attorney Esther Randolph is interested in Nucky's father's funeral, and with Jimmy in the radio audience, Jack Dempsey enters the fourth round of his fight against Georges Carpentier. Is Jimmy Nucky's Carpentier or is Randolph Nucky's Dempsey?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
- Arriving in Belfast, Nucky and Owen meet with IRA leaders with a barter proposition. Meanwhile, in Atlantic City, Jimmy and his partners broker a deal with George Remus for his "medicinal" alcohol before taking a break to see/hear the Dempsey fight. Margaret frets when Emilyʼs illness takes a turn for the worse; Dunn Purnsley orchestrates a workerʼs strike at the Ritz; Waxey Gordon takes action against Manny Horvitz in Philadelphia; Randolph and Clifford Lathrop grill Halloran about Nuckyʼs past.—HBO Publicity
- Nucky and Owen arrive in Belfast, ostensibly to bury Nucky's father "in the land of his birth." The customs agent asks, "Accident?" Nucky corrects him, "Natural causes." Only for the customs agent to clarify he's asking about Nucky's bandaged hand, to which Nucky claims he got it "caught in the wrong cookie jar."
After checking their documents, the agent lets them through, officially welcoming them to "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland," looking Owen in the eye as he says it. Owen doesn't seem too pleased by this, but manages to utter a "God save the king".
Back in Atlantic City, Margaret gets a telegram reporting Nucky's safe arrival. Katy is standing by and is in awe that the trip took just six days, to Margaret's annoyance. Emily isn't feeling well and tells Margaret she can't move her legs. Margaret asks her to wiggle her toes. When she can't, Margaret yells to Katy to call the doctor.
A meeting takes place at Jimmy's house, comprised of Jimmy, Al Capone, George Remus (Glenn Fleshler), Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano and Mickey Doyle (Paul Sparks) (who's wearing a neck brace from when Jimmy threw him from the nightclub mezzanine). Jimmy explains he's using his house as a temporary office, while silently puzzled by Remus's third person-speech habits. Remus can sell the liquor that Jimmy desperately needs since he has government-bonded whiskey he is licensed to sell "strictly for medicinal purposes". However, due to government regulations, he can only sell his liquor to legitimate drug companies only, although once the alcohol is sold, that's when he is absolved of all liabilities. As for the selling price, Jimmy, Capone, Mickey, Lucky and Meyer are all willing to pay $60,000 each; $300,000 for 5,000 cases. Remus agrees to the deal.
After Remus leaves, Mickey calculates that this liquor will be worth at least $3 million. Lucky and Meyer bring up Manny Horvitz and the money Jimmy owes him. They think it would be best for Jimmy to simply pay him, while Mickey suggests cutting Manny a share of the profits. The meeting adjourns, with everyone but Jimmy heading to Jersey City for the Dempsey fight. They encourage Jimmy to go but he says he's going to listen on the radio. He tells Al, "Darmody wants to see what all the fuss is about."
Back in Belfast, Nucky meets with John McGarrigle in a funeral parlor basement. He opens the casket he brought with him to reveal it's full of Thompson submachine guns, his "donation to the rebellion" as it were. He has a dozen of them, plus a 50-round drum magazine for each. He has 3,000 more sitting in the cellar at the Atlantic City armory waiting to be sold, and he is willing to sell them for all the Irish whiskey that McGarrigle can provide. McGarrigle isn't happy about the offer, as he makes clear to Owen, but promises to bring the matter up with his superiors. Owen assures an annoyed Nucky that McGarrigle "is a flinty ol' geezer, make no mistake," but Nucky is not convinced.
Back in America, we see Ethan Thompson's actual funeral, where Clifford Lathrop (Curt Bouril), Esther Randolph's aide, is watching from afar with binoculars.
Dr. Sorren checks Emily and calmly turns to Margaret to ask if Teddy also sleeps in the same room. When Margaret says yes, he tells her to send Teddy away, immediately. Margaret thinks it's polio and Dr. Sorren confirms she has all the symptoms and will need to be quarantined at the children's hospital. Margaret is shaken and tells the doctor she can't drive, so he'll have to take them.
In the kitchen at the Ritz, Chalky's former cellmate Dunn Purnsley (Erik LaRay Harvey) -- still sporting some swelling on his face from the beating he took from the other cellmates loyal to Chalky -- is washing dishes and getting yelled at by a hostile white manager. The staff is fed slop for lunch and Dunn makes an issue of it as he tries to rally up the other black workers to join him in striking. He claims he sees room service leftovers come back all day that get tossed without being eaten, and they have a right to the white customers' leftovers. In fact, the jails he's been in provide better food. The manager comes back around and threatens to have Dunn fired.
At the hospital, a doctor is preparing to do a spinal tap on Emily to confirm the diagnosis. Emily's screams bring Margaret to tears.
Lathrop shares a bed with Esther Randolph (Julianne Nicholson) who's enjoying a post-coital cigarette. She opens up Van Alden's file on Nucky and asks Lathrope if Nucky strikes him as a murderer. Lathrope blows off Van Alden's work, saying he's got Nucky "ordering 12 homicides with no proof," and Randolph adds, "including his mistress' husband." When Lathrope questions putting Van Alden on the stand, Randolph believes he'll be handy for the Volstead violations, and she tells Lathrope to keep Van Alden away from small children and nursing mothers. The talk changes to Nucky's father's funeral, and Randolph notes Nucky's dad is being buried in Belfast. Lathrope finds this odd, considering what he's observed of the actual funeral. Since Randolph granted Nucky the okay to travel, she tells Lathrope to bring Eli in for questioning, or at least Ray Halloran. "Belfast," she says. "God only knows what he's doing over there."
What Nucky is doing over there is demonstrating the firepower of the Tommy gun on an unfortunate grandfather clock several yards away. A man asks if he, Mr. Thompson, invented the Thompson gun, and Nucky clarifies it's "just a happy coincidence." McGarrigle arrives at the display and announces that the British have offered to negotiate a truce. He claims that they're offering a free state and one man objects, saying, "That's not independence." He reminds the group that their oath was to fight "to the bitter end." After McGarrigle leaves, another man turns to Nucky and says McGarrigle's youngest son was shot and killed last month, and this has changed his beliefs.
In Atlantic City, Richard Harrow asks Jimmy again about their conversation at Babette's, where Jimmy said Richard would settle down and meet a nice girl. Richard asks why Jimmy made fun of him, but Jimmy looks him squarely and says he wasn't.
Waxey Gordon (Nick Sandow) shows up and the conversation quickly turns to Manny Horvitz. Jimmy offers information about the two men Waxey lost recently escorting Luciano and Lansky. As for the man killed in the hijacking, Jimmy tells Waxey that Manny was responsible for their shootings, and also mentions how Herman was killed in Manny's shop. Waxey, incensed, decides that Manny needs to be killed, and assigns his associate Alfred to handle it.
Margaret is clearing out everything Emily has touched, and Katy burns it all outside. Teddy sees the fire and asks if Emily is "going to die like daddy." Margaret shouts, "No, and don't ever say that again." She then turns to see that one of the servants is leaving. She says she has her own children to worry about. Teddy looks back at the fire and focuses on one of Emily's dolls that is burning up.
In Belfast, Nucky tries the local whiskey with Fitzgerald, one of the rebels. The distillery business has dried up due to the revolution, the local economy and America's prohibition was the final nail in the coffin. Nucky asks Fitzgerald if he'd consider giving him 10,000 cases on consignment, but Fitzgerald thinks he'll be back in business if there's a peace agreement with Great Britain. Nucky can't wait for that. Fitzgerald regrets that he can't make a deal, and says he can't defy McGarrigle.
Deputy Halloran shows up to meet with Randolph, and he's surprised to see a female lawyer. Lathrope joins in on the questioning of Halloran, confusing him with references to Eli being both his boss and friend. Randolph gets to the night of the domestic disturbance between Hans Schroeder and Margaret, and the events surrounding Schroeder's deaths. Ray is confused, thinking he's being interviewed about the election rigging. Lathrope assures Halloran that they're not after him, they're after the men who ordered him to do things like kill Schroeder. Realizing what they're trying to do, Halloran refuses to answer any further questions and leaves.
Dunn pays Chalky a visit in his woodshed. They agree they got off on the wrong foot in jail, but everything's good now. Chalky alludes to having gotten Dunn the job at the Ritz, and that he'll soon go home to Baltimore with money in his pocket and gold teeth in his mouth. Chalky asks if he's got news regarding Dunn's efforts to provoke a mutiny amongst the Ritz' black workers, to which Dunn assures him things have reached a boiling point and are waiting for the opportunity to move.
Nucky has dinner with McGarrigle, who's still questioning the arms-for-whiskey proposal and Nucky wonders aloud if McGarrigle can really afford to send him home empty-handed. He lists off the recent moves Britain has made, including landing another 15,000 troops on Irish soil and threatening martial law, that should make McGarrigle think twice about passing up weaponry. McGarrigle is willing to risk his people for peace. Nucky reminds McGarrigle that he came to him in his time of need and Nucky helped without hesitation, so a little quid pro quo would go a long way. McGarrigle gets all up in Nucky's face about whether he'll think about the thousands of men who'll be killed with the guns Nucky provides, and so on, and Nucky is fed up. He leaves, warning McGarrigle that there are many others like him that people like McGarrigle will turn to in times of crisis.
McGarrigle stops Owen before he follows Nucky out the door and asks what his business is with Nucky. Owen affirms that he's simply doing as he's been told, and the pay is worth it. McGarrigle wants Owen to stay, to which Owen counters he's "no peacemaker."
In Philadelphia, Manny Horvitz is counting cash in his shop when a man knocks on the door, claiming he has an emergency and needs a couple of chickens. Manny tells him he's closed, but finally relents and opens the door. This turns out to be a mistake, for the man in question is being used as bait to lure him into a trap. The moment Manny opens the door, the bait runs off, at which point Alfred emerges and shoots Manny in the shoulder with a shotgun. A struggle ensues as Manny tries to close the door, eventually punching a hole through the glass in order to pull Alfred inside. The struggle continues until Manny gets an opening, at which point he grabs a meat cleaver from the chopping block and sinks it into Alfred's skull. As he composes himself, Manny sifts through Alfred's pockets and finds a matchbook from Heilig's Chop House in Atlantic City. He instantly realizes that Jimmy was the one responsible for hiring the assassin.
Back in the Ritz kitchen, Dunn starts talking to the other workers about how the place is taking them for granted. One man thinks there's nothing to be done about it, until Dunn suggests that they all collectively refuse to work, which will force the managers to change their tune. When the manager returns and tells the men to get back to work, the mutinying workers begin slamming dishes and throwing food at him.
Nucky prepares to leave and says goodbye to. He's surprised to see Bill, one of the older Irish men who'd hosted him, in his car. McGarrigle asks Bill to make sure Nucky gets to the port safely. As they drive away, Nucky snaps his neck back as assassins gun down McGarrigle. Bill has no reaction. Stone-faced and without even turning toward Nucky, Bill informs him, "You deal with me now. A thousand machine guns for 10,000 cases of whiskey." He finally turns to Nucky, who says nothing in response and gives the ever-slightest nod.
A whole crowd is listening to the Dempsey-Carpentier fight, and Jimmy is among them. Sitting next to Richard, Jimmy looks nervous as a man approaches. The man hands Jimmy a note that reads, "Watching you closely." Jimmy looks up and two ladies walk toward him. They come to sit next to him, sending another man out of his seat.
Margaret is desolate, sitting in the hospital hallway as doctors and nurses are also listening to the fight. Despite having been told she can't see Emily because of how contagious polio is, Margaret steps across the hallway and opens the door to the quarantine room. She goes inside and there are at least a dozen children on beds in the room. She sits next to her ailing daughter. She strokes Emily's hair and says, "Forgive me for what I've brought upon you." She then lays down next to Emily in the bed and hugs her.
The girls talk Jimmy up and after he asks if he knows them, one of them says, "Everybody knows who the new king is." The other woman says she's going to be first, and plants a kiss on Jimmy. The other girl goes in to kiss Jimmy, as well, and freezes when she sees Richard's face. Jimmy puts his arm around Richard and says, "He's with me."
"What the hell?" the girl says. "Something to talk about when we're old." And she goes around Jimmy to sit next to and kiss Richard while Jimmy gets into some pretty intense action of his own.
Owen brings Nucky two telegrams at the port and Nucky asks him if "they" told him the ambush on McGarrigle was going to happen. Owen says nothing he could say was going to stop them, to Nucky's displeasure. They walk toward the ship and Owen reads the messages. The first is from Nucky's lawyer: "Forget Dempsey. Judge set trial date, August 23. Let the real battle begin." The next one, from Margaret: "Come home, E...." He stops reading and stops walking. Nucky looks back. Owen finishes, "Emily has polio." Nucky is stunned and they continue walking toward the waiting steamship.
The end credits roll to the sounds of the end of the Dempsey-Carpentier fight. Carpentier goes down for an eight count but is soon down again after a left uppercut to the jaw. The 10-count is done, and, at 1 minute, 16 seconds into the fourth round, Dempsey has knocked out Carpentier to remain the heavyweight champion of the world.
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