"To the lost"
Dec. 13th, 2011 12:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaniI really liked the final of Boardwalk Empire's second season. There were terrific moments that made up for the few things that still don't work in the show.
I loved 5 wonderful scenes that were all key conversations:
- Manny's monologue that turned out to be a conversation with Nucky.
- Nucky and Jimmy in Jimmy's house
- Nucky and Eli at Eli's. The "Et tu Eli" and Eli not getting the Shakespeare's reference was priceless (and Nucky's reaction!), especially his "There's a character named Eli in Julius Ceasar?"
- Maragaret and Miss Randolph
I also liked the montage and the parallel between two marriages made out of necessity: Margaret and Nucky; Van Alden and the nanny. That said, it can't compete with the Eros/Thanatos montage in the pilot of Caprica!
And there was Jimmy Darmody's death. It coloured the whole finale, made it special.
It's funny because I didn't like Jimmy at first but he had grown on me. I had come to feel for this guy but his exit made sense for there was nothing left to do with the character after this season. They wrote him into a corner when he teamed up with the Commodore and betrayed Nucky. After his failure as "king" and his losing Angela, the character was done, they had to let him go, and as Jimmy said himself, he died in the trenches years ago, so it was fitting.
Being a WWI was what had defined Jimmy on the show from day one, he "got his gun" and was forever damaged after that. The whole family background with the Commodore and the incest only added to the tragedy. I don't think that people realise how damaged WWI veterans were, not only the "gueules cassées" but also the ones who came back without facial injuries.
So I took his death as a satisfying conclusion to the character's tragic arc, and I didn't find it shocking for it was telegraphed throughout the episode: his making peace with Nucky, his accounting his debt to Chalky, his reaction to the Commodore's will and comments on how everything would go to his son, his preparing his son for the future( telling him that he didn't need to tell "MeeMa" about his secret place...). It was even hinted at before the episode (through Richard's suicide attempt in the woods!). It made a lot of sense.
Actually, Jimmy's tragic fate reminded me of Franck Sobotka's end in The Wire (I loved that episode!). The only difference being that Jimmy seemed too much of a main character to be killed off, while Sobotka looked dispendable in th world of The Wire.
BTW I never disliked Gillian more than when she found out Jimmy's military tags on her grandson and understood that Jimmy went out to die but she just "moved on" to the next generation, telling to Tommy that soon he will be the city's big man like his father, while Richard's distress was so palpable on screen. They both knew at that moment but Richard looked the most shaken.
Now about Nucky's character...I have heard complaints and I understand them. Nucky was more endearing and interesting before. Now he just looks like a villain. Smart but lacking charisma and not "grey" enough anymore. He has become like Rosthein, except that Arnold steals every scene he is in because he is super charismatic.
It's like they are re-inventing Nucky under our eyes. Or are they?. Could it be that his "you never did" (know me) was actually directed to the audience. We didn't know the real Nucky until now.
I'm curious about how they are going to make season 3 work with a less ambiguous Nucky. How are they going to make him compelling enough to watch.
Same with Margaret. She used to be so interesting and promising in season 1, but since the polio thing her character has become a bore. Her last machiavelian move, signing out all that Nucky had passed to her, to the church could be the character's salvation though. But it sounds like they are changing her too. Now Nucky vs Catholic Church? Not sure I would bet my money on Nucky!
The new world of Boardwalk Empire is a world that has lost its innocence. It's gone. Gone with baby-faced Jimmy Darmody, gone with Emily's healthy legs, gone with sweet Angela and her dreams of beauty, gone with Van Alden's righteousness, gone with Nucky's remorses over his late wife and their dead baby(and how fitting that Jimmy committed suicide by Nucky!), gone with brotherhood's loyalty.
Richard Harrow already knew that this was the new world they lived in, the post-WWI world, but Jimmy and Angela made him believed otherwise for a little while.
Will he do what Jimmy asked him to, and go home now? He never actually promised on screen that he would, and I think that for Richard there's no home to go back to. Besides he's probably the character the viewers love the most so I bet he will stick to AC in season 3. Watching over Tommy and Gillian perhaps.
Am I the only one who found that the holes on Richard's mask (courtesy of the dog in the woods) were more visible in this episode, and kinda foreshadowed the holes in Jimmy's face in the end?
I loved 5 wonderful scenes that were all key conversations:
- Manny's monologue that turned out to be a conversation with Nucky.
- Nucky and Jimmy in Jimmy's house
- Nucky and Eli at Eli's. The "Et tu Eli" and Eli not getting the Shakespeare's reference was priceless (and Nucky's reaction!), especially his "There's a character named Eli in Julius Ceasar?"
- Maragaret and Miss Randolph
I also liked the montage and the parallel between two marriages made out of necessity: Margaret and Nucky; Van Alden and the nanny. That said, it can't compete with the Eros/Thanatos montage in the pilot of Caprica!
And there was Jimmy Darmody's death. It coloured the whole finale, made it special.
It's funny because I didn't like Jimmy at first but he had grown on me. I had come to feel for this guy but his exit made sense for there was nothing left to do with the character after this season. They wrote him into a corner when he teamed up with the Commodore and betrayed Nucky. After his failure as "king" and his losing Angela, the character was done, they had to let him go, and as Jimmy said himself, he died in the trenches years ago, so it was fitting.
Being a WWI was what had defined Jimmy on the show from day one, he "got his gun" and was forever damaged after that. The whole family background with the Commodore and the incest only added to the tragedy. I don't think that people realise how damaged WWI veterans were, not only the "gueules cassées" but also the ones who came back without facial injuries.
So I took his death as a satisfying conclusion to the character's tragic arc, and I didn't find it shocking for it was telegraphed throughout the episode: his making peace with Nucky, his accounting his debt to Chalky, his reaction to the Commodore's will and comments on how everything would go to his son, his preparing his son for the future( telling him that he didn't need to tell "MeeMa" about his secret place...). It was even hinted at before the episode (through Richard's suicide attempt in the woods!). It made a lot of sense.
Actually, Jimmy's tragic fate reminded me of Franck Sobotka's end in The Wire (I loved that episode!). The only difference being that Jimmy seemed too much of a main character to be killed off, while Sobotka looked dispendable in th world of The Wire.
BTW I never disliked Gillian more than when she found out Jimmy's military tags on her grandson and understood that Jimmy went out to die but she just "moved on" to the next generation, telling to Tommy that soon he will be the city's big man like his father, while Richard's distress was so palpable on screen. They both knew at that moment but Richard looked the most shaken.
Now about Nucky's character...I have heard complaints and I understand them. Nucky was more endearing and interesting before. Now he just looks like a villain. Smart but lacking charisma and not "grey" enough anymore. He has become like Rosthein, except that Arnold steals every scene he is in because he is super charismatic.
It's like they are re-inventing Nucky under our eyes. Or are they?. Could it be that his "you never did" (know me) was actually directed to the audience. We didn't know the real Nucky until now.
I'm curious about how they are going to make season 3 work with a less ambiguous Nucky. How are they going to make him compelling enough to watch.
Same with Margaret. She used to be so interesting and promising in season 1, but since the polio thing her character has become a bore. Her last machiavelian move, signing out all that Nucky had passed to her, to the church could be the character's salvation though. But it sounds like they are changing her too. Now Nucky vs Catholic Church? Not sure I would bet my money on Nucky!
The new world of Boardwalk Empire is a world that has lost its innocence. It's gone. Gone with baby-faced Jimmy Darmody, gone with Emily's healthy legs, gone with sweet Angela and her dreams of beauty, gone with Van Alden's righteousness, gone with Nucky's remorses over his late wife and their dead baby(and how fitting that Jimmy committed suicide by Nucky!), gone with brotherhood's loyalty.
Richard Harrow already knew that this was the new world they lived in, the post-WWI world, but Jimmy and Angela made him believed otherwise for a little while.
Will he do what Jimmy asked him to, and go home now? He never actually promised on screen that he would, and I think that for Richard there's no home to go back to. Besides he's probably the character the viewers love the most so I bet he will stick to AC in season 3. Watching over Tommy and Gillian perhaps.
Am I the only one who found that the holes on Richard's mask (courtesy of the dog in the woods) were more visible in this episode, and kinda foreshadowed the holes in Jimmy's face in the end?