'BOARDWALK EMPIRE' on HBO HD - Page 27

I agree about the new mistress and Margaret...Jimmy is missed.

Van Alden a.k.a. Agent Weird is annoying - in an excellent way, he's magnetic and steals every scene he's in.

Since Van Alden is not in Atlantic City anymore, I'm curious if he'll come back at some point. It would be interesting to see if he'll get involved again.

He's in Chicago...in the season premiere.

Not a problem. I like to be suprised. However, when the wife handed the butcher a new hat, I knew he was going to need a new head.

Margaret is so annoying, that said, she'll be around awhile since Nuck is going to off his new spiritual relief effort shortly. Van Alden looks to be getting involved in the Chiciago gangland fallout. Good news...he's arguably the craziest ganagster enforcer out there next to Richard...without an agenda. Shannon is a great actor. He makes you uncomfortable watching him. You might not like him, but you will be effected.

Can you explain what that was all about? Did this reference something from a prior episode? I assumed this was all about protection money.

Root was excellent in True Blood as one of the vamps.

Actually there have always been a certain percentage of law enforcement people who are simply there looking for an outlet for their homicidal rages. Van Alden falls into that group. Becoming a gangster is not a big leap for him, it'll be interesting to see if they take him there. He wasn't capable of being a crooked cop, he has to go all the way in one direction or the other. I'm betting he's headed for the dark side.

No doubt he will....at some point.

LOL.

+1000

Van Alden is an Extremist.
And because Extremists are unbalanced, they can flip from one end to the other rather quickly and without much warning.

Harry Daugherty is a high powered political fixer, who was Warren G. Harding's campaign manager and later his Attorney General. Because of increased scrutiny focused on him he has decided to use a middle man to handle receiving his payoffs. That man is Gaston Bullock Means (Stephen Root).

Michael Shannon, who plays Nelson Van Alden is one of my favorite character actors. He is a powerhouse performer. Although Van Alden has not only lost his job as a Treasury Department Prohibition Enforcement agent, is on the run for the murder of an underling, and has gone to Chicago, I agree that we will see more of him. I suspect that he will take the job offered to him by the flower shop owner who is trying to muscle in on some of Al Capone's territories. That way we will have not only the recently arrived Gaston Bullock Means to keep us entertained but can also continue to enjoy the antics of the equally weird and compelling Nelson Van Alden.

Yeah, I know. I felt bad for him when he didn't win that company bonus for making that sales quota.

Hm, good observation. I'll have to keep that in mind when I'm watching. I guess I find Val Alden so erratic so maybe that's why I'm having a hard time understanding what he's doing. But if he's to have this "wild card" factor, that does make the story much more interesting.

Me thinks that he will soon be carrying Tommy guns instead of irons in that case of his.

Agent Weird aka George Mueller aka Van Alden sure knew how to intimidate.....

His mean face even scared Al Capone in that flower shop.

I laughed when he mad dogged Capone. That was a good moment in that episode.

Psychos can be that way.

That was Dean O'Banion's flower shop. It wouldn't be wise for Van Alden to accept the job offer.

Was a job offer made?

100% agree, well acted as well

Very astute... someone knows their Chicago mob history. You are right about the wisdom of not accepting the job offer, but given Van Alden's circumstances and the shaft he just got regarding the sales bonus, the hand-writing is on the wall. I believe he WILL accept O'Banion's "job offer". Although he may want to "go straight" and stay under the radar, the latest episode underscored the fact that it is clear he is incapable of making an honest living (even when he does, he is robbed of the promised reward) and he is already on the wrong side of the law: wanted for the cold-blooded murder of an FBI agent in front of numerous witnesses (for which he would most certainly receive "the Chair"), as well as attempted murder, resisting arrest and being a fugitive. Sadly, becoming a hit-man/enforcer for O'Banion is just taking one more tragic step down the road he is already traveling that will end in mayhem and his eventual death.

His relationship with O'Banion won't last too long because O'Banion dies a gruesome death in 1924:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dion_O%27Banion

"On the morning of November 10, 1924, O'Banion was clipping chrysanthemums in Schofield's back room. Yale entered the shop with Torrio/Capone gunmen John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. When O'Banion attempted to greet Yale with a handshake, Yale clasped O'Banion's hand in a death grip. At the same time, Scalise and Anselmi fired two bullets into O'Banion's chest, two in his cheeks, and two in his throat. Dean O'Banion died instantly."

What a way to go! I am sure it will be interesting to see how the Boardwalk Empire deals with it and the fall out.

During the time Van Alden was a Prohibition Agent, he and his underlings, including the one he murdered, worked for the Bureau of Prohibition in the Treasury Department, not the FBI. The Prohibition Bureau was not transferred to the Justice Department until 1930 and did not become part of the FBI until 1933. I know, I know, that's a quibble worthy of the nerdiest poster on AVS but, sometimes, I just can't help myself.

A Breadschtick in a Bowtie... lol, such a goofball character.

looks like van alden is going to work for the mob anyway. walking into the florist when Capone was ready to ice him, this show keeps getting better each week.
I was PO'd at loosing deadwood but this made up for it. It's got everything, nothing is off limits! And killing main characters is so like this stuff happens in life.

look at you a breadstick in a bowtie-you pasty face c**ker! and you, like a feakin dentist"
It coulda been anything! a solvent-a tool- what else! I'll give you what else!

Now that's more like it....episode 3 has more action and tension.

More Van Alder and Harrow picks up the pace....

Nuck is feeling awful...as he should (wow, is Jimmy missed).

Gyp Rosetti continues to act irrational in a very entertaining way..

I like how Margreat manipulated the Church and Hospital to get what she wanted, looks like Nucky is rubbing off on her.

You are correct, it was late, I was tired and for the life of me I couldn't remember the Fedearl agency he was working for... I guess "Public Enemies" was floating around in my grey matter. One thing is for sure, Van Alden doesn't have a future selling door to door and after his razzing at the office and near arrest... the hand writing is on the wall = "flower shop" here he comes.

I'm thinking his first hand seeing of the corruption of the treasury agent who wanted payment of the fine on the spot...coupled with said agent telling him how poor of a salesman he must be when he opened his wallet..probably pushed him over the edge.

Michael Shannon and Bobby Canavale are fantastically creepy portraying 2 obviously complex, kooky characters.

Richard Harrow's motivation for killing Manny but NOT going after Nucky was so uncomplex and simple that it seemed to confuse Nucky.

Great episode.

Did you notice that he took his wife's advice on trying to smile when confronted with two uncomfortable situations (going out with co-workers, and the result of going to the speakeasy)?

Even though he is down on his luck, his current "wife" sure is an upgrade.

Well it's obvious that wife #2 is more...shall we say...hands on?

I'll say she is an upgrade. Now, if she would just give Van Alden a child like Lucy Danziger did and then stick with him, he might have a chance. Never mind, I can't imagine how things could ever work out for the terminally screwed up Van Alden. He's turned out to be infinitely resourceful at figuring out ways to put himself in a hole.

She already did. There are two cribs in the house, one for Lucy's baby and one for theirs together. The subtle differences in Van Alden's smile as the sequence progresses is genius. After all Nucky has seen and done, I am not understanding his lovestruck schoolboy act now, seems wildly out of character


Edited by Gandu - 10/1/12 at 9:22pm

Nucky is terribly depressed at having killed Jimmy, who was like a son to him. That is why he is also getting nightmares of harming his own son too. He cannot forgive "the betrayal" of Margaret, who he thought was "his rock" in the turbulent times around him. He is sticking to Billie like a love-sick puppy.

Ah, so there IS a 2nd kid ?!?! I THOUGHT she said that "he" was teething.....but wasn't sure if it was that Swedish {Insert country I can't remember right now} accent of hers or not. And I guess I wasn't paying attention to the visual cues to see a 2nd crib.