Raise your hand if you didnt seethatcoming!
In the wake of last weeks mind-blowing, how-did-they-fit-all-that-in-one-hour?!
episode, I suspect many us went into tonights season finale wondering what was left to say and do.
Credit: Patrick Harbron/HBO
Because, really, once you go Oedipal, really what else is there?
Well, plenty apparently.
and then… BAM!
As they say, every mans loss is anothers gain.
This was never truer than in Nucky Thompsons Atlantic City.
Its hard to know where to start.
Tonight was such a simmering episode that it makes sense to begin at the boiling point: R.I.P.
James Edison Darmody (1897-1921).
That said, Jimmy was as much the shows lynchpin as his ambivalent father figure Nucky.
And, if you really think about it, thats been the case since the shows beginning.
Nucky himself would never be where he found himself at tonights finish without Jimmy.
Knowing that, he set about putting all his affairs in order and emptying his gangster bucket list.
In a nice throwback to the series pilot, this involved a backwoods hold-up.
That was only set up, though.
Most of the episode found Jimmy attempting to reconcile with Nucky for his multitude of recent betrayals.
He had to know this blatant blame-placing would never stick.
As repentance for his misdeeds, Jimmy also saw to it that Nuckys trial would not move forward.
He instructed his minions to recant their testimony.
If nothing else, that showed how integral he had become to the goings-on of Atlantic City.
How will it fare without him?
And how will Nucky fare without Jimmy, the boy-turned-man he viewed as a protege and a son.
So much of the season was torqued to expose his humanity to us, to instill sympathy for him.
In the end, his declaration, Im not looking for forgiveness, was cold-blooded and… unlikable?
NEXT: Everyone else…
And where will Gillian be without Jimmy?
This could go many directions because that Gillian is a wily one, a survivor to her very core.
Will she sublimate her feelings for Jimmy, and will the the cycle repeat itself with poor little Tommy?
If nothing else, weve seen that Gillian is a chillingly strategic thinker.
We can be sure that, unlike her son, she will not go softly into that dark night.
Is there any hope for Margaret at all?
Margaret is a strong, smart woman.
Not to mention uncharacteristically stupid.
By his own admission, their relationship was the only place he felt safe to express his vulnerability.
(Note to Winter: hey dont take away Kelly Macdonald, too!)
Other loose ends: What of poor Harrow, who just lost his only friend in the world?
(Oh, ragged Dick, hey donotsleep with Gillian!)
What will Rothsteins move into the heroin trade mean for the Atlantic City contingent?
Speaking of Rothstein, he essentially okay-ed the murder of Manny Horvitz.
Does Manny have a chance of sticking around?
Can I put in a formal request for more Dunn Purnsley?
(Well, thats not really a loose end because the answer is yes.Always yes.)
Not to over-eulogize, but this episode was very likely Michael Pitts finest hour.
What did you think about tonights finale, PopWatchers?
What about Jimmys death shocked you the most: That Nucky could carry it out?
That Jimmy seemed so at peace with it?
Or that it happenedat all?
Did Jimmy deserve to die?
He seemed to think so.
Where willBoardwalkbe without Pitt?
Are you already rubbing your hands together in anticipation for season 3?
Or are you about to rewatch all of season 2 over again because it wasjust that good?
