- After Enoch's senile father breaks a leg in his isolated house, the brothers agree that he no longer can live alone and the house should be given to a loyal employee.
- Nucky purges some bad childhood memories; Jimmy forges a new alliance with a fellow veteran; Luciano and Meyer Lansky cut a deal with the D'Alessio brothers.—HBO Publicity
- A Chicago Tribune headline foretells the coming of a "long, long dry period" as some men sit in a diner at breakfast time. A cop makes a phone call and we next see Al Capone thanking him, saying he's "a credit to the force." Al tells Jimmy that Liam, the man who cut Pearl's face, is at the breakfast joint.
In a messy house, the Thompson brothers' father Ethan shouts at his cats and pours himself the remains of a liquor bottle. He trips over a cat and hurts himself, calling out for help but there's no one around.
Jimmy gets his knee checked to see why it's hurting. He'd had screws put in it at Walter Reed. He says it's "a dull ache inside" and that it "hurts like hell." The doctor tells him about a "personal inventory" test that they're giving to soldiers who've returned from the war. He says it could help Jimmy feel better. Jimmy looks across the doctor's office to see a man, Richard Harrow, whose left side of his face was shot off. Next to the man are glasses that have some kind of mask coming off the left lens designed to cover his face.
Despite his pain, Nucky's dad taunts him for never visiting, saying he waited five hours and would have lost his leg if Eli hadn't come to visit. Nucky was apparently out with his "lady friend." After the doctors take their dad away, Eli asks Nucky about his spending time with Margaret, given the circumstance of how she became a widow.
"She knows nothing, and she never will," Nucky says, before noting that it "smells like piss" in his dad's place. Nucky offers to put their dad in a home, but Eli volunteers to take him in. They then consider that it's time to sell their childhood home. Nucky considers giving it to Damien Fleming. Nucky notices a toaster that cost him "nine bucks" and his father never used it.
Chalky looks at some counterfeit whiskey labels and is upset that they won't stick to the bottles. Meyer Lansky comes to visit Chalky, identifying himself as "Michael Lewis," a businessman from Manhattan who's come to "discuss a proposition" with him. Chalky asks what it is. He asks Chalky if he can buy 1,000 cases of liquor directly from him, cutting out the middle man. Lansky pulls out $10,000 cash to sweeten the deal. Chalky laughs at the idea that this money will get him to break any allegiances he has with Nucky.
Damien meets with Nucky tells him about his five-month-old daughter who was born seven weeks early but made it, thanks to his wife's constant attention. Nucky seems taken by the story but Lucy barges in demanding to tell Nucky she loves him. "What does she have that I don't have?" Lucy asks. He tells her to calm down and says they'll go out that night.
Nucky offers to sell his father's house to Damien, no strings attached, an offer Damien accepts without hesitation.
Margaret chats with another woman, Annabelle, who tells her Nucky will never marry her. Annabelle tells Margaret about how she's stolen about $4,000 in small amounts from the man she's been with for three years. She advises Margaret not to let Nucky open up to her too much, because that would make her a reminder to him of "how weak he really is." Margaret's daughter runs up to them and the woman tells her, "Look at those curls. Why, you'll have no trouble getting a man at all." This idea seems to bother Margaret a little, but she says nothing.
Lucky walks in on Mickey Doyle playing poker with the D'Alessio brothers. One of them explains to Lucky, in Italian, that Mickey owes them money. "We'd slit his throat," the man says in the foreign tongue, "but then what?" Lansky is with Lucky. He asks the brothers about robbing from Nucky's bagman, and they admit to it, saying they "needed a little scratch to get things started." Lucky tells them they "owe Mr. Rothstein for the privilege."
Lansky, starts talking about the price of gas and it leads into a whole discussion about how the small-time crew are going to need a distribution, storage, payoff, bottling operation. They think they've "got muscle," but want to know if Rothstein would like to back them. He tells them to show him they're capable. Lucky tells them to rob Nucky's casino, which has $150,000 in it at the end of a Saturday. Half of it would go to New York, and the other half goes to "our next move," Lansky says. Leo, the ringleader of the brothers, is surprised to see he's suddenly part of a "we," and shakes Lucky's hand.
A guy named Billy Winslow is in police custody on a robbery charge and asked to see a fed from Atlantic City. Van Alden meets with him. Winslow wants to know what's in it for him if he tells his story. Van Alden reminds him that given the charges he's facing, he isn't in a position to bargain. Winslow proceeds to talk about the whiskey heist in the woods, getting Van Alden's attention. He explains that he served as bait, blocking the road with his car, but the shootings were never part of the plan. In exchange for testifying, Van Alden promises he'll use his influence in any way he can. Winslow tells him Jimmy was the ringleader and a guy named Al was the other man.
In the hallway of the military doctor's office, Jimmy chats with Harrow. Harrow is now wearing the glasses that cover his face and we see that the mask it made to look as if it is, in fact, the other side of his face. Jimmy offers Richard a cigarette, which he declines due to his injuries. Jimmy gets up and shakes his hand and sits next to him. Richard, in turn, offers Jimmy a book he got as a gift from his sister Emma. When Jimmy asks if he doesn't enjoy books anymore, Richard says, "It occurred to me the basis of fiction was that people have some sort of connection with each other, but they don't." Jimmy accepts the book and thanks him.
They start talking about the test that's supposed to tell them whether they're normal or not. The questions might be embarrassing, Richard says. Jimmy tells him to lie, but Richard says he finds that difficult now. Richard thinks the military wants to know what's in the soldiers' heads "so the next time, we'll fight better." He pulls a German sniper mask from his bag and tells Jimmy he becomes anxious if he doesn't have it with him." He explains that he was a marksman and he watched the German sniper from a blind for three days to see him remove the mask. When the sniper took it off to scratch his nose, Richard put a bullet one inch below the sniper's eye.
Richard tells Jimmy that one question on the test is whether you've ever made love with a woman. A nurse calls Jimmy's name, but Jimmy says, "He left." She then calls Richard's name and Jimmy holds Richard back, saying, "He left, too." Jimmy then tells Richard to "try lying," so Richard says, "Yeah, that's right." And smiles.
Angela puts on a record and walks into a bedroom wearing a revealing robe. In bed is the photographer's wife. They kiss. Angela asks what they're going to do, and Mary says "he" didn't seem them together.
"Nucky Thompson didn't get to where he is by being naive," Angela says. Mary asks what the problem could be, an Angela says, "He could stop giving me money." She goes on to say she depends on Nucky. She also says she would have expected to get money from Jimmy, but hasn't. They talk about an art dealer in Greenwich Village who's agreed to assess Angela's work. They kiss some more.
Nucky and Margaret show up at the old family house, which Fleming is already getting worked on. Some items that Fleming says Nucky's father didn't want, are on fire In a barrel. On the top of the heap is a framed set of knots that Nucky earned as a child doing beach patrol. He tries to ignore it and walks inside. Margaret tells Nucky it's nicer than he described. He says it looks different now. Nucky says it didn't seem as small when he was a child. He also says his father, who now seems small and frail, looked like a giant to him then. He goes on to tell Margaret that his father scared him, for good reason, but that "he can't hurt me now."
Nucky shows Margaret a scar on the inside of his hand, saying that on his ninth birthday he "made the mistake of reaching for a piece of bread ahead of my dad at the dinner table." He shows her a fireplace poker, saying his dad used it when it was hot to remind him that he eats first. Nucky says he still has nightmares, thinking about the fact that his father, the man who was meant to protect him -- but Margaret cuts him off, saying, "I'm no stranger to a man's cruelty. Sometimes it's best to leave the past where it is." She leaves to check on the kids.
Jimmy brings Richard to the brothel and gets him a drink. Jimmy orders "two bourbons -- the real stuff." Richard hesitates with the shot glass and Jimmy gets him a straw. Richard turns his head to drink it, wiping his mouth. Jimmy orders him another. Richard notices Jimmy's gun, and goes on to list all the guns he has, noting that he likes the Colt (which is the one Jimmy has). He asks Jimmy how he uses it, and asks if he uses it to kill people. Jimmy introduces Richard to one of the girls, Odette. Jimmy tells her that Richard needs to know how grateful the nation is for his sacrifice.
"You're a patriot, right," Jimmy asks her. Richard turns to show the side of his face with the mask on it, and Odette smiles and says, "I'm whatever you want me to be." Odette takes Richard away and says, "I got a whole ticker-tape parade waitin'."
As they sit in a predominantly black bar, an overweight white guy named Harry Price is drunkenly telling Nucky about "International Reply Coupons" and that a guy from Boston is turning a profit on them. He wants Nucky to get in on the action. "I'll let you know," Nucky says.
Chalky walks in and Nucky introduces him to Harry, who compliments Chalky on his establishment and says, "You people certainly are a lively bunch." Chalky says nothing, but tells Nucky that he met "his boy," referring to the kid who was sent over to test Chalky out. Nucky says he doesn't know what he's talking about, and Chalky says, "That's how it's going to be, huh?" He tells Nucky to have a good time and leaves. Harry's girlfriend is the woman Margaret was talking to earlier, and she and Margaret come sit at the table for a moment before Harry and his girlfriend get up to dance. Nucky calls them an odd match.
Margaret asks Nucky if he still has his baseball mitt. He says it was stolen by a bunch of kids who beat him up. She asks if he was hurt, and he says he doesn't want to talk about it. They sit in silence as the jazz music plays.
The Commodore says his stomach is "on fire," and he gives his plate of food to his dog. Louann is mixing some kind of concoction and the Commodore asks if Nucky's been around. Louann says he sent one of his guys, which bothers the Commodore, who says he put Nucky where he is and he went to jail while Nucky became a big shot. He drinks Louann's mixture and says it's awful. He gets up and vomits.
Nucky tells Margaret and the kids a little poem about eating healthy. They clap, then ask to be excused and Margaret lets them leave the table. She tells Nucky she was sorry for being "quite selfish" when he was talking about his father's abuse. She tells him she wants him to feel like he can confide in her. He tells her about the baseball mitt, and that some kids stole it and his father forced him to go challenge them to a fight. There were four of them, they were older than him, and he was beaten unconscious and was in the hospital for 11 days.
"That's horrible," she says.
"Life can be that way," Nucky replies.
Nucky gets a phone call saying his father's house is ready. He asks Margaret if she wants to go see it and she says she has to put her daughter to bed. But her son asks if he can come and Margaret says, "Mr. Thompson is very busy." Nucky then refers to himself as "Uncle Nucky," and tells the boy to get his coat.
Liam shows up at the diner and Jimmy is sitting at the bar. Jimmy wastes no time walking over to Liam, and sits across from him. Liam says he was "just doing Sheridan's bidding." He tells Liam he isn't going to kill him.
He asks Liam if he served in the war, and Liam says he didn't, as he had Rheumatic fever. Jimmy tells him he served three years and it's "a living, waking nightmare." Jimmy tells a story about a German solider who tried to attack Jimmy's platoon's position. Jimmy shot him twice as the man was climbing over barbed wire. He said that no matter what the man did, "it just got worse for him." The Allies left him like that "for days, listening to him moaning, crying" calling for his mother. But despite the fact that his situation was futile, he refused to die, even turning down Jimmy offering to put him out of his misery. "We hold on so desperately to life, what some people feel -- certainly in that soldier's situation -- being alive is much, much worse," Jimmy says. He tells Liam he's going to go, and that he doesn't ever want to see him again.
With that, Jimmy gets up and walks by Liam, who jumps when Jimmy pats him on the shoulder before walking out. Liam watches Jimmy walk all the way out of the place, then lets out a sigh. As he does so, Richard shoots him in the face with a sniper rifle from an apartment across the street.
We next see Lucy in a movie theater watching "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" alone. That's the movie she wanted to see with Nucky. She cries as she reads the line, "Think what it would mean! To yield to every evil impulse -- yet leave the soul untouched!"
Nucky walks up with Margaret's son Teddy to his childhood home, which is now all fixed up. Inside, he sees Eli with their father. Eli says he wants their dad to see the place all fixed up. His father is holding the fireplace poker.
"Well, he's seen it, now get out," Nucky says.
As Eli wheels his dad out, the old man stops and tells Nucky, "You may think you're king, but you're not worth a God damn." He asks Eli to get him out of there, and leaves.
Nucky continues to look around and Teddy picks up a can of turpentine. Nucky takes it and tells Teddy to go wait in the car. We next see Nucky pouring the turpentine all over the kitchen before striking a match on a wall and tossing it inside.
Nucky watches the smoldering house from outside as Fleming drives up and sees it. Nucky pulls a wad of cash from his pocket and hands it to Fleming, saying, "Find a better place to live."
Nucky gets into his car and is driven away. Teddy looks out the back window and watches the fire as they drive off.
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