In the Sopranos, flashback were shown, but they were minimal and showed why Tony is the person he is. In Boardwalk Empire, the flashbacks are a part of the story and young Nucky is a main character, He is a struggling man who wants to help, but he knows for a fact that helping others has its limits. Enoch 'nucky' Thompson has always been shown as someone who plays an act, what you see is not who he really is, and this episode tells you who he was and why he isn't that in a brilliant way that couldn't have been done better. To tell one how and why this episode works, would be to spoil it, and in a stupid way, because, to fully embrace the episode, you would need to be someone who has been with nucky since the beginning.
4 Reviews
Rushed story lines affecting impact, but still great
TheLeyLegend20 October 2014
Without giving away any spoilers, this episode was really good. It had some shocks, although held itself together pretty well- if that makes sense. It's not easy to find much to criticize about this episode, but I'll give it a go.
From my perspective, it may have lacked something. Don't get me wrong, a lot happened... but again, the big events would have played out nicer if the season wasn't cut to 8 episodes. It seems a bit like the secondary story lines (e.g. Gillian or Margaret to name a few) have had a greater impact due to a longer build up (throughout the season) to any upcoming resolution; this is generally how most conventional dramas play out. Not to mention their stories seems more... 'credible', because the audience is already used to these characters having less screen time.
However, the rushed nature of the main characters' story lines are something we as the audience have had to get used to this season. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the creators decided to include Nucky's childhood as a segment, to add more credibility to Nucky's rushed story.
I'm afraid the speedy shift in the playing out of the dominant stories will have implications leading into next weeks finale; I hope nothing is skimmed over or forgotten. If the finale next week wraps everything up in a well-paced, dramatic and meaningful way, I'll be happy.
All up, there was not much else to fault. And I won't discuss the much-more-frequent positives of the episode, otherwise I'll end up rambling about what happens (= spoilers). I will say however that it had plenty of symbolic moments which you just can't miss. Hope you enjoy!
From my perspective, it may have lacked something. Don't get me wrong, a lot happened... but again, the big events would have played out nicer if the season wasn't cut to 8 episodes. It seems a bit like the secondary story lines (e.g. Gillian or Margaret to name a few) have had a greater impact due to a longer build up (throughout the season) to any upcoming resolution; this is generally how most conventional dramas play out. Not to mention their stories seems more... 'credible', because the audience is already used to these characters having less screen time.
However, the rushed nature of the main characters' story lines are something we as the audience have had to get used to this season. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the creators decided to include Nucky's childhood as a segment, to add more credibility to Nucky's rushed story.
I'm afraid the speedy shift in the playing out of the dominant stories will have implications leading into next weeks finale; I hope nothing is skimmed over or forgotten. If the finale next week wraps everything up in a well-paced, dramatic and meaningful way, I'll be happy.
All up, there was not much else to fault. And I won't discuss the much-more-frequent positives of the episode, otherwise I'll end up rambling about what happens (= spoilers). I will say however that it had plenty of symbolic moments which you just can't miss. Hope you enjoy!
Friends since childhood
antonellarzp18 May 2017
Warning: Spoilers
This is the second time that I watch this series, and after that, I can say this is my favorite episode of the whole series. I've been rambling on between Two Imposters and Margate Sands, but I'll go with Friendless Child for many reasons. The first one Luciano and Lansky. They're two of my favorites characters so, maybe I'm not so much objective, but the fact that we see them grown with the years and evolve in amazing way, are one of the best parts of this show. I've been watching the first season a few days ago and even in the pilot, we see the strong but a little reckless personality of Luciano, and then we see him in this episode and we can appreciate the way he changed. And I love the way Lansky guides him with cleverness and for me, he seems a lot like the Rothstein of Michael Stuhlbarg, which is pretty good. Other thing that I really like was the way the "Team NY" turned off Nucky in a smart move and knowing his weakness: he's nephew, Willie. After that, they end in a worthy winning and teach him that they will be the future. For me, this episodes was like an ending for the Lansky-Luciano story. In the other hand, we had a tired Nucky and he seems quite lonely too and we feel it when he chatter with Mickey in the club and with Joe Harper. And I like the balance of the character: he raising in power in the past and falling by it in the present. The ending was superlative, the Gillian of the past asking for help at the same time than the Gillian of the present, but it feels quite sad too.
+Charlie's evolution through the years.
+Vincent Piazza was amazing.
+The scenes with the telephone and the meeting.
+Benny's humor.
+The ending of the war.
+The story of the Commodore.
+The fight between the past and the future.
+The scrip and the direction were, once again, outstanding.
-I don't see the point on Mickey's death.
10/10
+Charlie's evolution through the years.
+Vincent Piazza was amazing.
+The scenes with the telephone and the meeting.
+Benny's humor.
+The ending of the war.
+The story of the Commodore.
+The fight between the past and the future.
+The scrip and the direction were, once again, outstanding.
-I don't see the point on Mickey's death.
10/10
Fails in every sense of the way
truebatmantd3 March 2023
This is the episode this show absolutely fails in every way a show could possibly fail. Ignore all those 10/10 reviews written by HBO employees. They pretty much threw away everything they built up for up until this episode. It was total garbage.
So up until now we were told that Nucky Thompson is a cuthroat businessman who would do anything do get what he wants, he worked so hard all his life and made massive sacrifices to build a business empire and he just decides to give it all away to his biggest enemies without resistance or pushback just like that.
This episode pretty much destroys 50+ episodes worth of character development, dumps it into toilet and flushes it down, destroying its legacy along with it.
This is not only a terribly rushed episode but it makes zero sense from beginning to end. The show was going downhill since they got rid of most of the interesting characters starting with as early as second season anyways and this terrible episode pretty much destroys the whole show. Whoever wrote this episode should never be allowed to write anything ever again.
So up until now we were told that Nucky Thompson is a cuthroat businessman who would do anything do get what he wants, he worked so hard all his life and made massive sacrifices to build a business empire and he just decides to give it all away to his biggest enemies without resistance or pushback just like that.
This episode pretty much destroys 50+ episodes worth of character development, dumps it into toilet and flushes it down, destroying its legacy along with it.
This is not only a terribly rushed episode but it makes zero sense from beginning to end. The show was going downhill since they got rid of most of the interesting characters starting with as early as second season anyways and this terrible episode pretty much destroys the whole show. Whoever wrote this episode should never be allowed to write anything ever again.
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