Boardwalk Empire Recap: Promises, Promises

As Nucky sleeps in his big hotel bed someone sneak up behind him…but it’s just Eddie. They have a delivery. At 4:00 AM. Raise your hand if you didn’t know at that moment what the delivery was? Nucky’s standing to the side while Eddie tries to crowbar the big crate open. They’re raising a minor racket outside Margaret’s room so she comes out to see what’s going on. Nucky tries to shoo her off to bed, but Eddie’s about got the crate open so she stands with the men.

Eddie opens the crate as the kettles drums bang and Nucky looks inside, horror-stricken. He tries to order Margaret back to her room while telling Eddie to close the crate. It’s not hard to get an idea of what’s in the box and Margaret rushes over to see Owen’s dead body. She starts wailing in grief. I may not have liked Owen and Margaret was getting on my nerves but watching her stroke his hair while sobbing was just too much. She just seemed so broken at that moment. Nucky impotently tries to calm her down but she’s so inconsolable that she runs off to grieve by herself.

It’s just before dawn down at the boardwalk and while a flapper makes her walk of shame back to the hotel and a municipal worker sweeps the boardwalk so it’s nice and pretty for the day’s visitors we pan down to the beach where Julia and Richard are sleeping in each other’s arms. Awww, this won’t end well but at least he has a moment of peace and happiness.

Back up on the boardwalk and in the Ritz, Nucky’s knocking on Margaret’s door trying to get her to talk to him. She’s calmer now, but still sobbing as she remembers the rest of the conversation she had with Owen about running away to St. Louis. They’re having the kind of conversation where everything’s wonderful and no one’s sad.

Then Margaret asks again about Katy and Owen tells her again that he’ll just up and leave one morning without a second thought about her. Because he’s classy like that. Margaret wants to know if he’s lying to her. Owen never confirms nor denies, he just turns it back on her, asking if she doesn’t trust him. But what she really wants is for Owen to promise he’s not like Nucky. He unsentimentally tells her those would just be words and tries to kiss her as his promise, but she stops him.

She’s pregnant and it’s his baby. She’s not going to hold him to any promises she just wants him to tell her the truth. Owen briefly looks ill but convincingly tells her he’d like it to be a boy. Before they can get too smurfy, though, Mickey’s finally made it from the office at the top of the episode to the sitting room to get Owen. As they say goodbye, completely unaware of what’s about to happen, “I’ll See You In My Dreams,” starts up on the soundtrack, and even I’m not heartless enough not to be a little misty eyed.

Sniff…