Boardwalk Empire Recap: Year of the Pig

Margaret’s tour is over and after she says her goodbyes, she walks over to the young doctor, Mason, who helped the woman earlier. She asks after her and Mason tells her the woman is resting, but her miscarriage was likely caused by an e. coli infection that could have been avoided if the hospital offered even the most basic prenatal care and told her to avoid raw milk. Then angrily asks if Margaret’s on the board. Margaret’s a little taken aback by his aggression and wonders what he wants her to do about that? He just looks at her and says “Nothing.” So much for Margaret feeling good about her donation.

Judging you.

Mickey’s recovered from being called an imbecile and watching Manny shoot a guy and is ordering his warehouse guys to hurry up because he’s ready to party. But Nucky and Owen show up to talk to Manny so Mickey’s got to pretend to give a shit a little while longer. Owen’s found Rowland Smith and Nucky wants Manny to take care of him that night as a message to anyone else who’d want to rob Nucky.

Manny’s a little peeved that he has to work on New Years and Owen seems to think being Nucky’s buttboy is a position of power and sneers at Manny. Nucky at least makes it about how Manny owes Nucky so Manny gets a promise of his own operation for handling this because “friends shouldn’t be partners.” Nucky incredulously asks if he means Mickey and Manny says “What else to call the putz.” They have a little laugh but I will point out that for someone with absolutely no power or allies Mickey’s always managed to come out of every precarious situation in a solid, sometimes better, position so you best learn to respect the cockroach because he might just rule you all. Then Owen, getting a bit full of himself tells Manny to remember to take care of Smith before tomorrow. Owen’s newfound dickishness has to be foreshadowing, right? He used to be smarter than this.

Nelson’s walking down a narrow hallway and a little girl is getting ready for a wobble then shrieks a hellish squeal when she’s pinned against a wall as he walks past. But he wants to win that contest so he Stuart Smalley’s himself some courage , squeezing out a tortured “grin,” and this is too pathetic even for Van Asshole.

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Nelson’s greetedby  a frazzled woman who is clearly disappointed he’s not the grocer and slams the door in his face. Nelson wishes the door a Happy New Year. Hehe. He looks like he’s turning to leave but turns back to the next apartment door, because every day in every way he is getting better and better. And all it took was killing Sebso, knocking up Lucy, forcing her to live with him until the baby was born so he could pretend he adopted it for Rose then have it all come crashing down around him in spectacular fashion that included shooting a federal investigator in the knee with the investigator’s own gun.