Whether it’s the 1920s or present day, family gatherings are the worst.
The beauty of Boardwalk Empire lies in its ability to make the hyper-reality of 1920s prohibition gangland into a relatable experience.
While I’ve never been party to a Tommy gun shootout or a speakeasy raid, I do have a family, and as “Sunday Best” makes evident, family matters can be just as awful as any prohibition-era gang violence.
Season three of Boardwalk Empire is still in its mid-season lull – with five more episodes to go, most of the plotlines are just starting to tip toward their finales. As a result, “Sunday Best” is yet another slow-paced episode. However, unlike last week’s slow and somewhat boring “Ging Gang Goolie,” episode seven manages to stay completely engaging from beginning to end.
Set against the backdrop of Easter Sunday, the episode features several unrelated vignettes about different characters’ Easter afternoons. From the very first shots of Eli Thompson suspiciously sneaking around his own yard early in the morning, only for us to find out that he’s just hiding Easter eggs, the episode fosters a palpable sense of discomfort in one scene after another.
For their Easter, Nucky and Margaret take the kids over to Eli’s house. Of all the stories on “Sunday Best,” this one has the best outcome – Eli enjoys time with his family and earns Nucky’s respect, and Nucky realizes once again why he loves Margaret.
That being said, the entire scenario from beginning to end highlights the utter strangeness of family gatherings as seen from the outsider’s perspective. The encumbering formality of the group’s helloes, prayers and idiosyncratic rituals seems to be a strain on all parties involved, yet still Nucky and Eli’s families go through with it.
All the emotion in these scenes is completely under the surface – with nothing much going on, the acting and cinematography alone drive the point home. There are numerous great shots, but one particularly striking image is that of Eli leaning over to kiss his crying wife. As he leans, we see Nucky across the table, looking on in merciless boredom. When Eli leans back after consoling his wife, Nucky disappears behind Eli, and we see Margaret across the table, empathetically sighing at her in-laws.
During the Easter egg hunt, Nucky and Eli talk business in Eli’s shed, once again reminding us why these two actors are so great together. The scene counterbalances some of the more choppy acting Boardwalk Empire occasionally has.
Here, the writing is superb, and their argument lights up the screen – we understand both men’s struggles, and neither of them is right or wrong absolutely.
It all leads back to two important clarities – Nucky realizing that he must trust his brother and Margaret letting Nucky know that it may be too late to save their relationship. Amazingly, all of this exists outside of the show’s main plot points. Episode seven is purely character development, and for Nucky, Eli and Margaret, it’s stellar.
Elsewhere, we are once again treated to the psychosis of Gillian Darmody, who herself gains a bit of clarity in episode seven. After last week’s tryst with young Roger McAllister, it seems clear that Gillian is ready to make him Jimmy’s replacement.
Throughout the episode, it seems that Roger is going to stick around and be Gillian’s creepy incest boy toy (pretend incest). We already know she needs to prove that Jimmy is either dead or alive, and during “Sunday Best” we watch her struggling through the notion of admitting that her son is dead when there is a perfectly good carbon copy right in front of her.
In the end, Gillian chooses to kill Roger in one of the most uncomfortable murder scenes on Boardwalk Empire – lovingly bathing Roger, she soothes him into sleep before injecting him with a massive amount of heroin.
Somehow loving and unbelievably callous all at once, this is Gillian at her best.
The other large chunk of the episode was devoted to Richard Harrow, who is still chasing after the daughter of one of his veteran friends, this time by joining her for Easter supper. Much like Gillian’s story, this is a direct sequel to last week’s plotlines.
However, unlike Gillian, Richard’s story is still quite boring. He’s a great character, and there are several incredibly well-acted and purposeful cringe-inducing moments on this episode between himself and his love interest Julia Sagorsky. Still, the plot feels a bit boring – it’s a quirky love story, and although Richard brings a lot to the mix as a complex character, the mix is still pretty bland.
“Sunday Best” also sees the return of Gyp Rossetti, who took a bit of a backseat for most of the episode. The few scenes he does have, however, are arguably the best of the episode.
Here we find Gyp still reeling from the assassination attempt, and now, back in his home town, we see how small of a fish he is in the big gangster pond.
First, we see Gyp with his family – of entirely Sicilian women – all of whom respect but do not fear Gyp, which adds a whole other understanding to his character.
This is followed by Gyp’s amazing monologue in church, where he screams at Christ for making him the wild, angry and greedy man that he is before beating a priest and robbing the collection plate.
Finally, Gyp goes to see his boss, Joe Masseria, only to be effectively fired by the man. In a quick turn, Gyp explodes in rage, but unlike every other time we’ve seen him solve a problem, Gyp fixes his rift with Masseria entirely through words.
Together, the two plan to take out everyone – Nucky, Lucky Luciano and Arnold Rothstein included – making Masseria not just a boss, but a king. Once again, it’s more set-up for the season’s endgame, but it’s an important step for Gyp as a character.
“Sunday Best” certainly isn’t the best episode of Boardwalk Empire, but it is a great encapsulation of how the show is defined more by its character development than by its gangster clichés. These are the people we can relate to in gangland – they have lives, worries and families.
Sounds pretty familiar to me.
Tidbits:
-Gillian using the heroin and Gyp going to Joe Masseria ties together the main plotline and the Meyer Lansky / Lucky Luciano plotlines, so I guess I can stop complaining about that now.
-I really wish they would give Richard Harrow something better to do with his time. Also, Where is Chalky White all this time?
-Roger McAllister was this week’s only casualty, after none last week, so…
-This season’s body count: 29
