After last week’s amazing — yet insanely Oedipal — episode, who knows what the hell is going to happen in the season two finale of Boardwalk Empire. (You can read our recap/review here.) All we can do theorize. And a theorizing we go!
1.) Nucky (Steve Buscemi) is still in a boatload of trouble with the Feds. He needs to keep two people quiet: his brother Eli (Shea Whigham) and his girlfriend Margaret (Kelly Macdonald). With Nucky’s enemies pretty much dissipating by the minute, Eli could simply re-pledge his allegiance to his big brother which could prompt a last minute effort by an awesome lawyer hired by Nucky to get the sheriff out of hot water. Or Eli could sing like a canary, which only means that Nucky has no other choice but to have him offed.
Getting Margaret to cooperate should be rather easy: marry her. This way Nucky has a wife who wouldn’t be able to testify against him AND Margaret gets the piece of mind of being in a marriage (you know, with her Irish Catholic guilt eating away at her and all). They could live happily ever after or….
Margaret tells Nucky that she slept with Owen (Charlie Cox), Nucky gets super-pissed prompting two things: either Margaret goes on the run and thus won’t be able to testify or she looks to the Feds for witness protection.
Somehow, with both Eli and Margaret involved, something tells us that Nucky isn’t going to get what he wants cleanly.
2.) Jimmy (Michael Pitt) not only has to deal with a dead wife and father (and a mother who’s Lady Macbeth bonkers), he still has to deal with the wrath of Manny (William Forsythe) without the help of his little band of gangsters. The only guy who seems to be on his side is Richard Harrow (Jack Huston). One theory we all seem to be sharing is that Richard will somehow be involved in the avenging of Angela’s (Aleska Palladino) death. And those scenes will be both cool and awesome.
Of course, Jimmy could make most of his troubles go away if he could just make things right with Nucky. The only person standing in his way is his mother Gillian (Gretchen Mol). She wants her son/former one-night-stand to be the king of it all. It’s made her blind. It could also make her a target.
3.) In the meantime, Chalky (Michael Kenneth Williams) is still leading the strike of most of the African-American workers in Atlantic City. He won’t stop until he gets the KKK members who killed his men in the first episode this season. That could all change if either Nucky is able to take back control of the city and strike a deal with the man, or things get so heated that Chalky becomes a victim of an angry White mob. We’re all praying that Chalky’s outcome is something similar to the former theory.
4.) Mickey (Paul Sparks) is looking for a way to stop Jimmy’s former associates from continuing to profit from his “hard work”. Though it would be a pleasant surprise if he does succeed, if we know the history of guys like Lucky (Vincent Piazza), there’s no way that doesn’t end with Mickey’s head on a silver platter.
5.) And there’s Agent Van Alden (Michael Shannon). Dude is on the lam now for the baptism/killing of his partner last season. He could finally seek Nucky’s help or not. Either way, he won’t be a factor in the case against the former Atlantic City treasurer.
Please do to share your theories about the season finale in the Comments section below. And do watch this preview clip to get your appetites ready for Sunday night. We all know it’s going to be a doozy.
