On Easter morning in Atlantic City, Eli Thompson’s penance continues. Although Nucky has deigned to attend dinner with the other Thompson clan – ostensibly signaling a thawing of the icy relationship with his brother – he continues to keep Eli at arm’s length. While avoiding business conversations, Nucky takes every opportunity to remind Eli that despite having done his time in prison, Nucky’s forgiveness will not be so easily won.
As Nucky and Eli navigate around the ice floes, June plays the part of dutiful, long-suffering wife perfectly, acting both as gracious hostess and pitiful wretch simultaneously. Her stiff-upper-lip and watery eye toast tugs on not only Nucky’s heartstrings, but those of the far more susceptible Margaret. She too plays her part – the thoughtful guest, loving wife, devoted mother – but the lie weighs on her mind.
During a slow day at the Artemis Club, Gillian ushers Richard Harrow and Tommy out of the mansion, leaving her to spend some quality time with George, the young man with the striking resemblance to Jimmy that she picked up on the boardwalk.
As Gillian wines and dines her young suitor, Richard and Tommy drop in for dinner at the Sagorsky home with war veteran Paul and his caretaker daughter, Julia. As Paul holds court with other members of the local VFW, Richard and Julia have the briefest opportunity to get to know each other. Things take a dramatic turn when Sagorsky discovers Tommy playing in his deceased son’s room and his already volatile personality turns menacing. Harrow defends Tommy and in the process convinces Julia to walk out with them – at least momentarily. As the hodge-podge family wanders along the boardwalk, Harrow is allowed another brush with his greatest wish – a loving wife and son – captured in a keepsake photographer’s lens.
In New York, Gyp Rosetti is holed up in a tenement with his female-dominated Sicilian family. He attempts to conduct a business meeting while painstakingly brushing lint from his suit as the harpies continually interrupt him, finally wearing him down. Simultaneously emasculated and exalted as paterfamilias, Gyp’s domicile gives us another priceless glance into what makes the sociopath tick.
Escaping from his overbearing family, Gyp sneaks into a deserted church and engages in a lengthy, berating soliloquy directed at God. He blames God for his failure in Tabor Heights and for specifically denying him the success his competitors seem to have found so easily. After beating and robbing a priest who comes upon him in his state, Gyp’s warped ideas are further corroborated during his meeting with boss Joe Masseria. Unhappy with Gyp’s performance in New Jersey, Masseria attempts to part ways with the loose cannon. But Gyp knows Masseria’s sore points, and convinces him to not to let the Jew, the Mick and the traitor take over New York. With this plea, he stays execution another day – and may end up on the frontlines of an epic war.
Things are not so easily fixed between Eli and Nucky. Despite Nucky’s explicit directive, Eli lobbies hard to be promoted from stock boy. Nucky shuts him down hard, pulling out the proverbial “you conspired to murder me” card. In the face of Nucky’s unwavering stance, Eli makes a desperate play: tired of walking the knife’s edge of Nucky’s temper and ashamed that his family’s survival is subject to Nucky’s bouts of generosity, he pulls out a gun and dares Nucky to shoot him. At least half-serious, he tells Nucky to put a bullet in him because he’s sick of waiting for it.
Bluff or not, Nucky softens. Unwittingly assisting in Eli’s cause is Margaret, whose lighthearted singing during the family talent show further melts Nucky’s hard heart. Back at home, she rebuffs Nucky’s attempt to hoe an inroad toward forgiveness – or at least accord. Feeling the sting of rejection, Nucky calls Eli and offers him the role of warehouse co-manager. Eli will still be working with Mickey, but is relieved of the indignity of being subservient to him.
Inside the Commodore’s mansion, Gillian grooms her son’s doppelganger to do more than simply resemble Jimmy. She conflates the Commodore and Jimmy into a singular, wayward husband: him a rich young man, her a slightly older woman with the youthful ability to love with her whole heart. Painting herself as a jilted wife, she takes such good care of George that even the most stout-hearted man would be hard pressed not to fall in love with her. After sating him in as many ways as she can think, Gillian runs him a lovely bath and administers a heart-stopping dose of heroin. As his brain floods with the drug, she gently holds his head under water. Her mission nearly complete, she slips Jimmy’s dog tags around his neck and leaves the needle just beyond his lifeless fingertips.
Now that Jimmy can be declared legally dead, the mansion will pass into Gillian’s name – giving her the collateral to keep the house running at her standards. She won’t need Luciano’s monetary support or his heroin sales to stay afloat.
More importantly however, she has faced and accepted the fact of Jimmy’s death. She knows he won’t be returning, and going through the motions with George allows her to begin to grieve, finally.
