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Boardwalk Empire Season 2 Episode 11

Under God's Power She Flourishes

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AIRED: Dec 04, 2011

9.1

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Episode Summary

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Jimmy is in despair because of his wife's murder which the police suspect he committed. Jimmy's partners want to take his share. Nucky finds out about Margaret's affair.

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (2)

Plot really blew up this week as alot of stories are coming to a head.

7.0

By RichardHaft, Dec 08, 2011

We finally get confirmation that Jimmy and Mommy have a really screwed up relationship as we learn why he fled off to war and left college. His mom is seriously screwed up and she gets turned on by her son beating up his professor. This continues a weird dynamic in the show where every women except Angela seems drawn to violent men. Margaret obviously knew (or strongly suspected) Nucky had her husband killed before hooking up with him, and even Van Alden's wife got turned on by him beating up a waiter.

Margaret is full of contradictions andhypocraciesas she is feeling guilt over being in Nucky's world and being with the man that killed her husband. Although he continues to deny it, she knows and the guilt of being with a man that murdered her kids father is turning her into a wreck. I don't know where they can go with her, as they already tried theschemerroute with her and her character has developed in a way where she is incapable of just being evil and choosing this life.

On the flip side, Nucky also seems to strongly suspect she cheated with his irish hentchman, and the fact that the maid, who was also involved with Owen found out probably means that its going to come out.

Finally, Van Alden gets caught for the murder of his prohibition agent friend and he is disgraced and on the run. His story might also be coming to an end.

It looks like there is going to be some new characters next season as Lucy, Angela, Van Alden, The Commodore and maybe even Margaret seem to have their stories coming to a close. Like all episodes before a final, this one set up the season final, so how the final turns out will determine how "good" this episode was.moreless
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Now we finally have the key to know Mister Darmody... (and we know which Greek mythological figure he is) -Spoilers ahead.

8.5

By al2sf, Dec 07, 2011

Of course, you've guessed it : Jim Darmody isOedipus, the king who marry his mother and kill his father. And the writters make that very clear...ok, let me start over.Ok, this season of Boardwalk empire isn't quite the same as the first (in my opinion). The narration is super slow, and we now can see that it's more gonna be about the characters feelings than what they actually DO. But I can live with that ('cause you : Great actors, writing and all). For me This episode is like a set up for the upcoming events (season 3) and it finally describe (or unveil) Michael Pitt's character. The fact that he went to war for apparently no reason; the fact that he always looked like a dark character (yes he is a gangster, but take Nucky for example, this guy is pure light). Now we KNOW who he is Darmody, a very sad character pushed by mother to commit incest. Dealing with the death of his wife (at the end of the previous episode) the mother can finally have her dream come true : she IS the wife of the most powerful man of Atlantic city, that's very clear in the penultimate scene of the episode when she tells Jimmy that his son will, one day, forget about his mother. She's taking her place.

And then The commodore, Jimmy's dad comes in and get killed, by Jimmy's hand. Now the metamorphosis is complete : Jimmy as become Oedipus. I don't know if it was really the writers intention to kill the dad so quickly but we can all imagine that, when they decide to make the character that way, they should do it pretty quick.So that wasn't a big episode except that, Nucky can now see that Mrs. Schroeder has began to "loose it" and that his problems won't be over soon...and Mr Vanalden going away like that ? Crazy ! I don't know how this character will end, but I feel like I'm gonna be sad at the end of the season...That's all folks !Oh and the scene with Jimmy and his mom' (yo know which scene) won the award of the most scariest, disturbing scene ever on TV, 'cause you can feel that there is something wrong right away but you want to believe that the scene will end before anything bad happens. And when it does...you went the scene to end even faster but nooo!Kudos to the writing staff anyway. Sweet dreams everyone and (oh sorry I forgot :) Ho Ho Ho ! Merry christmas to you all ! ^^moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Michael Pitt	Jimmy Darmody
Steve Buscemi	Nucky Thompson
Kelly Macdonald	Margaret Schroeder
Michael Shannon	Agent Nelson Van Alden
Aleksa Palladino	Angela Darmody
Paul Sparks	Mickey Doyle

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Episode Photos

Gretchen Mol and Jack Huston on Boardwal...

© 2011 HBO
Gretchen Mol on Boardwalk Empire from "U...

© 2011 HBO
Gretchen Mol and Michael Pitt on Boardwa...

© 2011 HBO

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (1)
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- Under God's Power She Flourishes is the English translation of the Latin motto for Princeton University, Dei sub numine viget.
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NOTES (1)
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- Original International Air Dates:
  United Kingdom: December 17, 2011 on Sky ATLANTIC/Sky ATLANTIC HD
  Czech Republic: January 23, 2012 on HBO
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