Boardwalk Empire 'Home' is where the Horror is, some thoughts

By April MacIntyre Nov 1, 2010, 3:51 GMT

In "Home," Darmody (Michael Pitt) forges a new friendship with Richard Harrow (Jack Huston), an aptly named fellow soldier, whose harrowing tour of duty left him without the left side of his face.

HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" revisits the horror of war and abuse in tonight's episode.

In "Home," Darmody (Michael Pitt) forges a new friendship with Richard Harrow (Jack Huston), an aptly named fellow soldier, whose harrowing tour of duty left him without the left side of his face.

World War I saw many surviving veterans returned stateside suffering the most horrific of injuries, as advances in battlefield medicine was able to save lives normally felled in past military battles; the dough boys were stabilized and sent back home. 

Harrow, courtesy of HBO

Modern plastic surgery technique was born and refined from many physicians (aided by artists and sculptors) thinking creatively to help soldiers like "Boardwalk's" Harrow re-enter society with the least amount of distress.  You can learn more about this HERE and HERE

During tonight’s episode of “Boardwalk Empire,” we learn Nucky (Steve Buscemi) was an abused child, as his rotten father burned him for reaching for a slice of bread before him at the dinner table, then forcing him into a fight for a baseball mitt with four older boys, rendering Nucky unconscious and hospitalized for 11 days.

The bond Margaret (Kelly Macdonald) and he share is that they're survivors, each dealing in their own way with the horror of unchecked abuse.  Margaret of course, a victim of domestic violence that killed her third child, and Nucky, who lived in fear of his larger-than-life Father, now shrunken by age and relegated to Eli's (Shea Wigham) care. 

The house of horrors that Nucky was raised in becomes a gift to ward boss Fleming, and after a poorly timed trip down memory lane, courtesy of the always faltering Eli with his vileness of a father in tow, Nucky spitefully torches the redone home.

His guilt is assuaged by gifting a frantic Fleming a wad of cash large enough to choke a mule.

Our Jimmy's fortuitous meeting takes place in the veteran's hospital with the interesting new character, sharpshooter Richard Harrow.  The two men speak the same shorthand of the walking wounded and become accomplices.   Harrow has no issues with picking off Darmody's enemies, and Pearl's gruesome disfigurement and subsequent suicide get some artfully staged payback.  A friendship and criminal partnership is born.

Back in Atlantic City, Darmody's baby mama Angela (Aleska Palladino) is in a hot and heavy relationship with Mary as her lesbian love affair is suspected perhaps by Nucky, and Angela continuously walks in fear of all the unknowns in her life.

Lucy (Paz de la Huerta) remains a foul-mouthed, uneducated trollop and the continued bane of Eddie's (Anthony Laciura) life, as she busts in on Nucky at the wrong time.  She knows Nucky has chosen Margaret, and her ego isn't having it.

One of my favorite scenes was the introduction of Luciano's (Vincent Piazza) pal, a noted numbers genius, Meyer Lansky (Anatol Yusef) one of the godfathers of the National Crime Syndicate who was able to cross Jewish and Italian mafia lines, forging an empire with Bugsy Siegel and Luciano in later years, and who later ruled from Miami Beach.

And the lesser crime boss Chalky (Michael K. Williams) suffers the boorish Harry (Michael Badalucco) as a peanut spitting patron in his swanky joint, while rolling around an uneasy truce in his noggin, managing his deal Nucky thinking that Thompson is testing him at every turn.

Agent Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon) gets a lucky break with a witness who fingers Darmody, but will his good fortune hold?  I think not.

Bonus notes: Outstanding work by John A. Dunn in Costume Design, it continues to impress, and to department head hairdresser Francesca Paris and her crew in Hair, as the complex period styles are perfect and artfully done.