Boardwalk Empire - Paris Green review

Well, Margaret and Nucky broke up. We aren't sad/don't care. In fact, it would be interesting if Margaret turned on Nucky and took all the information she knows to Van Alden. Actually, we like this development. It makes the character of Margaret more consistent with the woman we met earlier in the show. It was strange that she would throw away her old character and fully accept Nucky and his lifestyle. Seeing it as a temporary slip makes more sense.

Jimmy met his horrible dad, the Commodore, and found out that his mother has been poisoning him. Does anyone else think that Mommy Gillian is the most interesting and capable character on this show full of interesting and capable characters? We felt bad for Angela getting left by her friend when she was all ready to leave Jimmy for Paris. She should have been able to get away.

But the watercooler moment of the episode happened at the end with Van Alden. Sebso, Nucky’s man on the inside who works for Van Alden, angered Van Alden by being a Jew. So Van Alden baptized him to death. Seriously, the man took Sebso to a river and tried to convert him, repeatedly dunking him and then holding him underwater. We don’t know who is more obnoxious, Van Alden or the show writers by making us sit through this. It was awkward and it upset us. It was kind of sacrilegious mixed with super weird. Also, Van Alden should know not to kill Jews. Seriously, that sort of activity is jinxed. If America ever sides against Israel, this blogger is moving to another country to steer clear of the poop storm that would fall. Look at Rome, Germany, Britain when it broke faith with Israel, Spain after the Inquisition, Greece after it desecrated their special temple in the ancient days, and Poland after the pogroms. They were either crushed or their power was significantly cut. It’s jinxed, we tell you. Be nice to Jewish people or be screwed.

But this Death Baptism was pretty stupid in our opinions. Like Van Alden would kill a man for no reason in front of a crowd of nicer Christians when they knew who he was. He’s not THAT crazy. To us, it was possibly the show’s worst moment to date. It was trying to be edgy and daring, but it was incredibly unrealistic. Sure, Sebso wasn’t a good guy; he sort of deserved death. But still … why bring religion into it? Hasn’t the crazed Christian thing been done to death? We WERE surprised that Sebso was killed in that moment though.

We are ready for the season finale and we know that it’s going to be wild and surprising.

One blogger's dad told us to stop being so hard on this show, so instead of giving it the planned C+, we will bump it up a notch. It was decent, after all.

Episode Grade: B-