'Boardwalk Empire' Season 2, Episode 2 Recap - 'Ourselves Alone'

The chickens came home to roost in last night’s episode of “Boardwalk Empire” and they all decided to take a collective dump on Nucky, who gets bailed out of jail and is dealing with the aftermath of his arrest and the resulting power grab.

The Commodore and Jimmy have officially aligned their resources against Nucky in an effort to take over Atlantic City. While they have succeeded in getting Thompson indicted for election fraud, they may have underestimated how much it will take to truly bring Thompson down.

Speaking of underestimate, Chalky White finds himself in jail for killing one of the Klansmen who massacred women and children at his till. When one large, violent bully makes the mistake of trying to intimidate a much smaller Chalky, he discovers quickly just who runs the show amongst Atlantic City’s black community.

As Nucky prepares to get bailed out of jail, Margaret dresses up as a poor, pregnant distressed widow in need of Thompson’s help (not to far from the truth in the beginning of the series), conning her way into Nucky’s office by pretending to use the bathroom. In the process she makes her way out with Thompson’s ledger and a boatload of the bribery cash he has stashed away.

Later, as Nucky has been bailed out of jail, successfully navigated through a press mob, where he claims he’s been railroaded by a state prosecutor with a vendetta, and made his way home for a dinner meeting with Irish representatives from Sinn Fein, Margaret shows him the ledger and instructs him that he must commit future dealings to memory, as she throws the records in the fire. Behind every great man there is a woman indeed.

The Irish have left behind one of their representatives, a dashing, brash young man named Owen Slater who is likely to serve as an enforcer for Nucky and a huge source of future trouble for Margaret.

Meanwhile back at the Commodore’s place, after the recovery he made from poisoning from his servant a while back, the newly Commodore has decided to go all in on a youthful appearance and dyed his hair with shoe polish to a creepy, greasy black.

He gathers a cadre of Nucky’s minions, including his brother Sheriff Eli, and convinces all but one to abandon Nucky and join forces to take over the liquor business and run the town. Oh, and he lifts a giant, curvy, penis-like elephant tusk over his head in the process. Go figure.

Nucky, meanwhile, has managed to get to a phone and call his brother, offering to forgive him for his betrayal and allow him to turn back “before it’s too late.” Eli refuses, in one of the more memorable scenes in the show’s brief history.

Meanwhile, Jimmy is off trying to make deals with Rothstein to start selling him liquor. Rothstein questions just who the hell Jimmy thinks he is, but doesn’t say no (though he doesn't say yes, either).

Lucky for Jimmy, Rothstein’s associates turn out to be Lucky Luciano and Myer Lansky, and as you can imagine, they’ve got their own rackets, including a sideline gambling gig that they're keeping from Rothstein. They’re willing to buy alcohol from Jimmy, but they want him to get into the heroin game. Gee, there’s no way this could lead to bad things….

As we close out, Chalky is showing his power to survive and thrive in jail or out, Jimmy is proving capable of handling any adversity of his own (including a couple thugs who try to rob him and see the business end of a dead German soldier’s knife), and Margaret is telling Nucky (who has by now realigned some of his former allies) that his is far more intelligent than his foes and capable of vanquishing them.

If you ask me, that all means one thing. There will be blood.