BWW Recap: Nothing changes on BOARDWALK EMPIRE

"Nothing changes, does it?" asks Margaret Thompson on the fourth episode of Season Five of BOARDWALK EMPIRE. We're halfway through the final season of the show, so what else should we expect, but plenty of reunions and our fair share of brutal deaths?

The episode entitled "Cuanto" which is Spanish for "how much?" opens up with a flashback that we follow through the entire episode. Nucky gets laid off from the Commodore as summer is over, and when he returns home, he finds his house locked, and little Eli sitting on the front steps. Nucky looks in the window to find his parents having sex and shields Eli from seeing any of it.

We really see a lot of Nucky caring for, and protecting, Eli in this episode. Throughout all of the previous seasons of BOARDWALK, we've always seen Nucky come in aid of his little brother, no matter what Eli did (which include's plotting to murder Nucky). We get to see here why Nucky is always protecting Eli and why the two have always had such a different view on their father and their upbringings. Nucky shielded Eli from ever seeing any of the wrong that was going on in their home and always felt it was his duty to safeguard Eli from the man he knew his father to be.

When Nucky brings Eli out for the day, he breaks into the Commodore's home to show him the kind of a way that people can live, that Eli has never seen, or known before. The extravagance and the richness of the house, from the bath to the indoor plumbing has Eli mystified. All seems to go wrong, however, as they are caught by the sheriff, who we think will be turning them over to the Commodore, or inciting punishment on them. Instead he takes them into his home and feeds them a good meal with his family. The sheriff shows Nucky and Eli a great deal of kindness, and Nucky breaks down when he sees the kind of family he never had when he sits around that table. He sees the love, happiness and warmth that he so desperately wants in his life. These flashback sequences cement the break between Nucky and his father, as he drifts away from him completely, solidifying his allegiance towards the Commodore, and now the sheriff. He goes so far as to even ask the sheriff to murder his father for him. Nucky no longer has ties holding him to his father, as he sees what life could be like, and what fathers and families and men should be like, which is no where near the reality that has ever had.

We also got a great number of scenes between Nucky and Margaret, as she comes to him in need of help with the Carolyn Rothstein situation. Between the drunken banter, and the knowing remarks, there's such a level of warmth and comfort between the two. They don't have to pretend with each other as everyone else must, and they've both had to their entire marriage. There's no more animosity, there's no more fighting, there's nothing forcing them to be together. They're just there because they want to be there, and it's kind of beautiful. Neither of them hold back with one another as we're so used to everyone else having to do, and they fall into this kind of lull of comfort and ease with each other that's so refreshing to see.

For once, no one's guard is up. It really contrasts the scenes we see with Al Capone and Charlie Luciano, where both of them are tiptoeing and putting up acts for one another and those around them.

Also, Margaret and Nucky gave us one heck of a quote tonight. During their drunken dinner, Nucky asks Margaret what's the worst thing to happen to her in her life, and she responds with "Pro-hi-bition." Seeing as she was a former woman of the temperance movement, it was quite hilarious to see, as was Nucky's response, "I hear you, sister".

The last moment of the episode, however, was one I was not happy with. On her way back from a money exchange with Ronis, Sally's stopped by soldiers in the street who question her and why she was out after curfew. After failing to charm her way out of it, she makes off with one of their guns, and they shoot her dead. "You're what's wrong with Cuba," one of them mutters.

Another female dead on this show, and I can't help but think that now that Margaret is somewhat back in Nucky's life, in whatever capacity, and they are in a way, partners in crime, the writers felt he no longer needed his other lady, Sally, and so they dismissed of her.

We've seen so many women die on this show, and usually because of what the men in their lives have done. They die because of their men, literally and figuratively, as they are also there to elicit some sort of emotional reaction from the men after their death.

While Sally was there on her own accord, doing her business, it still seems as if her death was there as simply a plot device for Nucky. Sally was an anomaly on the show, as she carried her own with the big boys of crime, and never depended on the man (Nucky) in her life for anything; so it's a shame to see her go without any real reason or impact, other than to further develop and push Nucky.

We've seen this pattern so many times with Angela and Jimmy, Billie and Nucky, Pearl and Jimmy and Maybelle and Chalky. I really hope they stop this pattern, and stop throwing away female characters for the sake of the male ones. They really do write some brilliant women on this show, so please, let's stop killing them just to make their male counterparts sad. They deserve so much better. You will be missed Sally!

Next week looks to be a high capacity show, as Chalky seems to be back in Atlantic City, something is going on at the sanitarium where Gillian is, Capone and Nucky are angry and Sigrid is angrily smoking once again!

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