2.9 Battle Of The Century However, there is a richer seam of history for the show to mine: that of its setting. The story takes place in a very precise time in history, and is pegged to a peculiar event, America’s thirteen-year experiment at Prohibition. The show has always done well at establishing the setting, and of supplementing its fictional characters with historical figures. It is a delicate blend, but one that works, and in this episode, Battle Of The Century, the relationships of these people to the wider events of their period takes centre stage. In depicting the Irish War, the show has pitched right into one of the larger and more painful events of the era. It has been hinted at, with increasing intensity, not least through the character of Owen Sleater. This week, we follow him and Nucky on a jaunt to Belfast, with the ostensible task of burying the late Mr Thompson Senior. The coffin, however, contains a more lucrative cargo, twenty-five Thompson rifles. In dealing with John McGarrigle’s pious objections, Nucky points out that ‘in time of war, men like you will always turn to men like me’. This self-identification is precise and accurate. It is men like Nucky who are best able to navigate the tides of history. McGarrigle, a stuffy and desiccated Jesuit cannot see the parlous state his side has stumbled into. Grieving the loss of his son, he lacks the pragmatic instinct to know that the English offer of a truce is not as generous as he wants to believe. Nucky, who has no dog in this fight, sees through it straight away. Nucky leaves for America with his consignment of whiskey, McGarrigle is shot for his obstructions. The lesson is plain, but too many remain heedless. Sadly, Jimmy Darmody remains of the uneducated type. His relationship with Manny Horvitz has continued to sour. Jimmy refuses to pay Manny the five thousand dollars he owes him, and for what? Arrogance? Disrespect? Perhaps he disdains paying his seniors since Nucky gave him the runaround over a debt in season one. Maybe he can’t recall that far back, but he must remember the failed attempt on Nucky’s life. He doesn’t act like it. The second doomed assassin of the season thus makes an attempt on Manny’s life and earns a meat cleaver to the head for his trouble. When Manny finds an Atlantic City matchbox in his would-be killer’s pocket, Jimmy’s prospects take a swift tumble. Also down on her luck is Margaret. Her daughter’s cough has escalated into polio, and we are treated to a gruesome scene in which she is given a diagnostic spinal tap. This is a personal tragedy, but again connected to the era. Polio vaccines would not be available for thirty years, while 1921 was the year in which Franklin Roosevelt contracted the illness, suspected to be polio, which would paralyse him. When the news reaches Nucky, via telegram, it seems to paralyse him. For all his skill at scheming, he cannot escape the reality of his times. Read our review of the last episode, here.
