Complete and utter shock, is the only way I can even come close to describing what I felt when I watched last nights season finally of Boardwalk Empire.  I had a feeling that this show would eventually have only one protagonist, and it was really hard to see them getting rid of Nucky Thompson’s character, but they had me fooled that he was going to prison for sure.  There seemed to be no way out of it, but Jimmy found a way.  A violently awesome way, but effective none the less.  Richard warned Jimmy that Nucky would never forgive him for the assassination attempt but Jimmy still tried.  I have to admit, even though he killed Angela, I still really like Manny Horowitz so I was kind of happy that when Nucky made his decision, it was Jimmy and not Manny.  I’m still not sure how I feel about Eli though.  He is such an idiot, but he is Nucky’s little brother after all so I guess he’ll stick around a little bit longer.

I can’t believe Nucky was the one to pull the trigger, but it does give you an entirely different perspective of his character.  He has always been the man behind the scenes, pulling the strings but never getting his own hands dirty.  It kind of got me thinking though.  Margaret said in her interrogation from Ester Randolph that Nucky has never shown cruelty towards her and that is very true, but there are certainly some people in Atlantic City who Nucky has shown cruelty.  The most of it seems to be directed towards his German butler Eddie and for no reason once so ever.  There is cruelty inside Nucky, even for those who serve him and do nothing but try to please him and why is that?  I doubt very much that Jimmy was the first man Nucky has killed.  I like how Jimmy tried to talk to him about what his first time was like, and how awful of an experience that was, but Nucky seemed to not really care.  He had no problems shooting Jimmy and, like I just said, if it had been his first murder I don’t think it would have been so easy for him.  I wonder why he did it in front of so many people though.  Owen had to be there, that was a given but Manny and Eli didn’t.  They have dirt on Nucky now, but maybe that was all part of Nucky’s plan.  Now everyone in that group has dirt on one another.

I am very happy with Margaret’s decision to stay with Nucky.  I think she did the right thing, and while some of the things Esther said to her are the truth, Esther does not know Nucky the way we do.  Her job is to put him behind bars so she can not and never will see him the way we and Margaret do, and that is fine because Margaret is the only one who matters.  It is kind of nice that they are married now, especially since the children have been calling Nucky dad (under his request) for the past several months.  I thought it was really awkward that they brought Katie and Owen as their witnesses, I was waiting for the truth about Margaret and Owen to come out during the ceremony but it was quickly over.  What was with her signing the deed of the land over to the church though?  What good does she really think that will do for anyone?  I can’t wait to see what Nucky’s reaction to that will be next season.  I would imagine it won’t go over very well.

I am incredibly excited to see what Season Three of Boardwalk will have to offer us.  Nelson and his hired maid/mother are an item now?  I feel like they kind of left that open to us.  They are maybe an item or maybe just pretending to be in order to get a room, but the way they smiled at each other was extremely creepy and makes you wonder a little bit.  I was really hoping he would end up finding Lucy, we never did get any closer as far as she’s concerned.

I still can’t believe they killed off Jimmy.  The more I think about it the more I don’t like it.  I absolutely love this show and I really think that this season somehow managed to out due last season and that’s really saying a lot, but I am really going to miss Jimmy’s character.  I don’t know what it’s going to be like without Jimmy, I can’t even begin to imagine it.  I feel like Lucky, Meyer, Gillian, and especially Richard have almost no purpose in the show without him.  I would really like to see what becomes of Richard.  I hope he does what Jimmy asks and does come home from the trenches but in a way, how can he?  Jimmy had everything, a beautiful family and plenty of money to enjoy life with, but he still couldn’t leave the trenches, and here he is asking Richard to when Richard doesn’t have anything Jimmy had going for him.  To me that is the biggest tragedy in Jimmy’s death, and I cringe to think about what will become of his son under Gillian’s care.  Season three will certainly be interesting, and it’s premiere can not get here soon enough.