Well, we get a nice big chunk of Richard Harrow in this episode, and some potential love interest action. But it’s all cut with crazy Gillian Darmody, and stupid pooka’s giving Margaret and Owen something to do. Mix this in with Boardwalk Empire’s glacial narrative lethargy, and you got a pretty good episode all things considered.

“Is it all worth it? There’s better ways to make money,” Nucky says to a fellow who’s also been detained for infringing on the Volstead Act and waiting on the D.C. night court to decide his fate…a five dollar fine. I’m sure the irony isn’t lost on Nucky, as he’s beset by Harding administration minions beginning to cut ties with all the bootleggers that are causing them problems. Remus is too valuable, and Nucky is not. On threat to the Attorney General Shooter McGavin, he’s detained after buying a pint of hooch and some Lucky’s (Hey! Future Don Draper will smoke those!). So, while he may be seen as disposable, Nucky is still just prickly enough to do some damage.

It just so happens that Esther Randolph is now persecuting the booze slinging bad guys in night court, when Nucky graces her presence. She attempts to use this current violation to deter the Judge from just sending him on his way, which he wants nothing to do with, finding the whole idea of this court to be a circus. It’s here where Nucky believes he has an ally in Esther, using her career ambitions to perhaps work against the attorney general and his minions. This effort is doubly rewarded when Gaston Means calls to perhaps also form an alliance, to which Nucky would be best wary of seeing as he was hiding in the room when Nucky threatens to bring down the whole ball of wax.

It’s looks like Gillian Darmody is finally letting go of the Jimmy ghost, as she collects all his spare picture frames lying about the cathouse. Then she goes and finds a young man, named Roger, with the same dumb haircut that Jimmy had, and fucks his brains out. As he wraps up, she lets him know he has a new nickname: James…cuz it’s the name of a King? Sure, that makes sense! Aside from that Luciano’s attempting to get the whores to peddle heroin, to which Gillian refuses, then fires the young lady that he was soliciting this plan to. Aside from being a bummer for the trick, it does show how desperate Luciano et al are trying to maximize their profits with the heroin outside of New York, and still finding little traction.

I guess the main story of this episode is Margaret’s side problem of her son Teddy being a fire bug. Although there is some movement on the pre-natal baloney with a copy of her educational reading materials showing up. After a fire in the greenhouse, and Teddy telling her a gypsy started it, Margaret begins to fear an attack of some sort. Lucky for her, this means more Owen being around action. Eventually, a vagabond is found to be the assailant and is “dealt with”. Owen also jokes that it may just be a pooka of legend hanging out in Atlantic City causing mischief. After a neighbor finds Teddy in her garage with matches and kerosene, Margaret actually believes that it was Teddy all along.

More than likely it’s just Owen’s doing anything to get closer to Margaret while Nucky is away doing his “business” in New York. To which he’s successful when he and Margaret attempt to scare away any nearby pooka’s with a little greenhouse fire of their own.

Richard Harrow happens upon an American Legion club, who also happens to have a Ye Old Fite Clubbe on Fridays. A wily old veteran named Paul starts talking mess to the young men who are complaining about the lack of benefits for disabled vets. This draws the ire of one of the young men who decides their going to have it out the next night. Unsurprisingly, the old man loses his fight, but Harrow finds something to respect in the old man, perhaps his disdain for politicians and corporations sending young men to die for nothing. Moreover, he’s smitten with Paul’s daughter, Julia; who treats him with kindness and respect, like Angela Darmody did while she was still around.  Hopefully this will mean some more screen time for Richard Harrow, and less with the other non-essential baloney…like that Oedipal side bullshit with Gillian.