Boardwalk Empire has returned for season two and it didn’t take too long for the action to start. An illegal alcohol shipment warehouse, operated by Chalky White, was gunned down by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Chalky shot one of the members in the neck as they were making their escape.

Nucky Thompson is still busy being the most powerful Treasurer of anything ever. Staying out until eight in the morning “working” can’t be making Margaret happy but she seems like she is tolerating it.

Agent Van Alden’s wife, Rose, is visiting Atlantic City for the weekend to celebrate the couple’s 13th anniversary. The devout Christian woman is openly disgusted by how business is run on the boardwalk. Little does she know that her “faithful” husband has gotten a local woman – or prostitute if you prefer to be blunt – pregnant.

Jimmy seems to be working with his father, the Commodore, and Eli Thompson in an attempt to seize control of the boardwalk from Nucky. Jimmy is trying to make sure his son is on the right path to becoming a “big boy” and takes him to shoot seagulls and go fishing like Nucky use to do with him when he was younger.

In Chicago, Johnny Torrio and Al Capone are working on a deal to get their alcohol from a supplier in Columbus for a better price than they were getting from Nucky. Torrio tells Capone that he wants him to go to Atlantic City and deliver the message to Thompson personally. You can only assume that his road trip will be more eventful than that.

Chalky tells Nucky that he is done working for him in the illegal alcohol operation and that “his people” need him alive to keep the black community stable. Nucky convinces him that he will handle the situation and staying in the operation is actually the only option he has. Nucky then gives a speech at a black church with the claims that he will be relentless in finding who attacked Chalky and his workers. Then he gives a similar speech at a white church and tells the crowd that the blacks need to be held in check and taught a lesson. Politics at its finest!! A member of the latter church interrupts the speech to inform the crowd that the man Nucky shot earlier had died due to his injury. Nucky tells Eli to place Chalky under arrest “for his own safety”.

Nucky senses that Jimmy is uncharacteristically distant since his father’s health has improved. He feels that Jimmy “use to tell (him) everything”, now he barely hears from him let alone sees him. Jimmy and his partner Richard take the alcohol from Chalky’s warehouse after he is imprisoned and there is no one guarding it. Dealing a large blow to Nucky’s empire without any evidence poiting back to him.

At the closing of the episode Nucky is called to his office late one night, by a deputy to the State’s Attorney, and is arrested for voting fraud.

Questions About the Season

Is Jimmy going to remain with the Commodore, go back to Nucky or be an independent factor on the boardwalk?

What impact does Nucky being imprisoned have on the business in Atlantic City?

What happens when the unstable Capone comes back to Atlantic City?

Is Chalky going to be a more prevalent impact character this season?

And finally, why the HELL did we need to know that Gillian, Jimmy’s mom, “kissed his winky” when she changed his diapers?!?! Seriously, why?!