Edward Copeland's Tangents: Boardwalk Empire No. 11: Paris Green

Monday, November 29, 2010

Boardwalk Empire No. 11: Paris Green

BLOGGER'S NOTE: The recap for next week's season finale will be later than usual as I will have to await delivery of a video copy to watch after it airs before I can write one. This recap contains spoilers, so if you haven't seen the episode yet, move along.

By Edward Copeland
The penultimate episode of the first season of Boardwalk Empire opens with a closeup on Hardeen (Remy Auberjonois), Houdini's brother, doing one of his escapes. Many of the characters weaving throughout the series plots will be attempting escapes in the "Paris Green" episode, some who didn't even realize there was a need for one. Some will succeed, some won't. It's another excellent outing for the series, though its temps slows compared to the past couple of installments. Still, it resolves some more lingering issues and includes a helluva verbal fight that could have far-reaching repercussions.

Attending Hardeen's show are Nucky, Margaret, Annabelle and Harry Price. Hardeen is in the midst of his escape from being chained and strait-jacketed while hanging upside down. An announcer bellows that six minutes and 30 seconds have elapsed. Margaret asks Nucky if the trick is meant to take that long. "Not as far as I'm concerned," replies a thoroughly bored Nucky. Harry Price seems preoccupied with some other matter. Annabelle inquires as to what's wrong, but Harry just smiles weakly and says he's nervous, that's all. "You're not the one tied up, baby," Annabelle reminds him as Hardeen finally frees himself to thunderous applause and triumphant music from the band.

As Jimmy and Angela are eating, Jimmy notice Angela's mind's wandering again. He asks her what she's thinking about. Before she can answer, the phone rings and Jimmy rises and answers it. He asks whoever is on the other end what they want him to do about it. He relents and says he'll go tomorrow and hangs up. He returns to the table and tells Angela that it was his mother. His father is dying.

Agents Van Alden and Sebso take a break to eat, choosing a Chinese restaurant as the site for their midday sustenance. The always skeptical and suspicious Van Alden inquires as to how Sebso acquired his skills with chopsticks. Sebso said he used to work as a clerk for an importer in Manhattan and there was a Chinese

restaurant that was close and cheap. "And you craved more excitement so you joined the bureau and you found it in mortal combat with our witness," Van Alden sneers. Sebso says he doesn't like to talk about it, but he wishes it had turned out differently. With you dead and not him, Van Alden asks, adding that self-defense in the line of duty is no crime. Van Alden again grills him on the details of the Winslow shooting. He says Sebso shot him in the head but the other agent corrects him that it was in the chest. "And he hit you in the forehead with a rock," Van Alden continues, adding that it meant he was facing him, while Winslow was supposedly taking a leak. Sebso sort of stumbles around and says he can't be sure how he was able to get the rock. It all happened so fast. Winslow sort of scrambled. Van Alden keeps his eyebrows arched almost the entire time. Trying to change the subject, Sebso notices that Van Alden hasn't touched his food and asks if he's going to eat. "The thought of what ingredients might constitute this filth repulses me."

Hardeen arches an eyebrow as he takes Margaret's hands in his at an after-performance party. Their gazes remain locked until Hardeen breaks the grasp and Margaret realizes that her bracelet is gone. She's amazed. She didn't even notice him doing anything. "Deception requires complicity, however subconscious," Hardeen tells her. Annabelle shrieks in surprise as she discovers Margaret's bracelet now rests on her wrist. Annabelle asks if she can keep it, but Hardeen says no, he's a magician, not a thief. "There's an excuse that might come in handy someday," Nucky says. Hardeen tells stories of himself and his more famous brother, saying that doing the

strait-jacket trick out in the open was his idea as was the milk can escape. It's no small feat to escape from a milk can, he tells the guests. Annabelle tells him to try a corset and heels. "I'm sure Mr. Hardeen has had occasion to help many women escape from those," Nucky jokes. "The most challenging trick of all," Hardeen admits. Suddenly, Harry Price explodes, asking if no one reads the newspaper. It seems the International Reply Coupon scheme that he tried to sell Nucky on at Chalky's nightclub turned out to be a scam and the man who got him involved, Charles Ponzi, has been arrested and Price is ruined and broke. Every shell game needs a mark, Hardeen comments. Annabelle turns hard, asking him if he's really completely broke. Price tries to calm her, assuring her that they'll pull through, she'll see. Annabelle calls Harry a fat worthless fool and storms out with Harry clumsily chasing after her. Nucky turns to Hardeen and asks if he knows any other tricks.

Rothstein is on the phone with his lawyer Bill Fallon (David Aaron Baker), who is in Chicago, telling him that he's never sought notoriety. Fallon tells him that notoriety is about to seek him. Half of the Chicago White Sox team has been indicted as well as some of the men who approached Rothstein about getting involved in the original fix. "A girl goes bed to with 10 men, who is going to believe her when she says the 11th is the father?" Rothstein asks. Fallon tells Arnold that his instincts told him to obtain his services and they have proved to be correct. Fallon advises him to come to Chicago. "Into the lion's den?" Rothstein says skeptically. Fallon tells him that before he does that though, he should think long and hard about whether he knows anyone in Chicago who would be willing to do him a favor.

We finally have the answer about Jimmy's parentage, a scene that explains how someone as young as Gretchen Mol's Gillian's could be Michael Pitt's Jimmy's mother and last, but certaintly not least, we get a scene to justify Dabney Coleman's character and purpose on the show. Yes, as it had been looking, the suspicions that Nucky was Jimmy's father were way off course and his father is indeed the Commodore. At Gillian's urging that the Commodore is dying, Jimmy shows up at the man's house to see him. When the Commodore lays eyes on Jimmy in his fine suit, he says he looks like a proper gentleman. Jimmy says his mother raised him well. The old man gives his son a drink and offers him a biscuit (actually a cookie), which Jimmy takes. When the Commodore said before that even his dog was sick, he wasn't exaggerating. The dog died the previous evening after whimpering, vomiting and not being able to settle. The Commodore weeps slightly when he says he couldn't do anything about it. Jimmy coldy comments that it's just a fucking dog, angering the Commodore who says Jimmy isn't like that. "I'm what time and circumstance have

made me," Jimmy replies. He tells his father sarcastically that he hears that he and his mother have become close. The Commodore says Jimmy has no concept of the ways people can be close. Jimmy says he has a pretty good idea. He knows that the Commodore was 54 and his mom was only 13. The Commodore tells Jimmy that he'd have done the same thing, but Jimmy replies that he doesn't know him very well. "I know you backwards and forwards. You know what you want and nothing's gonna stop you from getting it," the Commodore tells him. "I'd expect nothing less from my son." The Commodore then goes on to give a lengthy speech about Atlantic City's history. When he came there, the city was "a fucking swamp." He drained the swamp, paved those streets, built those hotels. "I made this fucking city," he informs Jimmy, who responds "with your giant blue ox." The Commodore tells him not to sass him, he's trying to tell him something. Jimmy asks him what he's trying to tell him. The Commodore says the wrong man is running this town. Jimmy turns and starts to leave as his father asks where he is going. Jimmy says he doesn't feel well and he's being truthful. He promptly hits the closest bathroom and pukes in the sink.

At the Dittrich Studios, Mary tells Angela to pack lightly: just one suitcase for her and Tommy. They always can buy new things when they get to Paris. She also advises getting to the port an hour early. As the lovers whisper, cussing can be heard from the back of photography shop. For someone with the injuries Mary described to Angela in last week's episode, Robert doesn't look that bad (or else quite a bit of time has elasped). All that indicates Robert has been injured are the crutches he's stumbling around on and a slightly swollen right side of his face. As the women help him sit, Angela excuses herself. Robert asks his wife what the women were conspiring about since he heard hushed voices. Mary says it was only girl talk. Robert tells his wife that he does love her games. "As do you my love," Mary says as she gives Robert a gentle kiss on the forehead.

Nucky speaks into his office phone and asks the caller where he is phoning from and he tells him the lobby. "Are you a fucking idiot?" Nucky asks Sebso. Sebso says he couldn't call from the Post Office because it isn't safe there. Thompson tries to reassure him that he's safe since the bureau cleared him. Sebso tells him that Van Alden won't let up about the shooting though, questioning him incessantly about the details. During the conversation, Eddie starts to enter the office, but Nucky waves him off. Nucky suggests giving the agent something to restore his trust. Sebso asks him for a suggestion. Nucky reminds him that he's a Prohibition agent, go make a bust. Sebso asks for a tip and Nucky asks if he wants him to make the arrest for him too. He then gives him an address where he suspects he might find a distillery. Nucky leans back in his chair and tells Eddie he can hear him outside the door. Eddie comes in and says there is a woman in distress, but before Nucky can say anything Annabelle has stormed into

his office. Nucky raises her hand as if to tell her to stop and tells her that he doesn't want any shouting or crying. Annabelle tells him about the money under her floorboard and that Harry has stolen it. Nucky says and you want me to have him arrested and she responds, "Damn right." Nucky points out that he'd be charging him with taking the money that she took from him. Annabelle starts to cry about what she had to do for that money. Nucky looks exasperated and tells her that he told her not to do this.

He then hands her some cash and says that should last her the rest of the summer. They share some soothing talk and Nucky gently brushes her cheek. Unfortunately, Margaret has entered the office and witnesses this. "Nucky Thompson's gift is to never forget who owes him," Margaret says. "It's generally a good principle," Nucky responds. Margaret asks if Annabelle told Nucky that she already gave her $50 and Nucky says he guesses that makes both of them soft touches. Annabelle excuses herself as quickly as she can. Margaret tells Nucky she came by to tell him that the League of Women Voters will make a formal endorsement of Edward Bader for mayor. Nucky welcomes the news. "Glad I could be of use to you," Margaret says before storming out.

Jimmy pays a visit to his mom who asks him how his father looked. Jimmy says he looks like he's dying and he smells like garlic. He's surprised that the Commodore and Gillian see each other. Gillian says they began to keep in touch. After all, they have Jimmy in common. When Jimmy enlisted, the Commodore got very nervous because he lost his brother in the Battle of Vicksburg. Gillian says she told him Jimmy would come back because Lady Jean, the fortune teller, told her he would. Jimmy still can't get over his disgust at their initial relationship. "You were 13 years old. You were by yourself when you had me," Jimmy says. Gillian says she wasn't completely alone

because Nucky was there to help. This makes Jimmy even more curious, because he's never been clear why Nucky would do that. Gillian tells him that Nucky was the sheriff and he worked for the Commodore and then she starts to trail off. She brings an old photo out of a drawer, when she was dressed for a stage show, and then she unloads the ugly truth: Nucky brought Gillian to the Commodore. One of his duties was procuring women, or in this case, a girl, for the Commodore. So he was a pimp, Jimmy says. Gillian asks Jimmy if he remembers Mabel, Nucky's late wife and says how lovely she was. She tells her son that Nucky's been kind to both of them in his way and the whole affair always has bothered him. She then tells her son she needs to get going. She told the doctor she'd meet him at the Commodore's. No one should die alone, she tells him.

Agents Van Alden and Sebso are driving through a wooded area searching for the booze-making operation that Nucky gave Sebso the tip about. Though they've passed the marker he noted, they've yet to see anything. Van Alden asks if the person who gave him the tip was reliable and Sebso says he thought so. They stop the car and start looking around on foot when Van Alden hears something. The agents find an African-American church

congregation singing at the riverside. Van Alden identifies himself as an agent of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. The preacher says he is Deacon Cuffy (Franklin Ojeda Smith) of a Baptist church in Atlantic City. "You think Christ hears you in this forsaken place?" Van Alden asks. The deacon responds, "Jesus is a wonder worker, sir. He hears everybody everywhere from the hollow to the hills." The two agents continue to observe the service. Van Alden turns to Sebso and says his people don't believe in heaven, do they? "My people?" Sebso replies. "Don't be glib. The Jews." Sebso says no, not exactly. As the sermon continues, Sebso can see the effect on Van Alden and tells him that he knows he's under a lot of strain. Van Alden then asks if Sebso doesn't believe in heaven how can he conceive of hell? Instead of waiting for a response, his attention returns to the deacon's words and they bring tears to Van Alden's cheeks. Sebso asks if he is OK. "The question is," Van Alden inquires as he turns a sharp gaze on Sebso,"are you?"

The camera closes in on a very unhealthy looking foot. Dr. Surran (Kevin Henderson) says the Commodore is quite jaundiced. He asks if he's been urinating, but Louanne tells the doctor the chamberpot has been empty for days. The doctor says it's as if there is something wrong with every organ in his body and he needs to run some tests. Gillian continues to try to feed the Commodore some soup as Jimmy appears. The doctor says he really just needs some samples of his hair for the tests, but as he approaches the old man with scissors, the Commodore panics, convinced he's trying to kill him. Jimmy steps in and holds his father down, telling him that the doctor is trying to help him. The doctor snips some hair. "You're a good son," the Commodore tells Jimmy. Jimmy informs his mother that he'll sit with the Commodore tonight.

In Nucky Thompson, Steve Buscemi has created a role unlike any other in his career and he's been great in it, though for the most part he hasn't been given any truly lengthy scene of explosive range. Regular readers know I've singled Kelly Macdonald often for praise for inventing in Margaret the most surprising and complex character in the Boardwalk Empire universe, always capable of surprise. Despite their characters' romantic involvement, Buscemi and Macdonald have never really had a meaty moment together that truly tested both their characters and their skills as performers. In fact, their romance has almost been elliptical in nature. Aside from that first assignation in the entryway of her old house, it's been more a story of Margaret finding her way in a new world while Nucky dealt with other problems. That all changes in the following scene in "Paris Green," where Margaret's growing suspicions finally come to the surface and for a change Thompson can't blow them off or make excuses and instead decides to take them head on.

Margaret sits at her dressing table, silently but unhappily preparing to accompany Nucky to an evening's event. Nucky tells her she needn't go if she doesn't want to. Most of the DAR women were against suffrage and aren't that keen on immigrants anyway. She asks Nucky how the women's ancestors got there. He jokes that they are the Daughters of the American Revolution: They sprouted from the ground like pumpkins and followed Washington to Valley Forge. "I'll do what's required of me," Margaret tells Thompson, who replies that's not really the right answer. She asks what answer he'd prefer and he senses for the first time that the tension that was present in his office earlier in the day still remains. He tries to reassure her that what she saw wasn't what she thought it was. Margaret tosses him a

skeptical look and Nucky confesses that he and Annabelle did have a relationship years ago, but it didn't mean anything. Besides, he thought Annabele was Margaret's friend. "So you wouldn't fuck her?" Margaret fires at him like another bullet. He tells her that that sort of language does not become her. She says she's sure he'd rather she be demure, but he responds that he'd rather her be rational. "You'd rather I say nothing about what I see, what I've heard," she tells him. Nucky asks her what exactly has she heard. She tells him that he is a man capable of anything. Thompson wants to know who told her that and Margaret names Agent Van Alden. Nucky tells her that

if she hadn't bothered to bring it up until now, it couldn't have been that upsetting. Margaret tells him that it made her sick to her stomach and it still does, this whole arrangement does. Thompson asks her what arrangement would that be. "That I'm to aid you in the business you conduct and then pretend I don't know what that business is," she tells him. Nucky has reached the limit on trying to play peacemaker in this scene. "You've never said no to anything I put in front of you. You make a little noise now and then to remind me what a good person you are but a good person wouldn't be here right now," he snarls. Then, he marches into the bathroom and removes the Lysol from its hiding spot and returns, pointing out that after she lies down with him, she washes her body with this poison like any whore would. Nucky's out to hurt her now. "I won't have another child," she declares defiantly.

"By me?" Nucky asks. "By any man." Thompson tells her that's not her right to decide. Then Margaret dives into the dangerous waters and asks Thompson what purpose did it serve to make her a widow. Nucky explodes and warns her that she needs to be careful now. She tells him that she knows that Eli wasn't bringing her money to help but to keep her quiet. "Well you have been, haven't you?" Nucky answers her angrily. "Not a word about this man who beat you and murdered the baby you were carrying. I have not lost one second of sleep over what was done and neither have you." Margaret hauls off and slaps Nucky across the face. He's slightly shocked, but not for long as he hurls the Lysol bottle against the mirror, shattering it into tiny pieces. He tells her he guesses she won't need that anymore and storms out. Even though no one was killed or physically injured, in many ways it's the most violent scene Boardwalk Empire has depicted yet.

Louanne tells Jimmy that he has a visitor so he comes down from the Commodore's bedside and greets Richard. Richard tells him that they've received word from Chalky's contact in Philadelphia. The only D'Alessios to be found there are the mother, their sisters and another brother who is a dentist. Richard suggests that he go to Philadelphia, but Jimmy says the bad brothers are so far underground he doesn't see the point, but Harrow suggests that if he goes there and wipes out the family, perhaps that will force the D'Alessios out of hiding. Before Jimmy can give an answer to the proposal, Dr. Surran returns so he tells Richard they will talk later. Jimmy stops Surran and asks if he has the test results. The doctor asks if Jimmy is the next of kin and Jimmy replies that he doubts he's in the will, if that's what he's getting at. Surran asks if there is anyone who would gain from the Commodore's death. Jimmy says that he doesn't know of anyone and asks what the doctor is getting at. Surran informs Jimmy that it's because the tests show the Commodore's body is full of enough arsenic to take down a hippo.

As Angela packs the single suitcase for her and Tommy, she tells the little boy that they are going to go sailing across the ocean to Paris with Aunt Mary. When he asks if daddy will come, she says he's been to Paris and didn't like it. The little boy, already suspicious and unhappy about the situation, asks if Gillian, who he still isn't allow to call grandma, can go with them but Angela lies and says she's been there and didn't like Paris either but that it will be fun for the three of them. As she closes the suitcase and gives the apartment one last glance, Angela places a letter for Jimmy in the middle of the bed as she and Tommy depart the apartment for a new life abroad.

Eli's recovery seems to be going better as he is up and around as Nucky comes to see him, spotting their father sitting wordlessly on the porch. Nucky asks what Ethan does all day and Eli says that is it. He just sits there and broods about his house being gone. Nucky says he's surprised the house didn't go sooner: The place was a firetrap. Eli asks what happened in the fight with Margaret. Nucky says it was a bad one. Eli tells him not to worry. He and June fight, but they take it out by the shed so the kids can't here. Nucky tells his little brother that she knows about Hans. "You mean she suspects," Eli says. Nucky doesn't respond. Eli worries that Nucky told her,

but his brother admits that he didn't deny it. "What were you thinking?" Nucky said he wanted to hurt her. Eli raises his fists and asks Nucky what he thinks these are for. Nucky says he isn't like that. His brother finds skepticism in that remark, asking him who it was that asked him to get rid of Hans in the first place. "He deserved it," Nucky declares. "Deserved?" Eli says, his indignation beginning to rise. "Leave that shit to God and look after business." Eli lets loose at this point, reminding his brother that he has a bullet in his gut from what he doesn't know, his election's at risk and he has eight kids to support while he's made Margaret a liability when he didn't need to make her one. "Nobody cares about you," Eli tells his brother. "They just care about what you can give them." After the abuse he took from

Margaret, he wasn't going to stay and take it from his brother as well. Nucky tells Eli it's too bad he didn't get to see Hardeen the other night. The reference puzzles his younger brother. "Entertaining act," Nucky tells him, "but if he wasn't Houdini's brother, nobody'd give a fuck." Shea Whigham's performance as Eli is one that I've never really praised in these recaps and that's a deficiency on my part because he gives such a solid, workmanlike performance without many showy scenes that it slips my mind to point out just how good he is at portraying Eli's jealousy and lack of self-esteem. This scene probably gave him the most emoting of the entire series, but I should have pointed out how good he is long before now. Too often subtle acting gets overshadowed by the showier stuff and I'm usually better at singling that out but Boardwalk Empire provides such an embarrassment of acting riches, Whigham has been lost in the shuffle of my recaps and my correcting that oversight has been long overdue.

Jimmy shows up at his mother's and tells her, much to her surprise, that the Commodore made it through another night. He asks her if she knows how much money the Commodore has, but she says she doesn't know. It's enough to live comfortably though, right, Jimmy says. Gillian says it sure doesn't seem as if he's wanted

for anything. Jimmy asks her if they've had discussions about what happens when he dies. Gillian expresses ignorance as to what her son is getting at. Jimmy says he doesn't care what she's doing or if she keeps doing it, but he ate a cookie there the other day and it made him throw up. Then, buried deep in the kitchen rubbish pail, he found a can of Paris Green. Paris Green, according to Wikipedia is "a common name for copper(II) acetoarsenite, or C.I. Pigment Green 21, an extremely toxic blue green chemical with four main uses: pigment, animal poison (mostly rodenticide), insecticide, and blue colorant for fireworks...Paris Green may be prepared from copper(II) acetate and arsenic trioxide." The expression on Gillian's face neither confirms nor denies that she may be poisoning the Commodore.

Buscemi is a one-man continuity person on the set as he keeps Nucky's boiling anger consistent from scene to scene. Nucky shows up at a gathering where Bader is telling a joke to Halloran and his ward bosses, only Thompson explodes because Bader gets an essential fact of the joke wrong. He yells at them that while they are all lounging around laughing they are facing the toughest election they've ever faced. Fletcher and the Democrats aren't sitting around joking, they are out there stealing the election out from under them. He tells them the people want reform, especially women, and because of that he has accepted Eli's resignation and Halloran will now be sheriff. Eddie whispers in his ear that Mr. Harrow is on the phone.

Angela and Tommy arrive at the Dittrich Studios to find a For Rent sign and a vacant store with a man sweeping up the shop. She asks the man what happened and he said they sneaked out in the middle of the night, even though the lease agreement called for them to sweep up first. She asked if the wife said anything. The man said the wife, "if that's what she was," was always talking about Paris.

Sebso enters the makeshift office at the Post Office with a letter in his hand and informs Van Alden that he plans to put in for a transfer to Detroit. He says they need agents because of booze coming over the border and he has family near there. Van Alden makes a crack about them needing the best men as well. Sebso asks if they can speak freely and Van Alden asks him to. Sebso says he's pretty sure that Van Alden doesn't trust him. Van Alden asks him what gives him that idea and Sebso points to the endless questioning about the Winslow shooting, the dirty looks, the insinuations about his

religious beliefs. "We've been over the Winslow shooting 50 times," Sebso pleads. "Why would I want him dead?" "Temptation knows no rank," Van Alden replies as he spins in his chair to glance at Sebso's shoes. He notes they are new wingtips. An exasperated Sebso tells him they were on sale and asks how he can convince him. Before he knows it, the two agents are back at the riverside with Deacon Cuffy's congregation. The minister asks Van Alden if he's come to be saved. Van Alden tells him that he already has been, but Sebso hasn't as he grabs him. "There's a veil over his eyes and a darkness in his soul," Van Alden tells the deacon, who urges him to bring Sebso forward. Van Alden gets into the river first and, reluctantly, after removing his gun and wingtips, so does Sebso. Van Alden asks the deacon if any believer has the ability to baptize. The deacon says

that is a matter of some dispute, but when Van Alden asks if he will allow it, the deacon assents. Van Alden takes Sebso and asks if he accepts Jesus Christ as his savior and he says no, but Van Alden dunks him anyway. He brings him back up and asks again as Sebso tries to struggle to get through that he's not going to renounce his Judaism, but Van Alden just keeps repeatedly dunking him. Deacon Cuffy sees what's going on and tries to speak out, but his horror at the scene almost renders him mute. Some of his congregation actually is wailing. Van Alden continues until he's finally just holding Sebso under to the point that he has drowned. "Though has fulfilled the judgment of the wicked," Van Alden shouts as Sebso's body floats in the river. Van Alden exits the river and the scene, arms outstretched, gun in one hand, badge in the other. It's almost a redundancy to praise Michael Shannon's performance at this point, but the past two episodes that have shown Van Alden truly losing it have been remarkable television. It's one thing for a Prohibition agent to slip and drink (consuming alcohol wasn't actually against the law after all), but committing adultery was a big deal for this serious Christian. However, I have no idea how they expect to let him get away with drowning a man to death in front of so many witnesses.

Nucky shows up at Margaret's home after receiving Richard's call. Harrow tells him that she sent him away the night before. When he showed up today, she had suitcases out. She asked him to return some things to a neighbor, when he returned, Margaret and the children were gone. Nucky notices that Margaret has left the emerald bracelet he gave her on the dining room table.

Angela wasn't fast enough to beat Jimmy back to the apartment. When she and Tommy return, she sees that her letter is no longer on the bed. Jimmy appears and takes the suitcase and says his father is going to live. He then returns and starts getting Tommy ready for bed. When he's done, he steps into the other room and closes the door behind him and Angela bursts into tears.

Nucky walks absent-mindedly down the Boardwalk at night (though Eddie is near, should he need protection). He stops and ventures into Lady Jean's and sits down. He's in need of some fortune telling. Maybe he's asking about what's going to happen in next week's season finale. I know I can't wait, but as I mentioned in the note at the top of the recap, it will be later than usual since I will have to wait for the deliver of a videotape copy after it airs before I can see it and write about it. Until then...