Thanks to the colluding influence of his manipulative mother ( Gretchen Mol) and estranged father ( Dabney Coleman, also Nucky’s mentor and predecessor), Nucky’s own ward James “Jimmy” Darmody (a brooding Michael Pitt in probably his finest role to date) and his pals organized their own coup d’etat that included Eli Thompson, Rothstein’s low-level foot soldiers (“Lucky” Luciano and Meyer Lansky) and low-level wannabe gangster Chicago’s Al Capone ( Stephen Graham). As Nucky said in the key line of season 2, episode 8 to Rothstein and Johnny Torrio ( Greg Antonacci), Chicago’s mob boss, “the pups have grown fangs, gentleman.” Yet, frustrated by Nucky’s scheming ways, getting too big for their britches and craving a bigger piece of the pie, the true conflicts of season 2 were all the ambitious underlings.
His main adversary was the cunning, Jewish mobster/businessman/gambler Arnold Rothstein (played with wonderfully coiled menace by Michael Stuhlbarg).īut shady businessman are always (and constantly) making deals with the devils, so by Season 2, Nucky and Rothstein had come to a mutually benefitting and understanding truce. More conniving and smart than violent and reckless like most of his contemporaries, Nucky’s got control of the booze still flowing into the city, the cops under his thumb, led by his brother Eli Thompson ( Shea Whigham), the negroes (as led by Chalky White played by Michael Kenneth Williams) and various politicians on the local, state and federal level ( Christopher McDonald, Robert Clohessy, and William Hill). In Season 1 we were introduced to Enoch “Nucky” Thompson ( Steve Buscemi in an unlikely leading role that many thought he was miscast in, but has since grown into), the Atlantic City treasurer who’s pulling most of the city’s purse strings.