Thursday, December 15, 2011

Why "Boardwalk Empire" killed its most beloved character.

by Christian Chiakulas

Huge spoilers below. You've been warned.

Last Sunday, December 11th, HBO aired the second season finale of its Prohibition-era crime drama, Boardwalk Empire, a much critically-lauded (and underwatched) television show created by Terrence Winter (The Sopranos).  Near the end, deuteragonist Jimmy Darmody (played fantastically by Michael Pitt) is gunned down in cold blood by Steve Buscemi's Nucky Thompson, the undisputed "main character" of the show, from day one.  It made for some of the best television I've seen since The Wire and was a very interesting character development for Nucky, who has never killed anyone before (at least, not on-screen).  Well, he's not half a gangster anymore, it would seem.  But, here's the problem with the season finale...

Jimmy Darmody is one of the greatest, most interesting characters ever created for TV, and Pitt's performance goes beyond Emmy-worthy.  The cat-and-mouse feud between Jimmy and Nucky was the driving conflict of season 2, and season 1 spent much time building up their relationship.  With Jimmy gone, who knows what direction the show is going in?  One thing, however, is clear:  Boardwalk just won't be the same without Jimmy.

At the end of Season 1 we learn that Jimmy plans to betray Nucky and take his place as the head of organized crime in Atlantic City.  At the time, we hated Jimmy for it.  Nucky was our main character, and didn't do much to deserve Jimmy's ungrateful stab in the back.  As the second season progressed, most of us Boardwalk viewers found ourselves in an interesting place.  When Nucky was onscreen we were rooting for him as always, but more and more, no matter what Jimmy did, we somehow rooted for him as well.  Even though these two characters were out to get each other, somehow both of them were the hero (or anti-hero, or villain protagonist, whatever you wanna call it).  It's easy to see why we stayed with Nucky; he's been the protagonist from the beginning.  Jimmy was trickier.  He was clearly a traitor, he had no legitimate motivation for his betrayal, and he even tried to have Nucky killed.  Nevertheless, we stayed with him.

Jimmy Darmody was a tortured soul.  He suffered from some form of PTSD from his deployment in World War I, and seemed to be hiding some other dark secret.  His mother Gillian almost controlled everything he did, either through manipulation or borderline seduction.  It was really no surprise in the second-to-last episode of the finale when it was revealed that in college, Gillian took advantage of her son and they had sex.  Jimmy woke up the next day horrified, and ran off to fight in the war.  By then it was nigh impossible to stay mad at Jimmy, knowing how screwed up an upbringing he'd had (absent father who never cared about Jimmy until he would be useful for something, disturbed mother).  As if this weren't all enough, his wife is murdered by a rival gangster that Jimmy screwed over, and Jimmy is also forced to murder his own father (surprise surprise, he's manipulated into it by Gillian).

Then Jimmy starts to make things right.  He rounds up the Ku Klux Klansmen who murdered some black bootleggers at his behest earlier in the season, and delivers them to Chalky White, head of the black community.  He also fixes Nucky's corruption trial so that Nucky walks.  It seems like Jimmy and Nucky are on the road to reconciliation...

Then Nucky murders Jimmy.

Why would HBO, or Terrence Winter, or whomever was responsible for the decision, do this?  Michael Pitt stole every episode of this season from Buscemi (not to impugn Steve Buscemi, he's an amazing actor) and by the end of the second season finale, everyone in the audience was team Jimmy.  Why take away our favorite character when he, and the show, still have so much potential?

First off, I do not accept the contention that Michael Pitt was "difficult on set" and so they wrote him off.  That's a bunch of bullshit.  Writers don't work with the actors on the set, and it's too contrived to believe that some crew member complained to the executives, who then ordered the writer to kill off the fan favorite (especially because the episode was written by the series creator).  In fact, it seemed like, before they started making Jimmy more and more sympathetic, his death was being set up since the beginning (season 1, when Nucky says to Jimmy, "I could have you killed."  And Jimmy replies, "But you won't."

There's a reason they made Jimmy so sympathetic before killing him off.  A couple of reasons, actually.  His death wouldn't have had anywhere near the emotional impact that it did if Jimmy had stayed an ungrateful villain (and the reaction to his death has been astounding; check the Boardwalk Empire HBO page, or the forums on IMDB).  We didn't lose a hero-turned-villain, we lost a hero.

Jimmy's death was also important for Nucky's character.  A major theme running throughout both seasons of Boardwalk is that Nucky is on the line between a gangster and a politician (or entrepreneur).  He's never killed anyone himself, but always orders others to do it.  Nucky is very much a conflicted character; nor he or the viewers really know how evil he truly is (let's be honest, everyone on Boardwalk Empire is evil to some degree).  Well, now we know, and it's going to be interesting seeing how the show handles Nucky finally falling on one side of the fence.

Last but not least, Jimmy went out like a champ.  He showed up to meet Nucky unarmed and said, "This is the only way we could've ended, isn't it?"  He doesn't fight, and when Nucky declares that he'll be the one to finish Jimmy, Jimmy calmly reassures Nucky that after a while, he'll be okay.  Jimmy went out like a true gentleman.  He didn't begrudge Nucky, but accepted his fate, because he chose it.  I haven't seen a fictional character go out with such flare since Bodie from The Wire.


Jimmy's death has shown us that Boardwalk Empire is in no way fucking around.  Nobody is safe, except perhaps Nucky.  It might sound trite when I say that now we know that Boardwalk isn't afraid to take risks, but hey, cliches are cliches for a reason.  The show has spent two seasons on the relationship between Jimmy and Nucky, and now it's over.  Sure, Jimmy could've gone places in the future, but maybe that's the point.  A lot of people die with a lot of potential left for their life.  That's life, that's the world we live in, and that's especially the world of the roaring twenties.  I'll miss Jimmy next season, and until Boardwalk's end, but I respect the show more for killing such an integral, amazing character, and will always remember how I almost cried at the end of the second season finale of Boardwalk Empire.

RIP James Darmody.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the article. I've added it to the page for "To the Lost" on the Boardwalk Empire wikia.

    http://boardwalkempire.wikia.com/wiki/To_the_Lost#External_links

    ReplyDelete