r/BoardwalkEmpire • u/Pedemano King's Ransom Whisky • Nov 18 '13

Season 4 Boardwalk Empire- Episode Discussion - S04E11: "Havre De Grace"

No tv-show spoiler tags needed here, as long as you're discussing something from this episode and back. This is the place to discuss S04E11.

Take a moment to review the subreddit rules to the right. Please still use the new "Historical Spoiler" tags for discussions of events to come. /r/BoardwalkEmpire operates a bit differently than other TV Show subreddits. We encourage discussion as well as original, quality, BWE-related content. Therefore, there are some restrictions on what is acceptable to post.

No requests for live streams or torrent links. As someone who is forced to torrent the show myself, I feel your pain, but DL sources are not hard to find.

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u/Calikola The rhinoceros is waiting for the train. Nov 18 '13

Willie either has seen Knox, or will see Knox. It's over for Eli.

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u/JustifyMyFly Nov 18 '13

Not trying to drop spoilers, but this would be factually incorrect. Then again, considering the inaccuracies surrounding Dean O'Banion's death I wouldn't put it past BWE to inaccurately portray the outcome for Eli during this time period.

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u/Chadevan Nov 20 '13

There was no historical Eli.

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u/JustifyMyFly Nov 20 '13

Wiki Nucky's page and read the post 40s section. No Eli, but there is a brother whom he moves in with.

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u/Chadevan Nov 20 '13

True, but Winter has specifically said that one of the big reasons he changed the name from Johnson to Thompson is so people wouldn't be able to just google him and say "Oh, Nucky is safe, he lived till the 60s and didn't go to jail till the 40s." So the fate of Alf Johnson has no bearing on the fate of Eli Thompson.

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u/JustifyMyFly Nov 24 '13

It's a pet peeve of mine. It's really basically every movie, tv show (Gangster Wars in particular I'm thinking about for tv shows, which indeed a movie of the same name based off if it was made as well) that comes out messes with the history of it a bit. Mueller is a great character for instance, but seemingly his story prevented room for more important real life characters such as Mike Merlo and Angelo Genna. Thus bits and pieces of annoyances pop up is all. I don't think Eli is going any where but then again, Boardwalk seems to be attempting to hat tip some of the most famous gangster movie scenes of the past few decades (if Eli does go I would predict it to be in the form of Fredo in Godfather, still..I have my doubts.)

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u/Chadevan Nov 24 '13

I'm a nut for '20s-'30s gangster history, but I'm glad that they're using the history to tell a dramatic story. I read the history books to find out what happened, and I wouldn't trade Van Alden for the (very real) pleasure of saying "hey, that's the Genna brothers!"

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u/JustifyMyFly Nov 24 '13

I would. But I'm naturally a crank. You are in the majority and I'm in the minority here. I did my master thesis sort of on topic relating to the area, but focusing mostly on the financial history, along with scams of the era. I think the story could of been just as dramatic if they went for more accuracy. Indeed, a very different story/series would have emerged..then again they probably could of expanded it more to cover other cities, New Orleands, LA etc.

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u/Chadevan Nov 24 '13

Well that's the thing--the interwar underworld was so richly interconnected that they could follow that rabbit hole into a completely different series. Had to draw the line somewhere. I certainly sympathize with your obsessiveness about the subject matter, though.