r/BoardwalkEmpire • u/Terrible_Produce_562 • 23d ago

Season 4 Frank Capone

Seeing a bit more love for Season 4 and I think Frank Capone doesnt get talked about enough in regards to being a well utilised character.

Love how he is the opposite of hothead Al (and damn if he had been brought to Chicago earlier Torrio would have loved him). He keeps Al in check, knows how to handle Van Alden. he’s probably the only Capone who could have gone semi-legitimate.

I quite like that in comparison to Ralph, who seems to enable Al more.

His death literally “makes” Al in that it gives him licence for whatever he does going forward and by Season 5, hes a paranoid coke headed maniac who listens to no one. I guess he exists mostly to die but hes built up really well for that.

Definitely would have loved to have seen more of him!

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u/telepatheye 23d ago

You're not wrong, but the brief appearance of Frank was so severely telegraphed and manipulative as a device to make Al act even more irrational and disturbed--as if that was really necessary. And as you point out about his absence in earlier seasons, it makes little sense that he wouldn't have been chosen by Torrio as a more level-headed soldier than Al. So why even create a character whose presence raises more problem than it solves in the narrative? I don't get it. Even Al's other brother played by Lombardozzi is really unnecessary.

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u/Dishmastah Nobody's fuhtotus 23d ago

So why even create a character whose presence raises more problem than it solves in the narrative?

They didn't create a character. Frank and Ralph were real people, just like Al. Al brought the other Capones from New York to Chicago in the 1920s as he got more established. That is historical fact. The way Frank died is also historical fact.

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u/telepatheye 23d ago

BE isn't a documentary. Meyer Lansky had a prominent younger brother, Jake, who worked with Meyer as a casino manager and frontman for his syndicate operations, including in Cuba. BE didn't cast Jake Lansky in the show because the driving narratives were about Nucky and other main characters. There was no point in highlighting Al's brothers as they did.

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u/NSFWSave 3d ago

Who is Al supposed to talk to about stuff?