Ya he gave away everything to them and really didnt get his nephew back and with the nephew getting punched by bugsy back into the hands of lucky.......there are so many angles they could continue this show and even take nucky out and then show the rise of the mafia with lucky and meyer and have a show off of that and then what goes on from there. Love the old time tenament housing and then the AC storyline and how after the bootlegging era AC shuts down and then gets the new casinos and now is back in the dumps.....oh well one more

You guys watching series finale? I can't believe it's the last one. How many were on this season 5?

Anyway, it just started. I'm telling you, the guy playing young Nucky must have studied Bescemi's acting/facial expressions, cause he looks JUST like a young him.



TIS

Good call on the darmondy son coming back to take out nucky.....thought the final episode kinda stunk

Does anyone know why the season was so short and why they ended the series? It had to be a money thing, again didnt like the final episode and I do/did like the final sopranos

There was little choice. The real Nucky ended up in jail and we all know about the rise of the Mafia. It was too predictable and would have placed the writers in a straight jacket. There was no drama left

I could only watch it for a few minutes some jerkoff reading from a book what a disgrace that show had potential

I could see the Tommy Darmody angle coming from a mile. A bit disappointed in the finale but like olivant said they were in a strightjacket. I knew it'd be too late for Gillian as well. My favorite scenes were probably Narcisse's death which was perfect lol and the scene with Capone and his son and him going to court. I thought the commission scene wasn't bad neither. But yeah Richard pretty much died in vain the ending could've been better. I preferred the endings of The Sopranos and Breaking Bad.

Feeble ending to a great series. IMO: the producers were so enthralled with their brilliant, lavish scenes and storylines that they neglected to move the plot along in a well-paced, rational way. I kept saying to myself, "Yeah, great episode, but where's this series going?"

They needed to end the series, so they rushed things along. Too rushed, not logical at all.

For the record: Luciano did form the Commission and refused to claim the title of Capo di Tutti Capi. He didn't have to: all the Mob guys knew he was Number One. He appointed Capone "chairman" of the Commission, and Joe Bonnano as "secretary." Clever move: He wanted to bring the Chicago Outfit--a bunch of cowboys--into the fold; and he wanted the old-time Sicilians (the so-called "Men of Honor") to cooperate with non-Sicilians and non-Italians.

AND: Nucky Johnson went to prison on a tax-evasion rap in 1941 for four years. Died broke.

I was glad to see Nucky make his peace with Margaret and Eli,and I thoroughly enjoyed Narcisse's demise. A longer final season would have been great.

Even though in real life,Nucky went to prison,I think most of us expected him to be killed in the last episode. It was kind of an open secret,both on this board and others,that the new kid was really Tommy Darmody. IMHO,it was a mistake to bring him into the show before the final episode.

I would have liked it better if the kid walked up to Nucky and said something like "Mr. Thompson? You don't know me,but my Dad used to work for you.
Nucky: "What was his name?"
Tommy:"Jimmy Darmody"
Then the gun comes out.

All in all,we had a great run watching the show,and of course seeing Nucky lose everything as part of some Karmic destiny for all of the heinous stuff he did.
Watching him become totally powerless at the hands of the real gangsters was great.
With apologies to The Godfather,Nucky went in like Michael,and went out like Fredo.

Just perfect

What was going on at the asylum that gillian was at what did they just do experimental operations on all the women? Were they giving them all hysterectomies?

One other thing was that Federal agents that were following Nucky at the end that pulled their badges out or were they the pinkertons as well?

I don't think they were hysterectomies but Dr Cotton is based on an actual doctor who ran an asylum. He believed that insanity stemmed from untreated infections in the body so he'd remove organs. When he died in 1933 he was praised by The New York Times and other publications. And i think that those were Bureau agents, i think they were gonna take Nuck in for tax evasion. Might be a little reference to what happened to the real Nucky down the line.

Pretty sure they were IRS agents, really just there to show the audience that one way or another, Nucky was going down.

IRS agents for sure; they said it to him at the end.

I think that the asylum doctor was doing Hystorectomies on those women to take out the "Girl parts", which were making them act out. It's like that show "the Knick"; experimental surgery. Weird shit had to happen for us to evolve 100 years ago. Thank god we live in a civilized society today, where the only problems are ebola, rampant murder, etc. Evolution works.

Here's a little insight into the final episode:

Like to see showtime or HBO do some sort of thing on Capone or actually any mob drama, liked the guy who played capone, loved the relationship he had with his son,

Tho it was a pretty good episode, I kind of agree with Turnbull, it seemed like a "rushed" ending. I didn't see that ending coming. Had no idea who that kid was until he said.




TIS

The ending was expected but disappointing.

However, while discussing it over dinner before the show, I came up with an alternate ending that would have been much more satisfying.

Nucky lives, but continues to be hounded by the IRS. Eventually they throw him in jail. He gets out in '45 and goes to live with Eli.

We jump forward a couple of years to a well appointed living room where a middle aged Bugsy Siegel sits on a couch, regaling Allen Smiley with the story of his kidnapping.
His narrative continues as the scene changes to Eli, smoking a cigarette behind the wheel of a running car in front of a Beverly Hills mansion. The camera zooms past the car to a shadowy figure in the garden and we realize it is an aging Nucky.
Bugsy starts singing "My girl's pussy" and we see Nucky raise an M1 carbine to his shoulder.

Fade to credits with Bugsy's song in the background.

The show was very expensive to produce and though popular not close to shows like breaking bad or thrones so the numbers financialy just couldn't work long term so with that said I think they did the best thing by trying to bring everything together in this last season I thought the flashbacks were great it showed that hard choice nucky made to move up in the world and that choice to give up a little girl to be sexually abused, a girl that trusted him and he pledged to always look after always haunted him.the sheriff before him a family man with children couldn't do it any more nucky made a choice that ultimately on the show got him killed. It wasn't the ny mob who put a hit out on him it was Julian once he refused to get her out she had her grandson tommy do the hit. Better ending then a black screen.

love it

The symbolism was excellent in my opinion. The attraction with the early TV set, and Nucky looking into a future he will have no part of. Greatness. Or the Princeton students reciting the spell of the Yukon right before his demise.

In the flashback scene when Nucky is turning Gillian over to the Commodore,he holds out his hand to her.

That single gesture results in the end of Gillian's innocence and the beginning of Nucky's deal with the devil.

When he visits Gillian in the lockup,Nucky has one final chance to try and atone for what he did.

Instead, he once again takes her hand,and once again,leaves her alone and doomed to a hellish existence.

Hit it on the head

I like how bugsy asks luciano, what about our friend, and everyone assumes its nucky, but then they take out narcisse in an awesome hit, couldnt stand that weirdo on the show and then how narcisse killed chalky.....ol michael k williams got rubbed out 2 times in 2 excellent hbo series

Same for Steve Buscemi.

Although predictable I felt that the Tommy Darmody storyline was pushed upon us without thought of what it did to the previous storyline. In the first episode Tommy is eating mush and sleeping in a crib yet ten years later he kills Nucky, so it does not work from a continuity stand point.

Pointed out earlier in the thread but worth repeating, it tarnishes the heroics and efforts of Richard who buy far was one of the most interesting characters and storylines. Richard saved Tommy and left him with a family that not only take care of him and steer him down the right path, but would not share his father’s past even if Richard told them.

Gillian could not give Tommy any information about Jimmy and Nucky when Tommy came of age. It took the women seven years to bargain for a piece of paper, an envelope and a stamp. You can also understand the reasoning for mail not permitted to leave the asylum.

It would have been move fitting to end with a 1941 flash of a broke, penniless, lonely and broken Nucky being apprehended by a young hot shot IRS agent Tommy Darmody. This would be a testament to the valiant efforts of Richard.

A short season, but some of the series best scenes.

hahahah....yup awesome!!!.....

That would be really great and show that the cycle had changed and that despite everything that he came from he changed his future to help people...very good idea...bet the writers could have used you in their war room

The Tommy Darmody storyline was definitely under-developed. Although I'm sure a lot of folks assume that somehow Gillian was behind Nucky's killing,I'm not one of them.

Even though Tommy says his grandmother talked about Nucky a lot and he couldn't tell if it was love or hate,that in itself doesn't indicate involvement by anyone but Tommy.

The scenes where Gillian is trying to see young Tommy during the custody battle show Tommy as being almost afraid of her,and as we know,he was soon taken away by Richard's sister.

So the question for me is: How did Tommy find out for sure that Nucky killed his father.? Terrance Winter could have cleared that up,even if it came right before Nucky's killing.

By no means does this take away from one of the best shows ever made,but it would have been nice to know.

Much like Tony Soprano after he killed Christopher, Nucky's stock went down in my book when I realized how he gave up Gillian (to the Colonel) when they were young.

It was a great series and I'm gonna miss it.