"21" is the first episode of the second season of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

Boardwalk Empire ''Boardwalk Empire'' is an American period crime drama television series created by Terence Winter for the premium cable channel HBO. The series is set chiefly in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition era of the 1920s. The series sta ...

'', which originally aired September 25, 2011. The episode was written by series creator and

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

Terence Winter Terence Patrick Winter (born October 2, 1960) is an American writer and producer of television and film. He was the creator, writer, and executive producer of the HBO television series '' Boardwalk Empire'' (2010–2014). Before creating ''Boar ...

and directed by executive producer

Tim Van Patten Timothy Van Patten (born June 10, 1959) is an American television director, actor, screenwriter, and producer. He has received numerous accolades including two Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and two Directors Guild of America Awards as well as n ...

Plot

Nucky Thompson Enoch Malachi "Nucky" Thompson is a fictional character and the protagonist of the HBO TV series '' Boardwalk Empire'', portrayed by Steve Buscemi. Nucky is loosely based on former Atlantic City, New Jersey political figure Enoch Lewis "Nucky" ...

's power is challenged by the alliance of

Jimmy Darmody James Edison Darmody is a fictional character in the television show ''Boardwalk Empire'', played by Michael Pitt. He is one of the main characters in the first two seasons of the series. Unlike most of the other main characters in the series, Ji ...

, Eli Thompson, and the Commodore, who manipulate the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

into attacking Chalky White's bootlegging warehouse. Chalky kills one of the attackers, sparking outrage in the community. Nucky orders Eli to arrest Chalky for his own protection. Jimmy reflects upon his upbringing, and Nucky's part in it. Nucky deduces that Jimmy is in league with the Commodore, and subtly warns him to carefully consider his position. Nelson Van Alden's wife Rose visits for the weekend and is dismayed by the depravity of the city. Van Alden conducts a police raid in her presence, inspiring her admiration. Meanwhile, Van Alden has a financial arrangement with Lucy to carry a child for him. While Margaret Schroeder takes her children to see ''

The Kid The Kid or The Kids may refer to: Fictional characters * The kid (''Blood Meridian''), a character in Cormac McCarthy's 1985 novel ''Blood Meridian'' * The Kid (''The Matrix''), a character in the ''Matrix'' film series * The Kid (''The Stand'' ...

'', Nucky is arrested for

election fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share o ...

First appearances

* George "Solomon" Bishop: A corrupt Deputy

US Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...

tasked with arresting Nucky Thompson for

and taking his case to the State Court. * Lenore White: Chalky White's wife and Lester, Maybelle and Adeline's mother. * Lester White: Chalky and Lenore White's son, Maybelle and Adeline's older brother, a talented

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

and an upcoming alumuni of

Morehouse College Morehouse College is a Private college, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black, Men's colleges in the United States, men's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia, ...

. * Katy: One of Nucky and Margaret's

housemaid A maid, housemaid, or maidservant is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era, domestic service was the second-largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids a ...

s who later becomes Owen Sleater's lover. * Clarkson: An FBI Agent, Sawicki's partner and best friend and Van Alden's junior. * Stan Sawicki: A

Polish-American Polish Americans () are Americans who either have total or partial Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 8.81 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing about 2.67% of the U.S. population, ...

FBI Agent who's Clarkson's partner and Van Alden's junior and who is secretly also working as a corrupt agent for Nucky. * Leander Cephas Whitlock: Commodore Kaestner's longtime lawyer who assists and mentors Jimmy and Gillian and has also known Nucky for many years preceding. *

George Remus George Remus (November 13, 1876 – January 20, 1952) was a German-born American lawyer who was a bootlegger during the early days of Prohibition, and later murdered his wife Imogene. Early life Remus was born in Landsberg, Germany, on Nove ...

: An Ohio-based

medicinal Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

alcohol bootlegger who also owns a

pharmaceutical Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...

empire over there, is connected to the mafia underworld and is also part of the "Ohio Gang" with Harry Daugherty, Jess Smith and Warren G. Harding.

Deaths

* Walker: One of Chalky White's employees and workers helping him move his bootlegging crates. He has his throat slit by the KKK. * Orville: Another of Chalky White's employees and workers helping him move his bootlegging crates. He is shot to death when Chalky's warehouse is attacked by the KKK. * 2 Chalky White Employees: They both are shot to death by the KKK when they attack Chalky's warehouse. * Herman Dacus: The leader of the KKK who, alongside the other members, attacks Chalky's warehouse and is shot on the head and killed by Chalky whilst running away from the warehouse after attacking it.

Reception

Critical reception

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' gave the episode a score of 9 out of 10, saying that "... Season 1's finale promised a series ready to raise the bar. Judging by this episode, Season 2 looks primed to succeed at satisfying that promise." They continued by praising the "masterfully shot" speech Nucky gives to two different sides of the racial conflict.

Ratings

The second-season premiere was watched by 2.912 million viewers, down 39% from the pilot and down 12% from its first-season finale.

References

External links

"21"
at

* {{DEFAULTSORT:21 2011 American television episodes Boardwalk Empire episodes Television episodes directed by Tim Van Patten Television episodes written by Terence Winter Cultural depictions of Johnny Torrio