Boardwalk Empire Season 2, Episode 3

• Courtesy of HBO
• NO LOBSTER FOR YOU! Steve Buscemi faces off with Michael Pitt.

Paz de la Huerta may be a little too good at playing Lucy Danziger as a Dumb Dora (to borrow “Boardwalk Empire’s” parlance). Lucy finally gets plenty of screen time this week, and she’s in quite a state. She and Van Alden made a deal for her to remain under wraps in Ocean City while she carries her child to term. Practically imprisoned in a dreary apartment, she laments, “I need sssomething — something! — or I’m goooing to go craa-zy!” De la Huerta’s delivery always sounds somewhat novocained. She may be named after this Lucy Danziger, but the personality she most reminds me of is David After Dentist.

“Boardwalk Empire” has always treated her as its resident Naked Chick, and the HBO show alone in that: she played a stripper in Enter the Void and “Nude” in Jim Jarmusch’s The Limits of Control. I suspect that this week’s episode, “A Dangerous Maid,” may represent Lucy hitting bottom, and she’ll become more of a player than a pawn over the course of the season.