Boardwalk Empire Season 2, Episode 10

• Courtesy of HBO
• MIRACLES DON’T COME CHEAP, YOU KNOW: Father Brennan and Margaret Schroeder

A crate marked “Feeny’s Irish Oats” leads us back from Ireland to Atlantic City. The crate gets off-loaded at the Port of Hoboken, driven in trucks across New Jersey and carried by Owen Sleater across the Boardwalk. The jaunty ragtime strains of “Miss Lizzy Brown” mixes with a sermon from Deuteronomy as Owen approaches the picket line of African-American strikers. Dunn Purnsley nods to give Owen permission to cross the picket line and enter the Ritz Carlton. Owen meets the nasty manager from last week and reveals that the crate contains not oats but Irish whiskey. “That real?” asks the manager. “Straight from the old girl’s tit,” says Owen, who sells him 400 cases.

Speaking of nursing, Van Alden’s nanny Sigrid mentions that she had many siblings as a girl: “When I was six, I tried to feed my baby sister from my bosom.” Van Alden receives a Petition for Divorce from Rose and a terse note. Later he rehearses his testimony with Esther and expresses his certainty that Nucky ordered the murder of Hans Schroeder, which seems good enough for Esther.