"Boardwalk Empire," Season 1, Episode 4

• Courtesy of HBO
• GIANT CAKE NOT PICTURED: Paz de al Huerta

Last night’s episode, titled “Anastasia,” riffed on the breaking news from the 1920s about Anna Anderson, who claimed to be Russia’s Grand Duchess Anastasia. The “fake” Anastasia inspires members of “Boardwalk Empire’s” female cast to dabble in fantasies of being a princess, particularly Margaret. “Where’s your sense of romance, Edith?” she asks her cranky, abandoned neighbor.

Thanks to her job at La Belle Femme, Margaret gets to deliver Lucy’s dress to the surprise birthday party Nucky meticulously planned for himself. It’s very much Cinderella at the ball, and when Margaret first sets eyes on the fancy party, she’s not just dazzled by the finery. Kelly Macdonald’s eyes reflect a hunger for the luxe life. Margaret bandies words with Nucky’s political cronies (who earlier dissed women with another of those “dumb bunny” scenes about how the vote would be wasted on the female gender). After spotting her literally across a crowded room, Nucky spins Margaret around the dance floor, and though she’s a teetotaler, she finds it intoxicating.

Instead of a clock striking midnight, however, we have Lucy popping out of a birthday cake, signaling that it’s back to reality for Margaret. The next day she sees Nucky back with Lucy, along with a headline debunking the Anastasia hoax while, unless my ears deceived me, “My Wild Irish Rose” played mockingly on the soundtrack. At the end, Margaret pilfers some lingerie from the dress shop, aware that if she wants the “Anastasia” life, she’ll have to get it for herself.