"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.

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“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.