‘Boardwalk Empire’ recap: Nucky wants out of gangster biz

Nucky turn legit? Sounds like a smart move for bootlegger Enoch “Nucky” Thompson (Steve Buscemi) as HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” returns for its fifth and final season with Episode 49, “Golden Days for Boys and Girls.”

It’s 1931 as Prohibition winds down after 11 years of forced temperance. And with America mired in the Great Depression, the public is thirsting for something far stronger than ice tea.

Determined to capitalize on this historic business opportunity, Nucky negotiates with the Bacardi family in Cuba so he can distribute their rum products in the U.S. when Prohibition officially ends.

Accompanying Nucky in Havana are his occasional lover Sally Wheet (Patricia Arquette) and drunken Sen. Wendell Lloyd (Michael Siberry), who revels in conga music, mojitos and sexy senoritas.

“If you ask me, the whole damn country could use a drink,” the senator says, bemoaning a high unemployment rate and massive tax-revenue losses since Prohibition went into effect.

But Nucky’s hoped-for transition from murderous gangster to upstanding entrepreneur is “tricky,” the senator cautions, because “your hands aren’t the cleanest.”

“If America is not about starting over,” Nucky counters, “where’s the hope for any of us?”

Nucky isn’t the only bootlegger targeting Cuba, however. Gangster Meyer Lansky (Anatol Yusef) is on the island, supposedly enjoying a tropical vacation with his wife. But Nucky discovers that Meyer’s “spouse” is actually a prostitute.

Moreover, Nucky is nearly killed by a machete-wielding hit man who’s probably employed by rival mobsters. Fortunately for Nucky, his Cuban bodyguard (Paul Calderon) dispatches the would-be assassin then slices off his ear as a gruesome trophy.

Meanwhile, Nucky’s estranged wife, Margaret (Kelly Macdonald), and other employees at a battered Wall Street investment firm dutifully listen to a pep talk from one of their bosses, Robert Bennett (Patch Darragh).

“Don’t let the naysayers get you down,” he says with forced enthusiasm. Then, as staff recoil in horror, he pulls out a pistol and shoots himself in the head.

Now Margaret is on the spot as she’s asked for the key to the dead man’s file cabinet. Locked inside are records of the firm’s transactions with gangster Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg), who was gunned down for refusing to pay a gambling debt.

After denying she knows where the key is, Margaret opens the cabinet and starts to retrieve Arnold’s file. When caught in the act, she feigns innocence.

Arnold’s murder has set off a bloody battle to take over his New York operations. Among the victims is mafia leader Joe Masseria (Ivo Nandi), who’s betrayed by Charles “Lucky” Luciano (Vincent Piazza).

Taking out Joe earns Lucky the gratitude of Salvatore “Boss of Bosses” Maranzano (Giampiero Judica), who triumphantly proclaims that “everybody in this room is going to get rich!”

Meanwhile, a series of flashbacks reveal Nucky’s humble childhood in 1884 as he strives to impress Atlantic City powerbroker Louis “The Commodore” Kaestner (John Ellison Conlee). Believing he’s found his chance, young Nucky (Nolan Lyons) turns in a lost hat containing a $50 bill.

“Thought you were going to get something for being honest?” Louis asks. But returning the money pays off when Nucky is hired for menial work at a beachfront hotel.

“Everything goes through me, understand? Big and little,” Louis insists.

At home, Nucky avidly reads “Golden Days for Boys and Girls,” a newspaper filled with rags-to-riches stories urging kids to be “honest and true.”

Grownup Nucky fell far short of that ideal when he ruthlessly took command of the Atlantic City Boardwalk. But with Prohibition ending, who knows?

Maybe he’ll morph into a legitimate businessman after all -- if he survives long enough.