Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...
Although "Marriage and Hunting" acted as sort of a bridge episode with regards to Chalky and Dr. Narcisse's deadly feud (which had its flip switched last week when Chalky faced down Dunn), the connective tissue present here was great, and the demented duality of Van Alden was flat-out mesmerizing.
Van Alden, from the very start, was Boardwalk's hardest character to get a handle on. Ostensibly, he was the "good guy" - although a man so rigid and "good" that he was singularly off-putting. By the end of that first season though, Van Alden had proved to be not only hypocritical, but maniacal. His actions still, however, nestled inside the premise of a "man trying to do good (by his pristinely warped definition of the word)." As Season 2 passed, we found out that Van Alden was every bit the liar that Nucky was, and a coward to boot. Season 3 found him bumbling, somewhat earnestly, his way through his new life - still very much prone however to unhinged fits of violence. A soft-spoken, paranoid Frankenstein's monster who strangely drew contempt from his peers until he would snap and brutally overreact.
Continue reading…
No comments:
Post a Comment