Boardwalk Empire Season 2 Opener Fires Away

HBO's Emmy-nominated, '20s era crime boss drama Boardwalk Empire started its second season Sunday night with a highly consequential bang. Chalky White (Michelle K. Williams), fleeing a race-based attack, shot and killed one of the white Klansmen, which puts her in a heap of trouble. Nucky (the beloved Steve Buscemi) steps in to convince Chalky and her gang that he will be protected — the same gesture he makes to the opposing side! Nucky's duplicitousness as Atlantic City treasure and crime boss, not to mention self-appointed peacemaker (really?), is taking on a more violent mark this season.

Sunday's premiere also carried on the cliffhanger from the first season, when we learned that zany IRS agent Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon) had impregnated Nucky's ex, Lucy. This is the '20s, so Lucy is yes, still pregnant, though that does not stop Van Alden from celebrating his 13th wedding anniversary with his wife. The irony that Van Alden can get another woman pregnant, but not his baby crazy wife, ought not to be lost on viewers keeping track.

Meanwhile things are going pretty well for Jimmy (Michael Pitt), who has recently moved his family to a beachfront property and is staying in the black in the bootlegging liquor business. Al Capone (Stephen Graham) is still a minor presence, though he does not seem too happy about a Jimmy and The Commodore's burgeoning plot to take the reins from Nucky's fingers.

Watch the trailer for Season 2's premiere here: