RECAP: 'Boardwalk Empire' — New Characters, New Rules

HBO's Boardwalk Empire shocked fans last season when the ever-evolving treachery of Steve Buscemi's Nucky Thompson drove him to kill his protege and show favorite Jimmy Darmody, played by Michael Pitt, and now Boardwalk Empire is trying to fill the gap with an amped-up body count.

Not only is Jimmy really gone and has been for 16 months when the season three premiere, "Resolutions," which centers around a New Year's Eve party the Thompsons are throwing, kicks off, but other bit players start dropping like flies to join him, including a thief who gets caught breaking into Doyle's warehouse and is consequently marked for death by Nucky, who seems to be adjusting well to the increased levels of violence in his line of work.

The show also brings on a new bootlegger, Gyp Rosetti (Bobby Cannavale), who introduces himself to the viewers by beating an innocent bystander to death with a tire-iron when the man makes a joke about his broken-down car.

Rosetti also isn't thrilled about Nucky's new decision to streamline things and sell solely to Arnold Rothstein, whom Rosetti calls a "smug kyke midget," before leaving Nucky's party in a huff.

And Rosetti isn't the only one in the mood for a fight. Nucky's wife, Margaret (Kelly Macdonald), whose burgeoning obsession with female pilot Carrie Duncan betrays an unconscious desire to escape her murderous husband, ends up getting into it with Nucky at the end of the episode, inciting Nucky to run into the arms of his new mistress, a Broadway actress named Billie Kent (Meg Chambers Steedle).

Catch Boardwalk Empire Sunday nights at 9 p.m. EST on HBO.

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