Boardwalk Empire Season 2, Ep. 5

• Courtesy of HBO
• O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? Shea Wigham as Eli Thompson

Would you care for some savage bloodletting with your Prohibition-era political power plays? “Boardwalk Empire” ramps up the violence on an episode with the deceptively whimsical title “Gimcrack & Bunkum.” The show even offers more coincidental mirroring of AMC’s high-profile gore effects, the previous “half-faced” trend followed by skulls being graphically smashed in. “Boardwalk’s” busted cranium at least proves less disgusting than the stove-in skull on “The Walking Dead’s” season premiere last week.

We open upon a Memorial Day ceremony, which Nucky marks with a public speech and surprise ambush. Rather than read out the names of fallen veterans to be memorialized, he introduces WWI veteran Jimmy to make remarks. Jimmy takes the stage, nonplussed and hand shaking, but he rises to the occasion with self-effacing boilerplate about the value of freedom. Given that Jimmy grew up seeing Nucky work crowds, his effectiveness should be no surprise.

But one veteran is a no-show: Richard Harrow. The soundtrack plays a song about the rose that grows in no-man’s-land as Harrow looks at his scrapbook in his garret apartment. The book now includes the portrait Angela drew, as well as a collage that seems to show a woman with a vampire at her neck. In a neat serious of economical shots, Harrow wraps up an apple and slice of bread, straps on his knife and leaves with his rifle.