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Originally Posted by hotdogfallacy
I don't know, I still think while this show may have some nuance and ambiguity from time to time, it will sooner than later spell everything out for you. Take Billy-Nucky relationship. How can you think that she genuinely cared for him for most of the season? She would flirt with other rich/powerful man right in front of his face, would disappear for days, did not deny that she was banging dudes on the side, did not allow him to know who they were and numerous times she declined his proposal to be be in an exclusive relationship...
The lack of exclusivity in the relationship is what I feel comes with the territory. She knows his situation with Margaret and the kids, which probably made her feel like an exclusive relationship was not so likely. In that scene where you believe she randomly fell in love with him, she says she doesn't care that he's a gangster, but just wants him to be "my gangster." I don't think the lack of exclusivity means that they can't care deeply for each other.
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I mean these things i am pretty sure are there, and I don't see how they can be read other than though she may have enjoyed Nucky's company, she valued her freedom and didn't really care for him, like he cared for her. I am also pretty sure that he indeed provided for her (or it is strongly implied) and got her a job too.
I guess I just saw numerous scenes where I felt the opposite. He came to her place one night when she wasn't there and fell asleep. He wakes up to her making breakfast, and tells her his true fear of being alone. She responds with "well you're not alone now," and they embrace in a way that we have never seen from Nucky. As cold and calculating as he is, his moments with Billy are the only time he seems human, and it is just impossible imo that she doesn't return the same feelings at least significantly
I guess my main point should be that if you believe she "randomly fell in love with him after beating up that guy," that doesn't fall in line with her not really caring for him prior
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I think the feelings between Nucky/Margaret are portrayed as more complicated than he cares for her/doesn't care, and I think the viewer is meant to believe that on some level he will always care for her.
This is true, and the kids certainly have a lot to do with that. It's pretty hard to tell what will come of their situation, but the immense amount of protection and repeated checking in from a distance shows that they are indeed important to him
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I mean Chalky is the guy who is in charge of all black folks in that community. Nucky is in dire need of some man power and he is trying to get some back up from Chicago, after everyone abandoned him. A likely reasonable conclusion to this conflict between Chalky and Nucky is a rift between them, which would tie into the plot and cause some problems for Nucky (otherwise what the **** is the purpose of that scene?). The point is, if Nucky was truly a skilled diplomat, he would avoid needless antagonism and needless problems.
Again I think this has to do with the racial inequality of the times. If black folk were easily accepted anywhere and everywhere, I feel confident that this whole scene goes down differently. I don't think Chalky's men are very valuable as manpower, and it would raise a lot of suspicion if they were congregating in unusual areas. The bathhouse coup to take down Masseria would not have been an option with Chalky's men, regardless of skill