The split between character moments and plot points in this season of Boardwalk Empire has certainly improved on last year. "White Horse Pike" is a great example of an episode where character development doesn't have to suffer just because the pawns need to be put into place. Things are heading towards a battle, as they always do around this point in a Boardwalk season, but there are a lot of emotional storylines that are also set to -- potentially -- explode. Hit the jump for why, as Eli says, we need to get it sorted! However you ultimately feel about Dr. Narcisse as a character, this season hasn't been taken over by him in the way Gyp dominated things last year, which has felt like a good thing. As "White Horse Pike" made clear, his role is both overt and subversive. For a (presumably) one-season villain, he's done a lot to repair the show in a way that will continue after he's gone. Mostly, that he has been a narratively unifying factor, something the show desperately needed. Narcisse has helped streamline things: his connection to both Harlem and the heroin trade have had implications in all of the story lines -- if not directly, then thematically. Even in "White Horse Pike," which jumped around a fair amount, Narcisse kept popping up at unexpected moments. He shows up at the table with Masseria to discuss the heroin trade coming up from Tampa. He sits in the dark at the Onyx when Maybelle stumbles ...
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