Note: Don't read on if you haven't seen Season 3, Episode 4 of "Boardwalk Empire," titled "Blue Bell Boy."
Is Nucky Thompson slipping? The latest episode of "Boardwalk Empire" climaxed with a violent ambush from Gyp Rosetti that represented the culmination of months of bad decision-making from Atlantic City's bootlegger-in-chief.
Nucky's been all over the map lately, alternating between micro-managing murder and being way too hands-off about his booze business. Caught in-between taking a step back and doing everybody else's job, he's showing signs of losing control of his operation. His mistakes unfolded like clockwork in this episode. First he barked at his underlings to make a shipment to New York by any means necessary, refusing to hear that the back roads were iced over and that the trucks had no choice but to drive through Tabor Heights. He declined to empower his brother Eli to deal with the Rosetti problem when he had the chance, instead choosing to rely on the dim-witted Mickey Doyle to make a crucial decision while he went off to indulge his newfound blood lust for thieves, and ended up stuck in a basement, nearly arrested, or worse, by federal prohibition agents loyal to his rival Waxy Gordon.
Whether it's because Nucky's grown complacent or simply hasn't rebuilt his crew adequately in the wake of the last season's mass betrayals, it's now clear that he has to make some changes to his organization, and fast. Paging Chalky White and Richard Harrow.
So it was more because of Nucky's slacking than anything else that Gyp Rosetti took the top spot in HuffPost TV's "Boardwalk Empire" gangster rankings this week. Rosetti has become a polarizing character on "Boardwalk" whose schtick is wearing thin on some viewers, but now that he's officially declared war on Nucky, we soon will find out how tough he really is.
To keep track of the deals, deception and death, HuffPost TV presents our weekly "Boardwalk Empire" gangster rankings, a guide to who's up and who's down among HBO's organized criminals. Check out the slideshow below to find out how your favorite liquor-slinging criminal fared this week.
