History Awesome / BoardwalkEmpire

** If Stephen Graham hadn't "grasped" Al Capone before that scene(in this troper's opinion, he already had), he has now.

* Richard Harrow sniping the guy [[spoiler: who disfigured Pearl]] from across the street, with pinpoint accuracy in the same spot he shot a rival sniper during the war. And he does it with just one eye. Of course, the [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic pipe organs playing in the background]] only added to it.

* The ''Godfather''-esque sequence in the season one finale where [[spoiler:the remaining D'Alessio brothers are wiped out, as Nucky expertly ties in their deaths toward support for his preferred mayoral candidate as a press conference.]]

* Jimmy and Harrow [[spoiler: ''scalping'' one of the Commodore's backers]] after the man hit him with a cane, in macabre reference to his having survived a battle with the Sioux.

* After two seasons of being TheGhost and then an ExtremeDoormat, seeing Rose Van Alden not only ''talk back'' to her husband for [[spoiler: getting Lucy pregnant and thinking Rose would be all right with them keeping the baby]], but ''strike him repeatedly'' was long overdue.

* Jimmy [[spoiler:killing his father with his trusty combat knife, with a spear wound that causes him to collapse seconds later.]]
** And [[spoiler: The Commodore, of all people, coming to save Gillian, spear in hand.]]

* Richard [[spoiler:killing Manny Horvitz at his own front door]] in the opening hours of 1923, having bided his time for a year and a half after [[spoiler:Angela's death]].

* Joe Masseria's {{Offscreen Moment Of Awesome}}, [[spoiler:overcoming Owen's hit on him and sending his body back to Nucky.]] Remember, in real life he was known as "the man who can dodge bullets."
* Though nothing's happened, yet: [[spoiler: The arrival of Eli and reinforcements from Chicago at the end of "Two Imposters" just screams LetsGetDangerous and BigDamnHeroes. The capper, however, has to be Nucky asking Eli if he was able to cut a deal with Torrio, only for Eli to respond "With him." Cue Al Capone striding out of the crowd of men, cigar in hand as he sums up the journey getting there and says "We need a bath, some chow, and then you and me sit down and we'll talk about who dies." with said cigar clutched firmly between his teeth. Stephen Graham's ''one'' line in that entire episode winds up stealing the entire show as he gloriously munches on both his cigar and all of the scenery he can get ahold of.]]

** Richard [[spoiler: pulls a OneManArmy and by himself [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbwA57IxhQY slaughters all of Gyp's men]]. Not to mention that he manages to kill one who put a gun to Tommy's head as leverage]].
** Gillian [[spoiler:attempting to kill Rosetti. It backfires rather horribly, but even Rosetti was impressed.]]
** Rothstein [[spoiler:stealing Lucky and Meyer's heroin and selling it to Masseria to cement an alliance.]]
** Nucky [[spoiler:successfully double-crossing Rothstein and Masseria, re-establishing himself as the ultimate power in Atlantic City.]]
*** To whit: [[spoiler: After Rothstein essentially steals Nucky's new distillery as payment for him leveraging Masseria to withdraw his support for Gyp Rosetti, Nucky then uses his new allies in Washington, namely Esther Randolph and Andrew Mellon, to ''steal it right back'' in '''addition''' to securing Rothstein's arrest in the process. For Masseria, whose goons were simply going back home to New York, Nucky had Capone and Chalky's men ambush their convoy on the way back, slaughtering all of them to a man as a message to Masseria to ''never'' attempt to muscle in on his territory in Atlantic City ever again. In one fell swoop, Nucky Thompson defeated ''the most powerful crimeboss in the country''(Masseria) as well as gained his revenge on the other(Rothstein) for an earlier betrayal.]]
** Capone's and Chalky's [[spoiler: aforementioned ambush on Masseria's men. Beginning with Capone firing a Maxim gun while smiling behind a cigar and ending with a line of Chalky's men lead by the man himself from the other side, finishing then off.]]
** [[spoiler: Gyp's death. Standing on the beach in a wife-beater, Gyp graces his last three subordinates with a horrible/hilarious impression of Nucky, then relieves himself starts singing "Barney Google", [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKpA4Ge5Ldc only to be relieved of life mid-note by a knife to the back]]. Even better, this knife is held by Tonino, Gyp's hapless ExtremeDoormat right-hand man, who had put up with increasing abuse from Gyp all season.]]
*** Even better is how [[spoiler: Tonino]] doesn't appear to take any joy in it, doing it solely to save his own neck. Therefore, [[spoiler:Gyp's death]] is, to what would be his great chagrin, ''[[NothingPersonal nothing]] [[BerserkButton personal]]''. Brilliant.

* Frederick Elliot's deposition is attended by a very arrogant young man who quickly has Elliot ranting about the "pup" daring to question him. Then he's revealed to be [[spoiler:J. Edgar Hoover.]]
** And the TheReveal that [[spoiler:Agent Knox is actually an undercover FBI agent]] which garners an OhCrap moment from Elliot.

* TheReveal that Daughter Maitland is [[spoiler: a mole and honeypot for Narcisse]] immediately took a worn-out, uninteresting subplot and made it retroactively awesome.

* [[spoiler: Van Alden's [[DoNotGoGentle final, glorious]] fit of [[RageBreakingPoint rage against]] [[BadBoss Capone.]] The man slapped the gun out of the hands of the most dangerous gangster in America!]]

* Van Alden's BadassBoast to O'Banion where he reclaims his identity, then segues into a WorldOfCardboardSpeech about having become TheUnfettered: "I used to believe in God. But now I don't believe in anything at all."

* After spending the whole night watching his father figure and mentor Rothstein lose in poker and suffer through anti-Semitic slurs from one of the gamblers, Meyer Lansky waits for the guy outside. He gives an entire (untranslated) introduction in Yiddish, introducing himself as Mr. Meyer Lansky, a Jew originally from Russia, and tells the guy he's a fat slob and he and the "god of Abraham" are going to kick the guy's ass. He then proceeds to beat the guy to death.

* Richard Harrow sniping the guy [[spoiler: who disfigured Pearl]] from across the street, with pinpoint accuracy in the same spot he shot a rival sniper during the war. And he does it with just one eye. Of course, the [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome pipe organs playing in the background]] only added to it.

* Samuel keeping his cool and saving a man's life by operating on him on a kitchen table. He is just a medical student and nowhere close to being qualified to perform a procedure that would normally require a skilled surgeon and a hospital. He even keeps operating when [[spoiler: Rosetti shows up outside]] despite the fact that at any moment there could be a gun battle and he could be shot dead. He is not afraid to correct/contradict Nucky and Chalky when it comes to medical matters. One can clearly see why Chalky is impressed enough by Samuel to introduce him to Nucky as "Master Samuel".
** WordofGod says that Eddie survived thanks to him.

* Jimmy, Al, and Torrio taking out Sheridan and his men.
-->''I think you'll agree that Greek Town belongs to us now.''

* Esther Randolph's "if it please the court" opening statement over the scenes of Jimmy and Richard killing Neary and Margaret marrying Nucky. Futile, but badass, Madame Assistant U.S. Attorney.

** Richard [[spoiler: pulls a OneManArmy and by himself slaughters all of Gyp's men. Not to mention that he manages to kill one who put a gun to Tommy's head as leverage]].

** [[spoiler: Gyp's death. Standing on the beach in a wife-beater, Gyp graces his last three subordinates with a horrible/hilarious impression of Nucky, then starts singing "Barney Google", only to be cut off by a knife to the back. Even better, this knife is held by Tonino, Gyp's hapless ExtremeDoormat right-hand man, who had put up with increasing abuse from Gyp all season.]]

* Chalky choking one of the D'Alessio brothers to death was pretty cold but also {{badass}}.

** Even better; Once Richard makes Paul apologise he wordlessly puts his mask back on and walks out with Julia following, stepping over her father without so much as a goodbye. {{Badass}}.

* [[spoiler: Van Alden' [[DoNotGoGentle final, glorious]] fit of [[RageBreakingPoint rage against]] [[BadBoss Capone.]] The man slapped the gun out of the hands of the most dangerous gangster in America!]]

* Mickey Doyle, he of the ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, deliberately misleading the cops who show up at the club looking for Chalky. Although to be fair, Nucky would have likely killed Mickey if he had, and Mickey knew this.

* Mickey Doyle, he of the ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, deliberately misleading the cops who show up at the club looking for Chalky. Although to be fair, Nicky would have likely killed Mickey if he had, and Mickey knew this.

* Mickey Doyle, he of the ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, deliberately misleading the cops who show up at the club looking for Chalky.

* Van Alden's BadassBoast to O'Banion where he reclaims his identity, then segues in a WorldOfCardboardSpeech about having become TheUnfettered: "I used to believe in God. But now I don't believe in anything at all."

* After spending the whole night watching his mentor lose in poker and suffer through anti-Semitic slurs from one of the gamblers, Meyer Lansky waits for him outside before beating him to death while muttering in Yiddish.