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Nucky Thompson
Enoch Malachi "Nucky" Thompson
"We all have to decide how much sin we can live with."
"If you wanna be a gangster in my town then you'll pay me for the privilege."
The primary Villain Protagonist of the series. Originally the corrupt treasurer of Atlantic County, he ends up somewhat accidentally in the world of organized crime after he begins investing in bootlegging during Prohibition.
- Abusive Parents: His father was horribly physically and emotionally abusive to him.
- The Ace: He's a high-flying politician with a double life as a liquor kingpin. He can trounce much younger and larger men when it comes to fisticuffs. And he can juggle like a pro.
- Affably Evil: He may be ruthless and corrupt, but Nucky's undeniably suave, witty, generous, and extremely progressive for his day. However, it slips more into Faux Affably Evil as the series progresses. He seems to slide back towards the former in the late seasons.
- Affectionate Nickname: Billie Kent calls him "Gus," as in "Gloomy Gus." Nucky does not seem to mind.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He's ultimately willing to kneel down and promise Luciano and Lansky everything he owns in return for his nephew's life.
- Alcoholic Parent: Unlike Eli, only Nucky suffered his wrath.
- Aloof Big Brother: To Eli. Nucky tends to ignore Eli and disregard his opinion, and the most attention he gives him tends to come in the way of insults more often than not.
- Ambition Is Evil: He always wants more, but it's downplayed during the present day, as he is not too greedy nor too amoral by the standards of the story. His backstory reveals that he wanted to get ahead, and in order to become sheriff, he delivered a 12 year old Gillian to the Commodore so he could rape her.
- Anti-Hero: Goes back and forth and toes the line thanks to the setting and his more nefarious antagonists. While certainly corrupt at the beginning of the series, Nucky was also motivated by a desire to help his constituents and a very sympathetic figure because of his kindness to others and tragic backstory. As the show progresses he becomes more and more evil and even gets his own hands dirty.Gillian: Mrs. Thompson said you want to be good. But you don't know how.
- Arms Dealer: He becomes this in the second season, trading smuggled machine guns to the IRA for Irish whiskey. He gets briefly confused with the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, "just a happy coincidence".
- Arranged Marriage: To Margaret, in order to avoid jail since she couldn't be forced then to testify against him.
- Badass Boast:
- "Want to see how I do business? Show your face in Atlantic City!"
- "I will ruin you. All of you."
- "I see you in Atlantic City again, I'll kill you myself."
- "I didn't ask for trouble. What was brought to my doorstep, I returned."
- Batman Gambit: Against Rothstein in "Margate Sands". Nucky has Doyle phone Rothstein and tell him that Nucky, now in the middle of a war against Gyp Rosetti, is running the biggest distillery of the US on behalf of the Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon. Rothstein catches the bait and phones Nucky to demand a 99% share of the distillery in return for convincing Masseria to withdraw his support from Rosetti and leave him hang, giving control of Atlantic City back to Nucky. Nucky accepts, and after he has Rosetti killed, he rats out Rothstein to Mellon, who orders Rothstein's arrest.
- Bedmate Reveal: With Billie in "Resolution".
- Been There, Shaped History: It's safe to say that Nucky Thompson is a whole deal more influential in 20th century US history than Nucky Johnson was.
- Nucky destroys Walter Edge's chances of winning the vice-presidential nomination on The Harding Ticket after the senator double-crosses him. The guy who ends up getting the nomination instead is this dude you may have heard of...
- Beware the Nice Ones: He can be a pretty nice guy, especially by the standards of the criminal underworld, and is generally fair and reasonable. Just don't cross him, or you'll wind up with a bullet lodged in your head.
- Bling-Bling-BANG!: After his second assassination attempt, Nucky starts to carry a revolver... covered in gold and ivory.
- Calling the Old Man Out: One of them at the Old Man's funeral, no less.
- Cartwright Curse: The women he loves tend to suffer low life expectancies.
- His first wife, Mabel, committed suicide before the story started.
- His mistress in season 3, Billie Kent, is killed in an explosion meant to kill Nucky.
- His mistress in season 4, Sally Wheet, is gunned down in Cuba by the army, while trying to perform a task for Nucky.
- The Chains of Commanding: His enemies think that his job could be easily done by anyone. They are so very, very wrong.
- The Charmer: He's a personable, well-spoken, and charismatic high-roller who gets in the good graces of politicians, businessmen, and criminals alike.
- The Chessmaster: Nucky is trying to become one following Rothstein's advice. If he has no real options left at the moment, he will retreat, put all his pieces back on the board, maneuver them into position and then strike back.
- Clothes Make the Legend: Colorful shirts and suits, red flower and homburg hat.
- The red flower disappears after season three.
- Consummate Liar: It comes with the job description. A deceiving master of duality and of the Bastardly Speech. One notable example has him defending the black community and demonizing it in the next phrase thanks to the montage
. - Control Freak
- Cool Uncle: Willie and the rest of Eli's children see him as this, for different reasons.
- The Dandy: Though he dresses appropriately for professional matters, he also dons very striking suits and outfits when walking around the town.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He had a poor, sucky childhood, and while he got better on the money part, he was never truly happy.
- Deadpan Snarker: He's a master of the Stealth Insult.
- Death by Flashback: A lot of insight into his backstory is finally given in the last season, right up to his death.
- The Don: Firmly upgraded to this by the third season.
- Doom Magnet: Everyone he's employed as The Driver (Jimmy, Owen and Eddie) has met with an untimely end.
- Drowning My Sorrows: After he learns that Sally died, he goes to the seediest bar he can find to get drunk.
- Embarrassing First Name: When Margaret says that she would like to name her child after him, he responds: "Enoch? You couldn't possibly be that cruel." Nucky's own son, who died in infancy, was named after him, but only because his wife wanted that.
- Embarrassing Middle Name: Malachi. There's a reason he uses 'Enoch' after all.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: While not without prejudice, he's one of the least bigoted characters in the series.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- Regardless of the current state of his relationship with Margaret, he genuinely loves Teddy and Emily like they're his own children. In "The Milkmaid's Lot", when he's suffering from a concussion and short-term memory problems, one thing that he keeps remembering (and mentioning) is that Emily was supposed to get a pony for her birthday.
- He's willing to give up everything he has to save the life of his nephew, William.
- Despite his problems with Eli, Nucky is surprisngly quick to forgive him for his betrayal. If practically anybody else had plotted with his enemies behind his back, Nucky would have murdered them without a second thought.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Despite being fine with political corruption among many other crimes, he strongly disapproves of spousal and child abuse. Learning that Hans Schroeder has beaten Margaret prompts Nucky to order a hit on Hans.
- In "Blue Bell Boy", he seems to be debating between letting a booze thief (whose death he ordered) go or taking him under his wing after he discovers that he is only 16. When the kid reveals that he is actually 19 and an epic con man, Nucky just shoots him in the head himself.
- Evil Mentor: To his nephew, Willie. Not that he tries to be, though, as he genuinely wants Willie to have a bright future.
- Fatal Flaw: Nucky has a tendency to take people for granted and has a fixation for professionalism— it includes both his close ones and his business associates. He disengages emotionally from Margaret, Eli and Jimmy after a while. It also causes most of his problems with crime, since he's unwilling to throw anyone a bone and expects everyone to be as professional and unemotional as himself.A.R.: Hubris. The Greeks call it.
- Even worse is his monumental hypocrisy. Most people drawn against him do so because he is not an example of the professionalism he demands from other people. Nucky not only can't keep it in his pants (which is another fatal flaw of his in itself), he also becomes lovestruck with whatever woman catches his attention at the moment to the point of putting at risk his business and life itself, and the lives of those around him in turn. Worst of all is that when he is called on it, he acts as if it is perfectly normal and the other person is overstepping his bounds (Eli), overreacting (Margaret), or at
worse fault themselves for not being an open skirt chaser like Nucky (Rothstein).
- Even worse is his monumental hypocrisy. Most people drawn against him do so because he is not an example of the professionalism he demands from other people. Nucky not only can't keep it in his pants (which is another fatal flaw of his in itself), he also becomes lovestruck with whatever woman catches his attention at the moment to the point of putting at risk his business and life itself, and the lives of those around him in turn. Worst of all is that when he is called on it, he acts as if it is perfectly normal and the other person is overstepping his bounds (Eli), overreacting (Margaret), or at
- Flashback: Several in the fifth season, in order to wrap up the show's story before its
early cancellation. - Friend to All Children: He's always nice to children, and gets along particularly well with Margaret's son. Hurting kids is a major Berserk Button for him.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: Asks for the support of his old associates in the upcoming war against Rosetti-Masseria, but he's considered a liability and only Al Capone and Chalky join his camp.
- Grammar Nazi
- Happy Marriage Charade: In the third season, to Margaret.
- Heroic BSoD: Big-time in "The Milkmaid's Lot", resulting from a concussion sustained in the explosion that killed Billie.
- Honorary Uncle: To Margaret's children, before getting a Promotion to Parent.
- Hypocrite:
- Played best in his interactions with Eli, where he always commands him to toughen up and take responsibility, yet Nucky always denies any wrongdoing on his part, even when he knows that the person he is talking to also knows about them. Eli's Hazy-Feel Turn comes precisely after he points out how resentful Nucky is and how he can't let any slight go unpunished no matter how small or far away in time it is, yet he expects other people to forget his own slights to them right after handing them a wad of cash.
- Multiple examples in his relationship with Billie, in which Nucky crosses his own lines by mixing business and personal priorities. Rothstein even calls him out for it.
- He criticises Chalky for letting his affair with Daughter Maitland interfere with his business. It's not like Nucky would do something like that! Possibly subverted. On the other hand he seems to have learned his lesson from Billie in Season 4 and is merely trying to pass the lesson on to his friend, so Chalky doesn't have to learn the hard way like he did.
- I Own This Town: Atlantic City, inherited from the Commodore. Nucky venturing into organized crime makes for a stronger but more dangerous grip.
- In-Series Nickname: Nucky or Nuck.
- It Gets Easier: When he's about to shoot Jimmy, Jimmy tells him: "My first time I vomited after. Two days straight. Second time I didn't even think about it." Indeed, Nucky becomes much more ruthless after his first kill.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Although sometimes the heart can be really deep.
- Karma Houdini: The show's plot could be summed up as "watch Nucky Thompson weasel out of the problems he's getting into". Subverted at the end of Season 5. He doesn't get out of his situation with Lucky Luciano, losing Atlantic City and all his power to him. And he gets killed by a Chekhov's Gunman for making the choice to give pre-teen Gillian over to the Commodore, which began his rise to power.
- Karmic Death: Ends up shot by Tommy Darmody, the ultimate end result of his first great sin which was giving Gillian over to The Commodore.
- Kavorka Man: Like many older men of the time period, it's astonishing how much tail he gets.
- Like a Son to Me: He and Mabel seemed to have this dynamic with Gillian before he sold her to The Commodore.
- Lonely at the Top: While he has wealth and prestige and is known for his charm, he manages to alienate Jimmy, his brother Eli, and even Margaret... right after marrying her.
- While he manages to make amends with Eli in Season 3, things get worse for him when Margaret gets fed up with him and leaves with his children.
- In Season 4 Nucky confides to a bartender that he used to be happier as a humble corrupt politician, since Prohibition has basically caused him to lose his trust in even his closest friends.
- The Lost Lenore: His first wife Mabel. She killed herself after the death of their first child. And while he gets over Billie's death pretty quickly, he stills feels the need to avenge her by killing her murderers.
- Lousy Lovers Are Losers: When he sleeps with Margaret, we only see him flopping around above her while she lays there immobile, and it's apparent from the look on her face and her body language both during and after sex that she didn't enjoy it one bit.
- Love Makes You Dumb: His relation with Billie makes him neglect his business affairs. A.R. calls him out on this "cavalierness" and labels him a liability.
- The Man Behind the Man: Mayors, senators and even presidents owe him their position in some way.
- Mangst: Childhood abuse, dead wife and infant son. Season 3 adds the death of Billie to the mix. He does not indulge in self-pity or let others do it for him.
- Mean Boss: He feels Surrounded by Idiots and always has quips towards any underling who drops the ball or steps over the line.
- Never My Fault: Nucky is often hard-pressed to admit fault, and tends to ignore legitimate grievances people have with him in favor of acting like the wronged party.
- Nice to the Waiter:
- He is nice to constituents who he patronizes, but he's a pretty big jerk to Eddie. In "Family Limitations", Margaret asks Eddie if Nucky is nice to him. Eddie loyally responds that he is. (In the same episode, Nucky berated him first for not knocking loudly enough, then for knocking too loudly.) In "Two Impostors" he realizes that he has known Eddie for years but never bothered to find out whether Eddie has any family (he is actually married and has two children) or where Eddie lives.
- He also gets more and more jerkish to Harlan after he begins working directly for him. This highlights how Nucky will be compassionate and friendly to those who are of no use to him, and manipulative to those who are under his control.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Inspired by the real historical figure Enoch "Nucky" Johnson, with the name changed so the writers have more leeway for telling his story. The character also seems to be older than his real counterpart, who was 37 in 1920— and his hands a lot bloodier.
- The Obstructive Love Interest: To Billie in Season 3. Unusual in that he is a man and the main character.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Everybody calls him "Nucky" or "Nuck", though Margaret addresses him as "Enoch" a few times in season 3.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: His first reunion with Margaret in Season 4 ends with possibly the worst thing he could have said, evoking Owen's demise.Nucky: I wouldn't put something alive in a box.
- Parental Substitute: First to Jimmy and later to Margaret's children.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Generally, he tries to avoid violence when peaceful solutions will make do (which often consist of cash payments). Moreso in Seasons 3 and 4.
- Promotion to Parent: In "Two Boats and a Lifeguard", when he asks Teddy to call him "Dad", and in "Georgia Peaches", when Teddy casually does.
- Rags to Riches: From beggar child to one of the richest and most powerful men in the country.
- Really Gets Around: Has several mistresses over the course of the show.
- Redemption Rejection:
- Just a few scenes after basically telling Margaret he'll make a Heel–Face Turn, he tells Jimmy "You don't know me. I'm not seeking forgiveness". Right before shooting Jimmy in the head.
- In the finale, he's given the chance to atone for his greatest sin, sending Gillian to the Commodore. She ends up in a horrific Bedlam House and writes a letter to him, begging for help. Nucky visits her, but refuses to get her out. Not much later, he's murdered by Tommy Darmody.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue Oni to Eli's Red.
- The Resenter: His speech to his nephew Willie in Season 4 makes clear that this has been a huge part of his motivation in the past. He grew up and later went to college resenting all the rich children of privilege who looked down their noses at him. He talks about how that anger and resentment have been the driving forces behind his success.
- Satellite Character: Strangely enough, he has become more of a lynchpin that ties together multiple character arcs than the main character of a central story.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: This has become something of a personal philosophy as a result of all of his experience with corrupt pols and the benefits of graft. It's also probably Nucky's Fatal Flaw, as he's very prone to throwing money at friends and loved ones in circumstances where he should be taking an active emotional interest.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Usually Nucky is the connection that people call on to get out of trouble. However, when he gets into legal trouble himself, he is not shy calling up his connections in the White House and later, New York, to get out of it.
- A bit of a running gag is that he tends to solve most of his problems by pulling a wad of cash out of his pocket.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: By the end of Season 4, Nucky is growing tired living a life of crime and plans to move to Cuba with Sally.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: In S3 with Billie, and in S4 with Sally Wheet.
- Sleazy Politician: Before turning full-gangster, Nucky made a living by exploiting - if not outright invoking - Democracy Is Bad, or "Not voting Republican is worse", to be precise.
- Sparing the Final Mook: He does this in Season 1, when Chalky detains two of the D'Alessio brothers and a young messenger who works for Rothstein. After the D'Alessios mouth off to their captors and get killed by Jimmy and Chalky, Nucky opts to spare the messenger and have him tell Rothstein what happened. (Said young messenger will eventually become the infamous Jewish gangster Meyer Lansky.)
- Start of Darkness: Giving Gillian over to The Commodore. Mentioned in previous seasons, and shown in flashbacks in season 5.
- Gone into more detail in the 5th season. In 1884, when Nucky was 12, he beat a disrespectful kid that made more money than he did working honestly. This attracted the attention of the Commodore, who gave him a job as a hotel bellboy. There he saw a client murder a prostitute, but instead of bringing him to justice, the Commodore and his sheriff "solved the issue" in secret, so the incident wouldn't harm early Atlantic City's appeal as a tourist destination.
- Thicker Than Water: Proves that Eli means more to him than Jimmy. It helped that Eli was also more useful and manageable. One of the few and most important lessons than Nucky learns during the show, to the point of teaching it to Willie.The only thing you can count on is blood.
- This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Nucky himself pulls the trigger to end Jimmy's life.
- Timeshifted Actor: Season 5 contains flashbacks to Nucky's childhood and youth, where he's played by Nolan Lyons and Marc Pickering respectively.
- Took a Level in Badass: His development as a whole, from power broker and kingmaker to half-gangster and then full-fledged kingpin. By season 3 his Non-Action Guy persona is gone, in "Two Impostors" he single-handedly kills three of Rosetti's men in a firefight. With a shotgun. Through a closed door.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Wives and lovers; first with Lucy, then with Margaret, and then with Billie. In flashbacks we see that Mabel was quite beautiful.
- Underestimating Badassery: People do this with Nucky constantly, at least in terms of his physical prowess. Yet Nucky keeps winning in fist fights and shootouts.
- The Unfavorite: His father constantly expresses scorn towards him, yet secretly feels he's the only son that can handle himself.
- Villain Protagonist: Given that he's a ruthless crime boss, although he's usually A Lighter Shade of Black than most of the other gangsters.
- Villain with Good Publicity: As far as the people are concerned, Nucky is a pillar of the community and a social celebrity in Atlantic City. In season 3 he also becomes a philanthropist and a Knight of the Church, albeit involuntarily.
- Wanting Is Better Than Having: One of his major malfunctions in the present day, his ambition is like an unquenchable thirst.I recall that I was once [alive, before Prohibition]. Till then, I was a simple, run-of-the-mill crook... a corrupt city official. And I was happy. Plenty of money, plenty of friends, plenty of everything. Then suddenly, plenty wasn't enough.
- Wicked Cultured: Enjoys all the perks that an upper social class can offer and is well-read, he also happens to be a corrupter and a gangster.
- Wife-Basher Basher: Played with. When he has Hans Schroeder killed, he's partly motivated by outrage at Hans's savage abuse of Margaret. Then again, Nucky also needed a fall guy for the Woods Massacre, and Hans was a convenient one.
- Would Not Hit a Girl: Although he comes perilously close to it in "Under God's Power She Flourishes". In "North Star", after Sally Wheet punches him several times, he eventually hits back, though not nearly as strongly as she hit him. They end up having sex.
- Would Not Hurt A Child: Ordering it is not off-limits, though.
Eli Thompson
Elias Thompson
"What am I? The repudiated?"
"My son! My fucking son!"
The corrupt sheriff of Atlantic County and Nucky's younger brother. Through the first two seasons he develops an increasing desire for recognition which he feels denied because everyone else only sees him as Nucky's muscle, and that eventually leads him to betray Nucky for the Commodore. This conspiracy is defeated, and Eli loses his sheriff position and goes to jail for a year and a half in payment for his betrayal.
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: He is not drunk constantly, but when he opens a bottle there is no stopping.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: To Nucky. Eli's relative lack of political savvy and obvious resentment result in Nucky tending to treat him as little more than a nuisance.
- Bad Boss: In Season 2, he has Halloran beaten up when he suspects that Halloran might be thinking of talking to the Feds. It works as well as you'd expect.
- Been There, Shaped History: In real life, Maranzano was murdered by Bugsy Siegel and three other hitmen from Luciano. In the show, it's Eli who delivers the final shot.
- Blackmail: After Knox reveals his true colors, he threatens to prosecute Willie for murder in order to have Eli pass information on Nucky's operation to him.
- Big Damn Heroes: At the very end of "Two Impostors", after Nucky has survived another assassination attempt but has been left by Margaret and gotten Eddie injured, Eli shows up with Al Capone and a contingent of men from Chicago he's cut a deal with.
- Break the Haughty: His jail time between seasons two and three serves as this, ultimately giving us a more cautious, more perceptive Eli.
- Cain and Abel: In the second season he basically forces Jimmy to order a hit on his own brother.
- The Cassandra:
- Eli is the only one savvy enough to not immediately proclaim victory when Nucky resigns as Treasurer and warns Jimmy that Nucky is trying to trick them into letting their guard down. Jimmy's response?Jimmy: Fuck you Eli. Pissing all over my party?
- In "Blue Bell Boy", after Gyp Rosetti burns the Sheriff of Tabor Heights alive, Eli believes (much like Nucky) that Gyp might be laying a trap. He tries to warn Mickey, but is blown off. Frustrated, Eli drives up to Tabor Heights himself to scout out the gas station, and finds Rosetti and his men arming themselves for an ambush. He backtracks down the road and tries to yell for the truck drivers to stop as they near the town, but they ignore him, and Eli floods his engine trying to start his car. He can only sit there helpless as he hears the gunfire of the convoy crew being gunned down.
- Eli is the only one savvy enough to not immediately proclaim victory when Nucky resigns as Treasurer and warns Jimmy that Nucky is trying to trick them into letting their guard down. Jimmy's response?
- Clothes Make the Legend: He didn't appear without his trademark police uniform on until well into the first season. In the third season, the uniform first changes to a yellow jacket and fedora somewhat reminiscent of Indiana Jones, and a brown suit after he gets promoted.
- Character Development: His imprisonment at the end of season 2 takes away his cockiness and gung-ho attitude. By the time he gets out, he is more weary, down to earth and a good deal smarter. See Only Sane Man and Took a Level in Badass.
- Didn't See That Coming: The look on his face when Van Alden picks him up in Chicago says it all.
- Dirty Cop: As of the first season he's been the longtime sheriff, whose job is to be a corrupt, brutal pawn for his more devious older brother Nucky.
- Dirty Coward: Turns tail at the first sign of trouble.Eli: You are one nasty prick.
Nucky: And you're a frightened little boy with no place else to go. - The Dragon: In Season 3 he regains his position as Nucky's Dragon and cements it in Season 4.
- Drowning My Sorrows: After being more or less clean for a season and a half, Eli hits the bottle hard when Willie says that he has dropped out of college. In season 5, he drinks even more, because he's separated from his family.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: For the first two seasons, Eli is very much resentful of the fact that everyone regards him as simply "Nucky Thompson's incompetent brother", even Nucky himself. He finally gets a part of it in "Sunday's Best".
- The fourth season he's back at it again, the offending part this time being his eldest son, Willie.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Frequently throughout the first two seasons. By the third, the dumbass part is gone and he just tends to make a lot of good points.
- The Dutiful Son: Cares for his aged father and generally does whatever his brother says.
- Et Tu, Brute?:
- Conspires against his brother in Season 2, and suggests putting out a hit on him.
- And again in Season 4, though for nobler reasons. He agreed to inform on Nucky to the Bureau of Investigation to keep his son out of prison and he feels awful about it.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He is devoted to his father and children. His wife too, even though Eli thinks that spousal abuse is not something to frown upon. He is completely faithful to her, in contrast with his compulsive womanizer brother.
- Evil Parents Want Good Kids: He is distraught to discover that his eldest son has left school during his imprisonment.
- Expy: Some passing resemblance to Fredo from The Godfather, particularly in the second season.
- Foil: To Nucky. Same origins, but Eli's become the family man Nucky's always aspired to be. He's also unfortunately developed a nasty inferiority complex.
- Happily Married: Strangely enough, despite the insinuations of spousal abuse, Eli is clearly devoted to June. Nucky says Eli's never been unfaithful to her, and many times during "Sunday Best" we see them being sweet and loving.
- Subverted in "King of Norway", where it's revealed that he had a drunken affair with Sigrid, while away from June in Chicago (though given that Eli was so drunk at the time that he couldn't quite remember what happened afterwards and even seems to be at slighty traumatized by it, there is a strong element of Questionable Consent involved). However, he feels horrible about it; not much later, when he thinks he's about to get killed, he mumbles: "I'm sorry, June". In the finale, Nucky advises him to try to make things up with June; we don't see the result.
- Hazy-Feel Turn
- Hazy Feel Door Slam: He later comes begging to Nucky for a second chance, only to be told to get lost. Eventually Nucky changes his mind when Eli earns a deserved second chance.
- Hazy Feel Revolving Door: Just whose side is he on? Pick one already!
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Sometimes comes across as this because of how desperate he is for respect and often out of his depth. On the other hand, he's also frequently a reprehensible brute.
- In Vino Veritas: Eli openly displays his insecurities and inferiority complex regarding his older brother when he gets drunk.
- Kick the Dog: Most prominent in Season 2, where almost, if not every time he does something nice is immediately followed by him doing something terrible.
- Manly Tears: When he finds out Eddie was a father.
- A downplayed example when Van Alden dies.
- Meta Guy: Hilariously, since unlike most examples of the trope Eli is neither the most intelligent nor the most popular character in the fandom. His track record includes criticizing Nucky for starting a dangerous relationship with Margaret in season 1, drawing attention to Jimmy and Gillian's even weirder relationship in season 2, and pointing out both Mickey Doyle's Karma Houdini status and everyone's abuse of the Idiot Ball regarding the Tabor Heights plot in the first four episodes of season 3.
- The Mole: Forced to become one for Agent Knox who is actually an undercover member of J. Edgar Hoover's Bureau of Investigation.
- Mouth of Sauron: In Season 3, when Nucky sends him to speak om his behalf to Johnny Torrio and Capone.
- Number Two: In Season 4 he cements his position as Nucky's right hand.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: He replaces Nucky Johnson's brother, Alfred "Alf" Johnson.
- Officer O'Hara: Doesn't have the stereotypical accent, but he is Irish-American.
- Only Sane Man: In season three.
- In "You'd Be Surprised", with Nucky and Owen unreachable, Mickey Doyle is in charge of a liquor convoy from Atlantic City to New York. Eli is the only one who realizes how incredibly bad idea it is to take the convoy through Tabor Heights, which has been taken over by Gyp Rosetti, but Mickey and the drivers ignore him even as he stands in the middle of the road trying to shout warnings to them. During an earlier confrontation with Rosetti, Owen asks Eli's opinion on what they should do and Eli correctly advises him that if they try to fight they will be massacred.
- In "Sunday Best", Nucky recognizes that Eli was "the only smart one in the bunch" and as such, promotes him to equal standing with his now-former boss.
- Papa Wolf:
- In "Two Impostors", he is really unhappy that Nucky got his son William involved in their war with Rosetti.
- In "Farewell Daddy Blues", Tolliver gets brutally beaten to death after threatening Willie for the last time.
- Pet the Dog:
- His genuine love for his family and his wife and children's adoration of him does a lot to humanize him.
- Tells Capone to watch out for civilians during the gang war in Season 3.
- His friendship with Van Alden and his sad and horrified reaction to his death.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Unlike Nucky, he is pretty racist and frequently uses ethnic slurs, even agreeing to hire 50 guys with billy clubs to break up the black workers' strike.
- Prison Changes People: Going to jail really takes the worst off Eli's ego, and he can usually be relied to be a lot more careful from then on.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Working for Mickey Doyle? Fate Worse than Death.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red Oni to Nucky's Blue Oni.
- The Resenter: Unlike his brother, who has a much more general field of resentment, Eli specifically resents Nucky's greater success, and how easily Nucky can play the political game that Eli struggles at. As of Season 4 this has mostly been buried, but has shown some signs of re-emerging with how Eli's kids, especially his eldest son Willie, look up to Nucky.
- Sole Survivor: Of the Atlantic City old guard once Luciano and Lansky take over.
- Small Name, Big Ego: While he is generally competent, Eli overestimates his value to Nucky's organization and fails to realize his role could be filled just as easily by anyone else.
- Spotting the Thread: When Agent Knox offers him his handkerchief, he notices that it's monogrammed with different initials.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Tells Jimmy to simply shoot Nucky, to Jimmy and Harrow's horror.
- Thicker Than Water: Nucky certainly proves so in "To the Lost".
- 10-Minute Retirement: In the first season, a scandal breaks out after the D'Alessio brothers shoot him while he's collecting bribes from an illegal casino, forcing Nucky to suspend him until the upcoming election is over. Although he is restored immediately, the relationship between the two brothers is considerably damaged.
- Took a Level in Badass: He doesn't trust that everything is on the up and up after news comes that Rosetti killed the Tabor Heights sheriff, so he goes alone at night to scout out what is really going on. Eli discovers that Rosetti is setting up an ambush and the police are working for Rosetti. He tries to warn the convoy, but they don't listen, making Eli the Sole Survivor. Earlier, Owen who is usually a good judge of Badassery, picks Eli as the man to consult about how to deal with Rosetti's first roadblock.
- Took a Level in Kindness: By season 3, his Jerkass tendencies have been considerably reduced.
- Unstoppable Rage: He beats two people to death on separate occasions, both out of blind rage. First one was a Kick the Dog moment, and the other guy was an Asshole Victim. Poor George O'Neil never hurt anyone, but Knight Templar Agent Tolliver on the other hand...
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Eli realizes that his father, while seeming to favor him, doesn't have any respect for his intelligence. His relationship with Nucky also sours because of Nucky's lack of respect for him.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Goes on the lam after killing Tolliver. Van Alden serves as his liaison.
- You Have Failed Me: He has Halloran beaten up to dissuade him from testifying against him. It fails, at first, because this actually moves Halloran to testify, but Halloran ends spending much more time in jail than Eli, with his connections to Nucky, will.
- You Never Did That for Me: In season 1 he feels that Nucky gives Jimmy more slack than he ever got, and it is one more thing added onto a long list of things he resents Nucky for.
Ethan Thompson
Ethan Thompson
"Look who's here: the big shot."
Played By: Tom Aldredge, Ian Hart (young)
Nucky and Eli's old and progressively more senile father. He was abusive to the first and protective of the second during their childhood, and still remains more attached to Eli in the modern day - in part, however, because he knew that the more intelligent Nucky was more capable of making his way into life.
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic / Alcoholic Parent: His daughter was down with tuberculosis. The family had a dollar. He wasted it at the bar, and he had to bury her in the family farm because they couldn't pay a funeral.
- Abusive Parents: To Nucky. If he ever was to Eli (his favorite) he has forgotten about it.
- Crazy Cat Lady: In his old age, he keeps numerous stray cats inside his house, although he seems to hate them just as much as he does everything else.
- Father Neptune: He was a merchant mariner.
- Grumpy Old Man: Though he was no better when he was younger...
- Hollywood Heart Attack: Averted in "Two Boats and a Lifeguard". It's debatable if he even realized what was going on.
- Jerkass: He's volatile, curmudgeonly, and perpetually ungrateful. All of this is disregarding his abuse of Nucky.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Due to the Commodore being, well, the Commodore, Ethan isn't wrong in having a strong dislike of him and holds him at gunpoint for coming onto his property.
- Loners Are Freaks: He lives alone in what was once the family home, in the middle of nowhere. Here he enjoys such pastimes as cooking bread on a stove, fending stray cats off with a fireplace poker, and apparently peeing everywhere.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Averted. He is not based on Enoch Johnson's father, Smith Johnson.
- Real Life Writes the Plot/ The Character Died with Him: Very narrowly averted since the episode featuring the character's death was filmed mere months before the actual death of Tom Aldredge from natural causes at the age of 83.
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Or as he puts it: "Ah, what do I give a shit?"
- Shown Their Work: "Ethan"'s popularity as a baby name was nonexistent from the 1880s-about 1970 and spiked in the '80s to a peak around 2000. Therefore it just doesn't conjure up an old man in viewers' minds, however it might've in The Roaring '20s.
Eleanor Thompson
Eleanor Thompson
Played By: Erin Dilly
Nucky and Eli's mother. She died in 1903, years before the start of the series, and appears only in flashbacks during the fifth season.
Tropes:
- Apron Matron / The Pollyanna: She advices her children to work hard and honestly, convinced that things will get better.
- Foolish Husband, Responsible Wife: She was much kinder and more level headed than her husband Ethan, and did all the work of trying to keep her family together.
- Posthumous Character: She is long dead by the time that the show begins, remembered fondly but sadly by her sons Nucky and Eli.
Susan Thompson
Played By: Onata Aprile
Nucky and Eli's younger sister. She died in 1884.
Tropes:
- Odd Name Out: Ethan, Elenore, Enoch, Elias, and Susan.
June Thompson
"You had enough to worry about."
Played By: Nisi Sturgis
Eli's wife and mother of his eight children.
Tropes:
- A Day in the Limelight: "Sunday Best".
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's kind if somewhat Stepfordish woman woman with golden hair.
- Happily Married: To Eli. She met him when she was 17 and they've been together ever since.
- Morality Pet: Eli's, along with their children.
- The Pollyanna: Deconstructed somewhat into being a Stepford Smiler. She never asks questions or reacts badly to news or whatever calamities Eli and Nucky cause, she just welcomes new events with a big smile and endures whatever new troubles come their way. When Margaret confides in her and tells her that Nucky is cheating, June just ignores it, changes subject and finally excuses herself out of the room.
Willie Thompson
William Thompson
"My dad said he'd kill me if I got in trouble like this."
- Played by: Kevin Csolak (Season 3), Ben Rosenfield (Season 4-5)
Eli and June's eldest child. Smarter and more grounded than Eli, Willie is seen as the great hope for a member of the Thompson family to become a legitimate success, but when Eli goes to jail he has to leave school and start working to support the family, which begins the process of embittering him. He attempts to return to school after Eli is released from jail and the family becomes more stable, but finds himself out of place, judged by his peers and society, and bullied by obnoxious upper class students at college. He eventually responds by spiking the drink of his worst bully with a laxative, but puts in far too much, killing the other young man.
Tropes:
- Accidental Murder: Kills a college mate when his chemically spiked alcohol becomes a Deadly Prank.
- Advertised Extra: He is a series regular in season 5 after playing a major role in season 4 but only appears in 2 episodes while characters like Meyer Lansky who has been on the show since season 1 and appears in 5 episodes of the season remains a guest star. He's also, quite oddly, the only living major character to be completely absent from the series finale.
- Ascended Extra: Plays a very small part in Season 3, gets his own arc (and a lot of screen time) in Season 4.
- Been There, Shaped History: Implied in "Friendless Child," the last episode he appears in; his boss, a U.S. attorney, tells him to fetch him files on prostitution, suggesting he is involved in Charlie Luciano's 1936 pimping conviction.
- Calling the Old Man Out: After Willie drops out of college, Willie tells the furious Eli that it was him who was took a job to keep the family afloat while Eli was in jail.
- Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!: Willie is blinded by the glamour of his uncle's life and wishes to be part of the family's business, to his father's exasperation.
- He Is All Grown Up: Played for Drama. Eli missed two of Willie's birthdays and had trouble dealing with the idea that he had left school to support their family in Eli's absence.
- Karma Houdini: "Erlkönig" explores this trope extensively in Willie's arc. After Willie is arrested following Henry's death, Nucky bribes the DA and advices Willie to frame his college roommate, Clayton. At the end of the episode, Willie is free and "rewarded" with the girl he knocked heads with Henry for.
- Last-Name Basis: While in college, everyone addresses him as "Thompson".
- The Mole: After Willie drops out of college, Nucky plants him in the Mayor's office to have him informed.
- Morality Pet / Protectorate: In "Two Impostors", the supreme Jerkass Nucky Thompson redeems himself by putting himself between Willie and what he though at the time were Rosetti's men. Eli is also angry with Nucky for putting Willie in the line when he decided to seek refuge at the lumberyard Willie worked at.
- Nice Guy: At least when he Used to Be a Sweet Kid, in Season 3.
- Took A Level In Jerk Ass: While in college, as a result of feeling out of place and picked on by the other kids.
- The Other Darrin: Very obvious. Csolak has blonde, straight hair; Rosenfield has red, curly hair. The fact that his brothers have been consistently cast only highlights it.
- Promotion to Parent: "Man of the house" while Eli is in jail.
- Remember the New Guy?: In Season 3. Season 2 implied that his brother Michael (or Patrick) was the eldest of Eli's eight children.
- Revenge Before Reason / Nice Job Breaking It, Hero : In the fourth season, Willie's college mates crash his attempt to make out with a girl and laugh at the raging boner he got. Willie blows it completely out of proportion and seeks revenge on college mate Henry at all costs, deciding to dose his cup with laxative and make him crap his pants in public. In the process, he alienates the girl by claiming that she was in the prank, resulting in her deciding to flirt with Henry instead, and this angers Willie so much that he puts enough laxative to accidentally poison Henry to death.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: In "Erlkönig" Nucky keeps him away from jail and a charge for manslaughter.
- Self-Inflicted Hell: As detailed in this interview with Ben Rosenfield, Willie's "problems" at college stem from the fact that he wants to hang out with the popular, old money kids, but feels intimidated because he's not old money himself.
- Something Else Also Rises: Inverted in "Acres of Diamonds". When his college pals crash his attempt to make out with a girl, one comments that his "anger is not the only thing that arises".
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He's very much like Jimmy was before the war messed him up. In Season 4 he's even going to college, much as Jimmy was before he dropped out and enlisted.
Mabel Thompson
Mabel Thompson
"She completely broke with reality."
Played By: Molly Shannon (photograph), Maya Kazan
Nucky's first wife who committed suicide seven years before the start of the series.
Tropes:
- The Cameo: Although "played" by a big actress the character only appears in some photographs during the first season. In season 5, however, she appears in flashbacks.
- Driven to Suicide: She slashed her wrists with Nucky's shaving razor roughly a month after the death of their newborn first son, in January 1913. Nucky can't cope with the guilt and prefers to tell strangers that she died of tuberculosis.
- First Girl Wins: She met Nucky when he was 12, and is the only woman he has truly loved.
- Happily Married: Her flashbacks with Nucky show that they were a loving couple.
- The Lost Lenore: To Nucky.
- Mummies at the Dinner Table: Mabel's first and only child, Enoch Jr., died shortly after birth. Mabel fell into denial and continued to bathe, dress and care for him as if he was still alive, until she was discovered by a busy Nucky days later.
- Shout-Out: Parker's casting is a Shot Out to Deadwood, the third HBO show Boardwalk Empire is often compared to, after The Sopranos and The Wire.
- What Could Have Been: It has been said in at least one interview with TV Guide that Parker's photograph was a prelude to her appearance in flashback during season 2, but that never materialized.
