Boardwalk Empire

While nothing would change in season 1, it's worth noting that it could have been very different. For one, James Gandolfini was considered for Nucky before the role was given to Steve Buscemi, which would have some dramatic consequences down the line. Another actor that was considered was Alec Baldwin. Now, while I enjoyed Buscemi's acting, it was obvious at some points that Nucky was meant to be someone more physical. So the series may have benefited from a different main face.

The premise of this season would still be the same: how the old-school gangsters adapt to Prohibition. Nucky controls Atlantic City and a good chunk of New Jersey. He never learns of Mickey's betrayal, and the D'Alessios are quickly dispatched after he uses Rothstein's legal troubles to make a peace treaty with him. Margaret starts a relationship with Nucky, who casts Lucy into the bed of Van Alden. However, Nucky has alienated Eli and he conspires with Jimmy and the Commodore to overthrow Nucky. Meanwhile, Angela agrees to marry Jimmy (which was planned but never filmed and ended happening offscreen).

Now, even if Nucky was still played by Buscemi, Lucy, the Commodore, and maybe Jimmy would be played by different people. Perhaps someone like Anne Hathaway or Evan Rachel Wood would be Lucy, and Dominic Chianese would be the Commodore instead of the Commodore's consigliere.

With the Commodore's actor not deprived of his voice, he doesn't suffer a stroke and Jimmy never becomes the unwitting leader of the conspiracy. Instead, Jimmy remains the Commodore's deputy and his increasingly annoyed envoy to New York and Philadelphia. Jimmy still makes the deal with Manny Horvitz, but what undoes the deal is the Commodore's old antisemitism (hinted by that scene with the Henry Ford pamphlet in Season 1), not Jimmy being a jackass. So in retaliation for the attempt on his life, Manny retaliates by attacking the Commodore's house and kills Gillian (who is never promoted to main character) and Leander Whitlock. Besides showing Angela how weird the relationship between her husband and mother in law was again, this makes Jimmy break things off with the Commodore and go back to Nucky.

Nucky and Jimmy make a deal, where Nucky takes out Manny Horvitz in exchange for Jimmy taking out the Commodore and leaves Atlantic City. Jimmy settles in New York City with Angela, Tommy and Richard, and continues his uneasy partnership with Luciano and Lansky. Meanwhile, Lucy abandons her daughter with Van Alden and resumes her stage career in New York, Van Alden flees to Chicago, Eli goes to jail, and Margaret backstabs Nucky after seeing through his lies that he killed the Commodore. Luciano and Lansky don't betray Jimmy. Instead, Jimmy gets cheated out of his inheritance because the Commodore's will left everything to his maid and he never changed it.

There is a question left, however. In the first outline, Owen's role as Nucky's Irish enforcer was apparently going to be fulfilled by Margaret's brother, who was going to be called Declan rather than Eamon. That would certainly change the dynamic with Margaret's character. Instead of having an affair with her, Declan would be hostile towards Margaret for considering her a whore and a traitor, and she would counter by pointing out his hypocrisy as a self-righteous terrorist. Over the next two years, though, they would slowly reconcile as their respective relationships with Nucky flounder. Whether the character was named Declan, Eamon, or Owen, this character would probably still be played by Charlie Cox.

Season 3 would be in 1922 and not 1923. Why? Because 1922 marked the ascent of Joe Masseria to power, and the year he avoided being killed by a hair, earning him the nickname "The man who can dodge bullets". And because Terrence Winter basically spelled out that he was skipping 1922 because he didn't want to waste a season on the immediate aftermath of Jimmy's death. No dead Jimmy, no need to skip a year.

Now, in the alternate continuity, Jimmy is alive but faring pretty bad. While dealing with the loss of his mother and golden heir status, he's gotten hooked on Lansky's heroin. And this is taking a toll both at work (where Luciano barely stands him because of Lansky and Richard) and at home (where Angela is increasingly fearing that drugged out Jimmy will hurt her or Tommy). Richard is left as the odd man keeping peace in the house.

Jimmy realizes he's hit rock bottom when he is told to drive his "pals" to George Remus's infamous 1922 New Years Eve Party. This would be a great time to introduce Imogene Remus. And this means Margaret gets gifted a car there, which she can't drive. Much like in season 1, Jimmy is forced to wait outside (again) with the muscle. Now instead of being the one holding the party, Nucky just attends and uses it to get deals, like everyone else. He still has his absurd dispute with Gyp Rosetti and things proceed the same in that regard. However, Nucky also meets someone else at the party. Not Billie Kent. It's Lucy, who is again a Broadway star.^note There is evidence that Lucy was supposed to last longer. Paz de la Huerta had main credits biding, after all. There was that line in Season 1 that was ultimately not followed up on. Finally, Lucy was described as a former Ziegfeld Follies dancer in the supplementary material and she was allegedly inspired by a number of showgirls the real Nucky Johnson dated, including his eventual second wife, Florence Osbeck, although in the end this fact was not referenced anywhere in the show. But she was an established friend of Eddie Cantor, and then Eddie Cantor was used to introduce Billie Kent, who was also his friend. In the original casting calls for Season 2, there were some calls for Ziegfeld Follies dancers and one for Flo Ziegfeld himself, yet neither showed up in the season. The best explanation is that Lucy, who disappeared halfway through Season 2 despite having main character billing, would return to, or attempt to return to the Follies in the second part of the season, and that this was dropped when Winter decided to let Paz and Pitt go. Lucy quickly realizes that things aren't going well between Nucky and Margaret, and she begins to worm her way back to his side. "He always returns to me in the end", like she said back in Season 1. And Nucky, being disappointed with Margaret, quickly decides to remember better times with Lucy, which makes Margaret contemplate running off with Declan.

Now, the big question is how does Angela's projected plot line fit into all this. It was revealed back in the day that she would find a girl (let's call her Louise, like the one at the beach), that would seduce her and introduce her to Anarchism. This would probably take the place of, or cut into the screentime for, Margaret's gynecology hospital subplot. This relationship would be secret for obvious reasons, but Jimmy would pick up things and realize that his wife is having an affair. Yet, instead of knowing that Angela is seeing Louise, he believes that she's having the affair with Richard (who may be starting to see Julia on the side), and he confronts him. Jimmy attacks Richard, Richard kicks his ass easily. After that Richard leaves the home for good. Evidently, the best way to make Angela even more miserable after that would be to make the bomb that killed Billie in the season aired instead be a bomb that Louise and Angela were going to plant somewhere, and that it goes off, killing Louise. And it is somehow Angela's fault and she's there to watch it.

Now in the war between Rosetti and Nucky...after getting Masseria's blessing to wage war on Nucky, Gyp blows up Babette's. And he also targets Lucy, who instead of being bombed is horribly killed in her apartment halfway between Dot King and the Black Daliah. Because Gyp pays tribute to Masseria, Nucky sends Declan to kill Masseria, but Declan fails and is killed. Margaret freaks out and leaves Nucky. And since Jimmy and Richard indirectly work for Masseria via Lansky and Luciano, it only makes sense that Richard be the one who kills Declan and saves Masseria. Nucky still has his mini-crime conference asking for support against Masseria, and the guys turn him down. But in the nick of time, Eli works a deal with Jimmy, who works a deal with Capone, and they all clean out Rosetti and his men together. Now Jimmy has finally reconciled (again) with Nucky.

This season would cover 1923 and 1924. Years would start moving faster because the main actors are booked only for 6 or 7 seasons, max. Fortunately this is rather easy to frame: From Harding's death (maybe offscreen) to Torrio's failed assassination attempt and Capone's final enthronement. Jess Smith's death is either offscreen or unreferenced.

The main stories are the same. Coolidge succeeds Harding, takes out the trash and trusts Hoover with cleaning the FBI and making Prohibition a real thing. Narcisse honeytraps Chalky and takes over the black part of Atlantic City. Capone battles O'Banion in Chicago and takes over from Torrio. Margaret goes to New York City and has her business deal with Rothstein.

Nucky throws Remus under the bus and moves to Florida and later Cuba to avoid further scrutiny. But he is reluctant to give responsibility of the Atlantic City rackets to Jimmy. He obliges, on the condition that Jimmy clean himself first and go to college like Nucky always wanted. It is pretty obvious that Willie was not going to be a character originally, so it is easy to assume that some of his arc was originally going to be Jimmy's, just with less wacky fratboy hijinks. Jimmy would be dour and question what is he doing in a campus surrounded by little rich kids. He'll get in trouble because he is Jimmy, of course, but he will plow forward and finally get his degree.

Knox blackmails Eli still, but it is over his season 2 murder of George O'Neill instead of Willie. Otherwise the same.

Richard continues working in New York City for Murder Inc. instead of going to see his sister in Wisconsin, but he gets sick of killing the same. He probably pops Bill Lovett in the first episode instead of nobodies.

Now the big question is what would happen to Angela. Perhaps she loosely takes over Gillian's arc, but it is more tragic. If she has not abandoned Jimmy already in the last season, she does in this one. She goes into hiding with the help of Richard. At one point, she meets yet another nice girl...that turns out to be a Pinkerton agent working for Jimmy, and he uses her past history with Anarchism and homosexuality to take Tommy from her. Even Jimmy's fan club must admit by now that Jimmy is a monster. Most other characters, being men in the 1920s, actually think Jimmy is in the right.

1925 to 1927. Nucky and Sally go to Cuba, where they help Gerardo Machado consolidate power in return for making the island an organized crime heaven. Arquimedes "Archie" Ortiz becomes Nucky's bodyguard.

In the US, Esther Randolph acts as the prosecutor against Remus and her boyfriend/colleague Clifford Lathorpe substitutes the federal agent who seduced Remus's wife and stole his millions. When Remus gets out, he kills his wife in broad daylight, and gets away scott free.

The other main historical events are the Capone-Moran war in Chicago and the White Hand-Black Hand War in New York, which Capone was also involved in. Since both are Italian-Irish conflicts, the best way to tie them together and with New Jersey would be to introduce a fictional Irish gangster as the season's main villain, sort of an Irish take on Gyp Rosetti. Mad Dog Coll would probably be a good inspiration.

Eli and Van Alden work both for Capone at this point. Thankfully the aired last season gave us a little glimpse into what they wanted to do with them. The two would be odd "friends" and "workmates", and Eli would sleep with Van Alden's wife while on one of his drinking benders. I could see that being expanded over several seasons, with Van Alden's wife becoming pregnant (if you have any doubt about Eli's sperm, just look at his brood in New Jersey). Perhaps at one point, Eli runs away or most likely begs Capone to send him to New York for a while, and he is put to work with Frankie Yale. He uses his Irish heritage to blend in with the Irish Gyp and Pegleg Lonergan's men and gets them killed. Hymie Weiss gets popped in Chicago too.

Margaret's son Teddy is about 13 now. Given his Irish heritage, fascination with fire and gangsters and budding sociopathy, he'd do something stupid like trying to join a gang or stealing a car, with Margaret having to ask either Rothstein or Nucky to get him out of trouble.

In Atlantic City, Jimmy gets in to Mayor Ed Bader's team and takes advantage of Nucky and Eli's absences to slowly accumulate power over the city, including striking deals for heroin and alcohol with Luciano and Lansky behind Nucky, Masseria and Rothstein's backs. When Bader protests, Jimmy has him killed in a way that is passed off as natural causes. "I was told it was appendicitis", he says to Nucky at Bader's funeral. The end of the season is the establishment of the Big Seven in the East Coast and the Capone-Moran truce in Chicago.

Before getting to that point, Nucky is also baffled by Jimmy doing nothing to help Angela, who is about to face trial for her ties to Anarchistic terrorism. He either hires Esther Randolph or Clarence Darrow to defend her. Unfortunately, they go for a "not guilty by reason of insanity" defense and she's sent to the NJ State Hospital with Dr. Cotton).

Chalky survives as a highwayman in the South and has the chance to learn how different it is to be a poor black criminal in the South compared to being a rich black criminal in New Jersey. He is captured and put on a chain gang. By the end of the season, he escapes with the intention of going to New York and taking revenge on Narcisse.

1928-1929, and the final war between older mobsters and their conspiring successors.

Capone has a falling out with Yale and has him murdered. The resulting instability convinces Masseria, with Luciano by his side, to take over all of New York. Rothstein is murdered.

In Chicago, the Capone-Moran war reignites with the mayoral election of William Hale Thompson, and culminates with the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, which is planned and carried out by Eli and Van Alden (who better to be the fake uniformed cops than an ex-sheriff and an ex-federal agent). Elliot Ness is introduced as the new law enforcer trying to clean up after Capone, but he is largely unsuccessful.

In Atlantic City, the war is between Nucky and Jimmy (loosely supported by Masseria-Luciano). With Capone's support, Nucky wins and murders Jimmy. He calls the Atlantic City Conference to once again secure peace and strict limits between the main mobsters. Of course, it doesn't work.

Nucky also visits Angela at the asylum and finds that she's gone due to the abuse and unnecessary surgeries made on her by Dr. Cotton. With nobody to take care of Tommy, he uses his pull to adopt him.

Disenchanted with Prohibition, Margaret supports Al Smith for president and endures some good anti-Irish, anti-Catholic prejudice before Herbert Hoover wins in a landslide. Disenchanted with politics, she takes all of her attention to her work at the bank and she causes the 1929 Crash somehow.

Chalky sneaks into Narcisse's place with the intention of killing him, but freezes when he discovers that Daughter Maitland had a daughter with him. Because Narcisse gets off on controlling people, he recruits Chalky as an enforcer instead of killing him and uses him in his disputes against Dutch Schultz. Along the way, Chalky realizes that the man who killed Daughter Maitland's mother was Narcisse. He successfully deprograms Daughter and she kills Narcisse. From then on, there's three possible plotlines: a) Chalky is killed by someone else before Daughter kills Narcisse. Perhaps still-brainwashed Daughter kills Chalky herself. b) Besides Schultz, Narcisse is also at war wih Madame St. Clair. Chalky makes a deal with her behind Narcisse's back and she takes in Daughter and maybe Chalky after Narcisse is killed. c) Daughter somehow turns out to be more politically wise than she's given credit for and she takes over Narcisse's stuff afer killing him somehow. Thus she becomes the fictional counterpart to Madame St. Clair. Chalky, if alive, becomes her top enforcer and the fictional counterpart to Bumpy Johnson.

1930-1931. Any threads in the aired 5th season that haven't happened yet.

The Great Depression is bad enough in the United States, but it is worse in Cuba with the crash of the sugar exportation business. The students rise against Machado, and Lansky uses the chaos to take over Nucky's operation on the island. Sally either gets caught up in the conflict and is killed by rebels (like in the show), or is taken out by Lansky. First one is more memorable, to be honest.

Margaret has her business dealing with Rothstein's wife and solves it with Nucky's help.

Nucky teams up with Salvatore Maranzano against Masseria. Luciano get sick of Masseria and has him killed, then gets sick of Maranzano and has him killed too. Now sick of Nucky as well, he takes over New York and the whole eastern seaboard, killing Chalky (if alive), Mickey and Archie in the process. Instead of kidnapping Willie and using him to force Nucky into surrendering, he either kidnaps Margaret, her children and/or Tommy. Nucky tries to return to politics by flopping to the Democrats with Kennedy's help, but it fails and the IRS and FBI are hot on his trail. Then Tommy discovers that Nucky is the one who killed his father (maybe while being kidnapped by Luciano), and he murders Nucky after he ironically pawns the remains of his empire to save him.

The Chicago arc plays out the same. Mike Malone becomes the mole in the Outfit and brings it down after he blackmails Van Alden and Eli into obtaining the ledgers detailing Capone's tax evasion. Van Alden's killed, Eli's unexpectedly spared.