‘Boardwalk Empire’ recap: Uprising in Cuba turns deadly

Political turmoil in Cuba claims the life of shady entrepreneur Sally Wheet (Patricia Arquette) on “Cuanto,” Episode 52 of HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire.”

Sally and her bootlegging partner Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) planned to make a killing by importing Bacardi rum to the United States once Prohibition ended. Instead, Sally gets killed at a military roadblock outside Havana.

Driving past curfew with a pistol strapped to her thigh, Sally figured she could talk her way through the checkpoint by dropping the name of Bacardi owner Maxime Ronis (Lee Godart). When that approach didn’t work, she offered a bribe.

“How much?” she asked in Spanish. “How much to go home?”

When bribery failed, she grabbed a gun and tried to force her way past the soldiers, thus provoking the fatal gunshot.

Besieged Cuban officials have enough trouble quelling a revolt among sugarcane workers. Now they must explain the death of a well-connected American.

In Atlantic City, Nucky grows closer to his estranged wife Margaret (Kelly Macdonald) as they drink wine and discuss a shared problem.

Margaret helped raid the brokerage account of murdered gangster Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg). Consequently, his widow Carolyn (Shae D’lyn) seeks to recover the stolen funds by suing Margaret and Nucky.

“Why are you being nice?” asks Margaret, who’s suspicious of Nucky’s calm demeanor and sudden benevolence toward her. “Are you going to kill Carolyn Rothstein?”

Nope, Nucky says. He trusts Margaret to handle the tricky negotiation by offering Carolyn a settlement of 25 cents on the dollar.

“Don’t sell yourself short,” says Nucky, expressing a newfound appreciation for his wife’s resourcefulness. After all, she’s managing to support herself and her two children in New York City after the stock market crash.

Meanwhile, in a flashback to 1884, young Nucky (Nolan Lyons) yearns to escape a life of poverty. Showing his younger brother Eli (Oakes Fegley) how the other half lives, Nucky clandestinely leads a tour of the opulent hotel where he recently served as a bellboy.

“They don’t have to do anything,” gripes Nucky, referring to wealthy guests who bask on the New Jersey shore every summer then return to their luxurious homes in New York and Philadelphia.

When Nucky dares take a bath in one of the hotel rooms, he’s discovered by Sheriff Lindsay (Boris McGiver) and threatened with a trespassing charge. But rather than make an arrest, he treats Nucky and Eli to a lavish – by their standards – family dinner.

As he drops off Nucky and Eli that evening, the sheriff hints he’ll protect them from Ethan (Ian Hart), their alcoholic father. And it looks like Nucky just got a new job as “Deputy Sheriff Thompson.”

Finally, former federal agent Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon) is recognized by New York mobster Charles “Lucky” Luciano (Vincent Piazza). On the run for murder and going by the alias of George Mueller, Nelson works for infamous Al Capone (Stephen Graham) in Chicago.

“He’s a fed,” Lucky insists, prompting Al to shove a gun in Nelson’s mouth. Nelson pleads, to little effect, that he was a wheat farmer previously. Then he manipulates his egotistical, sociopathic boss by claiming Lucky is “disrespectful” for telling Al how to run his empire.

That accusation resonates with Al, who resents Lucky’s “request” to run the rackets like a business, with everybody playing by the same rules across the country.

After Lucky departs, Al ridicules him as a “messenger boy” for mafia leader Salvatore Maranzano (Giampiero Judica). Then Al’s paranoia and rage take over as he makes an emergency call to Nucky.

“We got a problem,” Al fumes. And his name is Charlie Luciano.