Friendless Child 

Without giving away any spoilers, this episode was really good. It had some shocks, although held itself together pretty well- if that makes sense. It's not easy to find much to criticize about this episode, but I'll give it a go.

From my perspective, it may have lacked something. Don't get me wrong, a lot happened... but again, the big events would have played out nicer if the season wasn't cut to 8 episodes. It seems a bit like the secondary story lines (e.g. Gillian or Margaret to name a few) have had a greater impact due to a longer build up (throughout the season) to any upcoming resolution; this is generally how most conventional dramas play out. Not to mention their stories seems more... 'credible', because the audience is already used to these characters having less screen time.

However, the rushed nature of the main characters' story lines are something we as the audience have had to get used to this season. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the creators decided to include Nucky's childhood as a segment, to add more credibility to Nucky's rushed story.

I'm afraid the speedy shift in the playing out of the dominant stories will have implications leading into next weeks finale; I hope nothing is skimmed over or forgotten. If the finale next week wraps everything up in a well-paced, dramatic and meaningful way, I'll be happy.

All up, there was not much else to fault. And I won't discuss the much-more-frequent positives of the episode, otherwise I'll end up rambling about what happens (= spoilers). I will say however that it had plenty of symbolic moments which you just can't miss. Hope you enjoy!