Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
At the start of 1923, Nucky Thompson tries to centralize Atlantic City’s liquor trade by deciding to sell only to Arnold Rothstein, provoking Gyp Rosetti, a volatile New York-backed bootlegger. Gyp seizes Tabor Heights and repeatedly disrupts Nucky’s deliveries, turning a business dispute into a war that reaches the Boardwalk. Nucky’s relationship with Margaret deteriorates as she searches for work with purpose at the hospital and begins an affair with Owen Sleater. Jimmy Darmody’s death still shapes the people around him: Gillian runs a brothel and clings to her grandson Tommy, while Richard Harrow tries to build a life with Julia and protect the boy. In Chicago, Al Capone’s growing feud with Dean O’Banion gives the season’s wider criminal conflict a second front.
The struggle escalates when Gyp’s men bomb Babette’s and occupy Atlantic City, while Nucky tries to gather allies against both Gyp and his patron Joe Masseria. Nucky sends Owen to kill Masseria, but the mission fails and Owen’s body arrives in a crate; Margaret’s grief reveals her affair with Owen to Nucky. Pregnant with Owen’s child, she leaves with her children for Brooklyn and has an abortion. As Gyp’s men hold Gillian’s brothel and Tommy, Richard storms the building, kills many of the gangsters and rescues the boy. Nucky secures support from Rothstein and Capone, and Tonino, Gyp’s lieutenant, turns on him after Gyp beat Tonino’s cousin to death. Tonino kills Gyp, ending the siege and restoring Nucky’s hold on the city.