"The Age of Reason" is the sixth episode of the second season of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

Boardwalk Empire ''Boardwalk Empire'' is an American period crime drama television series created by Terence Winter and broadcast on the premium cable channel HBO. The series is set chiefly in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition era of the 1920s and ...

'', and 18th episode overall. Originally aired on October 30, 2011, it was written by staff writer

Bathsheba Doran Bathsheba "Bash" Doran is a British-born playwright and TV scriptwriter living in New York City. Life Bathsheba Doran, nicknamed "Bash", grew up in London and studied at Cambridge University. Her mother is the Elizabethan historian, Susan Doran ...

and directed by

Jeremy Podeswa Jeremy Podeswa (born 1962) is a Canadian film and television director. He is best known for directing the films '' The Five Senses'' (1999) and ''Fugitive Pieces'' (2007). He has also worked as director on the television shows '' Six Feet Under ...

Plot

Van Alden visits his colleague, who is badly burned. He talks to Van Alden and says 'I know what you did'. A distraught Van Alden calls his wife, saying he has sinned but will account for it. Later, Van Alden prepares to confess to his boss, when it is discovered that his delirious colleague has been saying the same thing to everyone he sees, and will die soon. Alone in her apartment, Lucy gives birth to a girl. Van Alden arrives to find his wife Rose caring for Lucy. After receiving the call, Rose came to Atlantic City to help him, only to find Lucy. Van Alden claims that he did it for her, saying they will take the child. Rose storms off. Teddy is to have his first confession. His priest says that as his mother,

Margaret Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian. Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular througho ...

, also needs to confess. She confesses to having sexual feelings for Sleater. The case against Nucky is taken over by federal prosecution. However, Attorney-General Daugherty is being coerced by Senator

Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

into taking Nucky down. Daugherty shares this information with Nucky. Jimmy ambushes one of Nucky's alcohol deliveries, only to find that Luciano is heading the delivery. Luciano and Jimmy come to an arrangement: complete the delivery as planned, then meet to discuss the

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...

trade.

Title

In canon law of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

the age of reason ''The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology'' is a work by English and American political activist Thomas Paine, arguing for the philosophical position of deism. It follows in the tradition of 18th-century Briti ...

is the age at which children are considered capable of moral responsibility, and of understanding and participating in the sacraments; usually around seven or eight years old. In the episode, Father Brennan explains this to Teddy in preparation for his first

confession A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of persons – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information th ...

Reception

Critical reception

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'' gave the episode a score of 8 out of 10.

Ratings

The episode was watched by 2.629 million viewers, and fell a tenth to a 1.0 for adults in the 18-49 rating.

References

External links

"The Age of Reason"
at

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"The Age of Reason" review
by Noel Murray (30 October 2011) for ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

''
"The Age of Reason" review
by Teresa Lopez (30 October 2011) for TV Fanatic
Review: ''Boardwalk Empire''—"The Age of Reason": When life gives you lemons...
by Alan Sepinwall (30 October 2011) for

HitFix HitFix, or HitFix.com, was an entertainment news website that launched in December 2008 specializing in breaking entertainment news, insider information, and reviews and critiques of film, music, and television. In mid-2010 HitFix crossed the 1,00 ...

"The Age of Reason" review
by Sean Gandert (31 October 2011) for '' Paste''
"The Age of Reason" review
by Joe R for

Television Without Pity Television Without Pity (often abbreviated TWoP) was a website that provided detailed recaps of select television dramas, situation comedies and reality TV shows along with discussion forums. These recaps were written with sarcastic criticism an ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Age of Reason, The 2011 American television episodes Boardwalk Empire episodes Television episodes directed by Jeremy Podeswa