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Nucky Thompson experiences a number of nightmares through Season 2 and Season 3.

Season 2[]

Young Jimmy Dream

After being shot, Nucky dreams about a young Jimmy Darmody shooting him with the same shotgun they used to hunt deer together. ("Two Boats and a Lifeguard")

Nucky is first shown having a nightmare after he is shot through the hand in June 1921. It begins with Nucky ascending in the elevator at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The elevator operator whistles something approaching a tune and then comments on a fight. Nucky is confused and the operator explains that he means the Dempsey vs. Carpentier match. Nucky notes that the fight hasn't happened yet. The elevator reaches Nucky’s suite on the eighth floor. He removes his hat as he disembarks and a baby is heard crying. His antechamber is full of unfamiliar faces in familiar clothes. Some of them respectfully remove their hats. On one chair is the prized catcher's glove signed by Hardy Richardson from his childhood. Nucky goes through to the office and finds a young Jimmy Darmody, aged about ten, sat at his desk. The boy raises his right hand; it is wounded like Nucky's was in the shooting. Nucky tells the boy that "Daddy eats first”, mirroring what Ethan told him before searing his hand with a hot poker when he was nine. An animal sound draws Nucky's gaze to a wounded stag writhing on the floor in front of his desk. The boy cocks a double-barreled shotgun wrenching Nucky’s attention back to him. He fires and Nucky awakens from the dream.

Nucky has a very similar dream days later. He rides the elevator again to his suite and finds the same ethereally familiar people waiting for him as the doors open, but in different positions; an older child is heard moaning in the background instead of the baby crying, and the catcher’s mitt has also varied slightly its position and is now touching the chair's back with its fingers. However, Nucky awakes before he can go into his office, finding Margaret nursing a feverish Emily next to his bed. ("Two Boats and a Lifeguard")

Season 3[]

A third dream takes place on the night of January 7 to 8, 1923. Nucky is this time at his desk, noting to the phone operator that he has been trying to locate Billie Kent unsuccessfully for hours. The phone operator replies that the only thing he has to worry about is when he runs out of company, repeating the last words Jimmy said before Nucky killed him 16 months earlier. Nucky hangs up the phone and again finds a young Jimmy in front of his desk. Nucky asks "Hungry, slugger?" and Jimmy nods affirmatively. Nucky notices that a skillet of sizzling bacon has appeared in his right hand. The phone begins to ring and Nucky asks "what the hell is wrong" with it. A shot is heard and Nucky notices now that the smoking frying pan has been replaced by his smoking golden gun. Nucky sees the young Jimmy lying on the floor, with a bullet hole in his cheek, the same place where his first shot struck his older counterpart. Nucky runs to Jimmy repeating "no" before Eddie Kessler wakes him up.

Because of his trouble sleeping as a result of the nightmares, Nucky hallucinates the young Jimmy, twice during January 9 1923. First when he receives the Saint Gregory Award at Saint Finbar's Church, and then during the private reception with Bishop Norman. ("Bone for Tuna")

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