Popular Culture Review Vol. 23, No. 1, Winter 2012 | Page 98

94 Popular Culture Review never existed. According to Fink, “There never was such an object in the first place: the Tost object’ never was; it is only constituted as lost after the fact, in that the subject is unable to find it anywhere other than in fantasy or dream life. Using Freud’s text as a springboard, the object can be viewed as always already lost” (94). In other words, the only time one can truly have a lost object is when it is dead, which means that one never has a lost object at all. There are multiple lost objects/object a's that exist within Boardwalk Empire and which drive its characters to seek what cannot be had. The two most notable lost objects are those within scenes that concern the main character, Enoch “Nucky” Thompson. The first lost object is liquor. Just eight minutes into the first episode of Boardwalk, the audience is shown a parade in which a giant casket with the corpse bottle of John Barleycorn is marched down the street in a mock funeral. Shortly thereafter, Nucky is discussing with his corrupt league of fellow politicians how the control of the liquor business is about to plop into their hands. What is shown in these short introductory minutes is that Prohibition has literally killed liquor, and it is Nucky who is to become the owner of its corpse and ghost. What is important to note is that, in Lacanian fashion, the only time Nucky possesses liquor, this lost object, is when it is dead. In addition, he never really has it. Later in the series, once the initial celebration dies down, trouble with the illegal liquor production begins. The “alcohol” that is created, it turns out, is a cheap imitation that often kills its consumers with the ingredients added for forgery. Not only this, but Nucky’s supply is repeatedly stolen from him by the character Jimmy, by Van Alden’s raids, and by competition. Nucky may own the corpse of alcohol, but he can never truly grasp that which he owns. His alcohol is a disappointment and unobtainable. This owning of alcohol only once it is deceased (and yet never really having it) is a perfect representation of Lacan’s object a, and because of that, brings one’s focus onto the lost object of liquor for a bit more analysis. The substance of alcohol itself — and not simply in how it relates to Nucky Thompson — is an appreciable representation of the lost object as well. Alcohol, after all, is only created when part of what is inside it has died and fermented. In other words, only in death and fermentation is the drink produced, preserved, and desired. Later, it will be seen how the preservation of alcohol and the preservation of humans become linked. For now, it is important to note that this lost object of liquor contains the combination of death, preservation, and desire that it evokes. Liquor is not, however, the only focus of Boardwalk Empire, nor is it the only lost object of Nucky’s. One other most important object a that drives Nucky’s character through the show is the other thing that he had only once it was deceased (and thus, never really had): his baby boy. In the last episode of the first season, Mrs. Schroeder enters Nucky’s suite in her last attempt to discover who Nucky really is. Nucky in this scene, most unlike himself, finally willingly submits. The scene begins with a removal of Nucky’s defense systems.